Applied Psychology III

Previous research results indicate that an increased proportion of blue light has a physiologically activating and emotionally stabilizing effect – nonetheless, its impact in patients with neurodegenerative diseases as confounding factors remains unclear. In the present study, the psychophysiological influences of a chronobiologically adapted light-system with variable amounts of low- and high-frequency light components was investigated in 50 elderly patients with dementia (as measured with MoCA). Besides a multidimensional psychological evaluation, an objective steroidal analysis was carried out based on hair segments that had grown over the course of a month. The values of 31 seniors from an assisted-living facility with an adaptive lighting system (intervention group) were compared with those of 19 seniors from an independent control facility with a regular lighting system (control group). After controlling for environmental and intrapersonal confounders, a significant higher level of corticosteroids was observed in the intervention group (11.4 pg/ml), compared to the control group (5.9 pg/ml), corresponding to that of a younger and healthier sample. Further, the intervention group reported significantly less daytime sleepiness, higher levels of physiological activity, energy and an overall greater satisfaction with environmental lighting-conditions. Regarding general sleep quality (KSS, PSQI), depressiveness (GDS), stress perception (PSS) and anxiety (STAI), no significant group differences could be observed. Overall, the results suggest a physiological impact of chronobiologically adapted lighting in patients with dementia, which can be interpreted as a protective factor in the intervention facility.

Most vaccines protect both the vaccinated individual and the society at large by reducing the transmission of infectious diseases. In order to eliminate infectious diseases, individuals need to consider social welfare beyond mere self-interest — regardless of ethnic, religious, or national group borders. It has therefore been proposed that vaccination poses a social contract in which individuals are morally obliged to get vaccinated. However, little is known about whether individuals indeed act upon this social contract. If so, vaccinated individuals should show positive reciprocity toward other vaccinated individuals and negative reciprocity toward non-vaccinated individuals. Moreover, a social contract should be universally valid, i.e., reciprocity should occur irrespective of context factors, such as others’ group membership. The present studies investigated reciprocal prosociality toward vaccinated and non-vaccinated others as a behavioral indicator for seeing vaccination as a social contract. Three pre-registered experiments tested the reciprocity hypothesis and its universality, investigating how a person’s own vaccination behavior, others’ vaccination behavior, and others’ group membership influenced a person’s prosociality toward the respective others. The pattern of results revealed by an internal meta-analysis (N = 1,032) suggests that especially those who get vaccinated, and therefore comply with the social contract, show negative reciprocity toward non-vaccinated individuals. Moreover, reciprocal prosociality was independent of others’ group membership, suggesting a universal moral principle. Emphasizing that vaccination constitutes a social contract could be a promising intervention to increase vaccine uptake, prevent free riding, and, eventually, eliminate infectious diseases.

Hospital visitors pose a risk of transmitting pathogens that can result in nosocomial infections. Using alcohol-based hand-rub is the single most effective method to reduce the transmission risk. However, a majority of visitors do not clean their hands during their stay at a hospital. The present study aimed to evaluate an evidence-based intervention to improve visitors’ hand hygiene behavior through persuasive signs. For the field experiment, seven signs were designed according to Cialdini’s principles of persuasion: reciprocity, consistency, social-proof, unity, liking, authority, and scarcity. These principles have been successfully applied to change human behavior in many different settings. Each sign was displayed on a TV-screen for one week directly above the hand-rub dispenser in a hospital lobby. Between each posting, the screen was blank for one week (control). Visitor traffic and dispenser usage in the lobby was recorded via an electronic monitoring system. Overall, 246,102 entries and exits and 16,954 dispenser usages were recorded. During the blank control weeks, the dispenser usage did not vary significantly. The signs based on the authority and the social-proof principles significantly increased the hand-rub dispenser usage rate in comparison to the average baseline usage rate. These findings indicate that the principles of persuasion can be easily and cost-efficiently translated and implemented to initiate behavior change in health-care settings. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

This study assesses whether an extended knowledge approach, based on theories of semantic network structures, helps to increase learning performance in older adults by connecting new information to activated, pre-existing knowledge. Providing information about risks, that links the primary diseases such as influenza, to secondary diseases (sequelae) such as pneumococci and sepsis – can decrease vaccine hesitancy in older adults and may serve as a new vaccine communication approach. In a pre-registered, longitudinal online experiment, 585 participants (>60 years of age) were randomly assigned to a 3 (time: before, after leaflet presentation, 3 months follow-up, within) x 3 (educational leaflet type: sepsis leaflet with extended knowledge concept, traditional leaflet without extended knowledge concept, control leaflet, between) mixed design. We assessed knowledge about influenza, pneumococci and sepsis, risk perceptions and their relations to immediate and long-term vaccination intentions and future behavior. Applying the extended knowledge approach increased older adults’ immediate pneumococcal and sepsis knowledge and their long-term sepsis knowledge. Risk perceptions increased immediately after reading the sepsis leaflet. Both vaccination intentions (but not long-term behavior) increased after participants read the sepsis leaflet. A significant indirect effect in exploratory mediation analyses showed for both vaccinations that the sepsis leaflet increased immediate knowledge, which lead to increased risk perceptions and consequently increased vaccination intentions three months after the experiment. This study shows that vaccination intentions can be increased permanently by extended health knowledge. Doctors should provide targeted information shortly before patients are faced with important health decisions.

Meditation is commonly practiced in a specific context, e.g., the eightfold Yoga path. To date, only few studies have investigated the effects of adding specific components of this path to the practice of meditation. Our study was the first to address this issue. Using an experimental single-case research design, we investigated the effects of mantra meditation alone or in combination with physical Yoga exercises and/or ethical practice on healthy participants. This study was part of a project evaluating a new Mind-Body program called Meditation-Based Lifestyle Modification. 46 participants were randomly assigned to four conditions and three baselines. The conditions were meditation alone, meditation plus exercises, meditation plus ethics, and meditation plus exercises and ethics. Participants enrolled in an eight-week course, starting consecutively according to their baseline. Personality traits were assessed during pre-testing. During baseline and treatment phases participants received daily questionnaires measuring a wide range of dependent variables. This talk will present preliminary results of this study and highlight the benefits of experimental single-case designs within the context of meditation research. While all participants showed an increase in emotion regulation, we found a great heterogeneity of responses in other variables. The ethical living component seemed to have a positive effect on wellbeing but inhibit increases in body awareness and decentering. Certain personality traits and experiences during meditation could predict the outcome of the treatment. With this study we hope to answer an urgent question in meditation research, namely, whether and how the traditional Yoga context influences the effects of meditation.