How Personal Experience Affects Perception of and Decisions Related to Climate Change: A Psychological View

The proportion of the world’s population exposed to above-average monthly temperatures has been rising consistently in recent decades and will continue to grow. This and similar trends make it more likely that people will personally experience extreme weather events and seasonal changes related to climate change. A question that follows from this is to what extent experiences may influence climate-related beliefs, attitudes, and the willingness to act. Although research is being done to examine the effects of such experiences, many of these studies have two important shortcomings. First, they propose effects of experiences but remain unclear on the psychological processes that underlie those effects. Second, if they do make assumptions about psychological processes, they do not typically corroborate them with empirical evidence. In other words, a considerable body of research in this field rests on relatively unfounded intuitions. To advance the theoretical understanding of how experiences of climate change could affect the motivation to act on climate change, we introduce a conceptual framework that organizes insights from psychology along three clusters of processes: 1) noticing and remembering, 2) mental representations, and 3) risk processing and decision-making. Within each of these steps, we identify and explicate psychological processes that could occur when people personally experience climate change, and we formulate theory-based, testable hypotheses. By making assumptions explicit and tying them to findings from basic and applied research from psychology, this paper provides a solid basis for future research and for advancing theory.

Ensuring the reliability and safety of operation of continuous passenger transport vehicles

The article deals with the issues of quality management, reliability and safety of transport technical systems of deep-laid metro stations, transport hubs and other transport infrastructure facilities using continuous passenger lifting machines. Using the methods and tools of risk management and reliability theory, an analysis of the risks associated with dangerous consequences for the health and life of passengers is carried out. The article considers the inconsistencies of the required functioning of mechanical and electrical systems of the escalator, the influence of the «human factor», and identifies weaknesses. The methodology for making a decision on the development of a project for risk processing based on expert methods is proposed. As an example, the jamming of the stairs of the escalator stair bed due to contamination of the stair's flooring is considered. Based on the results of the analysis, projects for cleaning the flooring of escalator steps are proposed, their analysis is carried out, and recommendations are developed for the implementation of the projects under consideration at metro stations.

Brains of a feather flocking together? Peer and individual neurobehavioral risks for substance use across adolescence

Adolescence is a period of heightened susceptibility to peer influences, and deviant peer affiliation has well-established implications for the development of psychopathology. However, little is known about the role of brain functions in pathways connecting peer contexts and health risk behaviors. We tested developmental cascade models to evaluate contributions of adolescent risk taking, peer influences, and neurobehavioral variables of risk processing and cognitive control to substance use among 167 adolescents who were assessed annually for four years. Risk taking at Time 1 was related to substance use at Time 4 indirectly through peer substance use at Time 2 and insular activation during risk processing at Time 3. Furthermore, neural cognitive control moderated these effects. Greater insular activation during risk processing was related to higher substance use for those with greater medial prefrontal cortex activation during cognitive control, but it was related to lower substance use among those with lower medial prefrontal cortex activation during cognitive control. Neural processes related to risk processing and cognitive control play a crucial role in the processes linking risk taking, peer substance use, and adolescents’ own substance use.