When making inferences about another person (the target), perceivers often have to integrate multiple sources of informa-tion. This can include stereotypes about the targets groups (e.g., age, race, occupation) as well as other information aboutthe target (individuating information). In simple situations, perceivers approximate ideal Bayesian information integra-tion, relying more heavily on information that is more informative for the judgement. However under cognitive load withcognitive resources taken up by other demands people may instead rely on simplifying heuristics. We investigate severalpossible heuristics that people may use under load, including relying primarily on stereotypes rather than individuatinginformation, as suggested by previous research, and we test if and how these heuristics depend on how informative eachsource of information is. By clarifying how stereotypes are used in less-than-ideal cognitive conditions, this work hasimplications for when stereotypes will tend to be overused in real-world situations.

In social psychology, a common finding is that people prefer confirmation-biased information. Although this confirmatory information seeking is commonly treated as an error in judgment, we note that biased sources of information can sometimes be more useful than more accurate sources. Such confirmatory sources will only advise someone to deviate from the policy they think is most useful when these sources are sure taking alternative action is correct. For this reason, these sources can allow people to avoid particularly costly errors. Avoiding such costly errors can sometimes be worth the price of inaccurate beliefs, even though these beliefs lead to more errors in total. In two studies, we find initial support for this idea. Within a Partially Observable Markov Decision process, we show that participants prefer optimistically-biased information when they would otherwise miss out on a particularly large reward, and pessimistically-biased information when they would otherwise face particularly strong punishment.

People often learn about categories, particularly social categories, based on biased information. Unless people are able to correct for this, they may develop biased beliefs and inferences about these categories. The current research examines if potentially biased information about social groups makes groups appear more homogeneous, and makes people more confident in their inferences about group members. Two sources of biases are considered: due to lacking first-hand experience with a group, or due to having second-hand information from the media or other people. Both sources made groups appear more homogeneous, suggesting that information biases were present and not corrected for. However, only second-hand knowledge led to greater confidence about group members, because, when people lacked first-hand knowledge, their uncertainty about the group average counteracted this effect. This highlights the importance of understanding biases present in people’s information, and corrective processes that may allow people to continue to make unbiased inferences.

Background

Disparities in health care services between Hispanics and whites in the United States are well documented.

Objective

The objective of the study was to determine whether language spoken at home identifies Hispanics at risk for not receiving recommended health care services.

Design

The design of the study was cross-sectional, nationally representative survey of households.

Patients

The patients were non-Hispanic white and Hispanic adults participating in the 2003 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.

Measurements

We compared receipt of ten recommended health care services by ethnicity and primary language adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health status, and access to care.

Results

The sample included 12,706 whites and 5,500 Hispanics. In bivariate comparisons, 57.0% of whites received all eligible health care services compared to 53.6% for Hispanics who spoke English at home, 44.9% for Hispanics who did not speak English at home but who were comfortable speaking English, and 35.0% for Hispanics who did not speak English at home and were uncomfortable speaking English (p < .001). In multivariate logistic models, compared to non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics who did not speak English at home were less likely to receive all eligible health care services, whether they were comfortable speaking English (risk ratio [RR] 0.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.74-0.97) or not (RR 0.84, 95% CI 0.68-0.95).

Conclusions

Speaking a language other than English at home identified Hispanics at risk for not receiving recommended health care services, whether they were comfortable in speaking English or not. Identifying the mechanism for disparities by language usage may lead to interventions to reduce ethnic disparities.

Successful social coordination requires being able to predict how the other people that one depends on are likely to behave. One solution to this dilemma is to establish social conventions, which constrain individuals' behavior but make prediction easier. Here, we develop a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning environment to investigate the costs associated with these conventions. In our produce-and-trade task, agents have varying production skills, but their actions must be predictable in order to be rewarded. Stronger norms improve the overall success of the group by improving the average rewards of the majority, but also systematically disadvantage agents whose specialization is in the minority of the group. Critically, this outcome is magnified by population size: as larger groups make it potentially more difficult to develop individualized representations of agents, minority agents become more likely to conform to a norm that is disadvantageous to them.

Background

The SF-36 and SF-12 summary scores were derived using an uncorrelated (orthogonal) factor solution. We estimate SF-36 and SF-12 summary scores using a correlated (oblique) physical and mental health factor model.

Methods

We administered the SF-36 to 7,093 patients who received medical care from an independent association of 48 physician groups in the western United States. Correlated physical health (PCSc) and mental health (MCSc) scores were constructed by multiplying each SF-36 scale z-score by its respective scoring coefficient from the obliquely rotated two factor solution. PCSc-12 and MCSc-12 scores were estimated using an approach similar to the one used to derive the original SF-12 summary scores.

Results

The estimated correlation between SF-36 PCSc and MCSc scores was 0.62. There were far fewer negative factor scoring coefficients for the oblique factor solution compared to the factor scoring coefficients produced by the standard orthogonal factor solution. Similar results were found for PCSc-12, and MCSc-12 summary scores.

Conclusion

Correlated physical and mental health summary scores for the SF-36 and SF-12 derived from an obliquely rotated factor solution should be used along with the uncorrelated summary scores. The new scoring algorithm can reduce inconsistent results between the SF-36 scale scores and physical and mental health summary scores reported in some prior studies.(Subscripts C = correlated and UC = uncorrelated).

Background

Decade-long delays in successful implementation of Hepatitis B vaccines and ongoing obstacles in HPV vaccine roll-out suggest the importance of an implementation science approach to prepare for the effective translation of future HIV vaccines from clinical trials into routine practice. The objective of this study was to test HIV vaccine attitude items to develop reliable scales and to examine their association with HIV vaccine acceptability.

Methods

HIV vaccine attitude items were assessed as part of the L.A. VOICES survey, a large-scale study conducted among underserved residents of Los Angeles, to identify factors that may influence HIV vaccine acceptability. Participants (n=1225) were randomly selected from public STD clinics, needle exchange sites and Latino community clinics using three-stage, venue-based time space sampling.

Results

Exploratory factor analysis across 20 items revealed four distinct factors - mistrust, HIV vaccine social concerns, risk compensation, and altruistic vaccination - with acceptable reliability coefficients for each subscale (Cronbach's α range 0.61-0.84). We found no significant differences in reliability by gender or by vaccine acceptability. Risk compensation (odds ratio (OR)=1.49; 95% CI=[1.18, 1.89]; p=0.001) and altruistic vaccination (OR=1.40; 95% CI=[1.14, 1.71]; p=0.001) were significantly and positively associated with HIV vaccine acceptability.

Conclusions

We identified four HIV vaccine attitude scales with sound internal reliability parameters. In the aftermath of the first candidate vaccine to demonstrate efficacy against HIV infection, these scales may be helpful in bridging expectable research-to-practice gaps in future HIV vaccine dissemination among populations at risk. As HIV vaccine trials progress in the United States and globally, these measures also may be useful as a tool to assess and facilitate effective responses to community concerns about HIV vaccine trials and to target interventions to support recruitment and mitigate risk compensation.

Competing priorities between subsistence needs and health care may interfere with HIV health. Longitudinal data from the Los Angeles-based HIV Outreach Initiative were analyzed to examine the association between competing subsistence needs and indicators of poor retention-in-care among hard-to-reach people with HIV. Sacrificing basic needs for health care in the previous six months was associated with a 1.55 times greater incidence of missed appointments (95% CI 1.17, 2.05), 2.32 times greater incidence of emergency department visits (95% CI 1.39, 3.87), 3.66 times greater incidence of not receiving ART if CD4 < 350 (95% CI 1.60, 8.37), and 1.35 times greater incidence of detectable viral load (95% CI 1.07, 1.70) (all p < 0.01). Among hard-to-reach PLHIV, sacrificing basic needs for health care delineates a population with exceptional vulnerability to poor outcomes along the HIV treatment cascade. Efforts to identify and reduce competing needs for this population are crucial to HIV health outcomes.