Debate abounds regarding the role that various technologies play in the reification of gender stereotypes and norms. We demonstrate that although assigning technology a male or female gender (i.e., ...gendering technology) increases gender stereotyping, it also increases attachment to anthropomorphized technologies. Across five studies, using archival (Amazon Reviews), correlational, and experimental methods (N = 10,781), we show people feel more attached to gendered technology. We further show these benefits are rooted in the tendency to ascribe greater humanness to technology that has stereotypically male and female traits. These results illustrate a paradox: gendering technology reinforces problematic stereotypes, but it also facilitates anthropomorphism, with beneficial consequences for the marketing of various technologies.
Background
Adults with type 2 diabetes may experience health benefits, including glycemic control and weight loss, from following a very low–carbohydrate, ketogenic (VLC) diet. However, it is unclear ...which ancillary strategies may enhance these effects.
Objective
This pilot study aims to estimate the effect sizes of 3 intervention enhancement strategies (text messages, gifts, and breath vs urine ketone self-monitoring) that may improve outcomes of a 12-month web-based ad libitum VLC diet and lifestyle intervention for adults with type 2 diabetes. The primary intervention also included other components to improve adherence and well-being, including positive affect and mindfulness as well as coaching.
Methods
Overweight or obese adults (n=44; BMI 25-45 kg/m2) with type 2 diabetes (glycated hemoglobin HbA1c ≥6.5%), who had been prescribed either no glucose-lowering medications or metformin alone, participated in a 12-month web-based intervention. Using a 2×2×2 randomized factorial design, we compared 3 enhancement strategies: (1) near-daily text messages about the intervention’s recommended behaviors (texts n=22 vs no texts n=22), (2) mailed gifts of diet-relevant foods and cookbooks (6 rounds of mailed gifts n=21 vs no gifts n=23), and (3) urine- or breath-based ketone self-monitoring (urine n=21 vs breath n=23). We assessed HbA1c and weight at baseline and at 4, 8, and 12 months. We evaluated whether each strategy exerted a differential impact on HbA1c and weight at 12 months against an a priori threshold of Cohen d of 0.5 or greater.
Results
We retained 73% (32/44) of the participants at 12 months. The intervention, across all conditions, led to improvements in glucose control and reductions in body weight at the 12-month follow-up. In intent-to-treat (ITT) analyses, the mean HbA1c reduction was 1.0% (SD 1.6) and the mean weight reduction was 5.3% (SD 6.0), whereas among study completers, these reductions were 1.2% (SD 1.7) and 6.3% (SD 6.4), respectively, all with a P value of less than .001. In ITT analyses, no enhancement strategy met the effect size threshold. Considering only study completers, 2 strategies showed a differential effect size of at least a d value of 0.5 or greater
Conclusions
Text messages, gifts of food and cookbooks, and urine-based ketone self-monitoring may potentially enhance the glycemic or weight loss benefits of a web-based VLC diet and lifestyle intervention for individuals with type 2 diabetes. Future research could investigate other enhancement strategies to help create even more effective solutions for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Trial Registration
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02676648; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02676648
Obese individuals vary in their experience of food cravings and tendency to engage in reward-driven eating, both of which can be modulated by the neural reward system rather than physiological ...hunger. We examined two predictions in a sample of obese women: (1) whether opioidergic blockade reduced food-craving intensity, and (2) whether opioidergic blockade reduced an association between food-craving intensity and reward-driven eating, which is a trait-like index of three factors (lack of control over eating, lack of satiation, preoccupation with food).
Forty-four obese, pre-menopausal women completed the Reward-Based Eating Drive (RED) scale at study start and daily food-craving intensity on 5days on which they ingested either a pill-placebo (2days), a 25mg naltrexone dose (1day), or a standard 50mg naltrexone dose (2days).
Craving intensity was similar under naltrexone and placebo doses. The association between food-craving intensity and reward-driven eating significantly differed between placebo and 50mg naltrexone doses. Reward-driven eating and craving intensity were significantly positively associated under both placebo doses. As predicted, opioidergic blockade (for both doses 25mg and 50mg naltrexone) reduced the positive association between reward-driven eating and craving intensity to non-significance.
Opioidergic blockade did not reduce craving intensity; however, blockade reduced an association between trait-like reward-driven eating and daily food-craving intensity, and may help identify an important endophenotype within obesity.
•Opioidergic blockade does not uniformly reduce food-craving intensity.•Reward-Based Eating Drive (RED) correlates with daily food-craving intensity.•Opioidergic blockade reduces an association between RED and food-craving intensity.•Together, opioidergic blockade and RED may identify an obesity endophenotype.
To assess blood pressure (BP) reactivity as recently separated adults completed a laboratory task asking to mentally reflect on their relationship experiences. Marital separations and the experience ...of divorce are associated with increased risk for early mortality and poor health outcomes. Few studies, however, have investigated the potential psychophysiological mechanisms that may account for these broad-based associations.
Seventy recently separated or divorced community-dwelling adults (26 men) completed self-report measures of divorce-related psychological adjustment. During a laboratory visit, quasi-continuous BP was assessed across four task periods, including a divorce-specific mental activation task (DMAT). A task-rated emotional difficulty (TRED) index was computed based on participants' immediate appraisals of the task demands.
After accounting for relevant health-related covariates and depressed mood, participants who reported higher degrees of divorce-related emotional intrusion and physical hyperarousal demonstrated significantly elevated resting BP at entry into the study. When assessing change from a within-person control task to the DMAT, a three-way interaction indicated that men reporting high TRED scores evidenced significant increases in BP, whereas men reporting low TRED scores evidenced significant decreases in BP. Women evidenced no significant changes in BP across study periods.
Results suggest that divorce-related emotional intrusion-hyperarousal and real-time ratings of emotional difficulty (when people think about their separation experience) may play a specific role in BP reactivity, especially for men. These data shed new light on the potential mechanisms that may link marital dissolution and poor health.
Diet patterns have a profound influence on glycemic control for individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and craving-related eating is an important obstacle to dietary adherence. A growing ...body of research suggests that carbohydrate-restricted (CR) diets can improve glycemic control and reduce medication dependence in T2DM. However, limited data speak to the effects of long-term adherence to CR diets. Mindful eating training has been shown to reduce craving-related eating in overweight populations but has yet to be examined as a behavioral support for dietary adherence in T2DM. This trial examines behavioral mechanisms, particularly craving-related eating, through which mindful eating training might improve adherence to CR dietary recommendations in T2DM. This will clarify the importance of focusing on craving-related eating in the optimization of dietary adherence interventions.
The aim of this trial is to determine whether providing training in mindful eating increases adherence to a CR dietary recommendation in T2DM.
We are randomizing 60 participants to receive a CR diet with or without mindful eating training (12-week group intervention) and are following participants for 12 weeks after intervention completion. We hypothesize that participants who receive mindful eating training (relative to those who do not) will demonstrate greater adherence to the CR diet.
Our primary outcome is change in craving-related eating, as assessed using an ecological momentary assessment mobile phone-based platform. Secondary behavioral pathway outcomes include changes in stress-related eating, impulsivity, glycemic control, weight change, dietary adherence, and resumption of dietary adherence after dietary nonadherence.
This theory-driven trial will shed light on the impact of mindfulness training on mechanisms that may impact dietary adherence in T2DM.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03207711; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03207711 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/73pXscwaU).
DERR1-10.2196/11002.
Marital separation and divorce are common life events that increase risk for poor health outcomes, yet few intervention studies explore how to mitigate this increased risk. This study implemented an ...expressive writing (EW) intervention for adults who experienced a recent marital separation. Ninety participants (32 men) were randomly assigned to and completed one of three experimental writing tasks: traditional EW, a novel (narrative-based) type of EW, or control writing. Up to 9 months after this writing, participants who were judged to be actively engaged in a search for meaning concerning their separation reported significantly worse emotional outcomes when assigned to either EW condition relative to control writing. Within the control condition, those participants who were actively engaged in a search for meaning reported the lowest levels of separation-related disturbance. We discuss these results in terms of the factors that may limit and promote psychological recovery following marital separation.
Romantic breakups arouse fundamental questions about the self: Who am I without my partner? This study examined self‐concept reorganization and psychological well‐being over an 8‐week period in the ...months following a breakup. Multilevel analyses revealed that poorer self‐concept recovery preceded poorer well‐being and was associated with love for an ex‐partner, suggesting that failure to redefine the self contributes to post‐breakup distress. Psychophysiological data revealed that greater activity in the corrugator supercilia facial muscle while thinking about an ex‐partner predicted poorer self‐concept recovery and strengthened the negative association between love for an ex‐partner and self‐concept recovery. Thus, the interaction between self‐report and psychophysiological data provided information about the importance of self‐concept recovery to post‐breakup adjustment not tapped by either method alone.
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