Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection on U.S. college campuses. Although HPV vaccination is recommended through age 26, current efforts to improve vaccination rates have predominantly focused on adolescents. Consequently, vaccine uptake remains suboptimal among young adults. This represents a significant missed opportunity, as young adults face the highest risk for new HPV infections. To contextualize the factors impacting decision-making process for this vulnerable population, this study reports key themes that emerged from in-depth interviews with participants (N = 30) who had completed an online intervention study for HPV vaccination among college students. Twelve (40%) of the interviewees vaccinated after exposure to the intervention. Findings centered around empowerment among young adults as the facilitator to get the HPV vaccine: key themes emerged were (1) convenience is critical and empowering; (2) adulthood identity, marked by a heightened sense of autonomy, accountability, and responsibility for self/future self and others, is empowering; (3) equal access to health care and preventive resources is empowering, especially for participants with low socioeconomic status; and (4) accurate knowledge provided in the intervention destigmatized HPV vaccination to empower young adults to make informed decisions. Digital interventions with messages highlighting a newly gained autonomy, future-oriented self and social responsibility, inclusive and accurate knowledge, and providing navigation to improve access may enhance HPV vaccination among young adults.
While artificial Intelligence (AI) has made significant advancements, the seeming absence of its emotional ability has hindered effective communication with humans. This study explores how ChatGPT (ChatGPT-3.5 Mar 23, 2023 Version) represents affective responses to emotional narratives and compare these responses to human responses. Thirty-four participants read affect-eliciting short stories and rated their emotional responses and 10 recorded ChatGPT sessions generated responses to the stories. Classification analyses revealed the successful identification of affective categories of stories, valence, and arousal within and across sessions for ChatGPT. Classification analyses revealed the successful identification of affective categories of stories, valence, and arousal within and across sessions for ChatGPT. Classification accuracies predicting affective categories of stories, valence, and arousal of humans based on the affective ratings of ChatGPT and vice versa were not significant, indicating differences in the way the affective states were represented., indicating differences in the way the affective states were represented. These findings suggested that ChatGPT can distinguish emotional states and generate affective responses consistently, but there are differences in how the affective states are represented between ChatGPT and humans. Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for improving emotional interactions with AI.
Parental mediation (PM) and parental phubbing (PP) are two pivotal factors that influence children's screen media use. This study used response surface analysis to examine the combined effect of PM and PP on screen time among preschool children. A total of 3,445 parents with preschool-aged children participated in this study, providing self-reported data on PM, PP, and their children's screen time (CST). The results revealed that CST decreased when parents enhanced their mediation behaviors and reduced phubbing behaviors in the cases of congruence between PM and PP. In instances of incongruence, reduced screen time was observed when parents exhibited lower frequency in mediating their CST and displayed fewer phubbing behaviors compared with situations where parents mediated their children more frequently but engaged in higher levels of phubbing behaviors. The findings suggest that PM play a significant role in mitigating preschool-aged children's excessive screen time. Moreover, it is critical to establish positive role modeling by reducing PP behaviors.
Despite broad skepticism within the scientific community regarding paranormal phenomena such as ghosts and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), many members of the public believe in these phenomena. Previous studies have argued that viewing paranormal-themed television-including documentary, reality, and news programming-can cultivate such beliefs. In addition, recent research suggests that the online video-sharing platform YouTube may serve as an important source of messages about fringe phenomena. With that in mind, this study builds on theoretical accounts of genre-specific cultivation and social media affordances to examine how YouTube videos present paranormal topics and whether YouTube use predicts belief in the paranormal. A content analysis of 50 highly viewed YouTube videos about paranormal topics (25 about hauntings and 25 about UFOs) showed that a large majority of these videos featured paranormal claims and that a majority included purported footage of paranormal phenomena. Scientific sources appeared in only a quarter of UFO videos and almost no haunting videos, while government sources appeared in most UFO videos, but few haunting videos. An analysis of data from a survey of the U.S. public (n = 1,035), in turn, found that paranormal documentary or reality television viewing, paranormal news use, and YouTube use predicted belief in hauntings, controlling for a range of other media use variables and background factors. These results highlight the potential for video-sharing platforms such as YouTube to reinforce paranormal beliefs among the public.