Text is a major medium of contemporary interpersonal communication but is difficult for social scientists to study unless they have significant resources or the skills to build their own research platform. In this paper, we introduce a cloud-based software solution to this problem: ReChat, an online research platform for conducting experimental and observational studies of live text conversations. We demonstrate ReChat by applying it to a specific phenomenon of interest to political scientists: conversations among co-partisans. We present results from two studies, focusing on (1) self-selection factors that make chat participants systematically unrepresentative and (2) a pre-registered analysis of loquaciousness that finds a significant association between speakers’ ideological extremity and the amount they write in the chat. We conclude by discussing practical implications and advice for future practitioners of chat studies.

To investigate the flame acceleration to detonation in 2.0 and 0.5 mm planar glass combustion chambers, the experiments have been conducted utilising ethylene/oxygen mixtures at atmospheric pressure and temperature. The high-speed camera has been used to record the revolution of flame front and pressure inside the combustion chamber. Different equivalence ratios and ignition locations have been considered in the experiments. The results show that the detonation pressure in the 2 mm thick chamber is nearly three times of Chapman-Jouguet pressure, while detonation pressure in the 0.5 mm thick chamber is only 45.7% of the Chapman-Jouguet value at the stoichiometric mixture. This phenomenon is attributed to the larger pressure loss in the thinner chamber during the detonation propagation. As the value of equivalence ratio is 2.2, the detonation cannot be produced in the 2 mm thick chamber, while the detonation can be generated successfully in the 0.5 mm thick chamber. This phenomenon indicates that the deflagration is easily to be accelerated and transformed into the detonation, due to a larger wall friction and reflection. Besides, the micro-obstacle has been added into the combustor can shorten the detonation transition time and reduces the distance of the detonation transition.

Enhanced dietary Ca intake linearly increases intestinal Ca absorption in pigs, but not in broilers, suggesting potential differences in whole body Ca homeostasis. To determine the role of kidney in Ca homeostasis in these species, we varied in growing pigs in experiment (Exp) 1, the dietary Ca content 2·0 v. 9·6 g/kg and phytase 0 v. 500 FTU/kg, in broilers, in Exp 2 the dietary Ca/retainable P from 1·3 to 2·8 and phytase 0 v. 1000 FTU/kg, and in Exp 3 dietary Ca/P from 0·50 to 1·75. Increasing dietary Ca reduced renal mRNA expression of Ca-related transporters (TRPV5, TRPV6, CaBP-D28k and NCX1) and tight junctions (CLDN-12 and −16) in pigs, indicating Ca reabsorption was reduced to maintain Ca homeostasis. In broilers (Exp 2), high dietary Ca increased renal TRPV6, CaBP-D28k and CLDN-2 mRNA, indicating an increased capacity for Ca reabsorption. Moreover, the effect of dietary Ca was enhanced by inclusion of dietary phytase in pigs but reduced in broilers. Furthermore, increasing dietary Ca upregulated inorganic phosphate transporter 1 (PiT-1), while phytase downregulated xenotropic and polytropic retrovirus receptor 1 (XPR1) mRNA expression in pigs; in broilers, dietary Ca downregulated renal mRNA expression of Na-dependent phosphate transporter IIa (NaPi-IIa), PiT-1, PiT-2 and XPR1, while phytase downregulated NaPi-IIa but upregulated PiT-2 and XPR1 mRNA expression. In Exp 3, Ca/P effect on transporter mRNA expression was largely consistent with Exp 2. In conclusion of this study, together with previously measured data about Ca and P homeostasis, in pigs the kidneys play a more regulatory role in Ca homeostasis than in broilers where the intestine is more important for regulation.

During health crises, misinformation may spread rapidly on social media, leading to hesitancy towards health authorities. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted significant research on how communication from health authorities can effectively facilitate compliance with health-related behavioral advice such as distancing and vaccination. Far fewer studies have assessed whether and how public health communication can help citizens avoid the harmful consequences of exposure to COVID-19 misinformation, including passing it on to others. In two experiments in Denmark during the pandemic, the effectiveness of a 3-minute and a 15-second intervention from the Danish Health Authorities on social media was assessed, along with an accuracy nudge. The findings showed that the 3-minute intervention providing competences through concrete and actionable advice decreased sharing of COVID-19-related misinformation and boosted their sense of self-efficacy. These findings suggest that authorities can effectively invest in building citizens’ competences in order to mitigate the spread of misinformation on social media.

Scholars of International Organizations (IOs) increasingly use elite surveys to study the preferences and decisions of policymakers. When designing these surveys, one central concern is low statistical power, because respondents are typically recruited from a small and inaccessible population. However, much of what we know about how to incentivize elites to participate in surveys is based on anecdotal reflections, rather than systematic evidence on which incentives work best. In this article, we study the efficacy of three incentives in a preregistered experiment with World Bank staff. These incentives were the chance to win an Amazon voucher, a donation made to a relevant charity, and a promise to provide a detailed report on the findings. We find that no incentive outperformed the control group, and the monetary incentive decreased the number of respondents on average by one-third compared to the control group (from around 8% to around 5%).

How do citizens react to repeated losses in politics? This paper argues that experiencing accumulated losses creates strong incentives to externalize responsibility for these losses to the decision-making procedure, which can, in turn, erode legitimacy perceptions among the public. Using a survey experiment (N = 2,146) simulating accumulated losses in a series of direct votes among Irish citizens, we find that decision acceptance and the perceived legitimacy of the decision-making procedure diminish with every loss. Three accumulated losses depress the perceived legitimacy of the political system. These effects are mediated by procedural fairness perceptions, suggesting that even when democratic procedures are used, accumulated losses can induce a belief that the process and system are rigged.

A long line of research has established that Americans who subscribe to Christian nationalism have a preference for those inside their group and animosity toward those outside their group. These beliefs may impede the equal application of the rule of law, a link that has been suggested but not formally tested. Utilizing experimental data from a survey conducted in fall 2021, we assess the equal application of the rule of law for in and outgroup members conditional on Christian nationalism and belief in Christian persecution. We suggest that ingroup love may move distinctly from outgroup hate. Our results suggest that Christian nationalists have a preference for the ingroup, but do not automatically denigrate outgroups. However, belief in Christian persecution drives animosity toward outgroups, while not elevating the ingroup. Christian nationalist outgroup hatred must be triggered by threat, which has been the project of movement and party elites.

How was Chinese people’s confidence in the political system linked to their perception of Covid infection risk, perception of health threat of Covid infection, lockdown experience, and attitudes toward the dynamic Zero-Covid policy? Using 2 waves of online surveys conducted in 2020 and 2022, we investigated how these factors were related. Individuals who were more supportive of the Zero-Covid policy were more confident. Those who were less supportive of the Zero-Covid policy were from areas with more severe Covid infections and experienced a longer lockdown as well; these individuals also perceived higher Covid infection risk and health threat. As such, their confidence in the political system was also more likely to drop from 2020 to 2022. In sum, these findings suggest that Chinese people’s confidence in the political system was linked to their Covid infection risk perception, perceived Covid threat to health, lockdown experience, and attitudes toward the Zero-Covid policy. These findings were corroborated with the severity of Covid infections in the province and individual’s political beliefs and orientation.

Former president Trump made hundreds of candidate endorsements in the 2022 Republican primaries. The state of Georgia garnered outsized attention because it was ground zero for Trump’s false accusations of a stolen 2020 presidential election. Trump endorsed several candidates in Georgia’s May 2022 GOP primary contests, including candidates challenging Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, incumbents drawing Trump’s ire for upholding the 2020 outcome favoring Joe Biden. In a survey of likely Georgia GOP primary voters randomizing whether they are told which candidate Trump endorsed in five statewide races (governor, US Senate, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and insurance commissioner), our analysis shows substantial variability in the influence of Trump’s endorsement. With scant prior information in low-profile contests (e.g., insurance commissioner), the Trump endorsement has a substantial impact, whereas it is rendered ineffectual in the most high-profile race for governor. Thus, the findings demonstrate the remarkable variability of a Trump endorsement, which is primarily contingent upon the salience of a specific race.

Paranoia is common in clinical and nonclinical populations, consistent with continuum models of psychosis. A number of experimental studies have been conducted that attempt to induce, manipulate or measure paranoid thinking in both clinical and nonclinical populations, which is important to understand causal mechanisms and advance psychological interventions. Our aim was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of experimental studies (non-sleep, non-drug paradigms) on psychometrically assessed paranoia in clinical and nonclinical populations. The review was conducted using PRISMA guidelines. Six databases (PsycINFO, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Medline and AMED) were searched for peer-reviewed experimental studies using within and between-subject designs to investigate paranoia in clinical and nonclinical populations. Effect sizes for each study were calculated using Hedge's g and were integrated using a random effect meta-analysis model. Thirty studies were included in the review (total n = 3898), which used 13 experimental paradigms to induce paranoia; 10 studies set out to explicitly induce paranoia, and 20 studies induced a range of other states. Effect sizes for individual studies ranged from 0.03 to 1.55. Meta-analysis found a significant summary effect of 0.51 [95% confidence interval 0.37–0.66, p < 0.001], indicating a medium effect of experimental paradigms on paranoia. Paranoia can be induced and investigated using a wide range of experimental paradigms, which can inform decision-making about which paradigms to use in future studies, and is consistent with cognitive, continuum and evolutionary models of paranoia.

As in other sciences, an economic experiment is an artificial situation created by a researcher for the purpose of answering one or more scientific questions. Experiments of various types are used in economics to understand the causes of poverty and how it might be alleviated. The methods can identify causal relationships between variables and thereby isolate factors that can lead to poverty as well as to document the behavioral consequences of poverty. Experiments can also be used to provide test beds for proposed policies to alleviate poverty. This essay describes a variety of ways in which experiments have been employed to understand and combat poverty. A line of laboratory experiments that considers which economic institutions are conducive to economic growth is discussed in detail. The results show that decentralized markets are conducive to allowing an economy to operate as efficiently as it can. However, in an economy with a theoretical “poverty trap,” the market works more efficiently if accompanied by a democratic voting process and freedom of communication.