“Like we are sleeping and dreaming the same nightmare”: Living with Uncertainty through the Covid 19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the lives of millions of people impacting the basic physical and psychological health. As we know, there were two major waves of the disease, and each had its own sense of uncertainty. The first phase was marked by uncertainty about the nature of the disease, the lockdown, vaccine development etc. As multiple waves of the disease came and went by, daily living became further unpredictable with financial instability, lack of trust in the government and a growing infodemic. Yet, we know very little objectively about what this ‘uncertainty’ entailed psychologically. There has been limited psychological research on uncertainty during the pandemic, specifically exploring the crisis as a collective experience that shaped individual decision making. In psychological terms, Embodied Uncertainty (EU) refers to the subjective, personal experience of uncertainty which is felt by individuals living in risk. It encompasses how individuals and groups understand and interpret living through natural or man-made disasters.

This was conducted by Sramana Majumdar, Assistant Professor of Psychology at 51��� and her research group. They examined people’s experiences of the pandemic across two phases of the COVID-19 outbreak in India from the theoretical lens of the EU. The objective was to combine conventional psychological theories that explain how people deal with uncertainty, with extensive sociological studies on risk that focus on how cultural factors, government responses, and technology play a part in managing crises. The study took a Longitudinal Qualitative Research (LQR) approach which is useful when examining time bound changes in the experiences of individual and collective health. The researchers collected and analyzed data shortly after the first wave of COVID-19 and a year later, after the second wave in India.

The study design aimed to capture differences in the lived experiences of the pandemic based on social identity, with a focus on the Indian-Muslim experience of the pandemic, who faced disproportionate stigma. It also examined socio-economic differences in health outcomes by recruiting a diverse sample of participants, including domestic workers, small business owners, and individuals from urban, affluent backgrounds (Table 1). Telephonic interviews were conducted in English and Hindi.

EU talks about four themes that capture the embodied experience of an individual; social identity and trauma, co-production of knowledge, social and institutional structures and policy and long term lived experience of uncertainty. In-depth interviews were conducted to address these four themes. Thematic analysis revealed that immediate anxieties, especially in the first phase, were related to job uncertainty, disruptions in supply chains, rising prices, accessing necessities and a drop in economic productivity. These uncertainties were often more prominent than fears of the disease itself. Yet, the nature of uncertainty shifted by the second wave for those in urban areas and from advantaged socio-economic backgrounds. While these participants spoke about getting used to the pandemic, waiting for the vaccine and adjusting to work from home, pandemic related uncertainties had only exacerbated for others, thus highlighting the significance of social identity in this experience. Interestingly the study also found that disease related stigma had reduced by the second wave (contrary to official predictions) which was a direct outcome of the lived experience of a shared crisis.

Perceptions of governmental responsibility also shifted where anger and confusion about official speeches had transformed into a disappointment with evidence of poor planning, ambiguous messaging, and unhelpful resource allocation by the government. There was also fear of misinformation with a gradual movement from government and medical bodies as credible sources, to social media, resulting in an infodemic. However, ultimately the study also revealed active coping among many, and a sense of optimism for life after the pandemic

This study explored how people navigate uncertainty during crises, considering factors like social identity and government responses. Findings can help contribute to the development of a preparedness framework based on community stories which recognize strengths of lived experiences to alleviate future concerns.

Written by Kangna Verma and Yukti Arora (Academic Communications, Research and Development Office, 51���)

This research paper by Dr Sramana Majumdar won the best paper at the annual convention of the National Academy of Psychology.

Reference article

Majumdar, S., & Tewatia, M. (2024). Embodied Uncertainty and COVID-19: Social identity, stigma, trust and coping through the pandemic. Journal of Risk Research, 0(0), 1–16.

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Psychological Study of Space Exploration: At the Crossroads of Astronomy and Psychology

Psychology is the scientific study of the brain and its behaviour. In modern cognitive psychology, “cognitive processes” refers to mental processes of the brain such as thinking, decision-making, acquiring knowledge, manipulating knowledge, etc. In space exploration, most research deals with neurocognitive questions about astronauts, while a few others also answer social psychological questions about the behaviours of astronauts. As humans prepare for long and difficult travels across the universe, it is important to study how this travel and its environment might affect their brains and what effects it might have on their cognitive behaviours. This article aims to familiarise the reader with the kinds of questions that are being asked concerning astronaut psychologies and what approaches and research methodologies researchers have employed to answer these questions.

Though humans have been adapting to different harsh environments on Earth since our evolution, adapting to conditions in space is a different story altogether. In space, on the physiological level, the human body has to adapt to no gravity or microgravity conditions that affect brain function. Moreover, the individual is under constant physical pressure, radiation, acceleration and loud noise. Mentally, the individual has chronic high-stress levels, prolonged social isolation, etc. Hence, it is interesting to see the effects of these highly unfavourable conditions on astronauts’ brains. Schneider et al. (2008) studied the effects of weightlessness on the brain using EEG imaging. They found the brain areas that show changes in activity during weightlessness. Interestingly, they also found that these changes were a function of the emotions felt during weightlessness rather than the direct physiological hemodynamic changes themselves (2008).

Some studies showed that core cognitive functions are not degraded during spaceflight (Manzey & Lorenz, 1998). However, dual-task performance seemed to be particularly affected in space and the mediating factor was identified to be adaptations to weightlessness (1998). That could have implications in designing tasks and schedules for astronauts, especially during their adaptive period in space.

General moods and cognitive functions are found to be stable in astronauts across long flights, although the first two weeks in space as well as back on Earth have been identified as critical in adapting to both environments (Manzey et al., 2010). Researchers also claim that astronauts are consistently found to have feelings of being under chronic mental pressure (2010). That can have implications on the quality of work produced or the overall social dynamics of the mission.

Another important aspect of psychology that is known to govern brain function is sleep. Stampi (1994) studied how sleep schedules affected the well-being and cognitive capacities of astronauts. It was found that the closer the astronauts were able to maintain their circadian rhythms as they were back at home, the better their cognitive performance. However, it was found that for most astronauts, work schedules were not aligned with their natural circadian rhythms, creating performance degradation (1994).

Studies in astropsychology have been a combination of controlled trials, interviews, data from log books and journals, and some imaging techniques such as EEG. The scarcity of participants who can be subjects for space research and the extensive extraordinary training the existing participants go through can affect the results of space research. For example, given the high levels of mental and physical training that astronauts go through to travel in space, they are predisposed to perform better than controls on most standard psychometric tests. One instance is how in a classic emotional Stroop test, astronauts perform better, predictably because of their extensive training in being in control of their emotions in stressful environments.

Hence, space research follows a revised methodology—statistically and procedurally—to match these peculiar conditions. These studies help us answer how the brain functions in space and eventually might help us answer how to train our astronauts to optimise their cognitive capacities and keep them physically and mentally fit when they are in the space environment.

References

• De la Torre G. G. (2014). Cognitive neuroscience in space. Life (Basel, Switzerland), 4(3), 281–294. .
• Manzey, D., & Lorenz, B. (1998). Mental performance during short-term and long-term spaceflight. Brain Research Reviews, 28(1-2), 215–221. .
• Manzey, D., Lorenz, B., & Poljakov, V. (1998). Mental performance in extreme environments: results from a performance monitoring study during a 438-day spaceflight. Ergonomics, 41(4), 537–559. .
• Schneider, S., Brümmer, V., Carnahan, H., Dubrowski, A., Askew, C. D., & Strüder, H. K. (2008). What happens to the brain in weightlessness? A first approach by EEG tomography. NeuroImage, 42(4), 1316–1323. .
• Stampi, C. (1994). Sleep and Circadian Rhythms in Space. The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 34(5), 518–534. .

(Written by Anukriti Bhargava (UG’24), 51���)

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51��� Researchers Examine How Social Identities & Group Norms Shape Online Conversations

Over the last few years, we have been constantly reminded of the rapidly growing influence of social media and computer-mediated communication (CMC). While some initial research on CMC indicates that anonymity and invisibility create an equalizing effect that can eliminate stereotypes and enhance interpersonal contact, there is increasing evidence to show that it may strengthen biases because of the increased group identification and in-group salient behaviors (group salience) and reduced interpersonal cues. This is what caught Sramana Majumdar’s attention, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at 51���.

Having been interested in intergroup conflict and identity, it became apparent to her that to understand present-day group identities, norms, intergroup attitudes, prejudice, and conflict, one must adequately attend to what is happening on social media. There is a lack of psychological research, especially in understudied developing countries like India, which are also some of the largest consumers of digital media. This is what motivated Prof. Majumdar and her team of research students, including Maanya Tewatia, Devika Jamkhedkar, and Khushi Bhatia at the to examine this space, from a social psychological and intergroup contact perspective.

The main aim of the project was to examine social media interactions among Indian users, from a social psychological perspective. The researchers wanted to understand how social identity and group norms were shaping online conversations, and if that was transforming how and what we feel about ‘others’ (other group members, who identified with a different religion, gender, region, language, or nationality).
A mixed-method project was designed to address multiple aspects of social media interactions. Firstly, online surveys were conducted to note individuals’ self-reports and observations about their interactions across gender and religion on major social media platforms. Secondly, a qualitative discourse analysis of posts and comments on public Facebook forums that featured conversations around feminism was performed. This was to further understand how gender norms were reflected in these conversations, especially in the usage of common online terms like pseudo-feminism, INCELS, Manosphere, etc. Lastly, through multiple experiments, researchers at 51��� measured how the valence (negative/neutral/positive) of online posts from members of other groups, and the degree to which an individual identified with their own group, would predict attitudes towards other groups.

From the qualitative study, it was discovered that speakers conflicted over the discourse of feminism in various ways, by using traditional as well as novel terms that refer to descriptive meanings of gender categories. These included new discourses within feminism (pseudo feminism, choice feminism.) and men’s rights (Incels, MGTOW). Flaming (the use of hateful and aggressive language) was also prominent, specifically in conversations around sex and sexual choice. Here, the threat to ingroup identity was met with reactive aggression. Lastly, interactions highlighted several challenges to established meanings of feminism, by pointing towards intersectional identities.

Through comprehensive experiments, researchers at 51��� were able to capture how group categorization affected attitudes, where lower ingroup-outgroup* differentiation produced the most positive attitudes. Yet, this was different when we looked at historically segregated group identities (North Indian/ South Indian), where regional identity significantly influenced how the perception of positive vs negative online posts affected outgroup attitudes. Emotions like empathy also mediated the relationship between message valence and intergroup attitudes.

This is one of the first social psychological investigations into CMC in the Indian context, and one of the few studies overall to look at mediated social media interactions, that is, via asynchronous posts and comments. The findings not only add to and diversify work on CMC and intergroup relations but also highlight how existing social identities, history, and political realities interact with words and messages to change social dynamics.

It is anticipated that this research will contribute to our limited understanding of technology and social life by aiding informed policy around cyber safety that leverages positive contact and reduces the adverse consequences of negative experiences which could fuel further conflict and violence.

(Edited by Dr Yukti Arora and Ms Saman Waheed)

Reference Article: , Front. Psychol., Sec. Gender, Sex, and Sexualities, June 2022 | Volume 13 | Article 855947

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Webinar – Why Study Psychology at Ashoka? | Register now!

51��� invites you to a webinar on Why Study Psychology at Ashoka? on 8th December at 6 PM.

In this webinar, we will cover:-

• What’s unique about Ashoka’s Psychology programme?
• Classroom environment
• Choices available to students to design their own course
• Faculty and interdisciplinary pedagogy
• Career opportunities and higher studies after a Psychology major

Speaker:
Avantika Bhatia
Assistant Professor of Psychology,
51���
Ph.D. University of Maryland

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Law and Leviathan: Redeeming the Administrative State | Behaviourally Speaking

Overview

Nations across the world are witnessing an unprecedented degree of change in various spheres. From social to political and also cultural and behavioural. The relationship between the state and the citizen, determines how these changes affect the core fabric of democratic institutions. In a move towards advancing welfare, the role of the public office has far reaching consequences on how change happens, including the citizen’s behaviour under this social contract in their relationship to the institutions of the state. However, there are several questions and challenges surrounding modern day public law, such as those of accountability, legitimacy of office, limitations of power or even that of the ‘deep state’.  

Modern day public office faces several of these complex questions frequently, which warrants the question: How can the confidence in it be restored and is there scope for redemption? 

 These questions are explored and answered by Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule, legal luminaries and administrative law’s foremost thinkers, in their upcoming book, “Law and Leviathan: Redeeming the Administrative State”. In this book and their previous works, they describe how public law has since evolved to embody from a variety of doctrines a ‘sense of morality’ which not only informs it, but also becomes a part of its core principles reflective of the ‘the rule of law’ and ‘morality’. By dealing with complex questions, through an elegantly devised framework of principles on themes of transparency, retroactivity, simplification of rules, they answer questions which are often posed by critics of the administrative state with a simple set of guiding principles.

  The webinar would build around the following themes,

• The nature and role of morality in conducting public office
• A framework of principles guiding decision-making for officials in public office
• Adapting administrators to modern challenges faced by public administrators
• Building trust of citizens in governmental institutions
• Role of institutions in driving social and behavioural change through rules and laws for welfare 

About Behaviourally Speaking

‘Behaviourally Speaking’ is a speaker series where we invite eminent and distinguished personalities. It is a discussion series where leaders from across disciplines and fields come together to discuss ideas intersecting across domains and on the frontiers of the knowledge horizon.  

Webinar Speakers 

Dr. Rajiv Kumar

Dr. Rajiv Kumar took over as Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, in the rank and status of a Cabinet Minister, on 1 September 2017. He also serves as the Chancellor of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune. He has wide experience of having worked in government, academia, industry as well as in multilateral institutions. He was a professor at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi and worked with the Asian Development Bank, Manila for 10 years. His earlier stint in Government of India (1989-1994) was initially with the Ministry of Industry and subsequently in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, as Economic Adviser (1991-1994). He also served as an independent director on the Central Board of RBI and SBI. Dr. Kumar has a Ph.D. in Economics from Lucknow University and a D. Phil. From Oxford University. 

Prof. Cass Sunstein

Cass R. Sunstein is currently the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard. He is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School. In 2018, he received the Holberg Prize from the government of Norway, sometimes described as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for law and the humanities. In 2020, the World Health Organization appointed him as Chair of its technical advisory group on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health. From 2009 to 2012, he was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and after that, he served on the President's Review Board on Intelligence and Communications Technologies and on the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Board.

Mr. Sunstein has testified before congressional committees on many subjects, and he has advised officials at the United Nations, the European Commission, the World Bank, and many nations on issues of law and public policy. He serves as an adviser to the Behavioural Insights Team in the United Kingdom. Mr. Sunstein is author of hundreds of articles and dozens of books, including Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (with Richard H. Thaler, 2008), Simpler: The Future of Government (2013), The Ethics of Influence (2015), #Republic (2017), Impeachment: A Citizen's Guide (2017), The Cost-Benefit Revolution (2018), On Freedom (2019), Conformity (2019), How Change Happens (2019), and the upcoming Too Much Information (2020) and Law and Leviathan (2020). He is now working on a variety of projects involving the regulatory state, "sludge" (defined to include paperwork and similar burdens), fake news, and freedom of speech. 

Dr. Pavan Mamidi

Dr. Pavan Mamidi is the Director of the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC), 51���. Pavan is interested in investigating social norms, trust, prosocial behavior and behavioral ethics using lab and lab-in-the-field experiments. He has also taught policy programs for senior government officers, including the IPS at the National Police Academy and IAS at LBSNAA in Mussoorie. He has held positions at IIM Bangalore, MIT (Sloan), the University of Michigan Law School, and Harvard Law School where he is an affiliated faculty at the Center on the Legal Profession. Pavan has an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and a Doctorate (D.Phil) in Sociology from the University of Oxford. 

About Centre for Social and Behaviour Change

Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC), 51��� is set up by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The vision of the Centre is to establish an institution in India that is globally reputed for thought leadership and excellence in impactful behaviour change interventions for poor and marginalised populations. The Centre works in the areas of nutrition, sanitation, maternal health, family planning, financial services and privacy. The Centre executes this vision through a mix of (i) behaviour change programmes, with both govt. and NGO’s, (ii) foundational research to improve the field’s understanding of poor and marginalized communities, the channels to reach them and the content to engage them and, (iii) capability building – bringing latest advances in behavioural science, design thinking, data science and implementation science to design sharper interventions. More information can be accessed on, www.csbc.org.in.  

Webinar Flow and Schedule

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Combat with the Self | Beyond the Classroom Series

In our eighth seminar of Beyond the Classroom, Prof. Khan will bring alive a thousand years of Islamic mysticism through poetry in his talk "Islamic Poetry: Combat with the Self".  Religious traditions, and their practitioners, are often viewed as rigid and inflexible. However, the literary and poetic traditions of Islam tell a different story. Using poetry from Arabic, Persian and Urdu sources, Prof. Ali Khan Mahmudabad will chart a thousand-year journey of devout Muslims across cultures and languages using poetry as a way to engage with, and even question religious philosophy, tradition, and orthodox practice. 

Speaker Bio: 

Prof. Khan earned his Ph.D. from the Univesity of Cambridge in History. He recently published his first book, Poetry of Belonging: Muslim Imaginings of India 1850-1950.  His interests have focused on matters of religious identity, democracy, culture, politics, and security in both South Asia and West Asia. He writes regularly for various publications in English and also writes a column called Sadā-e Dil, for the Urdu daily, Inqilab.  

Please submit any questions to: btc@ashoka.edu.in 

Time: 8:30-9:30 pm | Date: April 29, 2020 | Day: Wednesday 

Check YouTube for live streaming options.   

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How we think: from the brain to behaviour | Beyond the classroom seriespsy

To enable knowledge to go the distance in this time of social distancing, 51��� is opening its doors to the world with a series of live and interactive virtual seminars. Called ‘Beyond the Classroom’, the series will be taught by our stellar humanities and science faculty, and explore a universe of interesting ideas spanning a range of subjects such as Philosophy, Biology, Literature, History, and Physics among others.

 The seminars will be live every Wednesday and Saturday, from 8:30 to 9:30 pm IST, and each seminar will explore a new topic from an introductory perspective. Participants can listen to the seminars live as well as interact with the faculty members online, for free. This Saturday on April 11, 2020, Prof. Bittu Kaveri Rajaraman will address the question 'How we think: from the brain to behaviour'. 

Join 51���’s family of learners to explore timeless questions and enrich your mind with ideas for life. 

About Seminar: 'How we think: from the brain to behaviour'Everything we think, feel and do is generated by that mysterious bulge in our head called the brain. Yet neuroscience, the study of our intricate nervous system, feels off-limits to most people. Join Bittu to explore how humans think about problems through the brain and behaviour patterns of a range of animals, from looking at communication in insects to economic and mathematical decisions made by fish and dogs! 

You will also have the opportunity to participate in a citizen science project on your local neighborhood dog, with other students working from home during COVID-19. 

Speaker:

Prof. Bittu Kaveri Rajaraman is an Associate Professor of Biology and Psychology at 51���. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in neuroscience. Prior to joining Ashoka, he was a DST-INSPIRE faculty at the Central University of Hyderabad. He has also been a DST-Dr. D. S. Kothari postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, where he studied the evolution of neural and behavioural systems of communication among Orthopteran insects in response to ecological constraints. 

Please submit any questions to btc@ashoka.edu.in. 

Time: 8:30-9:30 pm | Date: April 11, 2020 | Day: Saturday 

Check  for live streaming options!

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