Mícheál De Barra
Biographic Data
| ID | 781472 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mícheál De Barra |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mícheál |
| FAMILY NAME | De Barra |
| SIGNATURE | DE BARRA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Brunel University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4455-6214 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 18 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
God, witchcraft, and beliefs about illness in Mauritius
Supplemental material is available online at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2153599X.2024.2363748#supplemental-material-section
Public-health communication should be more transparent
Disgust sensitivity relates to attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women across 31 nations
Previous work has reported a relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice toward various social groups, including gay men and lesbian women. It is currently unknown whether this association is present across cultures, or specific to North America. Analyses of survey data from adult heterosexuals ( N = 11,200) from 31 countries showed a small relation between pathogen disgust sensitivity (an individual-difference measure of pathog…
Broad Medical Uncertainty and the ethical obligation for openness
This paper argues that there exists a collective epistemic state of ‘Broad Medical Uncertainty’ (BMU) regarding the effectiveness of many medical interventions. We outline the features of BMU, and describe some of the main contributing factors. These include flaws in medical research methodologies, bias in publication practices, financial and other conflicts of interest, and features of how evidence is translated into practice. These result in a …
Understanding infection prevention behaviour in maternity wards
Observations and interviews suggest improvements in the ergonomic design of delivery rooms, including convenient availability of sinks, soap, hand gel, hand towels and gloves, may be a low-cost way to reduce the infection burden from poor hand hygiene
Behavioural Determinants of Hand Washing and Glove Recontamination before Aseptic Procedures at Birth
Recent research calls for distinguishing whether the failure to comply with World Health Organisation hand hygiene guidelines is driven by omitting to rub/wash hands, or subsequently recontamination of clean hands or gloves prior to a procedure. This study examined the determinants of these two behaviours. Across the 10 highest-volume labour wards in Zanzibar, we observed 103 birth attendants across 779 hand hygiene opportunities before aseptic p…
Aversive medical treatments signal a need for support
Asymmetries in punishment propensity may drive the civilizing process
Reporting bias inflates the reputation of medical treatments
People with good treatment outcomes are more inclined to share information about their treatment, which distorts the information available to others. People who rely on word of mouth reputation, electronic or real life, are likely to develop unduly positive expectations
Parasite stress and pathogen avoidance relate to distinct dimensions of political ideology across 30 nations
Significance Pathogens, and antipathogen behavioral strategies, affect myriad aspects of human behavior. Recent findings suggest that antipathogen strategies relate to political attitudes, with more ideologically conservative individuals reporting more disgust toward pathogen cues, and with higher parasite stress nations being, on average, more conservative. However, no research has yet adjudicated between two theoretical accounts proposed to exp…
Cross-Cultural Differences in Emotional Selection on Transmission of Information
Research on cultural transmission among Americans has established a bias for transmitting stories that have disgusting elements (such as exposure to rats and maggots). Conceived of as a cultural evolutionary force, this phenomenon is one type of emotional selection. In a series of online studies with Americans and Indians we investigate whether there are cultural differences in emotional selection, such that the transmission process favours diffe…
Illness in childhood predicts face preferences in adulthood
Disgust as an adaptive system for disease avoidance behaviour
Disgust is an evolved psychological system for protecting organisms from infection through disease avoidant behaviour. This ‘behavioural immune system’, present in a diverse array of species, exhibits universal features that orchestrate hygienic behaviour in response to cues of risk of contact with pathogens. However, disgust is also a dynamic adaptive system. Individuals show variation in pathogen avoidance associated with psychological traits l…
Male commuters in north and south England
The study confirmed the north-south differences in faecal contamination of hands without finding a clear cause for the trend. Faecal contamination of hands was associated with personal hygiene indicators suggesting that microbiological testing may contribute to evaluating hygiene promotion campaigns
Reporting bias inflates the reputation of medical treatments
People with good treatment outcomes are more inclined to share information about their treatment, which distorts the information available to others. People who rely on word of mouth reputation, electronic or real life, are likely to develop unduly positive expectations
Disgust sensitivity relates to attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women across 31 nations
Previous work has reported a relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice toward various social groups, including gay men and lesbian women. It is currently unknown whether this association is present across cultures, or specific to North America. Analyses of survey data from adult heterosexuals ( N = 11,200) from 31 countries showed a small relation between pathogen disgust sensitivity (an individual-difference measure of pathog…
Asymmetries in punishment propensity may drive the civilizing process
Broad Medical Uncertainty and the ethical obligation for openness
This paper argues that there exists a collective epistemic state of ‘Broad Medical Uncertainty’ (BMU) regarding the effectiveness of many medical interventions. We outline the features of BMU, and describe some of the main contributing factors. These include flaws in medical research methodologies, bias in publication practices, financial and other conflicts of interest, and features of how evidence is translated into practice. These result in a …
Disgust as an adaptive system for disease avoidance behaviour
Disgust is an evolved psychological system for protecting organisms from infection through disease avoidant behaviour. This ‘behavioural immune system’, present in a diverse array of species, exhibits universal features that orchestrate hygienic behaviour in response to cues of risk of contact with pathogens. However, disgust is also a dynamic adaptive system. Individuals show variation in pathogen avoidance associated with psychological traits l…
Male commuters in north and south England
The study confirmed the north-south differences in faecal contamination of hands without finding a clear cause for the trend. Faecal contamination of hands was associated with personal hygiene indicators suggesting that microbiological testing may contribute to evaluating hygiene promotion campaigns
Illness in childhood predicts face preferences in adulthood
Parasite stress and pathogen avoidance relate to distinct dimensions of political ideology across 30 nations
Significance Pathogens, and antipathogen behavioral strategies, affect myriad aspects of human behavior. Recent findings suggest that antipathogen strategies relate to political attitudes, with more ideologically conservative individuals reporting more disgust toward pathogen cues, and with higher parasite stress nations being, on average, more conservative. However, no research has yet adjudicated between two theoretical accounts proposed to exp…
Cross-Cultural Differences in Emotional Selection on Transmission of Information
Research on cultural transmission among Americans has established a bias for transmitting stories that have disgusting elements (such as exposure to rats and maggots). Conceived of as a cultural evolutionary force, this phenomenon is one type of emotional selection. In a series of online studies with Americans and Indians we investigate whether there are cultural differences in emotional selection, such that the transmission process favours diffe…
Reporting bias inflates the reputation of medical treatments
People with good treatment outcomes are more inclined to share information about their treatment, which distorts the information available to others. People who rely on word of mouth reputation, electronic or real life, are likely to develop unduly positive expectations
Asymmetries in punishment propensity may drive the civilizing process
Aversive medical treatments signal a need for support
Behavioural Determinants of Hand Washing and Glove Recontamination before Aseptic Procedures at Birth
Recent research calls for distinguishing whether the failure to comply with World Health Organisation hand hygiene guidelines is driven by omitting to rub/wash hands, or subsequently recontamination of clean hands or gloves prior to a procedure. This study examined the determinants of these two behaviours. Across the 10 highest-volume labour wards in Zanzibar, we observed 103 birth attendants across 779 hand hygiene opportunities before aseptic p…
Understanding infection prevention behaviour in maternity wards
Observations and interviews suggest improvements in the ergonomic design of delivery rooms, including convenient availability of sinks, soap, hand gel, hand towels and gloves, may be a low-cost way to reduce the infection burden from poor hand hygiene
Disgust sensitivity relates to attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women across 31 nations
Previous work has reported a relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice toward various social groups, including gay men and lesbian women. It is currently unknown whether this association is present across cultures, or specific to North America. Analyses of survey data from adult heterosexuals ( N = 11,200) from 31 countries showed a small relation between pathogen disgust sensitivity (an individual-difference measure of pathog…
Broad Medical Uncertainty and the ethical obligation for openness
This paper argues that there exists a collective epistemic state of ‘Broad Medical Uncertainty’ (BMU) regarding the effectiveness of many medical interventions. We outline the features of BMU, and describe some of the main contributing factors. These include flaws in medical research methodologies, bias in publication practices, financial and other conflicts of interest, and features of how evidence is translated into practice. These result in a …
Public-health communication should be more transparent
God, witchcraft, and beliefs about illness in Mauritius
Supplemental material is available online at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2153599X.2024.2363748#supplemental-material-section
Psychology (10 works) · Medicine (7 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (7 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (4 works) · Environmental health (4 works) · Nursing (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Biology (3 works)