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Rémy Alexandre Furrer

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Boston, MA

rfurrer@mgh.harvard.edu

remy.furrer@virginia.edu

The media uses electoral maps to visualize the results of political elections. In the United States, red represents the Republican party and blue represents the Democratic party in a winner-takes-all election. This dichotomization provides a simple visual representation of election outcomes, but it conceals the margin of votes by which an election is won/lost. The present experiments distinguish the perceptual influence of categorical representation from the effect of conditioned color associations on perceived voting polarization. Dichotomous color mappings increase perceptions of polarization and decrease expectations of individual voters’ influence compared to continuous hue-lightness gradients, regardless of whether the hues are red/blue or a novel hue pairing. These findings offer practical implications for data visualization in electoral maps. Switching from dichotomous coloring to continuous gradations can help mitigate the polarizing effects of red/blue maps on voting estimates and increase perceived voting influence.

Read our paper published in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications

Public Attitudes Towards Polygenic Embryo Screening

Among US adults, what are the general attitudes, interests, and concerns regarding polygenic embryo screening (PES)?

In this survey study exploring public sentiment toward PES, we found high approval and interest among respondents despite high societal concerns. In a second sample, presenting concerns at survey onset (vs survey end) was associated with less public approval and more uncertainty but with only slightly higher disapproval.

With the recent commercial availability of unregulated PES, the combination of high approval and high concerns observed among respondents in this study suggests the need for informed dialogue and guidance, particularly in addressing the divide between the public and health care professionals.

Qualitative Research Findings from Interviews about Polygenic Embryo Screening: IVF Clinicians and Patient Perspectives

Clinicians and patients often held favorable views of screening embryos for physical or psychiatric conditions, though clinicians tended to temper their positive attitudes with specific caveats. Clinicians also expressed negative views about screening embryos for traits more frequently than patients, who generally held more positive views. Most clinicians were either unwilling to discuss or offer PES to patients or were willing to do so only under certain circumstances, while many patients expressed interest in PES. Both stakeholder groups envisioned multiple potential benefits or uses of PES and raised multiple potential, interrelated concerns about PES.

The Nurtured Genetics Hypothesis

Drawing on research from the field of Social Psychology (Primacy Bias, Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic, and Self-fulfilling Prophecy effects), we introduce the Nurtured Genetics Hypothesis along with its psychosocial implications. The hypothesis purports that selectively exposing an individual to a particular environment, based on polygenic scores may have a greater influence on the expression of their behavioral traits than their initial genetic predisposition for those traits. More specifically, parents presented with their child’s genetic predispositions are likely to form genetic expectancies (i.e., behavioral expectations derived from polygenic scores). We hypothesize that children and parents may not adequately update their genetic expectancies when faced with subsequent environmental information due to Primacy Bias and Anchoring effects. Subsequently, children (or parents) will likely seek to confirm or refute their anchored genetic expectancies, and in doing so, they will be exposed to environmental conditions that could either validate or invalidate the initial polygenic score estimates through genetic expectancies, but not actual genetics.

Curiosity and Uncertainty Resolution: Inflating the Perceived Utility of Genetic Information

We explore the psychological dynamics influencing the perceived value of genetic testing, emphasizing the distinction between "perceived utility" and "personal utility." We raise concerns about genetic companies' marketing strategies which can exploit individuals' curiosity and aversion to uncertainty. The desire to satisfy curiosity can drive individuals to seek genetic information, even when it lacks personal utility or may even lead to negative outcomes. This commentary calls for a deeper understanding of the psychological motives behind information-seeking behavior in the context of genetic testing, with implications for ethical practices in genomic communication.

Public Perceptions of Neurotechnologies Used to Target Mood, Memory, and Motor Symptoms

In the present study, we investigate public attitudes towards the use of four neurotechnologies (within-subjects conditions): deep brain stimulation (DBS), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), pills, and MRI-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) as potential treatments to a person experiencing either mood, memory, or motor symptoms (between-subjects conditions). US-based participants (N=1052; stratified to be nationally representative based on sex, race, age) were asked about their perceptions of risk, benefit, invasiveness, acceptability, perceived change to the person, and personal interest in using these neurotechnologies for symptom alleviation.

When left to their own devices, people could choose to enjoy their own thoughts. But recent work suggests they do not. When given the freedom, people do not spontaneously choose to think for pleasure, and when directed to do so, struggle to concentrate successfully. Moreover, people find it somewhat boring and much less enjoyable than other solitary activities. One reason for this is that people may not know how to think for pleasure. Specifically, they may not know what to think about to make this both a meaningful and pleasant experience. We tested this prediction in two preregistered studies, by providing specific examples of meaningful topics (Study 1) or instructing participants to think "meaningful" thoughts (Study 2). Although providing specific examples of meaningful topics boosted how meaningful and enjoyable people found thinking for pleasure (Study 1), asking people to think "meaningful" thoughts (as compared with pleasurable ones) did not, because some of the meaningful topics people thought about were negative (Study 2). In order for thinking for pleasure to be pleasurable, people need to focus on topics that are both meaningful and positive.

©2021 by Rémy Furrer.

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