Cultural differences in conceptual representation of "Privacy": A comparison between Iran and the United States

Cross-cultural perspectives on intelligent assistive technology in dementia care: comparing Israeli and German experts' attitudes

BACKGROUND

Despite the great benefits of intelligent assistive technology (IAT) for dementia care - for example, the enhanced safety and increased independence of people with dementia and their caregivers - its practical adoption is still limited. The social and ethical issues pertaining to IAT in dementia care, shaped by factors such as culture, may explain these limitations. However, most studies have focused on understanding these issues within one cultural setting only. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore and compare the attitudes of Israeli and German dementia experts toward IAT in dementia care, to contribute to a more cultural-comparative perspective.

METHODS

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 experts (15 Israelis and 20 Germans) in key roles in health and community services for people with dementia as well as in the fields of dementia and IAT (e.g., computer science, electrical/biomedical engineering, ethics, nursing, and gerontology). Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data.

FINDINGS

Israeli and German experts identified the same social accelerators in the development and implementation of IAT in dementia care (i.e., changes in family structure and social digitization) and benefits of adopting IAT (e.g., enhancing the safety of people with dementia and increasing their independence). However, there were differences in inhibitor/risk assessments between the two groups. Namely, economic considerations and the cognitive capacity of people with dementia were identified by both groups as inhibitors, while Israeli experts additionally reported stigma and ageism. Whereas both groups agreed that IAT might reduce human connection, and that the technology is not yet reliable enough, German experts highlighted concerns regarding privacy; in contrast, Israeli experts prioritized safety over privacy.

CONCLUSIONS

Our research findings allow for the identification of relevant similarities but also important differences between German and Israeli experts' perspectives. As such, an important basis has been provided for a more in-depth discussion regarding where, why, and how culturally-sensitive technology development is needed.

Consensus Paper: Current Perspectives on Abstract Concepts and Future Research Directions

concepts are relevant to a wide range of disciplines, including cognitive science, linguistics, psychology, cognitive, social, and affective neuroscience, and philosophy. This consensus paper synthesizes the work and views of researchers in the field, discussing current perspectives on theoretical and methodological issues, and recommendations for future research. In this paper, we urge researchers to go beyond the traditional abstract-concrete dichotomy and consider the multiple dimensions that characterize concepts (e.g., sensorimotor experience, social interaction, conceptual metaphor), as well as the mediating influence of linguistic and cultural context on conceptual representations. We also promote the use of interactive methods to investigate both the comprehension and production of abstract concepts, while also focusing on individual differences in conceptual representations. Overall, we argue that abstract concepts should be studied in a more nuanced way that takes into account their complexity and diversity, which should permit us a fuller, more holistic understanding of abstract cognition.

Perceptions of Parental Privacy Invasion and Information Management among Chinese Adolescents: Comparing Between- and Within-Family Associations

The traditional Chinese conceptualization of family privacy is interdependent and hierarchically structured, but mounting evidence suggests that contemporary Chinese youth hold strong desires for individual privacy and respond defensively to perceived parental privacy invasions. The current research examined within-person associations among adolescents' perceptions of parental privacy invasion, secrecy, and disclosure to parents in the Chinese context. This study collected data from 289 Chinese youth (M_ageT1 = 13.57, SD = 0.63, 50.30% male) at six-month intervals over one year. Random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (RI-CLPM) showed that stronger perceptions of parental invasion predicted later within-person decreases in adolescents' disclosure and increases in secrecy. Disclosure and secrecy did not predict later perceptions of parental invasion at the within-person level. The findings suggest that Chinese youth manage privacy reactively and defensively when feelings of invasion occur, by decreasing disclosure and increasing secrecy. Stereotypes portraying Chinese youth as highly deferential to parents' demands for informational access might not be representative of adolescents in contemporary society.

A Literature Analysis of Consumer Privacy Protection in Augmented Reality Applications in Creative and Cultural Industries: A Text Mining Study

Digital reality technologies (such as AR, VR, and MR) have recently become a key component of promoting creative and cultural industries (CCIs) worldwide to transform static cultural heritage exhibits into more engaging, entertaining, and immersive experiences. These technologies present an exciting example of studying how consumers would respond to the potential invasion of privacy due to these technologies. This literature review study mainly focuses on one essential branch of CCIs: museums and their applications of digital reality technologies. Because many of these location-based AR applications by museums are inherently sensitive to users’ locational information, there is also a rising concern of the potential infringement of personal privacy (RQ1). A thorough examination of existing literature on how consumers respond to privacy concerns related to the museum’s AR applications will help uncover how scholars have approached and studied these crucial issues in the literature (RQ2). Unlike traditional literature review analyses, we employed a text mining of retrieved 715 studies articles from Business Source Complete and Engineering Village (E.I.) databases to answer our two research questions. Our study found that privacy and user(s) /visitor(s) has dramatically increased since 2017, echoing the rising concerns of other privacy-invasive technologies. Most notably, key phrases extracted from the literature corpus include “security and privacy,” “privacy and security,” “privacy risks,” “privacy concerns,” “privacy issues,” “user privacy,” “location privacy,” “privacy protection,” and “privacy preserving” that are most pertinent to the rapid implementation of AR technology in the museum sector. Discussions and implications are provided.

Shared Privacy Concerns of the Visually Impaired and Sighted Bystanders with Camera Based Assistive Technologies

Camera based assistive technologies can provide people with visual impairments (PVIs) visually derived information about people in their vicinity. Furthermore, the advent of smart glasses offers the possibility of not only analyzing visual information in front of the wearer, but also behind them through an extended field of view. Although such ‘visually available’ information can enhance one’s social interactions, the privacy and ethical implications for automated judgments about bystanders especially from the perspective of PVIs remains underexplored. To study the concerns of both bystanders and PVIs with such technologies, we conducted two online surveys with visually impaired participants as wearers (N=128) and sighted participants as bystanders (N=136). Although PVIs found some types of information to be improper or impolite (such as someone’s weight), our overarching finding is the shared ethical concern between PVIs and bystanders related to the fallibility of AI, where bystanders can be misrepresented (algorithmically) by the devices. These mischaracterizations can range from occasional, unexpected algorithmic errors (e.g., errors in facial recognition) to the questionable use of AI for determining subjective, social constructs (such as gender). Based on our findings, we discuss the design implications and directions for future work in the development of camera based assistive technologies while mitigating the ethical concerns of PVIs and bystanders.

I didn't want to remember memories of caring, but I can't help it": A qualitative study of the experiences of bereaved Iranian carers with elevated levels of prolonged grief symptoms

The lived experience of caring for people with cancer and the influence of culture on Iranian carers who have elevated levels of prolonged grief symptoms after the death has received little in-depth attention. Bereaved carers (N = 17) were interviewed. All showed high levels of prolonged grief symptoms. Thematic analysis resulted in four overarching themes: unfamiliarity with cancer, high involvement in carer's role, lack of processing events, and emptiness. The way that carers of cancer patients understand and cope with their caring role and their dominant cultural context can make their grieving process complex.

Culture as an effective frame of reference in clinical decision-making: A comparison of Iranian, American, and Canadian psychotherapists

The therapeutic communication between psychotherapist and client is highly dependent on their socio-cultural background. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of culture on decision-making style of psychotherapists in three dimensions of decision-making: expedience vs. realism, individualism vs. collectivism, and long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation. The sample of this study consisted of 144 psychotherapists (40 Iranians educated in Iran, 33 Iranians educated in the west, 36 Americans, and 35 Canadians). Each of the participants were presented with three scenario that involved clinical challenging situations. For each area of decision-making a statement was considered and the psychotherapist was requested to rate them based on importance in his/her clinical decision-making. Findings indicated that the groups differed significantly on all dimensions with few exceptions when American and Canadian psychotherapists were compared. The decision-making style of Iranian psychotherapists was more with expediency, collectivism and long-term orientation, while the decision-making style of American and Canadian psychotherapists was more with realism, individualism, and short-term orientation. According to the results of current study, socio-cultural background of psychotherapists, as a frame of reference, significantly influenced their clinical decision-making style.