IN BRIEF


HEALTHIER EATING Making healthy food choices is not easy in an environment in which high calorie foods are easily available and highly visible. In relation to eating behaviour, people look to others as a guide for how much to eat and even food selection. Researchers aim to explore whether one way of encouraging healthier eating is to provide people with information on healthy eating habits of others. ESRC grant number ES/K002678/1


CARBON INNOVATION In a series of six seminars, experts will discuss the challenges and major choices for environmental innovation in the next four decades as the UK undergoes a green transformation. Seminars will address technological and organisational environmental innovation, the central role of government policies and public attitudes towards environmental matters, as well as the role of the environmental sector’s SME firms in driving technology. ESRC grant number ES/L000628/1


ADMIN DATA SERVICE Access to administrative data for research is a positive public good. Using this data, researchers can evaluate public policies on everything from educational reforms to health service innovations. The new Administrative Data Service (ADS) is part of the Administrative Data Research network (ADRN) which also includes four new innovative administrative data research centres.


ESRC grant number ES/L007452/1 6 SOCIETY NOW SUMMER 2011 SPRING 2014


Ethnicity in politics online


A NEW ONLINE data centre offers easy access to good quality information about ethnic minorities’ political integration, participation and attitudes. Designed by researchers from the University of Manchester, the website www.ethnicpolitics.org presents the main findings of the Ethnic Minorities British Election Study (EMBES) as well as other relevant data and expert opinions in an accessible, format. EMBES was conducted after the 2010 General


Election to provide the largest and most up-to-date survey of British ethnic minorities’ political attitudes and behaviour ever conducted. n


i Contact Dr Maria Sobolewska,


University of Manchester Email maria.Sobolewska@manchester.ac.uk Telephone 0161 275 4889 ESRC Grant Number ES/J010545/1


Child conduct and callousness


CONDUCT PROBLEMS IN children, including cruelty and physical aggression, represent a major societal problem. About five per cent of children in the UK qualify for a diagnosis of conduct problems. Some, but not all of these children also lack empathy and can appear ‘callous’ In a recent study, researchers aimed to discover more about the underlying neurocognitive vulnerabilities associated with conduct problems and callous traits. The aim, says researcher Professor Essi Viding, is to give direction for more individualised treatment interventions. In this study, researchers from University College London scanned children’s brains by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) to see how those with conduct problems differ in their response to viewing images of others in pain. The brain images showed that, relative to controls, children with conduct problems show reduced responses to others’ pain specifically in regions of the brain known to play a role


in empathy. The brain responses were most reduced for children with conduct problems and callous traits. This pattern of reduced brain activity upon witnessing pain may serve as a neurobiological risk factor for later adult psychopathy, researchers state. “But it’s important,” Professor


Viding says, “to view these findings as an indicator of early vulnerability, rather than biological destiny. We know that children can be very responsive to interventions, and the challenge is to make those interventions better.” The power of neuroscience research is not, she stresses, to ‘pick out the psychopath’ but to help fine-tune or tailor interventions to suit the specific profile of atypical processing that characterises a child with conduct problems and callous traits. n


i Contact Professor Essi Viding,


University College London Email e.viding@ucl.ac.uk Telephone 0207 679 5874 ESRC Grant Number RES-062-23-2202


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