• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Monday, June 5, 2023
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

New pilot study enhances understanding of situational fear

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
April 27, 2023
in Science News
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Research from experts at City, University of London’s Department of Sociology and Criminology suggests that although women students feel largely safe while on campus,universities have a responsibility that extends beyond campus and encompasses surrounding areas and commuter routes into and out of study areas.

Screenshot of City Life chatbot app

Credit: Dr Michael Saker, City, University of London

Research from experts at City, University of London’s Department of Sociology and Criminology suggests that although women students feel largely safe while on campus,universities have a responsibility that extends beyond campus and encompasses surrounding areas and commuter routes into and out of study areas.

The research, captured the lived experiences of 24 women students at City across a two-week period using a chatbot app, City Life, which was developed for the purposes of the study. The project concluded with a series of semi-structured interviews.

City Life recorded lived experiences both during and outside of university contact hours with the aim of gaining a more situated understanding of fear. Students were given the opportunity to chart their emotions while travelling in and out of university, moving around campus and socialising.

Key findings from the study include:

  • For women students, the experience of fear is closely associated with mobility on campus (in effect, moving between buildings). This fear was more pronounced at darker times of day and when there was little company.
  • Women students experienced more fear while moving through the wider environment outside of campus. Accordingly, non-campus universities are significant here, as students have greater distances to travel between buildings and locations, as well as more complex public transport routes. Public transport and the sharing of enclosed spaces was also a major factor in students’ encountering of fear.
  • Students frequently carry expensive equipment, including laptops, phones and tablets on their person. This generally exacerbated the fear felt by some participants of the study when travelling to and from university.
  • City Life made participants more cognisant of their surroundings and how they experienced these surroundings – a sense one participant described as “safety in knowledge”.

The study was led by Dr Michael Saker, Senior Lecturer in Digital Sociology and Societal Change with Dan Mercea, Professor of Digital and Social Change and Dr Carrie-Anne Myers, Reader in Criminology at City.

Having successfully gathered data and established the feasibility of the chatbot app, the researchers now plan to build a more sophisticated, upscaled system with the aim of rolling out to other institutions and a far wider pool of students.

Dr Saker said he hoped the feasibility of the study would help upscale the operation and further develop City Life to better comprehend fear of crime, and that this comprehension could be parlayed into more suitable policy.  

“High-profile incidents in the news have highlighted the fear many women and women students encounter in their everyday lives,” he said.

“Previous research indeed tells us that it prompts them to avoid certain areas and activities which directly and indirectly evoking emotions of fear – such as forgoing evening classes and social activities in favour of travelling home during sociable or lighter hours.

“Our study shows the feasibility of exploring situations of fear using technology such as an app. The next step is to develop our system further and grow it into a more enhanced tool for wider engagement and awareness.”

Professor Mercea commented that the report could help universities understand and mitigate the triggers of fear to improve overall student experience.

“Students generally carry expensive possessions – laptops, tablets, phones – on their person, while being focused within an area of space. Carrying such items around can evoke a level of fear in itself.

“Although our pilot shows that City’s campus is widely regarded as a safe place, universities must recognise the external triggers in their institutional designs and safeguarding initiatives. Doing so will help them provide a more inclusive experience where students can take part in extracurricular activities without the fear of experiencing crime.”

Dr Myers said a study of this kind was highly topical to current trends in higher education.

“The post-Covid environment means students are returning to campus, while a cost of living crisis is forcing many to commute longer distances to their university.

“This increases the likelihood of encountering ‘off-campus’ fear, such as on train journeys and walking to and from terminals.

“Providing students with the means to report feelings of fear – as our chatbot app did – creates the opportunity for institutions and local authorities to form a situated understanding of what students see as safer environments.”

About the study

City Life is a chatbot app developed by the research team using the FlowXO chatbot software, and distributed using Telegram.

Twenty-four participants used the app over a two-week period, completing eight tasks that pertained to university life and their relationships with the emotion of fear. Participants were women aged between 18 and 40, with a mean age of 25.

ENDS



Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Locating Fear: A pilot study examining the use of a chatbot app to surface embodied experiences of fear in situ.

Article Publication Date

1-Apr-2023

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Dr. Alex Herrera

Phase 3 SWOG Cancer Research Network trial, led by a City of Hope researcher, demonstrates one-year progression-free survival in 94% of patients with Stage 3 or 4 classic Hodgkin lymphoma who received a checkpoint inhibitor combined with chemotherapy

June 4, 2023
Ana Oaknin, Principal Investigator of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology’s (VHIO) Gynecological Malignancies Group

The promise of novel FolRα-targeting antibody drug conjugate in recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer

June 3, 2023

Carbon-based stimuli-responsive nanomaterials: classification and application

June 3, 2023

ASCO: Targeted therapy induces responses in HER2-amplified biliary tract cancer

June 3, 2023

POPULAR NEWS

  • plants

    Plants remove cancer causing toxins from air

    40 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • Element creation in the lab deepens understanding of surface explosions on neutron stars

    36 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • Deep sea surveys detect over five thousand new species in future mining hotspot

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • How life and geology worked together to forge Earth’s nutrient rich crust

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Phase 3 SWOG Cancer Research Network trial, led by a City of Hope researcher, demonstrates one-year progression-free survival in 94% of patients with Stage 3 or 4 classic Hodgkin lymphoma who received a checkpoint inhibitor combined with chemotherapy

The promise of novel FolRα-targeting antibody drug conjugate in recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer

Carbon-based stimuli-responsive nanomaterials: classification and application

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 50 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In