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Changing the Course of AIDS is an in-depth evaluation of a new and exciting way to create the kind of much-needed behavioral change that could affect the course of the global health crisis of HIV/AIDS. This case study from the South African HIV/AIDS epidemic demonstrates that regular workers serving as peer educators can be as—or even more—effective agents of behavioral change than experts who lecture about the facts and so-called appropriate health care behavior. After spending six years researching the response of large South African companies to the epidemic that is decimating their workforce as well as South African communities, David Dickinson describes the promise of this grassroots intervention—workers educating one another in the workplace and community—and the limitations of traditional top-down strategies. Dickinson's book takes us right into the South African workplace to show how effective and yet enormously complex peer education really is. We see what it means when workers directly tackle the kinds of sexual, gender, religious, ethnic, and broader social and political taboos that make behavior change so difficult, particularly when that behavior involves sex and sexuality. Dickinson's findings show that people who are not officially health care experts or even health care workers can be skilled and effective educators. In this book we see why peer education has so much to offer societies grappling with the HIV/AIDS epidemic and why those interested in changing behaviors to ameliorate other health problems like obesity, alcoholism, and substance abuse have so much to learn from the South African example.

ABSTRACT
Across the globe, the increasing number of precarious workers has (re)created bifurcated labour markets. This paper looks at casual worker mobilisation in the South African Post Office. Attention is paid to one group of workers, the Mabarete, and the way they projected power in a classification struggle pursued though violence and intimidation, rather than moral or symbolic power. Their struggle was spatially and morally sculpted by the communities in which they lived, but was not social movement unionism. Why the Mabarete transformed – from the successful organisation structure that had evolved to registered union – is addressed through two alternative models of industrial engagement: the use of official, legal frameworks in which conflict is institutionalised and that of subaltern worker rebellions in which extra-legal, covert forms of power are mobilised. Insurgent unionism, it is argued, can be understood as the combination of, or oscillation between, these two alternatives.

Changing the Course of AIDS is an in-depth evaluation of a new and exciting way to create the kind of much-needed behavioral change that could affect the course of the global health crisis of HIV/AIDS. This case study from the South African HIV/AIDS epidemic demonstrates that regular workers serving as peer educators can be as—or even more—effective agents of behavioral change than experts who lecture about the facts and so-called appropriate health care behavior. After spending six years researching the response of large South African companies to the epidemic that is decimating their workforce as well as South African communities, David Dickinson describes the promise of this grassroots intervention—workers educating one another in the workplace and community—and the limitations of traditional top-down strategies. Dickinson's book takes us right into the South African workplace to show how effective and yet enormously complex peer education really is. We see what it means when workers directly tackle the kinds of sexual, gender, religious, ethnic, and broader social and political taboos that make behavior change so difficult, particularly when that behavior involves sex and sexuality. Dickinson's findings show that people who are not officially health care experts or even health care workers can be skilled and effective educators. In this book we see why peer education has so much to offer societies grappling with the HIV/AIDS epidemic and why those interested in changing behaviors to ameliorate other health problems like obesity, alcoholism, and substance abuse have so much to learn from the South African example.

Part I: ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS OF AIDS. - Chapter 1: More than one kind of AIDS 3. - Chapter 2: Hunting myths, finding theories 23. - Chapter 3: Managing a mosaic of beliefs 52. - Chapter 4: AIDS backchat 71. - Part II: CONSTRUCTING AIDS IN THE KASI. - Chapter 5: The kasi 91. - Chapter 6: The precarious life of Bafana Radebe 121. - Chapter 7: The certainties of Paseka Radebe 168. - Chapter 8: The struggles of Grace Dlamini 193. - Chapter 9: The salvation of Neo Pakwe 241. - Part III: DENIAL ABOVE, DISSENT BELOW. - Chapter 10: An elite dispute 283. - Chapter 11: Agency from below 292

The confirmation bias, unlike other decision biases, has been shown both empirically and in theory to be enhanced with deliberation. This suggests that limited attention, reduced deliberation, or limited available cognitive resources may moderate this bias. We aimed to test this hypothesis using a validated confirmation bias task in conjunction with a protocol that randomly assigned individuals to one week of at-home sleep restriction (SR) or well-rested (WR) sleep levels. We also used a measure of cognitive reflection as an additional proxy for deliberation in our analysis. We tested the hypotheses that the confirmation bias would be stronger for WR participants and those higher in cognitive reflection on a sample of 197 young adults. Our results replicated previous findings, and both males and females separately displayed the confirmation bias. Regarding our deliberation hypotheses, the confirmation bias results were most precisely estimated for those having thought relatively more about the issue of gun control. Additionally, for the subset of individuals having thought relatively more about gun control, we found evidence that the confirmation bias was stronger for those higher in cognitive reflection and, somewhat less robustly, for those participants who were (objectively) well-rested.

The confirmation bias, unlike other decision biases, has been shown both empirically and in theory to be enhanced with deliberation. This suggests that limited attention, reduced deliberation, or limited available cognitive resources may moderate this bias. We aimed to test this hypothesis using a validated confirmation bias task in conjunction with a protocol that randomly assigned individuals to one week of at-home sleep restriction (SR) or well-rested (WR) sleep levels. We also used a measure of cognitive reflection as an additional proxy for deliberation in our analysis. We tested the hypotheses that the confirmation bias would be stronger for WR participants and those higher in cognitive reflection on a sample of 197 young adults. Our results replicated previous findings, and both males and females separately displayed the confirmation bias. Regarding our deliberation hypotheses, the confirmation bias results were most precisely estimated for those having thought relatively more about the issue of gun control. Additionally, for the subset of individuals having thought relatively more about gun control, we found evidence that the confirmation bias was stronger for those higher in cognitive reflection and, somewhat less robustly, for those participants who were (objectively) well-rested.

Existing research has documented the confirmation bias in the domain of politics, but relatively little research has examined the confirmation bias in religion. I developed a novel task in the religious domain and compare confirmation bias evidence to that observed in the political domain. Using a preregistered data collection and analysis plan, I examined data from n=402 participants prescreened by political and religious beliefs. Participants were administered the online task that examined selective information exposure and perceived strength of arguments that are incongruent to one's own beliefs regarding "gun control" and the "existence of God". Results documented a confirmation bias in both information exposure and perceived argument strength. I also examined the hypothesis that the confirmation bias is stronger in situations where more thought or deliberation is brought to bear on the task. The evidence here depends on the measure of deliberation used, but generally supports this hypothesis. For example, the data showed that individuals who have thought a lot about the topic at hand (gun control and the existence of God) displayed a stronger confirmation bias in perceived argument strength than those having thought less about the issue. This paper contributes by offering new evidence documenting the confirmation bias directly compared across domains. And, the findings regarding how deliberation may worsen the bias are in line with previous research suggesting the confirmation bias may be unlike other decision biases — this bias may thrive when the decision maker is more is more deliberative or thoughtful.