Browsing by Author "Us, Elif Oyku"

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Digital Gaming Trends of Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A Sample from Turkey
(2023) Secer, Ilmiye; Us, Elif Oyku
Background Although the gaming habits of children, adolescents, and younger adults have been investigated in Turkey there has been less emphasis on the gaming patterns of middle-aged and older adults. The current study therefore investigated middle-aged and older adults' digital gaming habits, the aspects of digital games that they believe are enjoyable and any perceived psychological and cognitive advantages. Methods Of the 177 middle-aged and older adults aged between 55 and 85 years (M = 62) living in Turkey who partook in the study, data from 140 participants were analyzed. Participants completed the 'Demographic Information Form' and Engagement with Digital Games Questionnaire' via a Qualtrics link that was distributed on social media platforms and using the convenience and snowball sampling technique. Results Findings of this study showed that out of the 57 digital game players, the majority (N = 34) reported to play puzzle games such as Candy Crush. Moreover, gamers indicated that they believed digital games had psychological and cognitive benefits. Conclusion Overall, the findings of the current study revealed that middle-aged and older adults enjoy playing digital games for fun, stress relief, and as a mental exercise regime.
Do changes in threat salience predict the moral content of sermons? The case of Friday Khutbas in Turkey
(2019) Alper, Sinan; Bayrak, Fatih; Us, Elif Oyku; Yilmaz, Onurcan; 0000-0002-6671-2129; 0000-0001-6350-6234; AAJ-6747-2020
We analyzed the content of "Friday Khutbas" delivered in Turkish mosques between January 2001 and December 2018 to test the prediction of moral foundations theory (MFT) literature that threat salience would lead to an increased endorsement of binding moral foundations. As societal-level indicators of threat, we examined (a) historical data on the proportion of terrorism-related news published in a Turkish newspaper, (b) the geopolitical risk score of Turkey as measured by Geopolitical Risk Index, and (c) Google Trends data on the search frequency of words "terror", "terrorism", or "terrorist". To measure the endorsement of moral foundations, we built a Turkish Moral Foundations Dictionary and counted the relative frequency of morality-related words in the khutbas delivered in Istanbul, Turkey. Time series analyses showed that risk salience in a certain month was positively related to endorsement of the loyalty/betrayal foundation in that month's Friday Khutbas. There were mixed results for the other moral foundations.
The evil eye effect: vertical pupils are perceived as more threatening
(2019) Alper, Sinan; Us, Elif Oyku; Tasman, Dicle Rojda; 0000-0002-6671-2129; 30486750; AAJ-6747-2020
Popular culture has many examples of evil characters having vertically pupilled eyes. Humans have a long evolutionary history of rivalry with snakes and their visual systems were evolved to rapidly detect snakes and snake-related cues. Considering such evolutionary background, we hypothesised that humans would perceive vertical pupils, which are characteristics of ambush predators including some of the snakes, as threatening. In seven studies (aggregate N = 1458) conducted on samples from American and Turkish samples, we found that vertical pupils are perceived as more threatening on both explicit (Study 1) and implicit level (Studies 2-7) and they are associated with physical, rather than social, threat (Study 4). Findings provided partial support regarding our hypothesis about the relevance of snake detection processes: Snake phobia, and not spider phobia, was found to be related to perceiving vertical pupils as threatening (Study 5), however an experimental manipulation of saliency of snakes rendered no significant effect (Study 6) and a comparison of fears of snakes, alligators, and cats did not support our prediction (Study 7). We discuss the potential implications and limitations of these novel findings.
The role of intentionality in perceiving terrorism as a more important problem than traffic accidents
(2021) Alper, Sinan; Us, Elif Oyku; 0000-0002-6671-2129; AAJ-6747-2020
We hypothesized that perceived intentionality is one of the factors explaining why terrorism is perceived to be a more important problem than traffic accidents. In Study 1, we conducted an experiment on a large Turkish sample (N = 385) and found that participants suggested allocating significantly more budget to prevent terror-related deaths, as compared to deaths caused by traffic accidents, and this difference was fully mediated by perceived intentionality. In Study 2, which was pre-registered, we hypothesized that American participants (N = 450) would similarly suggest allocating more budget to prevent deaths caused by terrorist incidents, as compared to traffic accidents, but this difference would disappear when traffic accidents are portrayed as involving a perpetrator consciously disregarding the safety of others. Our hypothesis was partially supported. We discuss the potential implications for policy-makers and social psychological research.