Vice epistemology studies the qualities of individuals and collectives that undermine the creation, sharing, and storing of knowledge. There is no settled understanding of which epistemic vices exist at the collective level. Yet understanding which collective epistemic vices exist is important, both to facilitate research on the antecedents and effects of collective epistemic vice, and to advance philosophical discussions such as whether some collective epistemic vices are genuinely collective. I propose an empirical approach to identifying epistemic vices in corporations, analyzing a large dataset of online employee reviews. The approach has parallels to the methodology for identifying the big-five personality traits. It surfaces epistemic vices that are attributed to corporations by its own members and reduces the number of vices to the minimum required to describe differences between corporations. This approach yields a new taxonomy of epistemic vices for corporations. While two vices identified have close correlates in the existing literature, four others have not been identified at all or only in aspects. Two of these vices are ‘genuinely’ collective in the sense that they can only be attributed to collectives.The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11229-023-04133-2. Epistemic vices are qualities of individuals or collectives that undermine the creation, sharing, and storing of knowledge Baehr, . In indiResearchers have proposed that collectives might be epistemically virtuous or vicious in their own right ? Miranda Fricker  maintainWe should allow that excellent cognition requires both faculty-virtues and trait-virtues  by theory. While factor analysis reveals word clusters, clusters still have to be named and the underlying concepts defined. Naming and defining clusters allows to connect the results to the existing literature, but also introduces discretion. I used this discretion to compare and contrast resulting clusters with existing theoretical constructs, aiming to connect the resulting clusters to existing constructs where possible. Cluster names and definitions emerge in an iterative process between considering data and existing theory.In this section, I apply the methodology described in the previous section to a large dataset of online employee reviews of US corporations, resulting in a new taxonomy of corporate vice. The social media platform Glassdoor provided me with access to a snapshot of reviews collected on their website. Glassdoor is a platform where employees review and reflect their experience with related firms anonymously. Individuals can post reviews about their current and former employer(s). Glassdoor does not systematically verify the employment status of reviewers, but requires users to either register a valid company email address or provide a valid social networking account. This data is used to identify and remove suspicious users. Each individual is allowed one active review per employer, per year. If a user updates a review within a year, only the newer review will be listed. Glassdoor’s community standards encourage reviewers to comment on employers where they have held jobs “within the last five years so it’s relevant to today’s job seeker” , processes and systems within the company (e.g. “byzantine performance review system”), and functional groups such as management (“constantly contradictory statements from management”). As a shorthand, we treat any of these ascriptions as pertaining to the corporation.3As discussed in the previous section, I rely on the ‘lexical hypothesis’, according to which single words in ordinary language encode all vice ascriptions. To identify the relevant words, I extract all adjectives used in the reviews and lemmatize them, so that e.g. the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives  are not counted separately from their positive forms (“big”). This results in 960 adjectives that occur at least once in every 10.000 reviews. I and two other researchers working on social epistemology in organizations manually label these adjectives independently. We classified each adjective depending on whether (1) it is regularly used to characterize the way an organization deals with information and (2) it has a negative connotation. Examples that all of us selected are “stupid”, “disorganized”, and “rigid”. Each of us discarded for instance “stressful”, “large”, and “honest”. Our independent classifications results in an inter-rater agreement of 0,71 (Fleiss’ Kappa), suggesting “good” agreement   for the dataset is 0,68, indicating “middling” sampling adequacy Kaiser,  – which I conduct the factor analysis as an iterative process. In each round of analysis, I extract six factors. I use an oblique rotation (oblimin), which allows for the resulting factors to be correlated ; lacks remedies to prevent epistemically vicious behavior .Some of the selected quotes explicitly charge the respective corporation with epistemic vice Kidd, . Considereflect the fact that they have the respective trait (DeVellis, But note that many of the example sentences do not contain explicit epistemic vice charges. For instance, consider this example given for the vice of “Ambiguity”: “Constantly contradictory statements from management.” This statement contains an observation about the lack of alignment between messages from leadership. But it does not allege that these ambiguities lead to the failure to generate, share, or store knowledge. I consider such examples nonetheless evidence of corporate epistemic vice. Employees at organizations that have the epistemic vice of fragmentation are likely to make such statements. Vice versa, employees at companies with the corresponding virtue are unlikely to make such statements. This is an approach familiar from psychology. Psychologists often measure latent traits such as personality traits by asking people about whether they agree with statements the endorsement of which would The list of corporate vices emerging from this methodology is equally remarkable for what it contains as for what it does not contain. One observation is that in contrast to Baird and Calvards taxonomy, half of epistemic vices seem ‘faculty-like’ in that they are grounded in systems, processes, or structures rather than ‘trait-like’, i.e. grounded in traits of the organization that involve bad, or the absence of sufficiently good, epistemic motives: “Unreliability” is about the lack of reliable mechanisms for creating, sharing, and storing knowledge “Fragmentation” about challenges to information flows created by bureaucratic, matrixed, and hierarchical governance structures. “Complexity” concerns complex or otherwise inefficient processes undermining the creation, sharing, and storing of knowledge. The ‘faculty-like’ description of the factors are ultimately due to my interpretation. But the emphasis on faculties is well supported by the way employees discuss epistemic failings of their organizations in the respective reviews. The majority of reviews pertaining to these factors focus on how systems, processes, and structures lead to epistemic failings.Of the six vices identified, two have close correlates in the existing literature. First “Incompetence”, which de Bruin  uses to The other four vices proposed by the present analysis have not been identified at all or only in aspects. While these vices have to my knowledge not been discussed as collective epistemic vices, the closely related ideas have been studied extensively in other disciplines. “Unreliability” refers to a lack of reliable systems for creating, sharing, and storing information. Day et al.  provide It is equally notable that several vices that have been discussed in the literature on collective epistemic vice are missing from the proposed taxonomy or framed substantially differently. For instance, from Baird and Calvard’s taxonomy , neitherOne explanation is that these vices are not salient features of corporations after all. Baird and Calvard’s list of vices draws on concepts that have been discussed in the philosophical literature on individual vice. Hence it would not be surprising to find that in collectives other vices are in fact salient. Yet we should not jump to the conclusion that epistemic insouciance and epistemic injustice are of little relevance at the collective level. Another option is that these vices are ‘stealthy’, in the sense people working in organizations that display these vices are blind to them Cassam, . Yet anoThere is evidence of all three mechanisms introduced above that may lead to epistemic vice. There is no clean mapping from the mechanisms to the vices, for the comments relating to each of the vices tend to be heterogeneous in this respect. However, there are tendencies. “Incompetence”, “Ambiguity”, and “Dishonesty” are typically attributed to groups of individuals in an organization, and often to leaders or managers. Hence these vices may often be realized in organizations in an ‘additive’ fashion. By contrast, comments attributing the vices of “Unreliability”, “Fragmentation” and “Complexity” tend to identify mechanisms, systems, processes, or governance structures as the locus of the vice. Hence these vices appear to be linked to the ‘interactionist’ model. At the same time, the latter two of these vices, “Fragmentation” and “Complexity” can only be attributed to collectives, not to individuals, fitting the ‘emergent’ model. The fact that these vices can only be attributed to collectives makes them ‘genuine’ collective vices. In the case of “Fragmentation”, the reason it can be considered an ‘emergent’ vice is that it resides in the organizational structure or interdepartmental dynamics of a corporation. “Complexity” refers to processes or information systems undermining the sharing of knowledge, which require a collective of others to share information with.Incidentally, the analysis also provides a data point in the debate whether epistemic and moral vices are distinct. From the perspective of use in ordinary language, we can see clear overlaps in the case of some epistemic vices. For instance, “unethical” is among one of the five words closest in meaning to “Dishonesty”. “Incompetence” appears also to be a partly moralized notion, since it includes the terms “arrogant”, “disrespectful”, “spineless”, and “lazy”. By contrast, in the word clouds of the four other epistemic vices contain no obvious examples of moral language. This suggests that regardless of the questions whether there are systematic conceptual differences between moral and epistemic vices, employees treat epistemic and moral terms as interchangeable concerning some epistemic vices, while the use of others appears to be purely epistemic.This paper makes two contributions: To develop a methodology for determining which collective epistemic vices to posit, and to apply this methodology to corporations, resulting in a new taxonomy of corporate epistemic vice. In closing, I want to acknowledge some limitations of my analysis which point to opportunities for future research. The analysis is based on data about a particular type of collective, namely large corporations operating in the US. In other types of collectives, different epistemic vices may well be present. Future research may investigate corporations operating in other geographies, organizations of different types such as NGOs or government agencies, and organizations of different sizes, such as SMEs and startups.Another limitation is that this research identifies epistemic vices by looking for patterns in trait word usage between companies. This methodology may fail to identify epistemic vices that would emerge from analyzing the views of different people within the same organization. For instance, the degree to which employees are subject to epistemic injustice varies within organizations, for instance based on markers such as gender or ethnicity. Hence it is perhaps no surprise that the methodology fails to pick up on the vice of epistemic injustice. Future research should take the perspectives of different groups within organizations into account.Yet another limitation is that the analysis is based on the perspective of employees and former employees of organizations. Cassam  has arguBelow is the link to the electronic supplementary material.Supplementary Material 1


Optimal nutrition is one of the most significant environmental factors affecting human health. The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes of primary school students aged 7–9 towards nutrition considering three fundamental components: knowledge, emotional disposition, and dietary behaviors. The research was conducted using the Focus Group Interview (FGI) technique among 78 children. Considering their attitudes towards food and nutrition, four profiles were identified: “engaged”, “obedient”, “reluctant”, and “indifferent”. Children who were “engaged” and “obedient” due to their parents’ involvement in creating their dietary attitudes exhibited the most alignment with the principles of optimal nutrition. Regardless of profile type, it was observed that children were familiar with recommended and unrecommended food products, as well as the role of water in proper nutrition. It was demonstrated that parents wield the most substantial influence on children’s nutrition. As a result, initiatives promoting the proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle should commence with parents. Children of nutritionally conscious parents tend to eat more healthily and demonstrate a high nutritional awareness. Conversely, the children of busy parents who lack time for meal preparation more frequently replicate their parents’ nutritional mistakes. These findings emphasize the importance of the family environment in shaping the dietary behaviors of children and youth. Food and proper nutrition are among the most critical environmental factors creating an individual’s health throughout their life. Therefore, they should be not only safe in terms of health quality, but also nutritionally valuable, ensuring both good health and the potential to achieve the highest possible quality of life in emotional and intellectual terms ,2,3. ChiThe method and quality of nutrition not only influence a child’s physical development, but also have a significant impact on their intellectual, emotional, and social development, as well as their learning ability and school results. This is largely dependent on the efficient functioning of the nervous system, primarily the brain. The brain is arguably the most complex organ in the human body and is considered to be the central command center, influencing every aspect of human life. It controls the functioning of individual organs and systems, regulates all vital functions, and is responsible for processing stimuli that affect our senses, emotions, and behavioral responses. Mental health is the state of functioning in the cognitive, sensory, socio-emotional, behavioral, and motor domains, responsible for realizing an individual’s full potential throughout their life, regardless of the presence or absence of disorders. It depends on the nutritional status resulting from dietary behaviors and is influenced by various factors, as well as knowledge about the significance of supplying specific nutrients ,7,8,9. CLifestyle is defined as the selection of specific behavioral patterns from those available to an individual, which are determined by socio-economic factors and type of motivation ,12. LifeThe need for nutritional education stems from various factors, with the primary being the scale of diet-related diseases, which must be unequivocally reversed . This obTaking into consideration the importance of nutrition education in schools, especially among the youngest primary school students ,16,17, iThe aim of the study was to analyze the attitudes of primary school students aged 7–9 towards nutrition considering three fundamental components, namely: knowledge, emotional disposition, and dietary behaviors.Qualitative research was conducted using the Focus Group Interview (FGI) technique in 10 locations in Poland. The locations were diverse in terms of size. The following localities were included in the research: major cities with over 500,000 inhabitants, such as Warsaw; cities with populations ranging from 100,000 to 500,000, including Białystok, Lublin, Kielce, Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, and Nowy Sącz; small towns with populations of up to 50,000, such as Brańszczyk; and villages of various population sizes ranging from 330 to 2000, including Rosko, Czachówek, and Poręba. Each focus group consisted of from 6 to 8 participants (students), depending on the school’s capacity and parental agreement for the student’s participation in the study. In total, the study involved 78 students aged 7–9 years. The research was conducted as part of the “Junior-Edu-Żywienie” (JEŻ) project.The Focus Group Interview is a qualitative research technique involving in-depth group discussions, typically with from 6 to 8 participants. Participants are encouraged to express their views on specific topics by a moderator following a predefined moderation script. Participants respond individually to the moderator’s questions, who stimulates them to exchange ideas and actively engage in discussion ,18,19,20The moderation script for the FGI was developed by the authors of the publication and tested in a pilot study. The structure and substantive content are included in Written agreement from parents or legal guardians for a child’s participation in the FGI was obtained before each study. The inclusion criteria for the focus group were the students’ age: 7–9 years, the child’s willingness to participate in the study, and the parents/guardians’ consent for their participation in the study. There were no exclusion criteria for participating in the focus groups.Group discussions were recorded with the participants’ consent in audio format. This fact allowed for the preservation of the participants’ literal statements, which provided researchers with the opportunity to thoroughly familiarize themselves with their content. Interview transcripts and additional notes taken during moderation were transcribed, coded, and preliminarily analyzed by two independent researchers. Subsequently, all connections were examined to reach a consensus. In the analysis of the results, only the name of the locality where the research was conducted was used in reference to the primary school students’ statements.The material obtained from the in-depth group discussions was subjected to analysis using the principles of grounded theory, with an emphasis on discovering recurring and salient themes resonating during the participants’ discussions. The data analysis was conducted through a seven-step approach: familiarization with the data, thematic coding, identification of sub-themes within the main framework, review and revision of sub-themes, definition and nomenclature of sub-themes, analysis and interpretation of patterns across the entire data set, and the integration of sub-themes into dominant contextual domains.All procedures involving human subjects received the approval of the Ethics Committee of the Institute of Human Nutrition Sciences of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (No. 18/2022). All of the participants, as well as their parents or legal guardians, provided informed consent to participate in the study. The interview was explained to the participants before the start. The participants could resign from the FGI at any stage without providing a reason.For the primary school students aged 7–9, it was difficult to definitively determine whether their diet was healthy or not. In most cases, they believed it was “yes” because they brought fruits and vegetables to school, although they were also aware of the occasional consumption of unhealthy meals/products, such as fast food and sweets. The primary school students being surveyed clearly felt uncertain about what constitutes proper nutrition. They were unable to confidently define themselves as “people who follow a healthy diet”. They also did not know what constitutes a proper diet and what deviations are acceptable, such as whether consuming sweets once a week qualifies them as part of those who eat “unhealthily”.It is also not possible to clearly determine whether the primary school students participating in the study felt they were acting against their own will or if their parents were imposing certain rules and behaviors of “healthy” eating on them. It should be emphasized that the vast majority of students were committed to maintaining a proper way of eating. They made considerable efforts and faced challenges in this direction, such as consuming foods that they may not always enjoy but are considered to be healthy. All the participants clearly stated that food influenced their strength, energy, and health. This is the message they most commonly heard from adults.According to the primary school students, the main indicators of healthy eating are vegetables and fruits in the diet. The majority of them declared eating these products daily, with a significant portion consuming them in almost every meal. The students of this age paid little attention to the portion size of vegetables and fruits consumed throughout the day. According to them, the presence of vegetables and fruits in the diet is important. The children had a also problem with determining portion sizes. Some of them stated that, for example, consuming one fruit a day  is a sufficient amount in their daily diet.become obese, sick, fatigued, generally weak, and, in addition, they will constantly experience sadness and a bad mood”.The primary school students could identify products they considered to be indicative of an unhealthy diet. According to them, these are primarily sweets, salty snacks, and fast food products. The primary school students believed that individuals with poor dietary behaviors and a sedentary lifestyle for an extended period of time will, as a consequence, “Among the primary school students aged 7–9, sportsmen served as role models for healthy eating. Healthy nutrition is a necessity in their “profession” and passion. Some also mentioned their parents, who regularly engage in activities such as running or going to the gym. Such declarations were more common among students from larger cities and were associated with the lifestyle of individuals in their parents’ age group, typically between 30 and 45 years old.Sample children statements:“Yes, from time to time, I eat healthily, for example, on my birthday, instead of candies, I brought apricots”“If we eat vegetables or fruits, we can have vitamins that affect everything—our eyes, our bones”Among the study participants, it is possible to create a typology that distinguishes them based on their level of involvement in issues related to food and nutrition, their awareness of the subject, and selected behavioral aspects in this area. The results allowed for the identification of student profiles as “engaged”, “obedient”, “reluctant”, and “indifferent”. The characteristics of students according to this typology are presented in “Engaged” primary school students’ profile The “engaged” profile was represented by a small group of surveyed students. They were mainly residents of larger cities and villages located near major urban centers.Practically with every meal, the students consume vegetables and fruits. Their diets are rich in legumes, fish, whole grain products, and dairy. It can be inferred that the parents of the children representing this profile often discuss topics related to proper nutrition, explaining and answering questions about these issues. In their homes, this is an important, enjoyable, and willingly discussed topic. Nutritional education happens naturally and spontaneously, without compulsion and the use of punishments and prohibitions. It is easy for the children to follow proper habits because they encompass the whole family, and it happens through imitation, further demonstrating the effectiveness of the family environment in creating the attitudes of the youngest toward food and nutrition. A rational way of eating is a choice and lifestyle for them, rather than an obligation. The parents of these students are usually individuals with a high level of nutritional awareness.Sample statements from children:“I just wanted to say that my mother and I make vegetable and fruit chips. And a few times a month, we make homemade pizza, which I like a lot more than the store-bought one”“I eat the same food as my parents, and they eat very healthily. I like talking to them about food because they explain things so interestingly”Primary school students with an “obedient” profile The “obedient” profile was the most numerous group of 7–9-year-old students who participated in the study, including both boys and girls from various locations.According to representatives of this profile, their parents dedicate a relatively significant amount of time, attention, and energy to dietary principles. They care about and see the importance of implementing proper dietary habits for all family members, especially for their children. The entire family can afford more flexibility and less restrictions during the weekends and shared time for games or watching movies. During these times, they eat homemade popcorn or pizza prepared together. However, during the week, children are closely controlled and monitored in terms of the types and quantities of meals consumed. They only receive “healthy” products for school, which they willingly consume. Students with the “obedient” profile did not show rebellion and rarely expressed opposition to the imposed diet because they were not familiar with any other. The challenge for them lies in gatherings with peers and birthdays, etc., when they discover the world of colorful sweets, snacks, and soft drinks, which seem very appealing and tempting to them.Sample statements from children:“I don’t eat healthy things every day, or I know that when I only eat sweets, I feel bad. Now, my grandma also doesn’t buy me sweet things. I don’t want them, and I don’t need them”“When I ask my father for something sweet, he says that it’s not needed for life at all”“Reluctant” profile students The “reluctant” profile was represented by both girls and boys from various locations. This is a relatively small group, often referred to as “picky eaters”, who have a narrow range of foods they enjoy. As a result, their diet is “fairly healthy” but highly limited and lacking in diversity in terms of nutritional components. They are unwilling to try new foods, making it difficult to expand their diet to include new flavors and types of products. They feel forced to eat and are often described as “pick eaters” or “picky eaters”, which hinders them from trying new foods. This group could be characterized as neophobic. The parents of these students are typically individuals who aim to eat healthily but do not always succeed, or they lead busy lives and do not pay much attention to what they eat, often failing to recognize the problems and risks associated with it.Sample statements from children:“In my opinion, sometimes it’s like we don’t like something because we don’t find it visually appealing. If we don’t see it and eat it, it tastes good”Primary school students with the “indifferent” profile The profile “indifferent” represents a very small group of students aged 7–9, living in various locations, mainly boys.Their diet is moderately healthy and rational. They have not developed specific attitudes towards food and nutrition. It can be assumed that the parents of these students ensure certain minimum standards, such as having the child eat lunch at school, bringing a sandwich for a second breakfast, eating fruits and vegetables a few times a week, and limiting sweets without strict restrictions. School is virtually the only place where they may encounter the principles of proper nutrition.They do not reject valuable and recommended products, but also do not pay much attention to the quantity and frequency of consumption. At the same time, they have a considerable degree of freedom in choosing the products and meals they eat. “Indifferent” students are the least controlled by their parents. Their parents are usually individuals with busy and demanding lifestyles. This is the group that most often, among all students, buys snacks and sweets from vending machines located at schools.Children, asked whether they like to eat, stated that it depends on their level of hunger and the type of meal, as well as their emotional state. Their statements confirm that emotional states influence the consumption of various food products .Sample statements from children:“It depends on whether I am sad or happy. When I’m happy, I eat, and when I’m sad, I don’t feel like eating because I feel like I have a full stomach”The vast majority of the surveyed students reported consuming an average of 3–6 meals, but they could not specify how many meals should be eaten in a day. This is due, in part, to the fact that they usually eat at times determined by their parents or school, depending on their location. These students rarely eat on their own when they feel hungry. This is mainly because they have inherited such behaviors from home and kindergarten. Additionally, they are under the constant supervision of teachers, guardians at the after-school program, parents, and grandparents, who dictate the rhythm of their day and meal times.BREAKFASTThe vast majority of primary school students are aware that it is essential to have breakfast every day because it is necessary for proper functioning throughout the day. It serves as a source of energy for a good start, often referred as “fuel for the day”. Therefore, breakfast is considered as the most important meal of the day. Among younger students, however, having breakfast can be a subject to discussion. A significant portion leave home before having a meal. However, some students, often from larger cities and those raised by single parents, claim that they eat their first meal at school, as a second breakfast, while others do not have breakfast at all. It may seem that a certain group of students at this age often leave home without eating and also do not compensate for this lack of a morning meal at school, which is a serious nutritional mistake affecting their cognitive performance during lessons, related to brain nutrition.More than likely, more students in lower primary school grades would choose not to eat breakfast if it were not for parental pressure. The research participants expressed that they dislike the morning rush and are often not hungry, so they eat “forcibly”. It seems that if the child could, they would leave the house with an empty stomach, but parents ask them to “eat something”. Often, even half a sandwich or colorful, sweet cereals, which are not allowed during the day, are enough, but parents are willing to change their rules when it comes to breakfast. Sample statements from children:“I only sometimes have breakfast at home. Sometimes, I just have little time, and sometimes I just don’t want to, and I’m not hungry in the morning, or I’ve had enough of something”“Breakfast gives an energy for the whole day. Dinner and supper are just additions. That’s why breakfast is the most important because it gives signals to the body that it’s time go to work”“Breakfast is the most important. It should last you the entire day, giving you energy and strength. If you do not eat breakfast, you feel so tired and can’t focus on studying or anything else”“If we do not eat breakfast and go to work or school, we’ll be so tired, and we won’t feel like doing anything”“If someone has time, they eat at home, but if someone sleeps and does not have time, eat at school”SECOND BREAKFASTSecond breakfast is a meal consumed by the vast majority of students participating in the study. Only a few individuals admitted to skipping this meal, even though they had it prepared in their school backpacks. It seems that social influence plays a significant role in this matter. Children observe others eating. This fact stimulates their appetite. They also consume their second breakfast because they do not want to be excluded from the group.Most of the primary school students, for their second breakfast, typically receive sandwiches, sausages, sweet or savory cheese snacks, and fruits. From the students’ statements, it can be concluded that parents would like their children eat at least a snack at school. Therefore, lunchboxes often contain energy bars and other sweets favored by children to supplement their energy levels and, in their perception, enhance concentration.Primary school students are at an age where they are under the almost constant supervision of their teachers, who signal when it is time to eat second breakfast. In many schools, students eat this meal together with their teachers. The students do this willingly.“My mother sometimes packs me an apple, grapes. Sometimes, she even includes a donut. Some cookies too”“Grapes, an energy bar, cheese. I’m sure I’ll get something I like”DINNERThe majority of primary school students participating in the research have their dinner at school. Students whose parents or guardians stay at home full-time typically have dinner at home after classes. This takes place mainly in smaller towns. Students agree that dinner is a very important meal during the day  because it is substantial, often a two-course meal, nutritious, and well-balanced. It typically consists of meat, potatoes/grains, and vegetables served warm in the middle of the day, providing energy for the rest afternoon.The decision to purchase dinner at school is made by parents, who consider how many hours their child will be away from home and at what time they will be picked up from school. Unfortunately, children often decide not to consume this meal in its entirety or in part if they dislike dishes served in this meal.The main factor of having dinner at school is the company of children in the same age. However, most students aged 7–9, regardless of their place of living, prefer to have dinner at home. Children provide the following reasons:-the meals are prepared at home, not by a catering company;-taste better, are prepared in a known and preferred way, with trusted and high-quality ingredients;-there is no need to hurry, there are no time limits;-the meals are presented more aesthetically and have an appetizing appearance;-it is possible to consume a larger portion and ask for seconds;-there is a nicer atmosphere at home, eating in silence, with family;-better eating conditions, at the table, no one is pushing or rushing;-it is possible to engage in other activities, such as watching TV;-the timing is not strictly defined; the family adjusts the mealtime to the child’s hunger, while at school, children must eat at a certain time, regardless of hunger.Individuals eat two dinners during the day, one at school and the other at home with their family. The latter meal typically occurs at dinnertime and often replaces that particular meal (supper). However, some students, have dinner late. For most primary school students, dinner is associated with a family atmosphere and time spent together. It is more commonly enjoyed on weekends, but a large number of students also have dinner with their families during the week. This depends on the daily routine and the work schedule of all family members, especially parents. The students’ place of living does not have an impact on this behavior. Some children have dinner alone in their room or in front of the television or laptop, even when other family members are at home. This situation occurs more frequently in larger cities and in the case of only children.Sample statements from children:“I like to eat while watching TV because it’s like you’re watching and having your meal. When you’re not watching and not eating, it’s a bit boring”“In the first grade, I used to have dinners at the school but I didn’t want to eat anymore because sometimes dinner was during class, even when I was not hungry. At home, there is dinner and I can serve myself at any time”“At home it is more calm, there’s more time, and you can eat more. In school when I finish breakfast, I can not have anything else”“At home, I used to eating what I like”“I do not like the school’s dinners because of different recipes. I’m used to some things, and not to others”AFTERNOON SNACKAmong primary school students aged 7–9, an afternoon snack is often described more as a small snack. It is frequently skipped due to a lack of hunger and is sometimes replaced with sweets , and is then referred to as a dessert.SUPPERSometimes, supper is perceived as an unnecessary meal. Children do not feel hungry in the evening, especially after a too substantial dinner combined with a large amount of snacks. There is a general belief that supper should be light. Otherwise, it may cause stomachache.Sample statements from children:“Supper is not very important because when we eat supper and go to sleep and wake up, we’re hungry”“I do not have dinner. When I come home, my second meal is as a late dinner, so I do not eat anything for supper”“I do not have supper because it is not healthy to eat at night. I used to have supper but then a stomachache so I stopped eating supper. My stomach still hurts, but less. I think it helped me”The majority of students consume a variety of products from different food groups, including dairy products, grains, fruits and vegetables, and nuts, as well as pumpkin and sunflower seeds, but with a varying frequency and limited diversity within each group . In eachDuring the study, only a few students were able to identify the specific components supplied by certain food product groups. Most of them simply attributed these products to a high content of vitamins and a general positive impact on health and well-being. The term “healthy fats” and dietary fiber posed the most difficulty for them. While these concepts were familiar to the students, they could not attribute specific functions and roles to them. It is clear that the students were unable to determine why certain products are essential in their diet and why they should consume them. Building this awareness from an early age and emphasizing this aspect in school education is important. It will help them to understand why it is crucial to consume products rich in these components and not just perceive them as something their parents force them to eat.The majority of primary school students were not familiar with the guideline that recommends consuming a minimum of five servings of fruits and vegetables daily. In their opinion, only one serving is sufficient. However, it should be emphasized that the students were not entirely clear on how to interpret the term “serving” . This was too abstract for them and required clarification. The question about the proportion of vegetables and fruits on a plate yielded diverse responses. Many students answered that it should be half the plate, while a significant number of respondents chose the option of one quarter. However, it is essential to note that, the first option, regardless of gender, place of residence, and the represented approach profile to nutrition, seemed too large, even impossible to eat for most students.Sample children statements:“I really like eating fruits, less vegetables” .“I hate fish. They have a strange taste and bones. They are also slimy and fatty” .“I feel like they swim in my stomach afterwards” .“Fish smell, and you can see their eyes” .The students had no difficulty identifying products that should not be present in their diets. They expressed awareness that consuming these items could harm their health, potentially lead to overweight issues, and generally result in poor feelings. They also expressed the following opinions:-Sweet drinks and sweets are responsible for delivering a significant amount of sugar to the body, which can lead to obesity and tooth decay.-Harmful ingredients such as food coloring, preservatives, and unhealthy chemicals in a product’s composition were noted. The students were familiar with the concept of high-fructose corn syrup, which they believed should be avoided. According to them, good sweets are those without sugar.-Fast food items were considered to be low in nutrition and providing energy for a short duration. They were perceived as having numerous preservatives and fats.-Salty snacks were seen as containing salt, which stimulates appetite and retains water in the body.The study results allow us to identify four main contexts for consuming products not recommended for consumption: family, social, individual, and travel-related .The presented contexts of consuming products that are not recommended for consumption can be divided into controlled and uncontrolled by adults, such as parents, guardians, grandparents, and teachers. In the case of students at this age, the controlled contexts are more common, because they rarely eat meals on their own without supervision. They do not purchase food independently from stores, except for the school store and vending machine at school. When they choose unhealthy products, they usually get them from their family’s supply. Only a small number of students (children) admitted to purchasing sweet sodas, candies, and salty snacks on their own, without their parents’ consent, and sometimes even covertly.In the case of primary school students aged 7–9, the discussion of fast food primarily arises in the context of family outings and trips, which are supervised by parents or teachers. Children in this age group do not make independent purchases of such items. For young residents of small towns and villages, this issue is almost non-existent, because there is no fast food available in their immediate surroundings. These products are primarily encountered during family trips.Sample statements from children:“Salt/sugar is white death”“They fill you up for a moment, and then your stomach hurts”Primary school students aged 7–9 belong to a generation that has been instilled with the importance of staying hydrated from a very young age. They most often choose water, which not only quenches their thirst but is also a healthy choice, ensuring the proper functioning of the human body. The majority of students have water bottles and make use of tap water or water fountains on the school premises. In their perception, they consume a significant amount, approximately 1–1.5 L per day, although it should be noted that they may not be fully aware units of measurement and probably drink less. The students have a preference for black or fruit tea  and homemade compotes and juices (often received from their grandparents).Respondents occasionally enjoy industrially prepared fruit juices from cartons, typically at home during family meetings, holidays, and special occasions. Parents tend to discourage excessive consumption due to the high sugar content. Some participants also distinguish between fruit juice and fruit-flavored beverages, such as orange drinks. On the other hand, sweetened carbonated beverages are considered to be more of a treat and a rarity than a source of hydration. They are consumed occasionally and mainly under parental supervision.Sample statements from children:“I have this health book that contains information about good and healthy food. It recommends drinking ten glasses of water a day. During the summer, whenever I go out to places like the playground or roller-skating, I bring a backpack, and I always make sure to have water with me”“My older brother drinks as much as two liters of water per day, while I usually consume just half a liter”Primary school students participating in the research like sports and physical activity. It is noticeable that they eagerly attend extracurricular activities such as gymnastics, horseback riding, swimming, football, judo, and hockey. Engaging in these activities brings them pleasure, a sense of satisfaction, and pride in their accomplishments and exercises. In the entire research, only a few children, typically overweight boys, did not enjoy physical exertion.In their free time, students primarily engage in play. They also enjoy spending time with peers, such as riding bicycles, rollerblading, or using scooters. The online world plays a significant role in their lives, especially on weekends. During ordinary weekdays, most have parental controls in place, although students from larger cities sometimes use computers and smartphones during the week. Regardless of gender and place of residence, the participants mentioned that they enjoy online games, such as Minecraft, watching funny videos on Tik Tok, YouTube, following the activities of online creators and influencers on Tik Tok, YouTube, and cooking-related shows like ‘Kitchen Revolutions’ and ‘MasterChef Junior’. Students do not typically watch specific programs or channels. The majority claim not to have favorite influencers they follow on social media, and their program choices are random. It is worth noting that children of this age mainly use devices belonging to their parents and do not have their own smartphones or computers yet. Interestingly, the participants show an interest in food-related content, more as a curiosity, like learning how to make blue pancakes. These are usually videos about food rather than healthy eating.The main meal for all the children taking part in research was dinner. However, not all of the children in the study had breakfast at home, and for many of them, the morning routine was marked by haste, heightened emotions, and a lack of ingrained, internalized practice of having breakfast in the morning.In people’s diet, particularly in children’s diet, the regular consumption of balanced meals, with a particular emphasis on having a nutritious breakfast, is of paramount importance. Breakfast comes after a long overnight break, during which, the body utilizes a significant portion of its carbohydrate reserves. Furthermore, it occurs before the commencement of the most demanding physical and mental activities. Consuming breakfast has been shown to have a positive impact on cognitive functions ,22, partIt is crucial to remember that children and teenagers acquire fundamental knowledge about nutrition primarily at home, by observing the behaviors of other household members and through information intentionally or unintentionally conveyed by their parents . A comprCombining meals with watching TV or using a tablet is incorrect practice. In this study, a few primary school students consumed their home-cooked meals in this way. Such behaviors encourage overconsumption, disrupt control over what and how we eat , and reduce hunger and satiety signals. Research indicates a lower consumption of vegetables, fruits, and grain products, as well as an increased frequency and quantity of highly processed, palatable foods such as fast food, snacks, and sugary drinks among children who engage in eating while watching TV, using a computer, and a phone, etc. ,34.Children’s knowledge about food, their preferences, and finally their eating behaviors are closely linked to their parents’ food preferences, beliefs, and attitudes. This is a result of exposure and easy access to the products that parents like, purchase, and consume. Parental beliefs about which foods are healthy and their own dietary experiences also influence children’s food choices . TherefoDuring the school-age period, food preferences and eating habits are formed, emphasizing the need for a diverse selection of foods in children’s meals and encouraging them to try new or less familiar dishes ,36,37.It is essential to introduce a wide variety of foods into children’s meals and encourage them to explore new or less familiar dishes during the school-age years when food preferences and eating habits are being established ,36,37. IIt is also important to remember that children’s food preferences change through experiences. Therefore, it is crucial to allow them to have direct contact with various foods. During the school-age period, children become more aware of their food preferences through tasting, smelling, touching, and visual examination of food items. This awareness results from observing their environment, including family, children at the same age and teachers. It is a time when children start making their first conscious decisions about food choices and creating their food preferences. These early eating behaviors can significantly impact their future health, with unfavorable behaviors often being linked to adolescent and adult health issues such as obesity and non-communicable diseases ,42.Exposure to new food products has a cumulative effect. The more new products and dishes appear in a child’s diet, the quicker they gain acceptance . When foNumerous studies ,45 indicSimilar results were also reported by other authors, noting a good nutritional knowledge of primary school students despite poor eating habits. The authors showed that adoption of healthy eating practices is difficult due to food preferences, family factors , food availability, time constraints, and convenience .Consuming sweets, fast food, sugary beverages, and adding extra salt or sugar to drinks and meals can lead to the development of unfavorable taste preferences in adults ,4. ChildWater should be the first choice of beverage for children and adolescents, with other drinks being selected in subsequent order due to their sugar content and additives, and their impact on the physical and mental well-being and health of students ,56,57. SChildren’s eating and physical activity behaviors are influenced by both individual factors  and environmental factors . The various components of lifestyle interact to impact human health and can be interconnected, magnifying their effects. Physical activity is a significant component of a healthy lifestyle , which tBased on the obtained results, it can be concluded that, during the early school years, parents play a significant role in controlling children’s food consumption and dietary choices. Parents also create children’s eating behaviors, often for the rest of their life. Educational efforts initiated from a very young age should aim to instill and maintain a healthy lifestyle, particularly in terms of various activities, with a strong focus on nutrition and physical activity. Understanding the psychoeducational factors that influence children’s eating behaviors and providing proper nutrition education to both children and their parents/guardians, as well as teachers, can support the development of health-promoting dietary behaviors . It is cQualitative research allowed obtaining an in-depth picture of the issues, which are sometimes difficult to grasp, as pointed out by other authors ,64. FGI The conducted study has several limitations that are worth noting. Some of these limitations are inherent to qualitative research, which, due to its small sample sizes, may not be representative. However, when combined with the results of quantitative research, as is the case in the “Junior-Edu-Żywienie (JEŻ)” project, a deeper and more comprehensive explanation of the quantitative research findings was provided.Our results affect students from Poland, which may be influenced by cultural factors. This fact affects the dietary behaviors and eating patterns specific to the given population. Hence, while our findings cannot be generalized to other populations (regions of the world), it can serve as guidance for other researchers and agencies involved in health policy, the development of school programs, and the implementation of educational initiatives.Among the analyzed students aged 7–9, based on their engagement with nutrition, the following profiles were identified: “engaged”, “obedient”, “reluctant”, and “indifferent”. Generally, it can be stated that primary school students’ diets are primarily influenced by their families and schools. Children of nutritionally aware parents tend to eat more correctly and display a significant nutritional awareness. Conversely, children of busy parents who lack time for meal preparation more often have poor eating habits and tend to replicate their parents’ dietary mistakes. Parents who struggle to determine what is healthy or not, despite their desire for proper nutrition, introduce this ambivalence into their children’s nutritional awareness. Students of this age are not entirely sure about what is “healthy” or “unhealthy”, although they can correctly categorize specific food products into these groups based on these labels. However, they have a problem matching these categories with nutritional components. They are familiar with terms such as dietary fiber and fats but do not know which foods are sources of these nutrients or the roles they play in the body.Students are not sure about the number of meals they should have each day, the recommended portion sizes of foods (vegetables and fruits), and whether consuming sweets occasionally still makes their diet appropriate. Students appreciate homemade meals due to their diversity, better alignment with their preferences, and the time when they can enjoy them, often with family. Therefore, they view the pandemic period positively, during which, they spent more time with their families and could prepare meals together, even though they missed physical activity and the company of children in their age. In conclusion, it can be stated that nutrition education, using credible and reliable educational materials targeted at all the influential environments related to students’ dietary attitudes, especially parents and teachers, as well as students, can yield the desired results for all three components of children’s food and nutrition attitudes. It can also help to create their dietary choices, which are the essence of nutrition and health education.


Good relations are important at work, leading to well-being among coworkers. Since the latest research in nursing is mostly about bullying, and lateral violence, it was important to study what healthy relations mean.The aim was to identify and synthesize qualitative studies that describe healthy relations, creating health and well-being between colleagues at work.A meta-synthesis approach, inspired by Sherwood's steps of analysis, was chosen for this study. Ten articles from three continents, comprising 230 participants, were included.Two themes were identified as follows: (a) creating a mutual bond on a personal level and a permissive atmosphere through the human warmth; and (b) sharing togetherness in a greater whole, offering unconditional help and devoting themselves to taking care of each other. An overarching metaphor implicating the home/homeness was abstracted from the two themes: “Healthy relations between colleagues at work constitute the community as a common world, containing feelings of being at home, implying acting in an expression of the ethos and dignity, a culture created that makes the ideal form of healthy relations visible.”Nurses find their meaning when they work in a permissive environment, and when they are allowed to be themselves. Such meaning can be found through their engagement with one another, by offering each other unconditional help. Good relationships lead to a place they call their home, where there is trust and friendship. Good relations are important at work, leading to well-being among coworkers. Since the latest research in nursing is mostly about bullying, and lateral violence, it was important to study what healthy relations mean.In her collected works, A person's health and well-being are essential to professional growth and require curiosity, humility, self-awareness, and a motivation to master . PreviouAlthough there is some research and an extensive theorizing about healthy relationships, previous results are predominantly about bullying and poorly functioning relationships in working life  The freqThese results were confirmed also by The purpose was therefore to identify and synthesize qualitative studies that describe healthy relations, creating health and well-being between colleagues at work.Meta-synthesis is a methodology for synthesizing existing qualitative research findings by focusing on different aspects of the chosen phenomenon; furthermore, it seeks to expand the possible interpretations of findings, and it creates a transformed whole as well as a new understanding . In textA comprehensive search of the electronic databases PUBMED and CINAHL, SCOPUS and ACADEMI SEARCH ELITE was conducted during Autumn 2021. The search was limited to studies published between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2021. The following key terms were combined with operators: “health promoting” or “health promoting relations” or “relations” or “nursing” or “perioperative” or “emergency” or “intensive care” and . The following additional keyword searches were also used: “Interpersonal relations/relationships,” “encounter between colleagues,” “respect,” “dignity,” “cooperation between colleagues,” “appreciation,” “friendship at work,” and “fellowship.” To ensure accuracy, a second-round search was carried out in January/February 2022. Inclusion criteria were articles concerning good relations between nurse colleagues; exclusion criteria were articles published earlier than 2012 including bad relations (described as nurse-to-nurse bullying and incivility), relations between patient and nurses, doctors/physicians and nurses, and managers and nurses as well as literature about COVID-19.n = 15) or did not meet the inclusion criteria (n = 16). Nine articles were included in the analysis from the first search. In addition, a manual search was conducted, leading to 16 new articles, of which all were read through. Thereafter, 15 were excluded (due to not meeting the inclusion criteria), and one was included.The first and the second authors performed the search independently, and both checked the study's selection process for accuracy. Critical Appraisal Skills Program Qualitative checklist (CASP) was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies . They diThe 10 included articles that were from 2017–2021 represent Asia (Iran), Europe , South America (Brazil), Australia , and North America (Canada) .Most questions were raised in a sub-question to CASP 3 “to ensure quality assessment of the studies (sub-question: if the researcher has justified the design).” Such information was lacking in almost all of the included studies. In two studies, information about “Has the relationship between the researcher and the participants been adequately considered?” was lacking, and in the other two, the data analysis was not “sufficiently rigorous” (CASP 8 question).The synthesis was performed in three phases, as described by In this study, the text to be synthesized came from 10 articles and contained data from 230 participants and 39 observations of 85 team members in surgical teams, aged between 26 and 62 years of age. One study lacked information about the participants’ age . Four stThe first phase involved an interpretation of the existing themes, categories, and abstracted text that wove together the individual studies. The aim was to discover key terms, concepts and findings , Europe , South America (Brazil), Australia , and North America (Canada).Through the translation processes of the included studies, two main themes emerged, based on 37 subthemes concerning health and well-being between colleagues at work . A finalA health promoting relation between colleagues was created through an interpersonal bond between two people, a link between colleagues, through making personal connections, and through a mental understanding of each other . This maFurthermore, relationships were built between two people through socialization  or acquaCreating a generous culture with a non-existing hierarchy , where bAccountability or relying on one another was described as a virtue to cherish . When enCreating interpersonal relationships was also a result of working side by side with one's colleagues for a long time at the same workplace , throughDeveloping interpersonal relations meant having a genuine keenness to help others, that is, giving unconditional help , and to Key terms of interpersonal relations described in this theme include: respect for each member's tasks and responsibilities  and roleSilent interpersonal dynamics occurred when people felt safe and secure in each other's company  in the tThirty-seven subthemes emerged, which flowed into two main themes. The main themes were abstracted into metaphorical mental and physical implications of the home/homeness as part of the colleagues sharing the same reality. From these findings, the metaphor: “Healthy relations between colleagues at work constitute the community as a common world, encompassing feelings of being at home, implying acting in an expression of the ethos and dignity, a culture created that makes the ideal form of healthy relations visible” emerged.In this meta-synthesis, the findings showed that ethical behavior included the virtue of being and feeling responsible for one another, something that The feeling of having something in common in a permissive atmosphere occurred when they used an approach of listening to each other in an honest dialogue. In this meta-synthesis, the phenomenon of feeling at home was prominent. In her study on the metaphor of the home, To discover meanings, dimensions, and connections that may remain concealed in purely empirical material, a synthesis with a hermeneutic approach was deemed appropriate . The facHealthy relations are created when there is honesty, sincerity, truthfulness, righteousness, and respect between colleagues. Moreover, humanity, empathy, and generosity set the ground for a friendly and permissive atmosphere where support and help are offered between colleagues, and a friendship is created through honest dialogue and listening to each other.When the relations between colleagues are strong, it increases the meaning of their work, leading to an increased sense of well-being. Nurses find their “meaning” when they work in a permissive environment, and when they are allowed to be themselves around colleagues in communion. Such meaning can also be found through their engagement with one another, by sharing knowledge and offering each other unconditional help. Thus, colleagues contribute to each other's ability to flourish in their workplace. Good interpersonal relationships lead to a positive environment, a place people call their home, where there is trust and friendship. To create such a place, worthy of being called “home,” nurse colleagues must be provided time for co-reflections at their workplace, to create a friendly and welcoming atmosphere for all employees to coexist.


What drives the stability, or instability, of complex ecosystems? This question sits at the heart of community ecology and has motivated a large body of theoretical work exploring how community properties shape ecosystem dynamics. However, the overwhelming majority of current theory assumes that species interactions are instantaneous, meaning that changes in the abundance of one species will lead to immediate changes in the abundances of its partners. In practice, time delays in how species respond to one another are widespread across ecological contexts, yet the impact of these delays on ecosystems remains unclear. Here we derive a new body of theory to comprehensively study the impact of time delays on ecological stability. We find that time delays are important for ecosystem stability. Large delays are typically destabilizing but, surprisingly, short delays can substantially increase community stability. Moreover, in stark contrast to delay-free systems, delays dictate that communities with more abundant species can be less stable than ones with less abundant species. Finally, we show that delays fundamentally shift how species interactions impact ecosystem stability, with communities of mixed interaction types becoming the most stable class of ecosystem. Our work demonstrates that time delays can be critical for the stability of complex ecosystems. Time delays in the responses of species to one another are expected to occur widely in nature. Using a new theoretical framework, the authors show that these delays can fundamentally shift how different communities respond to perturbations. There has been an intense effort to understand what determines community stability16. In particular, a large body of theory has been developed, on the basis of early work by May3, to study the effect of factors including the strength and sign of species interactions13, spatial structure15 and community interaction structure16 on the stability of complex communities.The biological world comprises complex communities containing many interacting species. A key property of these communities is their stability, which determines the ability of constituent species to recover following perturbations16. In reality, these responses are expected to occur only after time delays. For example, consider one bacterium  that makes a toxin that inhibits a second bacterial species 17. If P. aeruginosa’s abundance increases, the amount of toxin within the environment will also increase, but only after a delay imposed by the time for each new cell to begin toxin production. Moreover, there will probably be a further delay before this newly produced toxin affects members of S. aureus, due to the time for the toxin to enter S. aureus’s cells and exert its effect. As such, overall, there will probably be a considerable lag before increases in P. aeruginosa exert an effect on the dynamics of S. aureus , equation  dramatically changes which communities are stable, often rendering previously stable communities unstable  < 0, satisfying equation (τ = 0), this teardrop-shaped region expands to the whole left half complex plane , making stability analysis of time-delayed complex ecosystems a non-deterministic polynomial hard (NP-hard) problem36 that cannot be solved in polynomial time  Stage 1 , thus the species recovers monotonically to equilibrium following the perturbation . However, when the time delay is small, this prolonged influence is in fact stabilizing because it pushes the species to return to equilibrium more quickly. As the time delay increases, the outcome shifts and one sees the more expected oscillation in abundances because of a mismatch between instant abundance and growth rate. When the time delay is large enough, this prolonged influence leads to community collapse.Aij terms of the gLV model). In reality, different species may experience different time delays and interactions between taxa can take highly complex functional forms, often mediated by external factors such as metabolites or toxins. Incorporating such inhomogeneous time delays is challenging, as it again returns us to an NP-hard problem36, while explicitly modelling more complex interactions may suggest that delays in species interactions are already implicitly embedded in the modelling framework. Nevertheless, we wanted to check the robustness of our results to such complexities. We therefore numerically studied the effects of both inhomogeneous delays and complex interaction forms using a simplified two-species case  members of a community each experience the same level of time delays in their population and (2) regardless of the true nature of the interactions within a community, an equilibrium dynamics can be approximated by the simple, direct net effects of species on one another 9, where a common intuition provided for this result is that +/− interactions drive direct negative feedbacks between species that help to promote stability. Our framework allows us to test whether this prediction holds for systems where there are time delays in the responses of species to one another. Importantly, we find that the introduction of time delays does indeed change this prediction. Specifically, we find that above a threshold in the delay length, the relative stability of exploitative communities drops sharply and becomes comparable to both competitive communities (−/−) and those containing a random mix of interaction types. Moreover, this leads to a large area of parameter space where random communities, that is, communities composed of a mix of +/+, −/− and +/− interactions, are the most stable systems . However, there are many other measures of ecosystem stability32, including resistance31 (how much are abundances changed by a given disturbance?), structural stability28 (how broad are the conditions for the existence of feasible equilibria?), persistence31 (will any species go extinct following a perturbation?) and more. While these measures often correlate with one another31, there is the potential for differences. For example, our observation of persistent yet unstable coexistence states illustrates how looking beyond local asymptotic stability can have value. Exploring whether and how these different stability measures are affected by time delays is therefore an interesting open question.Building on a large body of previous work42. For example, this could occur due to species progressively altering the abiotic properties of the environments in which they reside. As with long time delays, ecological memory has been found to destabilize communities, increasing the time taken to recover from perturbation . However, current analyses42 of memory effects are restricted to small, purely competitive ecosystems, thus exploring how this and other forms of hysteresis impact the stability of different community types, or combine with classic interaction delays, presents an exciting open question for the future.Our work has focused specifically on ‘delayed’ interactions, formally defined as situations where a change in the abundance of one species is only felt by another after a certain time lag. However, there are other ways that the historic state of an ecosystem can influence future dynamics. One such example is ‘ecological memory’ wherein changes to an ecosystem can have prolonged impacts on future dynamics, long after the initial change occursIn conclusion, we find that time delays have the potential to rewrite the principles of ecological stability. Given that these delays are likely to be widespread, our work suggests that a better understanding of time delays and their impacts is an important goal for ecology.22, which yieldsJ, name J as the ‘interaction matrix’ and name the ‘community matrix’415, initially we set 1, meaning that all species have the same equilibrium abundance . It is interesting to note that previous theoretical results14 have shown that relaxing this assumption does not qualitatively impact the stability of delay-free systems, thus explicitly exploring the impact of similar variable abundances on the stability of time-delayed systems is an interesting open question.For the system depicted in equation  resting entclass1pt{minima27:I is an identity matrix and M is the community matrix defined above. When all roots z have negative real parts, the corresponding equilibrium λ of M fall inside this region when plotted as z will thus have negative parts, rendering a stable system. It is worth noting that when time delays are absent (τ = 0), equation . For communities with complex interaction types, two species still interact with probability C. With probability Pm, two species interact in a mutualistic manner, and the per capita interaction strengths Jij and Jji take the value of Pc, two species interact in a competitive manner, and the per capita interaction strengths Jij and Jji take the value of Pe, two species interact in an exploitative manner, and the per capita interaction strengths Jij and Jji have opposite signs: one takes the value of Jii are also set to −s. The statistical features of the interaction matrix can then be extracted for different types of community. For random communities, we have Following the canonical framework in studying ecosystem stability31, here we offer the derivation of a new metric quantifying recovery time for time-delayed systems. The particular solution of equation . That is, nr is the number of characteristic roots).Since the level of stability is normally evaluated by the recovery timeequation  can be oS (number of species) characteristic roots . Therefore, the solution of delay-free linearized systems can be represented as λ represent the decaying rates of each component of the solution. Among these eigenvalues, λ1 is the eigenvalue with the largest real part) is the lowest decaying rate and thus determines the final recovery time. Therefore, When time delays are absent, equation  is not a33 and the particular solution takes the form z represent the decaying rates, and When time delays are considered, equation  has infiz, we only need to consider non-negative ω, namely for z = −α + i ω into equation   and an outlier. Lengths of the half-horizontal axis and the half-vertical axis of the ellipse are For communities with complex interaction typesentclass1pt{minimaz, we get the estimation for Substituting these endpoints into the characteristic equation and calculating the corresponding r, that is, Doubling time = ln2/r. The dynamics of a random gLV system can be represented asX(t) is the absolute abundance vector and r is the intrinsic growth rate vector. A is the interaction matrix, which is constructed as follows: for each pair of off-diagonal elements p from a uniform distribution p ≤ C, we draw Aij and Aji independently from a distribution with mean 0 and variance σ2. If p > C, we assign 0 to both Aij and Aji. All diagonal elements Aii are set to −1. When the system rests at a homogeneous equilibrium 1, which means that r + A0, the intrinsic growth rate of species i can be derived as Theoretically, the doubling time of a specific species can be calculated through the intrinsic growth rate Further information on research design is available in the Supplementary InformationSupplementary Notes 1–7 and Figs. 1–22.Reporting Summary