Do ambiguity avoidance and the comparative ignorance hypothesis depend on people’s affective reactions?

Previous work has showed that people are averse to ambiguity and prefer to bet on known probabilities over unknown probabilities. There is also evidence that ambiguity aversion is stronger in comparative contexts rather than in non-comparative contexts. In the present paper we suggest that ambiguity aversion depends on people’s affective reactions and therefore the effect is more evident in comparative contexts because the comparison between the clear and ambiguous alternatives leads to more positive affective reactions toward the former rather than the latter. The present study extends the previous findings while, at the same time, supporting the “comparative ignorance hypothesis”.     

Organizational constructs as predictors of effectiveness in child welfare interventions

Organizational context, including line worker characteristics and service settings, may help explain the equivocal findings of intervention studies in the field of child welfare. Yet organizational context has been largely ignored in studies of child welfare interventions. The purpose of this article is to expound upon the likely role of the organizational context in explaining service effectiveness in child welfare. Several bodies of literature within child welfare and human service organization and administration are reviewed and synthesized. A conceptual framework that can be used to guide future child welfare research is then proposed.     

Interorganizational collaboration in social service organizations: A study of the prerequisites to success

Organizational scholars have identified four prerequisites to effective interorganizational collaboration: incentive, willingness, ability, and capacity. This study analyzes data drawn from participants in eight family services collaboratives in order to assess the relationships identified in the literature. Our findings support the premise that each of these prerequisites is positively related to collaborative effectiveness. Implications for collaboration leaders are suggested.     

Expert and Public Perception of Risk from Biotechnology

Risk perceptions of a series of biotechnology applications were examined in a public (nonexpert) sample and an expert sample. Compared with the experts, the public perceived all biotechnology applications as more risky. Both groups perceived food-related applications to be riskier than medical applications. Compared with the public, experts perceived both food and medical applications as less harmful and more useful. Experts also judged the risks posed from medical biotechnology applications as more familiar and acknowledged by people and science. Lay estimates of the risk of food applications were predicted by potential harm, potential benefits, science knowledge, and familiarity; experts' estimates were predicted only by harm and benefits. Lay estimates of the risk of medical applications were predicted by potential harm; experts' estimates were predicted by potential benefits, number and type of people exposed, and science knowledge. We discuss the implications of the results for risk communication about and management of different types of biotechnologies.