Replication: Cheating,loss aversion,and moral attitudes in Vietnam

We use the coin-flip paradigm and a short survey about moral attitudes under three conditions to answer three questions: (i) Do people cheat more when financial incentives are present in comparison with no incentives? (ii) Do they find it more difficult to maintain their ethical standards when they have been given a small amount of money? and (iii) Do moral attitudes predict cheating behavior? Using a sample of Vietnamese college students, we discover that a financial incentive does not matter until people feel that they are facing a loss. In addition, we do not find any evidence that moral attitudes could predict the unethical behavior in our sample. Our findings shed further light on cheating behaviors and loss aversion through an experimental investigation.     

The Oregon Paradox

Expected-utility theory can explain why people who are terminally ill often feel a surge in wellbeing and hope to live longer when they have the option of legally ending their lives. Behavioral theories, however, may better answer larger questions such as why so few terminally-ill people bother to get that option.     

WHAT DO OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS MEASURE?

Open-ended questions are frequently used by survey researchersto measure public opinion. Some scholars, however, have doubtsabout how accurately these kinds of questions measure the viewsof the public. A chief concern is that the questions tap, inpart, people's ability to articulate a response, not their underlyingattitudes. This paper tests whether this concern is warranted.Using open-ended questions from the Center for Political Studies,I show that almost all people respond to open-ended questions.The few individuals who do not respond appear uninterested inthe specific question posed, not unable to answer such questionsin general. These findings should increase our confidence inwork of scholars who have relied on open-ended questions.     

Achtsamkeit in der Beratung von Älteren

Often people between 60 and 80 years are called “the young oldies”. Many of them are healthy, well educated, in good financial condition and full of energy. As the state is pulling out of public services and welfare, there are tendencies to demand a greater commitment to volunteer work from this group. Reasons are brought forward for why they are rejecting this demand and want to preserve their selfdetermination instead. At the same time they are dealing with the question of, how the rest of their lives could be worthwhile and fulfilling. A mindfulness-based counseling program is presented, in which participants are free to decide for themselves, how seriously and vigorously they want to devote themselves to answering these questions.     

When Popular Participation Won't Improve Service Provision: Primary Health Care in Uganda

Advocates of participatory approaches to service delivery see devolution as key to empowering people to take charge of their own affairs. Participation is portrayed as guaranteeing the delivery of services that are in line with user preferences. It is assumed that people are keen to participate in public affairs, that they possess the capacity to do so, and that all they need is opportunities. Using evidence from ethnographic research in Uganda, this article questions these views. It shows that, to succeed in the long term, devolution and participation must take place in the context of a strong state, able to ensure consistent regulation, and a well‐informed public backed up by a participatory political culture.     

RELEASING THE TRAP: A METHOD TO REDUCE INATTENTION BIAS IN SURVEY DATA WITH APPLICATION TO U.S. BEER TAXES

This study uses discrete choice experiments to explore the efficacy of prompts targeted at reducing inattention bias. Upon receiving feedback, inattentive respondents are given the opportunity to reanswer a so‐called “trap question” that checks for attentiveness. We find that individuals who miss trap questions and do not correctly revise their responses have significantly different choice patterns as compared to individuals who correctly answer the trap question. Adjusting for these inattentive responses has a substantive impact on policy impacts. Results, based on attentive participant responses, indicate that a minimum beer price would have to be substantial to substantially reduce beer demand. (JEL C83, Q18, Q51)     

EDUCATED GUESSES: THE PROCESS OF ANSWERING FACTUAL KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS IN SURVEYS

Responses to autobiographical questions are known to representmore than simply retrieval of information from memory; inference,cuing, and "availability" all play a role. Using responses toitems in four different surveys, we find that respondent motivationand ability, together with contextual cues, help determine howsurvey respondents answer knowledge questions about the worldaround us. Thus, we extend the domain of factual items for whichthe role of inferential processes is recognized, and we specifymore precisely the kinds of factors that respondents use inanswering such questions. We also find suggestive evidence thatattitudes influence answers to information questions, thus extendingas well the kinds of factors seen as likely to affect reportsabout facts.     

RESPONSE LATENCY AS A SIGNAL TO QUESTION PROBLEMS IN SURVEY RESEARCH

This research explores the potential utility of response latencyas an index of question problems in survey research. The timerespondents took to answer three types of bad questions wascompared to the time they took to answer the repaired versionsof the questions. Questions containing a superfluous negativeand double-barreled questions took longer to answer than nearlyidentical questions without these problems. Repaired versionsof questions soliciting frequency estimates, however, took longerto answer than their problematic counter parts. The resultsare discussed in the context of a model of question answering,and their implications for survey methodology are explored.     

Telephone survey respondents' reactions to questions regarding interpersonal violence

Concerns have been raised regarding the appropriateness of asking about violence victimization in telephone interviews and whether asking such questions increases respondents' distress or risk for harm. However, no large-scale studies have evaluated the impact of asking such questions during a telephone interview. This study explored respondents' reactions to questions regarding violence in two large recently completed telephone surveys. After respondents were asked about violence, they were asked if they thought surveys should ask such questions and whether they felt upset or afraid because of the questions. In both surveys, the majority of respondents (regardless of their victimization history) were willing to answer questions about violence and were not upset or afraid because of the questions. More than 92% of respondents thought such questions should be asked. These results challenge commonly held beliefs and assumptions and provide some assurance to those concerned with the ethical collection of data on violent victimization.     

Sex, self-interest and health care priorities

In this questionnaire study, individuals were asked to prioritise publicly provided preventive health care services, one of which would be unavailable to them by virtue of their sex. The aim was to establish whether men and women would exhibit different degrees of self-interest when making a constrained choice. Around 1800 subjects from east-central England prioritised three different types of cancer screening. Most also provided written explanations for their rankings and these were classified into explanatory themes. Logistic regressions using socio-demographic and attitude data predicted the type of screening chosen as first priority. The analysis revealed that many men and women did indeed assign similar priorities to the different types of screening and, even when the priorities differed, these were often justified by similar arguments relating to technical aspects of the interventions and to self-interest. However, women were far more likely than men to prioritise a type of screening from which they themselves would benefit directly and the variations in preferences and explanations between the sexes occurred primarily because of differences in other-regarding attitudes. The bias towards screening of females was driven by women's greater worries about the disease in question and by men's “benevolent sexism” with respect to women's wellbeing.     

Pelvic muscle strength of female ejaculators: Evidence in support of a new theory of orgasm

After a pilot study of two male teams at two different universities suggested that some athletes apparently had participated in homosexual activities which they would reliable answer questions about, the researchers surveyed three additional teams at three other universities. The data indicated that a fairly substantial minority of collegiate male athletes had engaged in gay actions. The results did not appear to be due to sample bias, ambiguity in defining what is “gay,” deception, or other artifacts.     

Telling about something that you do not really know: blind people are talking about vision!

In Turkey, the laws which define disability have become increasingly harsh, and require disabled people to be assessed in order to determine ‘how disabled’ they are. For blind people, as for other disabled people, these assessments have real consequences. This article aims to discuss an appealing piece that arose during a project, which has bearing on how disabled people tend to answer these questions. The participants are legally blind adults. We, as sighted researchers, asked totally blind individuals to describe their vision. Interestingly, they all answered this question without hesitation. The paradoxical nature of this question was only realized during the analysis. We requested the participants to talk about something they do not really know. This might be a reflection of our over-visualized world and might be due to our subtle prejudices. This type of questioning not only has implications for research, but also for assessments of disability in Turkey.     

Lessons learned from children who have experienced homelessness: what services need to know

Children who accompany their parents or guardians during a period of homelessness make up 37% (more than one in three) of all people accessing the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) services. This paper describes an Australian qualitative study that explored the experiences of children who accompanied their families during periods of homelessness. It focuses particularly on what children and young people say they want from the services that they come in contact with; particularly specialised homelessness services such as housing support services and refuges. Key themes that emerged from the research include: the need for services to engage with children as individuals in their own right, to listen to and acknowledge their stories, to have services that meet their individual needs, to act and respond when children feel unsafe and for workers who can provide support to children to talk to parents about what is going on. Children and young people wanted workers to know that they felt their parents were doing their best to keep them safe. They focused on what their parents could do and did do rather than what they were not able to provide. They called on the human service system to do the same.     

The Transition from Public Residential Schools for Retarded People to Custodial Facilities: An Economic Explanation

Conventional histories of residential services for mentally retarded persons in the United States explain the development of custodial care as the result of the failure of early residential schools to achieve their educational goals. Review of the historical evidence indicates that the conventional explanation is inadequate. An alternative explanation is suggested based on an economic model of the structure of the residential services industry. The economic model explains the decline of education and transition to low-quality custodial care in terms of economic incentives. Particularly important is the role of the mental retardation profession as monopolists of expertise regarding mentally retarded people and in rationing residential services to parents of retarded people. It is argued that the profession used its expertise monopoly to generate demand for residential services by portraying retarded persons first as in need of protection and later as a 'menace' to society.     

The algorithmic imaginary: exploring the ordinary affects of Facebook algorithms

ABSTRACT

This article reflects the kinds of situations and spaces where people and algorithms meet. In what situations do people become aware of algorithms? How do they experience and make sense of these algorithms, given their often hidden and invisible nature? To what extent does an awareness of algorithms affect people's use of these platforms, if at all? To help answer these questions, this article examines people's personal stories about the Facebook algorithm through tweets and interviews with 25 ordinary users. To understand the spaces where people and algorithms meet, this article develops the notion of the algorithmic imaginary. It is argued that the algorithmic imaginary – ways of thinking about what algorithms are, what they should be and how they function – is not just productive of different moods and sensations but plays a generative role in moulding the Facebook algorithm itself. Examining how algorithms make people feel, then, seems crucial if we want to understand their social power.     

Being the best or doing the right thing? An investigation of positional,prosocial and conformist preferences in provision of public goods

Based on a simple theoretical framework, we show that when individuals exhibit positional, prosocial or conformist preferences which are endogenous, the end outcomes in terms of private provision of public goods can differ significantly from traditional neo-classical predictions. Indeed, when a given individual selects a specific subset of preferences according to what others do, he/she will contribute positively to the public good provision. We provide anecdotal evidence to support our theoretical analysis by using data from an Internet survey on a sample of French individuals. Analyses of individual responses confirm our theoretical arguments. For instance, we show that relative concerns matter, that is, for several environmental goods, people might prefer polluting more in absolute terms but less than others in society. Moreover, we also test whether people exhibit a social desirability bias and show that they attribute more (less) positional (prosocial) concerns to others in society.     

Open Dialogue: Frequently Asked Questions

Open Dialogue is an approach to working with people and their families experiencing psychosocial distress. Interest in Open Dialogue in Australia has been growing recently, raising questions about its adaption and implementation to local contexts. This article is an attempt to answer some of the frequently asked questions we have encountered in training and discussions about Open Dialogue. We attempt to provide responses to questions of how Open Dialogue is different to what is done already, how it fits with current approaches, how you know if you are doing it, whether it is passive or just about doing reflections, issues about including the social network, and concerns about the evidence base. This article aims to present a variety of viewpoints in relation to these questions and to hopefully further discussions on how Open Dialogue can be implemented and adapted to Australian health care and social care contexts.     

SKIPPER SCIENCE:

This research examines success in fishing from perspectives of science studies and the sociology of work, emphasizing the common elements between the processes of fishing, creative work and scientific practice. It focuses on the expertise of the fishing skippers as they attempt to enhance their fishing success by assessment of evidence, framing of questions and inventing ways to answer these questions. In the process they set and solve problems to deal with uncertainties and uniqueness. It is shown how the skippers develop their knwledge by recording and analyzing data, systematic observation and limited experimentation. The findings demonstrate the importance of craft work and skill in the innovative process and thus bridge the gap between sociology of work and the social studies of science.     

Promoting the mental well-being of older people from black and minority ethnic communities in United Kingdom rural areas: Findings from an interview study

Drawing from 81 interviews with practitioners in social care and housing with care services in the United Kingdom, this paper explores practice issues in rural areas when supporting the mental health and well-being of older people from Black and minority ethnic groups. The paper begins with a review of the literature which provides evidence that BME older people are likely to be increasingly part of the populations of rural areas. Next it presents interview data revealing that while practitioners are aware of such demographic changes in general terms; some feel that they lack training and skills in adapting their professional practice to support all older people. Others express feelings of professional isolation in seeking to support older people from minority groups and are concerned that older people from minority groups may be at risk of isolation and loneliness. The paper concludes with a discussion of the study's implications for rural practice, policy and research.