Reconciling normative and behavioural economics: the problems to be solved

We review the problem of reconciling normative and behavioural economics. In conventional welfare economics, individuals’ preferences are assumed to be coherent, and the satisfaction of those preferences is the normative criterion; but this approach breaks down if preferences are incoherent. Traditionally, the preference-satisfaction criterion has been interpreted in three conceptually different ways, emphasising respectively the normative value of happiness, self-assessed well-being, and freedom. If individuals’ preferences are incoherent, these interpretations diverge, leading to fundamentally different strategies for dealing with the reconciliation problem, and new questions are raised about whether normative economics should be addressed to governments or individuals.     

Intimacy Is Sharing Hurt Feelings: A Reply to David Mace

Mace's arguments concerning the love-anger cycle in marriage are criticized on philosophical (theoretical) and technical (clinical) grounds. Underneath the smoke-screen of anger there is the fire of hurt feelings. Dealingwith these feelings decreases the expression of anger and helps the couple reach "real" intimacy: the sharing of hurt feelings. Victories we can sharewith anybody. Anybody is willing to share victories with us. Hurt feelings, on the other hand, belong within the marriage.     

More than self-interest: Why different classes have different attitudes to income inequality

The connection between social class and political preferences is among the most well established in the social sciences. This association is typically taken as prima facie evidence of economic self-interest: Classes hold different attitudes, values, and party preferences because they have different economic interests. However, this assumption has rarely been tested empirically. In this article, we use survey data from 18 West European countries to examine why classes differ on a central aspect of political preferences, namely their views on the desirability of income inequality. We find that only a moderate proportion of differences between employee classes in support for redistribution can be accounted for by contemporary differences in resources and risks; differences in economic interests to some degree account for the anti-redistributive preferences of the professional middle classes compared with the working class. However, the preferences of the self-employed have a different explanation; autonomy is a better explanation of the right-wing preferences of the self-employed compared with the working class.     

Framings of Career Compromises: How Career Counselors Can Help

Compromise is a significant component of career decisions as well as many other personal decisions. This article presents a conceptual model for dealing with career compromise and discusses its implications for the career counseling process. The model identifies three possible framings that individuals may adopt when facing compromise. Specifically, compromise may be framed in terms of career alternatives, the importance of different aspects, and within-aspect preferences. The distinctions among the three framings have distinct implications for the career decision-making process. Suggestions are discussed for relevant intervention options aimed at decreasing the potentially harmful effects of the need to compromise.     

Personality traits and knowledge sharing

In this paper, we describe an empirical study that relates three personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness) to knowledge sharing. In the existing literature considerable attention has been paid to managerial influences on knowledge sharing, technological support through information and communication systems, or individual characteristics like motivation or the perception of conflict of interest or vulnerability. Instead we concentrate on the role that personal dispositions play in individual’s knowledge sharing behavior. By means of structural equation modeling with PLS, we discover significant correlations between the personality traits and knowledge sharing within teams of an engineering company. Our results clearly contribute to the existing literature, as they offer empirical evidence of the impact of enduring individual characteristics on knowledge sharing.     

Sudanese and Somali Refugees in Canada: Social Support Needs and Preferences

The aim of the study was to identify the unique support needs and preferences of African refugees in Canada. In‐depth interviews were conducted with Sudanese and Somali refugees (n=68) living in two cities in central and western Canada. Refugees were interviewed individually to identify their support needs, current sources of support, available support programmes, barriers to access to support resources, and preferred support interventions. These refugees reported major support needs, depleted social networks, and barriers to accessing services and supports. They identified distinct preferences for support from peers from the same country of origin and professionals. Participants wanted group‐level support supplemented by one‐to‐one support. Transportation, child care, meals, and peers matched by language and gender were recommended to enhance accessibility to support programmes. These findings can inform the design of support intervention research and enhance the relevance and supportiveness of services and programmes for recent refugees.     

Collecting experimental network data from interventions on critical links in workplace networks

This article describes and discusses challenges associated with interventionist network data gathering in organizational settings, with a special focus on dyadic interventions. While pointing out major risks of these approaches, we argue that collecting data in combination with dyadic network alteration methods can enable social network researchers to explore network mechanisms from a new angle and potentially benefit the members of the targeted social networks and the entire collectives, if certain research design and implementation principles are followed. We introduce a facilitated self-disclosure method for strengthening critical dyads in social networks in combination with longitudinal and retrospective network measurement. We assess the participants’ perceptions of the different stages of this process by qualitative interviews. The study illustrates that experimental network data collection includes some extra challenges in addition to the many challenges of observational network data collection but participants also reported practical benefits that would not be gained through observational network surveys alone. The results highlight the importance of early and continuous communication during the data collection process with all research participants, not just the management, and the benefits of sharing more of the preliminary results. The lessons learnt through this study can inform the design of experimental network data collection to prioritize the preferences of the participants and their benefits.     

Lebensstile und Wohnstandortwahl

Life style research and various disciplines dealing with regional studies argue that life styles are explanatory relevant for decisions in different behavioral areas, in particular for residential choices. However, the results of previous research are rather mixed. To specify the conditions for the explanatory relevance of life style based preferences for locational choices, this article ties in with a parsimonious decision theoretic model, which has been applied both in the sociology of the city and in life style research. Based on this theoretical framework an empirical study is presented, which tests the explanatory relevance of life styles for residential choices. The study is based on neighborhood survey data from Leipzig, representing a context, in which a strong impact of life styles may be expected. However, even in this context the empirical study shows rather limited explanatory power of life style based preferences for residential choices, whereas household arrangements and economic resource endowments of persons show much more explanatory power.     

Interpersonal risk assessment and social preferences: An experimental study

We investigate interpersonal risk assessment, that is how individuals use either their own or their partner’s monetary resources to offset the risk that affects them or their partner. The observed behavior is in line with the predictions of a simple piecewise linear model of social preferences. Overall, individuals opportunistically draw from others’ resources to offset risk; furthermore, they display higher levels of risk aversion when delegated to choose for others rather than when choosing for themselves. However, different social types differ in the assessment of interpersonal risk. Considering our results, we suggest that studies dealing with interpersonal risk assessment should not only focus on risk preferences, but also take into account social preferences.     

Gender role orientation and gaming behavior revisited: examining mediated and moderated effects

The article presents results of a study that examined the influence of gender role orientations on gaming motivations, game genre preferences, and different play styles. Applying social role theory, it was hypothesized that femininity and masculinity influence gender-typed motivations (social interaction, competition, and challenge) and preferences (role-playing and action games) as well as gender-typed behavior (cooperative play and competitive play). After collecting empirical data through an online survey, hypotheses were tested by structural equation modeling. Moreover, moderating effects of sociodemographic characteristics (biological gender, age, and educational level) were examined. Findings provide evidence for the existence of gender-typed motives of play, genre preferences, and – mediated by motivations and preferences – gaming behavior. Group analyses support a biosocial model of gender-typed gaming behavior because gender-typing of motives, preferences, and play styles varies in strength and direction by biological gender, age, and educational level.     

Does education influence wildlife friendly landscaping preferences?

In sprawling metropolitan areas, residential landscaping is a major concern with respect to biodiversity conservation, and it could play a critical role in conserving wildlife habitat. In the United States, residential landscaping typically consists of maintained lawns with specimen plantings of non-native trees and shrubs; such designs provide poor habitat for urban wildlife species. We conducted a case study of Raleigh, North Carolina residents to determine how providing information about the benefits of native plant landscaping to bird species influenced urban residents’ landscaping preferences. We used Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests to determine if respondent preferences for 0, 50, 75 and 100 % native plant landscaping coverages changed after residents were informed about the benefits that native plants provide for birds. Initially, the 50 % native landscaping coverage was most preferred by residents; however, preferences for all four native plant landscaping coverage designs were significantly different after the informational treatment. Neutrality changed to opposition for the 0 % native plant coverage, while opposition changed to support and neutrality for the 75 and 100 % native plant coverage designs, respectively. After the informational treatment, the 50 and 75 % native plant landscaping coverage had the highest mean preference levels, although the 100 % design was ranked first more than any other design. Our findings suggest that residential support for native plant landscaping is higher than is reflected by typical residential landscaping practices, and that dissemination of information regarding the benefits of native plant landscaping to birds could alter public preferences for native plant landscaping.     

Scoring rules on dichotomous preferences

In this paper, we study individual incentives to report preferences truthfully for the special case when individuals have dichotomous preferences on the set of alternatives and preferences are aggregated in form of scoring rules. In particular, we show that (a) the Borda Count coincides with Approval Voting, (b) the Borda Count is the only strategy-proof scoring rule, and (c) if the size of the electorate is greater than three, then the dichotomous preference domain is the unique maximal rich domain under which the Borda Count is strategy-proof. I thank Jordi Massó for his supervision and his never-ending encouragement. Miguel-ángel Ballester showed me how to improve on earlier drafts of the paper. Salvador Barberà, Carmen Bevía, Bhaskar Dutta, Lars Ehlers, Alejandro Neme, Shmuel Nitzan and Yves Sprumont helped me a lot with their comments. All remaining errors are mine. This research was undertaken with support from the fellowship 2001FI 00451 of the Generalitat de Catalunya and from the research grant BEC2002-02130 of the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología of Spain while I have been a graduate student at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.     

A Clinician-Researcher’s Understanding of “The Effectiveness of Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy”

Leichsenring and Rabung’s meta-analysis of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy offers a useful summary of available research data. Their adaptation of meta-analysis has many merits as well as some important limitations. Their work provides preliminary support for the effectiveness of this therapy, a widely used method of treatment that also has detractors. The article also sets the stage for reviewing how the research ideology of evidence-based practice (EBP), and the economic forces behinds EBP, may limit research on several therapeutic methods of interest to clinical social workers and our clients. A call is made for additional high quality research on many therapies with considerable research support that may not (yet) meet the standards of EBP.     

Non-Sexist “Marital” Therapy*

Certain factors limit marital therapists in dealing with individuals conflicted over and disenchanted about “traditional” marriage: 1) the therapist's gender, 2) the presence of sex-role stereotyped behaviors and expectations, and 3) the therapists own marital experience. Specific helpful experiences (working with a co-therapist of the opposite sex, examining attitudes and biases toward divorce) and therapeutic techniques (working out a schedule for sharing household tasks and childcare, restructuring the marital contract, and dealing with open companionship) are discussed. The general therapeutic goal is working toward an equal sharing of overt power, with social, economic, and political considerations and intrapsychic forces given comparable consideration.     

Intercultural encounters as a ‘Mind Body’ experience: a case study in Jerusalem

This study presents new techniques for teaching diversity, when dealing with the challenges of multicultural society. We present a course model, which incorporates methods that have been developed by the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), and continue to disclose and analyse some of the reactions and evaluations we received from the participating students. Findings revealed that the CMBM techniques contributed considerably to the intercultural atmosphere. CMBM contributed in creating added value, in improving self-efficacy and in advancing similarity perceptions in intercultural communication. Moreover, CMBM developed greater trust and emotional support among group members, thus may contribute to reach the educational goals. This study advances composite theoretical accounts into a set of conclusions for bridging intercultural encounters challenges through mind–body techniques.     

Work Values in the Second Generation of Gender Equality Pioneers: A Case Study from Norway

This article explores work values in a generational context. Sons and daughters of couples that made untraditional choices in sharing the provider role in Norway in the 1970s were interviewed about work–family adaptation, work motivation and working time preferences. These issues are discussed theoretically in relation to gender socialization in the family as well as to opportunity structures created by welfare state policies. The findings lend support to the generational transmission thesis in that those whose parents made the most radical choices concerning gender equality were more inclined than the others to opt for unconventional solutions. However, the atypical pattern of husband and wife both working part time was reproduced only exceptionally. Irrespective of family background, nearly all interviewees adapted to the pattern of work–family articulation that welfare state policies encourage in working full time or close to full time. Men and women were found to hold similar values with respect to careers. Nearly all would prefer to work fewer hours while work motivation and preferences about the structure of working time differed according to gender.     

‘I shared the joy’: sport-related social support and communality on Instagram

The popularity of sharing photographs on digital platforms has increased significantly due to the communicative affordances of mobile media and the emergence of photo-sharing applications, such as Instagram. In this paper, we examine how social support and communality can be built and reinforced through digital visual communication. We focus especially on photo sharing in the context of recreational climbing and trail running. In a qualitative study with Finnish climbers and runners, we asked what meanings sports practitioners ascribe to the practice of sharing and observed how they communicate these meanings through photographs. The results indicate that different types of visual content build and reinforce communality in distinct ways. Whereas inspirational photographs drive practitioners to explore, motivational photographs pull practitioners to keep going through goal setting and peer support. We conclude that visual communication on Instagram mediates a stream of momentary encounters between practitioners that merge into communally meaningful experiences. Thus, we assert that in the context of recreational sport subcultures, photo sharing not only facilitates social relationships but can be perceived as a meaningful social practice that is integral to reinforcing physical activity.     

Collective risk aversion

In this article we analyze the risk attitude of a group of heterogeneous agents and we develop a theory of comparative collective risk tolerance. In particular, we characterize how shifts in the distribution of individual levels of risk tolerance affect the group’s attitude towards risk. In a model with efficient risk-sharing and two agents an increase in the level of risk tolerance of one or of both agents might have an ambiguous impact on the collective level of risk tolerance; the latter increases for some levels of aggregate wealth while it decreases for other levels of aggregate wealth. For more general populations we characterize the effect of first-order like shifts (individual levels of risk tolerance more concentrated on high values) and second-order like shifts (more dispersion on individual levels of risk tolerance) on the collective level of risk tolerance. We also evaluate how shifts in the distribution of individual levels of risk tolerance impact the collective level of risk tolerance in a framework with exogenous egalitarian sharing rules. Our results permit to better characterize differences in risk taking behavior between groups and individuals and among groups with different distributions of risk preferences.