Effects of positive attitude and optimism on wage and employment: A double selection approach

Using two samples from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), a longitudinal data set from the United States, and following a double selection approach, the current study estimates the worker's employment and wage equations simultaneously with positive attitude and optimism as additional explanatory variables. Modeling employment as a bivariate decision process, the study examines different factors that influence the worker's labor market participation decision, the employer's hiring decision and the wage rate. The study finds the evidence that the worker's positive attitude and optimism affect the worker's employment probability from different angles: the former through the participation decision and the latter through the hiring decision. Following an alternative approach, this study also provides strong support to the earlier finding that positive attitude affects the worker's wage positively. Interestingly, the effects of attitude variables on the worker's wage are found to be quite comparable in magnitude to the wage effects of the traditional human capital variables.     

Relational Self‐Construal as a Moderator of Social Support in Career Decision Making

The authors examined relational self‐construal as a moderator of the influence of social support on career decision‐making difficulties among 352 college students (65% women, 63% Caucasian). Results of hierarchical regression analyses supported the hypothesis that individuals with higher relational self‐construal reported fewer difficulties in terms of lack of information and inconsistent information in career decision making as social support increased. Social support, however, did not reduce career decision‐making difficulties for those with lower relational self‐construal. Relational self‐construal did not moderate the relationship between social support and lack of readiness in career decision‐making difficulties as expected, possibly because of conceptual and measurement issues. Results suggest counselors work from relational and contextual perspectives to foster clients' self‐views and to use social support to facilitate their career decision making.     

A tax can nudge: The impact of an environmentally motivated bonus/malus fiscal system on transport preferences

Bonus-malus taxes appear to have been successful in encouraging people to change to less polluting travel options in France (e.g. the tax on large and small engined cars). We hypothesize that they have three possible effects on consumer behaviour. The positive effects are: (1) a price effect (the less polluting option is subsidized and the polluting option is taxed); and (2) a social norm effect (the less polluting option is classified as pro-social and the polluting option as antisocial). The negative effect (3) is that they may decrease intrinsic motivation (crowding out). We provide an initial test of this tripartite model using survey data on students given a choice between taking the plane or the train between Toulouse to Paris. The first study shows that imposing a hypothetical bonus-malus tax has both a price effect (relative to a control condition where only the norm justifying the tax is presented) and a norm effect (relative to a control condition in which only the corresponding price difference is presented without mention of the tax). The second study presents a set of choices where the environmental norms and price differences are held constant, but the size of the contribution of the bonus-malus tax to the final price of each option is varied. This study confirms our prediction that a larger bonus-malus subsidy/tax reduces propensity to choose the less polluting option (i.e. the train). As the positive effects outweigh the negative effects in most of the choices studied, we conclude that bonus-malus taxes constitute a promising policy instrument.     

Goal orientation and variety seeking behavior: The role of decision task

This research conducted two experiments to examine the interaction effect of decision task (sequential choices vs. simultaneous choices) and goal orientation (prevention focus vs. promotion focus) on variety-seeking behavior. In the sequential choices for sequential consumption condition (consumers buy one item at a time for each consumption occasion), promotion-focused consumers tend to select a greater variety of items (a higher extent of variety-seeking) than prevention-focused consumers. In contrast, in the simultaneous choices for sequential consumption condition (consumers buy several items at a time for each following consumption occasion), prevention-focused consumers tend to select a greater variety of items (a higher extent of variety-seeking) than promotion-focused consumers.     

Self‐Construal,Career Decision Self‐Efficacy,and Perceived Barriers Predict Mexican American Women's Life Satisfaction

This study used the social cognitive theory of well‐being (SCTW; Lent, 2004 ) to examine the role of career decision self‐efficacy (CDSE), perceived educational barriers, and independent self‐construal on the life satisfaction of 176 Mexican American college women. A 3‐step hierarchical regression analysis indicated that independent self‐construal, CDSE, and fewer perceived educational barriers significantly predicted greater life satisfaction among Mexican American college women above and beyond the influence of socioeconomic status and generational status. These findings are consistent with SCTW and highlight the need for counselors and researchers to be aware of the role that self‐construal, CDSE, and perceived educational barriers can have on Mexican American women's life satisfaction. Implications for practice at the secondary‐school and university levels are discussed.     

Justifiable preferences over opportunity sets

In this paper we say that a preference over opportunity sets is justifiable if there exists a reflexive and complete binary relation on the set of alternatives, such that one opportunity set is at least as good as a second, if and only if the there is at least one alternative from the first set which is no worse than any alternative of the two sets combined together, with respect to the binary relation on the alternatives. In keeping with the revered tradition set by von Neumann and Morgenstern we call a reflexive and complete binary relation, an abstract game (note: strictly speaking von Neumann and Morgenstern refer to the asymmetric part of a reflexive and complete binary relation as an abstract game; hence our terminology though analytically equivalent, leads to a harmless corruption of the original meaning). In this paper we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for the justifiability of transitive and quasi transitive preferences over opportunity sets. I would like to thank Prasanta Pattanaik for motivation in this research. I would also like to thank Maurice Salles and an anonymous referee of this journal for useful suggestions leading to considerable improvement in the presentation. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Sixth Annual Conference on Econometric Modeling for Africa, held at Pretoria from July 4–6, 2001. I would like to thank all the conference participants for their observations on my paper. However, the sole responsibility for errors that do remain is my own.     

Electroencephalographic Evidence of Abnormal Anticipatory Uncertainty Processing in Gambling Disorder Patients

Putting money at stake produces anticipatory uncertainty, a process that has been linked to key features of gambling. Here we examined how learning and individual differences modulate the stimulus preceding negativity (SPN, an electroencephalographic signature of perceived uncertainty of valued outcomes) in gambling disorder patients (GDPs) and healthy controls (HCs), during a non-gambling contingency learning task. Twenty-four GDPs and 26 HCs performed a causal learning task under conditions of high and medium uncertainty (HU, MU; null and positive cue-outcome contingency, respectively). Participants were asked to predict the outcome trial-by-trial, and to regularly judge the strength of the cue-outcome contingency. A pre-outcome SPN was extracted from simultaneous electroencephalographic recordings for each participant, uncertainty level, and task block. The two groups similarly learnt to predict the occurrence of the outcome in the presence/absence of the cue. In HCs, SPN amplitude decreased as the outcome became predictable in the MU condition, a decrement that was absent in the HU condition, where the outcome remained unpredictable during the task. Most importantly, GDPs’ SPN remained high and insensitive to task type and block. In GDPs, the SPN amplitude was linked to gambling preferences. When both groups were considered together, SPN amplitude was also related to impulsivity. GDPs thus showed an abnormal electrophysiological response to outcome uncertainty, not attributable to faulty contingency learning. Differences with controls were larger in frequent players of passive games, and smaller in players of more active games. Potential psychological mechanisms underlying this set of effects are discussed.     

An integrated model of the economic effects of right-to-work laws

This study derives an empirical model which simultaneously traces the effect of Right-to-Work laws on the worker’s decision to join the union, the union’s decision to set the wage rate, and the firm’s decision to employ inputs. The model identifies two channels through which Right-to-Work laws affect these decisions: the wage effect and the productivity effect. Our results show that RTW laws tend to affect economic decisions through the wage effect, because the effect of RTW laws on productivity is small in most states. We thank an anonymous referee for helpful comments. Any errors that remain are the responsibility of the authors.     

Influencing support of charitable objectives in the near and distant future: delay discounting and the moderating influence of construal level

Two studies investigated the delay discounting effect in charitable giving situations, and whether construal level moderates this effect. In both studies, construal level was manipulated by inducing a concrete vs. an abstract mindset. Participants were asked how much time (Experiment 1) or how much money (Experiment 2) they would be willing to volunteer or donate, respectively, to a self-chosen charitable organization in either the near or distant future. Participants committed themselves to contributing more time and money in the distant than in the near future. Additionally, an abstract (vs. concrete) mindset reduced this delay discounting effect, particularly for monetary donations. Delay discounting of costs associated with altruistic behavior and the role of construal level in increasing donations and volunteering are discussed.     

Mode effects in cultural domain analysis: comparing pile sort data collected via internet versus face-to-face interviews

This article tests whether collecting pile-sort data online produces results similar to those obtained with face-to-face methods. We collected pile sorts from 227 university students in the cultural domain of emotions. To test for mode and design effects, we randomly assigned participants to face-to-face or internet modes and to either a 15- or 30-item sort. We found no evidence of mode effects in semantic structure, but the level of agreement among respondents varied by mode, depending on the number of items in the task. Agreement was higher among online respondents in the 15-item task but among face-to-face respondents in the 30-item one. Because the central purpose of pile sorting is to elicit semantic structure, we conclude that online data collection is a viable option for most researchers, but the mode effect in level of agreement implies that other design elements may affect comparability of face-to-face and web-based methods.     

The Role of Emotional Intelligence During an Emotionally Difficult Decision-Making Task

Emotional intelligence (EI) can be defined as the ability to understand, perceive, and manage emotions. However, there is little research investigating how EI influences decision-making during emotionally difficult situations. We hypothesized that higher EI would correlate with greater utilization of socially relevant facial cues during emotional decision-making. Sixty-two 18–45 year olds completed a decision-making task simulating an airport security screening during a credible terrorist threat. Participants viewed a series of facial photographs of potential passengers (white men and women) and selected which passengers to detain for further interrogation. The face photographs were previously rated for a set of character traits (e.g., aggression) by independent judges. Participants completed measures of trait (self-perceived) and ability (performance-based) EI and cognitive intelligence (IQ). With higher ability EI, participants were more likely to detain only individuals judged to be particularly high in negative traits (e.g., “aggression”) and especially low in positive traits (e.g., “trustworthy”), suggesting greater acuity in decision choices. These associations were driven primarily by the facilitating and understanding branches of EI (i.e., the ability to generate and use emotion to facilitate decision making, and the ability to understand factors that generate and modify emotions). No association between trait EI or IQ and detainment decisions was found. Findings suggest that individuals with higher ability EI were more likely to utilize the available but limited social information (i.e., facial features) when completing an emotional decision-making task than those with lower EI. These findings have implications for real-life situations involving similarly difficult emotional decision-making processes.     

Exploring the consequences of a recalibration of causal conditions when assessing sufficiency with fuzzy set QCA

The use of Charles Ragin’s Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) is increasing in the social sciences. However, some of its characteristics, especially those of its fuzzy set variant, are still not well understood by users. QCA, a set theoretic method, aims to describe, in a Boolean form, the configurations of conditions that are necessary and/or sufficient for some outcome. The calibration of set memberships is a central feature. We discuss how two alternative calibrations of a condition affect the assessment of consistency with sufficiency. Using first an abstract example and then an empirical one from the sociology of education, we explain why “stricter” calibration of conditions results in higher consistency with sufficiency. We demonstrate that conventional truth table analysis is not an ideal way to compare the analytic consequences of alternative calibrations and therefore employ an alternative which allows a more direct comparison of consistency indices while keeping comparative configurational contexts intact.     

Is Homophobia Associated with an Implicit Same-Sex Attraction?

Some theorists propose that homophobia stems from underlying same-sex attraction. A few studies have tested this hypothesis, yet without a clear measure of implicit sexual attraction, producing mixed results. For the first time, we test this attraction-based account of homophobia among both men and women using an implicit measure of sexual attraction. No evidence of an attraction-based account of homophobia emerged. Instead, implicit same-sex attraction was related to positive evaluations of gay men and lesbians among female participants. Even in targeted analyses examining the relation between implicit same-sex attraction and homosexual evaluations among only those theoretically most likely to demonstrate an attraction-based homophobic effect, implicit same-sex attraction was not associated with evaluations of homosexuals or was associated with more positive evaluations of homosexuals. In addition, explicit same-sex attraction was related to positive evaluations of gay men and lesbians for male participants. These results are more in keeping with the attitude-similarity effect (i.e., people like, rather than dislike, similar others).     

Inhibition as an adaptive mechanism in memory-based choices

Abstract

This study examines the role of inhibitory processes in memory-based choices. In two experiments, the effects of the competitive nature of memory retrieval as well as the valence of the to-be-retrieved items on a recall and a choice task are examined by using the retrieval practice paradigm. The results show a parallel pattern for both tasks. Specifically, neither forgetting nor choice bias were found in the non-competitive retrieval condition, for both positive and negative information. Nevertheless, a retrieval-induced forgetting and a choice bias effect were found in the competitive retrieval condition, although only for positive information. Interestingly, this negativity effect disappeared when positive information was excluded from to-be-learned material. These findings suggest the way in which the lasting consequences of inhibition affect choice processes.     

Desires matter! Desired attitudes predict behavioural intentions in people who think abstractly: the case of eating products without added salt / ¡Los deseos importan! Las actitudes deseadas predicen las intenciones de comportamiento en las personas que piensan de modo abstracto: El caso del consumo de alimentos sin sal añadida

Introduction. Previous research supports that congruence in the construal level between a person’s mindset and predictors enhanced the strength of predictions. Because desired attitudes are more abstract than actual attitudes, we expected that desired attitudes would better predict behavioural intentions in people who present an abstract style of thinking. Objective. We tested this matching effect between desired attitudes and abstractness by measuring the construal level as a person’s base-rate tendency. Method. Participants (N = 105) reported their past experience and actual and desired attitudes towards eating products without added salt and their behavioural intentions. To classify participants according to an abstract or a concrete way of thinking, their first thought was coded using the linguistic category model (LCM). Results. The simple slopes analysis showed that desired attitudes significantly influenced behavioural intentions for participants with an abstract way of thinking. Conclusion. Our results support the relevance of desired attitudes in terms of behavioural predictions and extend the role of the construal level in the prediction and promotion of desirable but demanding behaviour in the framework of individual differences.     

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: THE CASE OF THE DESIGNATED HITTER AND HIT BATTERS

Past studies have found a positive correlation between the use of the designated hitter in baseball and hit batters, but the reason for this is debatable. Using a new micro‐level data set of individual plate appearances, we control for detailed cost‐benefit attributes that affect the decision calculus of the pitcher to isolate the deterrent impact of requiring the pitcher to bat. We find that pitchers hit batters strategically, and the deterrent effect of requiring pitchers to bat explains 60%–80% of the difference in hit batsmen between leagues. We also identify evidence of direct retaliation against plunking pitchers. (JEL D81, KC42, L83)     

The impact of family structure and social change on adolescent sexual behavior

This article presents a biophysical perspective on adolescent sexual feelings and behavior. The study particularly analyzes sexual attraction, desire, and mate selection as evolutionary adaptations just as important to species survival. Sex differences in mating strategies are described as part of this evolutionary adaptation. Recent research findings demonstrate how these strategies explain contemporary sexual and reproductive behavior in Western societies today, as they do sexual behavior in the past or across diverse cultures. The implications of this analysis are significant to intervention efforts to postpone sexual initiation and avert nonmarital births. Discussion on demographic and normative changes that affect adolescent sexual behavior included trends in sexual maturation and changing marriage norms. The author urges greater emphasis on the early pubertal years; increased attention to teaching adolescents more about their own sexual development; a less absolutist focus on sexual abstinence, which may be appropriate and more feasible for 12 year olds but not for 16 year olds; better and more widespread sex education at earlier ages and throughout the school curriculum; frank discussion of all the options available for those who experience an unwanted pregnancy; and same level of attention towards adolescent boys and girls.     

Investor preferences for positive social externalities and state-owned enterprises’ facilitated access to capital

State-ownership of commercial companies exists around the world, and it is important to understand its effect on financing and investment decisions. Empirically, firms that are partially state-owned (SOE) usually profit from easier access to capital. We propose a novel explanation for this: investors’ social preferences can affect capital allocation if SOEs are perceived as socially beneficial. In support of this we found that people attribute social benefits more to SOEs than to private firms, and their propensity to invest depends on this attitude. Further, in an incentivized modified stochastic public goods game, participants invested in risky options with positive externalities even when the aggregate of private return and externality was lower than the return of an investment option with only private returns. For the case of the EU, we discuss alternative explanations such as state guarantees and political lending in the light of regulations of state aid. We conclude that even if these regulations prohibit direct or indirect state aid for SOEs, state-ownership can affect capital allocation through investors’ social preferences.     

Driving Under the Influence of Risky Peers: An Experimental Study of Adolescent Risk Taking

Both passive and active social influences may affect adolescents' dangerous driving. In this study, we used an experimental paradigm to delineate these two influences with actual peers. Adolescents completed a simulated driving task, and we measured risk preferences of each member of the peer group. We used hierarchical linear modeling to partition variance in risky decisions. Adolescents experienced many more crashes when they had “passengers” present who reported a strong preference for risk taking and who actively provided decision‐making guidance. Although youth in the passive peer condition were also influenced by the riskiness of their peers, this relation was less strong relative to the active condition. We discuss the need for interventions focussing on active and passive peer influence.