Linking Advertising,Materialism, and Life Satisfaction

This paper develops theory related to advertising, materialism, and life satisfaction by formally testing explanations related to the antecedents and consequences of materialism. Survey data were collected from seven major cities each in a different country (Australia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Germany, Egypt, Korea, Turkey, and the USA) using a probability sample (cluster sampling method involving income stratification). The results showed that the extent to which advertising is perceived to be materialistic contributes to materialism. Materialism, in turn, leads to the frequent use of various standards of comparison in making judgments about standard of living. As judgments about standard of living increase, standard of living is evaluated more negatively. In turn, negative self-evaluations contribute significantly to dissatisfaction with life.     

Positive Adolescent Career Development: The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Work Values

This longitudinal study of 268 Swiss adolescents, spanning across 8th grade, investigated the relation of intrinsic and extrinsic work values to positive career development in deciding, planning, and exploring. Results showed that girls reported more intrinsic and fewer extrinsic work values compared with boys. Students with an immigration background reported more extrinsic values than did students of Swiss nationality. When gender, nationality, and scholastic achievement were controlled, more general work value endorsement was a significant predictor of an above‐average increase in career development over the course of the school year. Endorsement of more intrinsic but not extrinsic work values was related to positive career development.     

Welfare, labor supply and heterogeneous preferences: evidence for Europe and the US

Following the report of the Stiglitz Commission, measuring and comparing well-being across countries has gained renewed interest. Yet, analyses that go beyond income and incorporate non-market dimensions of welfare most often rely on the assumption of identical preferences to avoid the difficulties related to interpersonal comparisons. In this paper, we suggest an international comparison based on individual welfare rankings that fully retain preference heterogeneity. Focusing on the consumption-leisure trade-off, we estimate discrete choice labor supply models using harmonized microdata for 11 European countries and the US. We retrieve preference heterogeneity within and across countries and analyze several welfare criteria which take into account that differences in income are partly due to differences in tastes. The resulting welfare rankings clearly depend on the normative treatment of preference heterogeneity with alternative metrics. We show that these differences can indeed be explained by estimated preference heterogeneity across countries—rather than demographic composition.     

A Review of: “Sex and Ethics: Essays on Sexuality,Virtue, and the Good Life. Edited by Raja Halwani.”

Early family backgrounds of gay fathers compared to a matched sample of gay nonfathers were investigated, with particular emphasis on parent‐son relationships. It was hypothesized that, contrary to predictions based on Freudian theory, there would be no difference in homosexual fathers' and nonfathers' perceptions of their early family life and relationships with their mothers and fathers. Questionnaires from 30 gay fathers and 30 gay nonfathers derived from a larger nationwide study of 285 homosexual men from Dignity chapters in the Northeastern, Midwestern, Southern, Southwestern, and Western United States were analyzed using analysis of variance. No difference was found between the gay fathers' and gay nonfathers' perceptions of their parents' acceptance of them. Both groups perceived their mothers to be significantly more accepting than .their fathers. Both groups also reported growing up in intact homes where heterosexual relationships were modeled for them, pleasant memories existed, and marital discord was not commonplace. These results support the growing body of research which questions the Freudian‐based concept of a causal relationship between early familial relationship patterns and sexual orientation.     

Kulturelle Muster des Altersübergangs: Der Einfluss kultureller Normen und Werte auf die Erwerbsbeteiligung älterer Menschen in Europa

The article examines the impact of culturally influenced norms and cultural values towards the ideal arrangement due to the transition to retirement on the labor market participation of older people aged 55 to 64 in Europe. Subsequent to a basic definition of retirement cultures, an extended explanatory model for the transition to retirement is developed, which takes cultural norms and values or rather the country-specific-retirement culture explicitly into account. Secondly, the model is empirically validated. The underlying dataset is the third round of the European Social Survey (ESS) which was conducted in 2006. Overall it is found that the impact of societal norms and values on the participation decision of older individuals can be both, theoretically modeled and empirically verified. Within the explanatory model the importance of cultural norms and values for explaining the retirement decisions of older people is twofold. Firstly, like the nation-specific institutional framework of the transition to retirement as well as the material resources of the individuals, this specific transition-to-retirement-culture belongs to the conditional part of the model and limits the number of alternative courses of action. Secondly, as an internalized social norm, the transition-to-retirement-culture is an integral part of the definition of the situation and structures the preference order of the individuals. The theoretical influence can also be validated in the empirical model. Firstly, there is a highly significant (positive) correlation between the attitudes towards the ideal retirement transition on the one hand and the participation decision on the individual level. On the societal level, a significant correlation between the country-specific transition-to-retirement-culture and the employment rate of older people can be seen. In this context, a low labor market participation of older people goes along with a comparatively exit-oriented transition-to-retirement-culture and vice versa.     

Toleranz versus Vorurteil?

Is tolerance the opposite of prejudice? The widely shared belief that tolerance implies low levels of prejudice is put to the test. Four conceptions of tolerant attitudes are differentiated, as the basis for an empirical scale for measuring tolerant attitudes, which was tested in a representative survey in 2009. Analysis of the data supports the differentiation into four conceptions of tolerance, but the structural equation model shows a significant negative relationship with prejudice only for social esteem. It is questionable whether this conception can still be called tolerance, since it lacks the component of rejection which is inherent to tolerance.     

Analysis of thermal bioclimate in various urban configurations in Athens, Greece

The present study deals with human thermal comfort, as it is quantified by two well-known human biometeorological indices, Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) and Humidex, in selected urban areas with different tree and building structures. The study took place during July 2003, at Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. Meteorological and environmental measurements were carried out at six sites. The selected sites differ in regard to sky view factor (SVF) values, environmental configuration and green (vegetation) coverage. The results of this study indicate a striking influence of site configuration on human thermal comfort. For example, in an outdoor lawn area surrounded by trees (green atrium) the PET was greater than 41 °C (human perception of “very hot”) for 13 % of the measurement time, while in an open building atrium (courtyard) PET was greater than 41 °C for 28 % of the time. In addition, ‘comfortable’ conditions as PET quantifies formed during 26 % of the measurement time in green atrium but less than 15 % of the time in the building atrium. Especially during daytime the difference between these two sites reached 8.7 °C according to the PET and 4.3 °C according to the Humidex. At sites with low SVF values and dense green coverage the human biometeorological conditions were improved compared to sites with high SVF values and those with buildings nearby. Significant relationships between SVF and biometeorological indices classes were indicated. The PET index better represented human comfort than Humidex.     

Seasonal patterns in slot-machine gambling in Germany

Although several aspects of gambling have been thoroughly investigated, little is known about the effect of seasonality on gambling. This study investigated the seasonal patterns in slot-machine usage, based on a unique data set of slot-machine usage from a German gambling centre using time series analysis. Knowledge of seasonal slot-machine usage patterns provides useful insights for researchers, gambling centre managers and legal authorities. Slot-machine gambling activity appears to be highest in November, when poor weather is compounded with lack of entertainment activities and lowest in December, when ample entertainment possibilities may distract people from gambling. The estimated daily and weekly seasonal patterns support the self-control literature, which suggests that self-regulatory failures are more likely when people are more tired; after work, or late in the evening. The high variation in gambling during winter implies that the availability of alternative entertainment activities may have an important influence on slot-machine usage.