Ethical crises in the international political economy

The Icelandic banking crisis provides a useful example of how the global economic downturn transformed into a domestic crisis and then transformed again into an international conflict. Rather than a strict economic analysis, discussion around the economic causes and potential cures surrounding the Icelandic banking crisis have been framed in terms of ethics. The analysis shows that ethical paradigms based on consequences, in line with Kant's hypothetical imperative, do not align well with categorical imperatives based on duty when considering international political conflicts. It is unclear that any accounting would have the potential to achieve reconciliation.     

Are Psychology University Student Gamblers Representative of Non-university Students and General Gamblers? A Comparative Analysis

Students recruited from psychology undergraduate university populations are commonly used in psychology research, including gambling studies. However, the extent to which the use of this subpopulation produces findings that can be extrapolated to other groups is questionable. The present study was designed to compare results from university-recruited psychology student gamblers to those obtained from a sample of gamblers recruited from the general population that also included students. An online survey measuring gambling behavior and Internet gambling, attitudes and knowledge about gambling and problem gambling severity was posted on websites accessed by gamblers. Participants were recruited from two sources, a psychology undergraduate university population (n = 461) and online websites (n = 4,801). Results showed university-recruited students differed significantly from both adults and students recruited from the general population in respect to demographic variables and gambling behavior. Psychology undergraduate students were younger, more likely to be female, and had lower incomes. When relevant demographic variables were controlled, psychology undergraduate students were found to gamble less frequently, at different times, and to be at lower-risk for gambling-related problems, but had more irrational beliefs and more negative attitudes towards gambling than gamblers recruited from the general population. Results suggest that caution should be used in extrapolating findings from research using university-recruited psychology student gamblers to wide community populations due to differences related to gambling thoughts, attitudes and behaviors.     

Graphical methods for comparing confounding in two or more designs

In many circumstances it is necessary to design an experiment with partial confounding of parameter estimates. In this situation, one would like to have tools to assess and compare candidate designs graphically. In this paper we discuss two graphical representations of design properties, and illustrate their application with two examples.     

Children Selectively Trust Individuals Who Have Imitated Them

We investigated the influence of being imitated on children's subsequent trust. Five‐ to six‐year‐olds interacted with one experimenter who mimicked their choices and another experimenter who made different choices. Children were then presented with two tests. In a preference test, the experimenters offered conflicting preferences for the contents of two opaque boxes, and children were asked to choose a box. In a factual claims test, the experimenters offered conflicting claims about the referent for a novel word, and children were asked to state which object the word referred to. Children were significantly more likely to endorse both the preferences and the factual claims of the experimenter who had mimicked them. These results demonstrate that imitation is a powerful means of social influence in development.     

Review

Representing reality: issues and concepts in documentary by Bill Nichols. Bloomington and Indianapolis: University of Indiana Press, 1991. $39.95 cloth. ISBN: 0–253–34060–8. $17.50 paper. ISBN: 0–253–20681–2.