The Greater Ability of Graphical Versus Numerical Displays to Increase Risk Avoidance Involves a Common Mechanism

By displaying a risk reduction of 50% graphically rather than numerically, Stone, Yates, and Parker significantly increased professed risk-avoidant behavior. The current experiments replicated this effect at various risk ratios. Specifically, participants were willing to spend more money to reduce a risk when the risk information was displayed by asterisks rather than by numbers for risk-reduction ratios ranging from 3% to 97%. Transforming the amount participants were willing to spend to logarithms significantly improved a linear fit to the data, suggesting that participants convert this variable within the decision-making process. Moreover, a log-linear model affords an exceptional fit to both the graphical and numerical data, suggesting that a graphical presentation elicits the same decision-making mechanism as does the numerical display. In addition, the data also suggest that each person removed from harm is weighted more by some additional factor in the graphical compared to the numerical presentations.     

Sektion Jugendsoziologie Tätigkeitsbericht 2004

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

ISOLATION, INTEGRATION, AND ETHNIC BOUNDARIES IN RURAL GUATEMALA

We investigate two perspectives about the effects of reduced discrimination and greater social and economic opportunities on ethnic identity in rural areas of contemporary Guatemala. Our analysis contrasts the effects of new opportunities in Indigenous communities on language use and dress, using data from the 1995 Encuesta Guatemalteca de Salud Familiar (EGSF). While the use of both dress and language has changed substantially in recent years, language use has changed considerably more than dress. We conclude that, in this context, economic opportunities have not necessarily diminished ethnic solidarity, but may have instead reshaped it.     

The Science of Infancy: Academic,Social, and Political Agendas

The effectiveness of researchers in infancy is conditioned by their participation in 3 agendas. The academic agenda is devoted to the question of understanding infants, the social agenda is devoted to the question of how to improve the life of infants, and the political agenda is devoted to finding the resources for both understanding and improvement. Amplification is provided for each agenda with attention to the evolution of theoretical frameworks used by infancy researchers.     

The ubiquitous angle

Summary.  Previously we used the geometry of n -dimensional space to derive the paired samples t -test and its p -value. In the present paper we describe the 'ubiquitous' application of these results to single degree of freedom linear model hypothesis tests. As examples, we derive the p - and t -values for the independent samples t -test, for testing a contrast in an analysis of variance and for testing the slope in a simple linear regression analysis. An angle θ in n -dimensional space is again pivotal in the development of the ideas. The relationships between p , t , θ , F and the correlation coefficient are also described by using a 'statistical triangle'.     

Across continents or across the street: using local resources to cultivate intercultural awareness

This paper describes a project designed for college students unlikely to participate in international exchange programs but who, nonetheless, can learn much about intercultural communication through available resources in their own communities. The project involved a mentoring program between third and fourth year university students and first and second year ESL students at the same institution. The project was conducted over a 15‐week semester‐long course, and learning outcomes were documented through journal entries, written reflective statements, class discussions, oral presentations and instructor observations. A qualitative analysis of these data sources, framed through transformative learning theory, revealed outcomes leading to increased intercultural awareness. While engaging in face‐to‐face conversations, students transformed their prior knowledge about ‘others’ into a deeper understanding of themselves, their culture and their intercultural relationships.     

Fathering in intact and divorced families: Ethnic differences in retrospective reports

The present study was designed to investigate whether ethnicity moderates the effects of divorce on young adults’ retrospective reports of fathering. An ethnically diverse sample of 1,989 university students completed measures of nurturant fathering, reported father involvement, and desired father involvement. Compared with participants from intact families, those from divorced families indicated lower levels of nurturant fathering and reported father involvement. These differences varied considerably by ethnicity. Reported fathering differences between participants from intact and divorced families were greatest in African Americans, Caribbean Islanders, and foreign‐born Cubans. These differences were smallest in non‐Hispanic Whites and Asians. Participants from divorced families reported greater levels of desired father involvement than did participants from intact families. These differences were not moderated by ethnicity.     

Quantitative Risk Assessment of FMD Virus Transmission via Water

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a viral disease of domesticated and wild cloven-hoofed animals. FMD virus is known to spread by direct contact between infected and susceptible animals, by animal products such as meat and milk, by the airborne route, and mechanical transfer on people, wild animals, birds, and by vehicles. During the outbreak of 2001 in the Netherlands, milk from dairy cattle was illegally discharged into the sewerage as a consequence of transport prohibition. This may lead to contaminated discharges of biologically treated and raw sewage in surface water that is given to cattle to drink. The objective of the present study was to assess the probability of infecting dairy cows that were drinking FMD virus contaminated surface water due to illegal discharges of contaminated milk. So, the following data were collected from literature: FMD virus inactivation in aqueous environments, FMD virus concentrations in milk, dilution in sewage water, virus removal by sewage treatment, dilution in surface water, water consumption of cows, size of a herd in a meadow, and dose-response data for ingested FMD virus by cattle. In the case of 1.6 x 10(2) FMD virus per milliliter in milk and discharge of treated sewage in surface water, the probability of infecting a herd of cows was estimated to be 3.3 x 10(-7) to 8.5 x 10(-5), dependent on dilution in the receiving surface water. In the case of discharge of raw sewage, all probabilities of infection were 100 times higher. In the case of little dilution in small rivers, the high level of 8.5 x 10(-3) is reached. For 10(4) times higher FMD virus concentrations in milk, the probabilities of infecting a herd of cows are high in the case of discharge of treated sewage (3.3 x 10(-3) to 5.7 x 10(-1)) and very high in the case of discharge of raw sewage (0.28-1.0). It can be concluded that illegal and uncontrolled discharges of contaminated milk into the sewerage system may lead to high risks to other cattle farms at 6-50 km distance of the location of discharge within one day. This clearly underlines current measures that prohibit such discharges, and also asks for strict control. This risk assessment clearly demonstrated the potential significance of FMD virus transmission via water, and the results will be useful on an international scale, and could also serve as a basis for other FMD risk-assessment models.     

Social capital and the reproduction of economic inequality in polarized societies

This paper explores the idea that the distribution of wealth across social groups fundamentally affects the evolution of economic inequality. By providing microfoundations suitable for this exploration, this paper hopes to enhance our understanding of when social forces contribute to the reproduction of economic inequality. In tackling this issue, this paper offers contributions in two domains. First, it models social capital as a real capital asset with direct use and collateral values. Second, it extends the concepts of identity, alienation and polarization originally advanced by Esteban and Ray (Esteban, J.M. and Ray, D.: On the measurement of polarization, Econometrica 62(4) (1994), 819–851). This generalization permits us to consider the multiple characteristics that shape social identity, inclusion and exclusion. It also underwrites a higher-order measure of socio-economic polarization that permits us to explore the hypothesis that economic inequality is most pernicious and persistent when it is socially embedded. Holding constant the initial levels of economic polarization and wealth inequality, we show that higher socio-economic polarization increases subsequent income and wealth inequality. Far from being a distributionally neutral panacea for missing markets, social capital in this model may itself generate exclusion and deepen existing economic cleavages.