Normative Embourgeoisement among Manual Workers: a Reexamination Using Longitudinal Data*

This research examines the validity of the normative embourgeoisement perspective—the familiar notion that manual workers are becoming middle class in their cognitive orientations. Data are used from ten national surveys between 1956 and 1976 to examine changes in middle class identification among manual and nonmanual workers. Contrary to some earlier research which examined only two time periods, the results indicate that middle class identification among manual workers has increased over time at a faster rate than among nonmanual workers. Thus, there is greater similarity between manuals and nonmanuals in their middle class identification. Contrary to the arguments of normative embourgeoisement, however, the socioeconomic status (i.e., education, income, and occupational prestige) gains of manuals relative to nonmanuals do not account for this increased similarity. The research shows the need to apply longitudinal tests to dynamic theoretical perspectives, and the potential problems involved in such tests when only two periods are examined.     

Cross-Cultural Differences in Risk Perception: A Model-Based Approach

The present study assessed cross-cultural differences in the perception of financial risks. Students at large universities in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and the U.S., as well as a group of Taiwanese security analysts rated the riskiness of a set of monetary lotteries. Risk judgments differed with nationality, but not with occupation (students vs. security analysts) and were modeled by the Conjoint Expected Risk (CER) model.⁽¹⁾ Consistent with cultural differences in country uncertainty avoidance,⁽²⁾ CER model parameters of respondents from the two Western countries differed from those of respondents from the two countries with Chinese cultural roots: The risk judgments of respondents from Hong Kong and Taiwan were more sensitive to the magnitude of potential losses and less mitigated by the probability of positive outcomes.     

Dimensions of Risk Perception for Financial and Health Risks

This study of 29 MBA students compares two models of risk perception for both financial and health risk stimuli. The first, inspired by Luce and Weber's Conjoint Expected Risk (CER) model, uses five dimensions: probability of gain, loss and status quo, and expected benefit and harm. The second, inspired by the Sovic et al. psychometric model, employs seven dimensions: voluntariness, dread, control, knowledge, catastrophic potential, novelty, and equity. The CER-type model provided a better fit for most subjects and stimuli. Adding the psychological risk dimensions from the Slovic et al. model explained only modestly more variance. Relationships between the dimensions of the two models are described and the construction of a hybrid model explored.     

Risk Perception of Heavy Metal Soil Contamination and Attitudes toward Decontamination Strategies

Contaminated soils are a common environmental risk all over the world. One major source of risk is heavy metal soil contamination caused by industrial emissions. This quasiexperimental study investigated the perception of these risks by exposed and nonexposed people, their attitudes toward bioremediation methods using hyperaccumulating plants, and the influence of long-term aspects of sustainability on the acceptance of bioremediation methods. Major findings were that people living in a contaminated area perceived the risk of the heavy metal soil contamination as higher than the general risk of contamination. Second, a factor analysis showed that the factors dread, control, and catastrophic potential were relevant for the perception and valuation of low-dose environmental risks such as the contamination of the investigated area. In addition, a cluster analysis showed that the risk of heavy metal soil contamination was perceived as similar to that of oil contamination, ozone layer, preservatives and genetic technology. It was perceived indifferently with regard to dread. The uncontrollability of heavy metal soil contamination was estimated as medium, and its catastrophic potential as low. Third, exposed and nonexposed participants preferred bioremediation methods to classical methods (e.g., excavation and chemical treatment of the soil), because they perceived the environmental and esthetical performance of the bioremediation as important criteria. Sustainability or precautionary issues, such as the prevention of harm for future generations, were highly correlated with the acceptance of the use of bioremediation methods in people's residential areas.     

One giant leapfrog for health care.

Fed up with skyrocketing health insurance costs, poor quality care and low patient satisfaction, a group of powerful benefits executives from some of the country's largest employers decided to do something about it. They formed The Leapfrog Group, a coalition of companies setting out to build a better American health care system.     

Correcting expected utility for comparisons between alternative outcomes: A unified parameterization of regret and disappointment

A unified parameterization of an expected utility model corrected for regret and disappointment effects is presented, constrained to conform to a well-known choice pattern, the common consequence effect, a special case of the Allais paradox. For choices subject to regret and disappointment effects to be consistent with this choice pattern, the function that corrects the utility of the obtained outcome has to have a positive second derivative for its regret component and a negative second derivative for its disappointment component. These hypothesized functional forms make predictions about the relative effect that small vs. large differences between obtained and alternative outcomes should have on people’s experiences of regret or disappointment.

Asymmetric discounting of gains <Emphasis Type="Italic">and</Emphasis> losses: A query theory account

People discount delayed gains (where the default is to receive a smaller gain sooner) more than accelerated gains (where the default is to receive a larger gain later). For losses, the pattern reverses—people discount delayed losses less than accelerated losses. In Study 1, confirming a Query Theory process account, this sign by direction interaction is mediated by the prominence of thoughts in favor of the default. Thoughts in favor of the smaller, sooner amount are more prominent in delay scenarios than acceleration scenarios, and this increases discounting for gains and decreases discounting for losses. Study 2 confirms the causal role of the order of option consideration. Participants considering thoughts in the natural order (pro-default thoughts first) replicate the sign by direction interaction, whereas participants considering thoughts in the opposite, unnatural order (pro-alternative thoughts first) do not. Reversing the order of option consideration eliminates the sign by direction interaction.