THE HARDER THE TASK,THE HIGHER THE SCORE: FINDINGS OF A DIFFICULTY BIAS

Studies have found that going first or last in a sequential order contest leads to a biased outcome, commonly called order bias (or primacy and recency). Studies have also found that judges have a tendency to reward contestants they recognize with additional points, called reference bias. Controlling for known biases, we test for a new type of bias we refer to as “difficulty bias,” which reveals that athletes attempting more difficult routines receive higher execution scores, even when difficulty and execution are judged separately. Despite some identification challenges, we add to the literature by finding strong evidence of a difficulty bias in gymnastics. We also provide generalizations beyond athletics. (JEL L10, L83, D81, J70, Z1)     

Observed and parent‐reported conscience in childhood: Relations with bullying involvement in early primary school

This exploratory study aimed to examine which components of early childhood conscience predicted bullying involvement around school entry. In the population‐based Generation R Study, teacher reports of bullying involvement and parent reports of conscience were available for 3,244 children (M age = 6.7 years). Higher levels of overall conscience predicted lower bullying perpetration scores, independently of intelligence quotient, temperamental traits and sociodemographic characteristics. Particularly, the subscales guilt, confession, and internalized conduct, and to a lesser extent empathy, predicted bullying perpetration. Conscience was not related to victimization. Similar results were found using observations during so‐called ‘cheating games’ (subsample N = 450 children). Findings suggest that improving children's understanding of moral standards and norms may be a potential target for bullying intervention programs in early primary school.     

A comparative study of social assistance systems in Macao and Hong Kong

This article compares social assistance systems in Macao and Hong Kong. It finds that Macao delivers a higher level of social assistance benefits, whereas Hong Kong has a larger group of social assistance beneficiaries. The Hong Kong Government spends a larger amount on social assistance provision and imposes tougher controls on the recipients, compared to Macao. The results of the comparison indicate that Macao and Hong Kong differ markedly in the type of productivist welfare regime they belong and challenge the assertion that the two welfare systems form a distinct welfare model.     

Using Work Values to Predict Post‐Retirement Work Intentions

Work values might be proximal predictors of individuals' late‐career intentions because they serve as guiding principles for the selection, evaluation, and justification of vocational behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between work values and post‐retirement work intentions. The authors investigated individual work values within the structure of 4 higher order values elaborated on by Schwartz et al. ( 2012 ). Relationships between work values and 4 types of post‐retirement work intentions were examined. Data from 1,071 employees of a German logistics company were used to test the hypotheses. The results of a structural equation model indicated that work values were differentially related to the 4 types of post‐retirement work intentions. The identified work value–work type combinations add to the literature on post‐retirement work. Practice implications for promoting positive individual and organizational outcomes are drawn from the results.     

The Role of Sexual Communication in Couples’ Sexual Outcomes: A Dyadic Path Analysis

In a study of 142 couples, we gathered survey data to show how sexual communication influences sexual and relationship satisfaction as well as sexual and orgasm frequency. In two dyadic data path analyses, we observed the significant paths of influence that sexual communication has on sexual and relationship satisfaction, as well as sexual and orgasm frequency. Our findings revealed greater amounts of sexual communication were associated with increased orgasm frequency in women and greater relationship and sexual satisfaction in both sexes. We also observed important differences in the associations of sexual communication and general communication on satisfaction levels. With these analyses, we expand the current literature to broaden our understanding of the role that sexual communication plays in committed relationships.     

The trend of intelligence in certain districts of England

An estimate of the change in intelligence in ten English education authorities during the past 10 years has been made by comparing the scores of complete year groups of 11-year-old children in 1947 with scores made by similar groups in the same test on an earlier occasion. The first test was taken by 31,728 children and the second by 28,505 children, boys and girls in approximately equal numbers.

For boys and girls together there was a fall of 0.0034 point of intelligence quotient per year, which was far from significant. In seven districts where we had separate scores for boys and girls on both occasions there was a significant fall in intelligence quotient of 0.0921 point per year amongst boys and a significant rise of 0.0921 point per year amongst girls.

The adventitious influences which might invalidate a comparison of the two sets of scores have been considered; they probably tend to depress the score at the second test.

A study of sex differences in attainment tests at 11 years and in intelligence tests at 13 years and later suggests that the scores of the boys in 1947 are underestimates of their ability, and that a truer measure of the trend of intelligence amongst the population is represented by the change in the girls' scores.

By assuming a certain parallelism between the present survey and that of the Scottish children, the rise in intelligence quotient of the latter is estimated at 0.0543 point per year.

A significant increase in the dispersion of intelligence test score of both boys and girls during the past 10 years has been recorded.     

Pre‐procreative ages in population stability and cyclicity

Age‐specific models of population renewal (with and without feedback) which imply convergence to a stable state for some levels of fertility or feedback may imply the presence of long‐term cycling around a constant or exponentially changing equilibrium for other levels of fertility or feedback. The switch from one regime to the other is a “bifurcation.”; The conditions for bifurcation involve the roots of an analogue of Lotka's Equation.

Typically bifurcation is induced by raising the strength of feedback or the level of fertility. It has been known since the early 1980s, however, that this is sometimes impossible. It is sometimes impossible even with the linear renewal equation itself and with the most basic of non‐linear models, Lee's cohort feedback model.

Here it is proved that this typical route to bifurcation does not fail for these basic models in the presence of a condition which always holds for realistic applications with higher organisms: the existence of a span of ages before the onset of fertility.

Specifically, a strictly positive lower bound on ages of procreation is proved to be sufficient to guarantee the existence of a rescaling of Lotka's Equation for which the real part of some complex root vanishes. This result holds for absolutely Lebesgue‐integrable (signed) net maternity functions on the positive real line and for absolutely summable (signed) net maternities on the positive integers.

It follows that Coale's rescaling device for the analysis of approach to stability in stable population theory can be implemented for all realistic human net maternity schedules. It also follows that the many special cases of the cohort feedback model throughout population biology will all generate persistent cycling instead of stability if feedback is sufficiently strong.     

The estimation of fertility rates from ratios of total to first births

In a previous paper a formula was derived from which the total fertility rate of a group of women could be estimated from the average number of live births to women in the reproductive period. In the present paper the argument is carried further and a method is given by which the total fertility rate may be estimated from the average number of children born to fertile women during the reproductive period. The method given in this paper may, under certain circumstances, have considerable advantages over the previous method suggested.     

On the α-risks for shewhart control charts

The performance of the usual Shewhart control charts for monitoring process means and variation can be greatly affected by nonnormal data or subgroups that are correlated. Define the α_k-risk for a Shewhart chart to be the probability that at least one “out-of-control” subgroup occurs in k subgroups when the control limits are calculated from the k subgroups. Simulation results show that the α_k-risks can be quite large even for a process with normally distributed, independent subgroups. When the data are nonnormal, it is shown that the α_k-risk increases dramatically. A method is also developed for simulating an “in-control” process with correlated subgroups from an autoregressive model. Simulations with this model indicate marked changes in the α_k-risks for the Shewhart charts utilizing this type of correlated process data. Therefore, in practice a process should be investigated thoroughly regarding whether or not it is generating normal, independent data before out-of-control points on the control charts are interpreted to be due to some real assignable cause.