Choosing the best (wo)man for the job: The effects of mortality salience,sex, and gender stereotypes on leader evaluations

The present research investigated the impact of death-related thoughts on preferences for male and female leaders and tested alternative predictions derived from terror management theory: the stereotype bias effect was predicted to result in a global preference for male leaders (Study1) and a preference for agentic leaders (Study 2), whereas the ingroup bias effect was predicted to result in women favoring female leaders and men preferring male leaders. These hypotheses were examined in two experimental studies wherein participants were presented with a mortality salience or control manipulation and subsequently presented with campaign statements from male and female gubernatorial candidates. Results from Study 1 were in accord with the enhanced ingroup bias predictions: under mortality salience women preferred and voted for the female candidate more so than the male candidate, while men showed the reverse preference. Results from Study 2, which also manipulated gender stereotypic traits of the candidates, support the enhanced stereotype bias effect: under mortality salience female participants preferred and voted for the agentic candidate regardless of sex, and males preferred the agentic male candidate. Results support previous TMT research demonstrating both ingroup bias and stereotype bias processes.     

On the directional accuracy of inflation forecasts: evidence from South African survey data

We study the information content of South African inflation survey data by determining the directional accuracy of both short-term and long-term forecasts. We use relative operating characteristic (ROC) curves, which have been applied in a variety of fields including weather forecasting and radiology, to ascertain the directional accuracy of the forecasts. A ROC curve summarizes the directional accuracy of forecasts by comparing the rate of true signals (sensitivity) with the rate of false signals (one minus specifity). A ROC curve goes beyond market-timing tests widely studied in earlier research as this comparison is carried out for many alternative values of a decision criterion that discriminates between signals (of a rising inflation rate) and nonsignals (of an unchanged or a falling inflation rate). We find consistent evidence that forecasts contain information with respect to the subsequent direction of change of the inflation rate.     

Vetting and Letting: Cohabiting Stepfamily Formation Processes in Low‐Income Black Families

The authors examined cohabiting union formation processes by analyzing in‐depth interview data collected from 30 individuals in cohabiting relationships: 15 low‐income Black mothers of adolescents and their partners. Prior research suggests that cohabiting union formation is a gradual, nondeliberative process. In contrast, most couples in this study described a gradual but highly deliberative process. Mothers focused primarily on vetting their partners to ensure child well‐being and less on when and how their partners officially came to live with them, a process the authors call vetting and letting. Mothers delineated 4 strategies to ensure their child's well‐being when vetting their partners, and their partners reported that they understood the importance of participating in this process. The authors argue that vetting and letting is a child‐centered family formation process, not a partner‐centered union formation process, and that cohabiting union processes may vary substantially by subpopulation.     

State of the union: A century of American labor

Journal of Labor Research -     

The psychology of the near miss

Near misses are widely believed to encourage future play, even in games of chance where the probability of winning remains constant from trial to trial. Some commercial gambling systems, particularly instant lotteries and slot machines, are contrived to ensure a higher frequency of near misses than would be expected by chance alone. Theoretical interpretations and relevant experiments are examined. A distinction is drawn between possible short-term and longer-term effects of manipulating the rate of occurrence of near misses.The first four experiments reported in the text were carried out by Amanda Shattock, supported by a Grant from the Social Science Research Council.     

Marginal Man: The Identity Dilemma of the Academic General Practitioner*

The study of the relationship between group membership and identity has been central to symbolic interaction. This paper describes one instance of problematic identity, that experienced by members of the newly established academic discipline of general practice. ¹By outlining their dilemma as ‘marginal men’ to both service doctors and other academics within the medical faculty,² attention is focussed upon the strained intraprofessional relationships when core tasks—in this case teaching and service work—are allocated very different values.     

A note on the likelihood-ratio statistic under model misspecification

Following Viraswami and Reid (1996), higher-order results under model misspecification are obtained for the likelihood-ratio statistic and the adjusted likelihood-ratio statistic, for the case of a scalar parameter. An improved version of the adjusted likelihood-ratio statistic is suggested.     

Imagined communities, contested watersheds: Challenges to integrated water resources management in agricultural areas

Integrated water resources management is one of the major bottom-up alternatives that emerged during the 1980s in North America as part of the trend towards more holistic and participatory styles of environmental governance. It aims to protect surface and groundwater resources by focusing on the integrated and collaborative management of land and water resources and interests on a watershed basis. In this paper, we draw on the policy network perspective on governance to shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of watershed-based processes of collaboration and integration for water quality protection in agricultural areas. The policy network perspective focuses on the interaction of actors, institutions and ideas within and among policy sectors to capture the intricacies of the policy process in increasingly complex and fragmented societies. Empirically, this study is based on the analysis of agro-environmental strategies for water quality protection in the Province of Ontario over the last 15 years. The contamination of a rural municipal well in Ontario in 2000, with its tragic consequences, translated into an ongoing pluralistic debate and strong attempts to fundamentally change the provincial policy style for addressing drinking water threats, especially agricultural pollution. Based on our analysis, we suggest that meaningful scales for collaboration and integration of land and water resources and interests at the local level, from the point of view of Ontario's agricultural policy network, do not currently include the watershed. We conclude that, instead of forcing watershed-based governance structures, the exploration and examination of more creative and flexible ways of linking watershed imperatives to existing socially and politically meaningful scales in agricultural areas of Ontario and elsewhere is warranted.