Passive Learning: When the Media Environment Is the Message

This article investigates the phenomenon of "passive learning,"or how people may acquire information from the mass media despitelacking the motivation to do so. A unique data source allowsus to overcome the "saturation effect" that generally makesthe study of this phenomenon difficult. Saturation conditionscommonly occur because exposure to political programming isvirtually universal. With interest controlled, two groups receivingdifferent media messages are compared over two elections. Thosewho had no interest in an election, but who lived in a media-richenvironment were 40 percentage points more likely to have acquiredinformation than their uninterested cohorts living in a media-poorenvironment.     

What Makes a Good Decision? Robust Satisficing as a Normative Standard of Rational Decision Making

Most decisions in life involve ambiguity, where probabilities can not be meaningfully specified, as much as they involve probabilistic uncertainty. In such conditions, the aspiration to utility maximization may be self‐deceptive. We propose “robust satisficing” as an alternative to utility maximizing as the normative standard for rational decision making in such circumstances. Instead of seeking to maximize the expected value, or utility, of a decision outcome, robust satisficing aims to maximize the robustness to uncertainty of a satisfactory outcome. That is, robust satisficing asks, “what is a ‘good enough’ outcome,” and then seeks the option that will produce such an outcome under the widest set of circumstances. We explore the conditions under which robust satisficing is a more appropriate norm for decision making than utility maximizing.     

Beyond the Stereotype: Another View of Supplementary Benefits Officers

Summary This paper outlines a series of staff development courses runfor the DHSS under the auspices of Leicester University Schoolof Social Work. The two-week courses for Unemployment ReviewOfficers offered an introduction to social and psychologicalinfluences on human behaviour with special reference to thework situation of UROs, and a review of aspects of the socialservices with which the URO has contact. As a result of these courses another view of Supplementary Benefitsstaff emerged which conflicted with current stereotypes. Theauthor offers some suggestions regarding the sources of roleconflict inherent in the work of UROs and argues for betterunderstanding of the operation of the social security system     

A Reconsideration of the Effects of Information on Partisan Stability

This article re-examines the relationship between "informationflow" and "partisan stability" by using alternative measuresof "information flow." The analysis of data drawn from SRC surveysfrom 1952 to 1972 indicates that there is no relationship betweenthe flow of information and the stability of partisan electors