Them and Us: Hidden Ideologies-Differences in Degree or Kind?

This article looks at three measuring instruments—the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale, the Social Dominance Orientation Scale, and the Attitudes About Reality Scale—used to examine covert ideology and its relationship to social and political beliefs and behaviors. These scales share similar ideological components involving abdication of moral responsibility to an outside agent, belief that one's own ideology represents the only form of truth, and negative beliefs about individuals who are not members of one's own group. Evidence is provided to suggest that radical fundamentalists and some groups within U.S. society share ideological beliefs that differ in degree rather than kind. These beliefs make it easy for them to divide the world into "us" and "them" and exacerbate the present conflict.     

Einkommen, Gesundheit und Mortalität in Deutschland, Grossbritannien und den USA

The paper examines the effect of income on mortality with respect to different health statuses and institutional characteristics of the health care system in the USA, Great Britain and West Germany. It is hypothesized that the nature of the theoretical contribution of income in explaining mortality risks changes on whether good or poor health is considered. Taking into account that the health care systems of the countries in question vary by their degree of household out-of-pocket expenditure, we expect an association between income and mortality that differs by country. The analysis is based on the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP), the British Household Panel Study (BHPS), and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The effect of income on mortality is found to be weakest when medical services are sought in the presence of poor health within the framework of a national health insurance that renders free primary health care (Great Britain, Germany). The effect is strongest when the provision of primary health care depends strongly on private expenditures (USA).     

Educational Differences in Desired Family Size and Attitudes Toward Childbearing in Latina Women

Attitudes toward childbearing and desired family size influence women's reproductive choices. This may be especially true in the Latina culture, where motherhood and large families are valued highly. To determine whether these attitudes differ by educational status, Latina women in an OB/GYN clinic (N=351) completed a survey assessing attitudes toward childbearing and desired family size. Attitudes of women with and without a high school education were compared. Respondents without a high school education desired a mean of 3.1 children, while those with a high school education desired a mean of 2.7. Women without a high school education endorsed more attitudes favoring large families. Among women without a high school education, those who wished to have a son to carry on the family name tended to desire larger families. Results suggest that the desire for large families among Latina women with low education may result from traditional cultural attitudes.     

The effects of seasonal demand on depot location

Many of the cost functions associated with depot location algorithms assume an overall demand for a fixed period, usually one year. This paper describes an investigation into the effect of high seasonality within such demand figures on the optimal location of storage facilities. The preliminary results indicate that a more flexible approach for certain products could be worthwhile.