从新教伦理再看传统佛教伦理的现代困境

大约100年前,中国的佛教改革家太虚和德国的社会学家马克斯·韦伯相继注意到了佛教和基督教两者与社会经济之间的亲疏关系,并对此予以了研究,但由于条件所限,研究工作均未能深入.之后近百年,东西方许多有识之士对造成佛教、佛教徒和佛教国家在适应资本主义经济生产方式方面长期落后的原因进行了探讨,这种探讨在现代社会尤其受人关注.本文通过对佛教和基督教信仰模式的对比,对形成二教经济差距的原因进行了尝试性的研究分析.     

Essentialist theory of ‘hybrids’: From animal kinds to ethnic categories and race

This article presents a theory of the perception of hybrids, resulting from cross‐breeding natural animals that pertain to different species and of children parented by couples with a mixed ethnic or racial background. The theory states that natural living beings, including humans, are perceived as possessing a deeply ingrained characteristic that is called ‘essence’ or ‘blood’ or ‘genes’ in everyday discourse and that uniquely determines their category membership. If, by whatever means, the genes or essences of two animals of different species are combined in a hybrid, the two incompatible essences collapse, leaving the hybrid in a state of non‐identity and non‐belonging. People despise this state and reject the hybrid (Study 1). This devaluation effect holds with cross‐kind hybrids and with hybrids that arise from genetically combining animals from incompatible habitats across three cultures: Austria, India and Japan (Study 2). In the social world, groups and ethnic or racial categories frequently are essentialized in an analogue way. When people with an essentialist mindset judge ethnically or racially mixed offspring, they perceive a collapse of ethnic or racial essence and, consequently, denigrate these children, as compared to children from ‘pure’ in‐group or out‐group parents (Study 3). The findings are discussed in terms of the widespread ‘yuck factor’ against genetically modified animals, in terms of the cultural concepts of monstrosity and of racism and prejudice.     

Gandhi,secularism and social capital in modern India

The partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 was witness to Hindu Muslim conflict at its peak. In the 1990s, ethnic conflict was used by right wing ideologues to change the fabric of secular India. Using interview data and within a social representational framework the study demonstrates the processes whereby out-groups/in-groups are formed. Further, it is argued that religious tolerance as envisaged in Gandhian philosophy, needs to be an integral part of the debate on role of religion in the public sphere.     

Multiagent systems: Milestones and new horizons

Research in multiagent systems (MAS), or distributed artificial intelligence (DAI), dates back to the late 1970s. Initial work in the area focused on distributed interpretation of sensor data, organizational structuring and generic negotiation protocols. But several recent developments have helped reshape the focus of the field. Like the rest of Al, the field has matured from being largely exploratory in nature to focusing on formal theories of negotiation, distributed reasoning, multiagent learning and communication languages. The field is also maturing to the point of developing its first few fielded applications. The recent widespread interest in the Internet, the World Wide Web, and intelligent agent applications have further fueled the need for techniques and mechanisms by which agents representing users can interact effectively with other agents in open, dynamic environments. The development of several new international workshops and conferences has helped focus research in the area. The field is poised at a critical juncture, with stimulating problems and challenges promising some very exciting developments in the next few years.     

The effect of set on the two-point tactual threshold

This experiment studies the influence of set on the two-point tactual threshold. The two-point limen (critical stimulus) was determined along the mid-longitudinal line of both volar and dorsal surfaces of the right forearms of seven university students. Test-stimuli were selected at 3 mm. steps both up and down from each of the critical stimuli. Each of these test-stimuli was presented separately, the critical stimulus being interpolated 30 times in each test of the series. The proportions of two-point and one-point responses to the critical stimulus were then determined again in a control series. It was found that, as the test-stimulus deviated in the positive direction from the critical stimulus, the proportion of two-point responses to the critical stimulus increased, reached a maximum and then began to decline. A similar rise and fall in one-point responses were found in the opposite direction. The results were explained by Adaptation Level Theory.     

The Influence of Openness to Experience on Perceived Employee Creativity: The Moderating Roles of Individual Trust

In this paper, we explain the influence of co‐worker trust on the effect of employees' openness to experience on their perceptions of their own creativity. We surveyed 199 working professionals in Ireland and found that openness to experience was positively associated with both employees' perceptions of their radical creativity and incremental creativity. In addition, the relationship between openness to experience and incremental creativity was negatively moderated by cognition‐based trust in his or her co‐worker. In conclusion, we discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings and highlight directions for future research.     

Parent-like spokesperson for campaigning an anti-plastic straw movement to young adults: Is it effective?

Parental communication is still relatively meaningful in Asian families with hierarchical, vertical, and authoritative relationships. Meanwhile, children's pro-environmental behaviour in emerging Asian nations tends to be passive, leading to a need for intervention from the closest parties, often the parent, whose familial role in green communication has not been examined. This study uses social learning theory to examine the interplay of parent-like spokespeople and message appeals in affecting young adults' cognitive and emotional responses, which is expected to influence the ad liking and believability of green advertisements and switching intention to green products, such as eco-friendly straws. A laboratory experiment was conducted with 240 subjects. The results showed that the frame of a father-like figure conveying a hope appeal generated the greatest enthusiasm and argument quality for young adults. Mother-like figures speaking a fearful message frame were the best generator for young adults' anger and threat appraisal. Ad liking was significantly impacted only by a mother-like spokesperson who spoke a fearful appeal mediated by anger and a father-like spokesperson who delivered a hope appeal mediated by argument quality. Young adults' willingness to switch to eco-friendly straws was indirectly influenced by the interaction effect of a mother-like spokesperson and fear appeal type mediated by ad believability.     

Is Salesperson Attractiveness a Boon or a Bane? The Moderating Role of Perceived Labor Cost‐To‐Price Ratio in Retail Bargaining

This research examines the important but unexamined effects of salesperson attractiveness on consumer bargaining behavior in retail contexts. In line with our theorizing, three studies demonstrate that the effect of salesperson attractiveness on consumer bargaining depends on their general beliefs regarding the impact of labor costs on retail prices. While consumers bargain less with an attractive salesperson when their labor costs‐to‐price (LP) ratio beliefs are relatively low, they bargain harder with an attractive, as opposed to a less attractive, salesperson, when their LP ratio beliefs are relatively high. As well, we provide evidence for the process, based on the salesperson's perceived trustworthiness and consumers' consequent bargaining stance toward her.     

发展健康研究

试图讲座在健康研究中,如何适时、恰当并有效地把性别融合于其中,第一,我们应更注意健康研究的结果;第二,在健康研究中注重性别差异的意义;第三,分行性别健康的可持续性研究环境。     

Buyer beware of your shadow: how price moderates the effect of incidental similarity on buyer behavior

Using both a lab experiment and actual transaction data, we investigated whether and how incidental similarities (e.g., shared letters between buyer and seller's name) might influence buyer behavior. Particularly, while prior work suggests that consumers generally prefer incidental similarity, we use the context of Internet auctions to show that this preference reverses when prices are high. Under these conditions, buyers avoid incidentally similar sellers. We speculate that this effect is tied to individuals' motive to self‐protect. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.