Tool-use in a display behaviour by Eurasian beavers (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Castor fiber</Emphasis>)

Tool use is rare amongst rodents and has never been recorded in connection with agonistic displays. We witnessed a behaviour, stick display (StD), involving tool use in free-living Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) that we conclude is a display behaviour. Two beavers were the main performers of the signal that was observed in at least six beavers from three families. Beavers reacted to displays by increased evasive and agonistic behaviours compared with their usual behavioural patterns when at territory borders. The behaviour was almost exclusively seen between rivals at territory borders. We suggest that the display is used in agonistic encounters, mainly in a territorial context. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

The application of Memory‐Work in consumer research

• Memory‐Work is by origin a feminist, social constructionist method devoted to the investigation of socially constructed and culturally embedded phenomena. In this paper, Memory‐Work is presented to consumer research in order to (1) widen the methodological scope of interpretive consumer research and thus advance new insights, (2) present a method well known to other scientific fields that may supplement micro‐social studies of consumer's practices with more macro‐cultural insights, and finally (3) to illustrate the application of the general method to the study of consumer behaviour. Apart from a few notable exceptions, Memory‐Work has not yet been applied to consumer research and its benefits for this kind of research have not been discussed. This paper seeks to fill this gap, by illustrating how consumer research may apply and benefit from Memory‐Work.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Higher Cost,Lower Validity and Higher Utility: Comparing the Utilities of Two Tests that Differ in Validity,Costs and Selectivity

Traditional approaches to comparing the utility of two tests have not systematically considered the effects of different levels of selectivity that are feasible and appropriate in various selection situations. For example, employers who hope to avoid adverse impact often find they can be more selective with some tests than with others. We conducted two studies to compare the utilities of two tests that differ in costs, validity, and feasible levels of selectivity which can be employed. First, an analytical solution was conducted starting with a standard formula for utility. This analysis showed that for both fixed and variable hiring costs, a higher-cost, lower-validity procedure can have higher utility than a lower-cost, higher-validity procedure when the selection ratios permissible using the two procedures are sufficiently (yet realistically) different. Second, using a computer simulation method, several combinations of the critical variables were varied systematically to detect the limits of this effect in a finite set of specific selection situations. The results showed that the existence of more severe levels of adverse impact greatly reduced the utility of a written test with relatively high validity and low cost in comparison with an assessment center with lower validity and higher cost. Both studies showed that the consideration of selectivity can yield surprising conclusions about the comparative utility of two tests. Even if one test has lower validity and higher cost than a second test, the first may yield higher utility if it allows the organization to exercise stricter levels of selectivity.     

Social dominance orientation: revisiting the structure and function of a variable predicting social and political attitudes

Social dominance orientation (SDO) is one of the most powerful predictors of intergroup attitudes and behavior. Although SDO works well as a unitary construct, some analyses suggest it might consist of two complementary dimensions--SDO-Dominance (SDO-D), or the preference for some groups to dominate others, and SDO-Egalitarianism (SDO-E), a preference for nonegalitarian intergroup relations. Using seven samples from the United States and Israel, the authors confirm factor-analytic evidence and show predictive validity for both dimensions. In the United States, SDO-D was theorized and found to be more related to old-fashioned racism, zero-sum competition, and aggressive intergroup phenomena than SDO-E; SDO-E better predicted more subtle legitimizing ideologies, conservatism, and opposition to redistributive social policies. In a contentious hierarchical intergroup context (the Israeli-Palestinian context), SDO-D better predicted both conservatism and aggressive intergroup attitudes. Fundamentally, these analyses begin to establish the existence of complementary psychological orientations underlying the preference for group-based dominance and inequality.     

Crises Now and Then—Comparing Integration Policy Frameworks and Immigrant Target Groups in Denmark in the 1970s and 2000s

This article investigates the impact of economic crises in the early 1970s and 2000s on integration policy frames in Denmark. By the means of a comparative case study of “guest workers” in the 1960s/1970s and labor migrants in 2000s, we identify changes in discourses and policy frames brought on by economic crisis. In the article, we explore policy transformations relating to integration in the light of periods economic upturns and downturns. We analyze and compare the development of policy frames and policy content before, during and after the crises and thereby seek to answer how economic contours affect not only policy-making processes and content but also the social construction of target groups. The fact that Denmark did not have an official policy on integration of the guest workers in the 1960s and 1970s created a different point of departure than in the 2000s where the experience with and policy on integration of immigrant is much more developed. It is therefore also rather striking that many of the mistakes made during the 1960s and 1970s seems to be repeated in the 2000s. The situation of economic upturn and envision of the migration being temporary did, in both cases, lead to little emphasis on integration up until the point of crisis. In the analysis, we find that issues such as religious background, cultural characteristics, and educational levels, position on labor market, language proficiency, housing, and mobility which all pertain to integration are given less attention in times of economic upturn.     

Reducing Implicit Prejudice

Implicit prejudices are social preferences that exist outside of conscious awareness or control. In this review, we summarize evidence for three mechanisms that influence the expression of implicit prejudice: associative change, contextual change, and change in control over implicit prejudice. We then review the evidence (or lack thereof) for answers to five open issues in implicit prejudice reduction research: (1) what shows effectiveness in real‐world application; (2) what doesn't work for implicit prejudice reduction; (3) what interventions produce long‐term changes in implicit prejudice; (4) measurement diversity in implicit prejudice reduction research; and (5) the relationship between implicit prejudice and behavior. Addressing these issues provides an agenda for clarifying the conditions and implications of reducing implicit prejudice.     

My partner’s stories: relationships between personal and vicarious life stories within romantic couples

In this paper, we examined relationships and differences between personal and vicarious life stories, i.e., the life stories one knows of others. Personal and vicarious life stories of both members of 51 young couples (102 participants), based on McAdams’ Life Story Interview (2008), were collected. We found significant positive relationships between participants’ personal and vicarious life stories on agency and communion themes and redemption sequences. We also found significant positive relationships between participants’ vicarious life stories about their partners and those partners’ personal life stories on agency and communion, but not redemption. Furthermore, these relationships were not explained by similarity between couples’ two personal life stories, as no associations were found between couples’ personal stories on agency, communion and redemption. These results suggest that the way we construct the vicarious life stories of close others may reflect how we construct our personal life stories.