Predictors of Strength of In‐Group Identity in Northern Ireland: Impact of Past Sectarian Conflict,Relative Deprivation,and Church Attendance

Social identity in Northern Ireland is multifaceted, with historical, religious, political, social, economic, and psychological underpinnings. Understanding the factors that influence the strength of identity with the Protestant or Catholic community, the two predominate social groups in Northern Ireland, has implications for individual well‐being as well as for the continuation of tension and violence in this setting of protracted intergroup conflict. This study examined predictors of the strength of in‐group identity in 692 women (mean age 37 years) in post‐accord Northern Ireland. For Catholics, strength of in‐group identity was positively linked to past negative impact of sectarian conflict and more frequent current church attendance, whereas for Protestants, strength of in‐group identity was related to greater status satisfaction regarding access to jobs, standard of living, and political power compared with Catholics; that is, those who felt less relative deprivation. The discussion considers the differences in the factors underlying stronger identity for Protestants and Catholics in this context. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Biosecurity and Open-Source Biology: The Promise and Peril of Distributed Synthetic Biological Technologies

In this article, we raise ethical concerns about the potential misuse of open-source biology (OSB): biological research and development that progresses through an organisational model of radical openness, deskilling, and innovation. We compare this organisational structure to that of the open-source software model, and detail salient ethical implications of this model. We demonstrate that OSB, in virtue of its commitment to openness, may be resistant to governance attempts.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship Between Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being in Ghana

This paper uses data from the 2012 Afrobarometer Surveys to empirically investigate the relationship between social capital and subjective well-being (SWB) in Ghana. Two measures of SWB are examined—absolute SWB and relative SWB. Results from OLS and ordered logit regressions are mixed. For instance, while generalized trust has no significant effect on either measure of SWB, interpersonal trust and institutional trust are significantly correlated with both measures. The results also suggest that being satisfied with the way democracy works in Ghana has a positive effect on SWB. Even though membership in a voluntary association is negatively correlated with absolute SWB, it has a positive effect on relative SWB. Finally, members of a religious association tend to report lower relative SWB.