Social Trust: Fairness Matters More Than Homogeneity

This article explores whether homogeneity or fairness better explains generalized interpersonal trust across countries. Although some research suggests that ethnic diversity and income heterogeneity have a negative impact on social trust, I argue that cross‐national variations in social trust are better explained by fairness: fair procedural rules (democracy), fair administration of rules (freedom from corruption), and fair income distribution (relatively equal but also unskewed). This expectation is confirmed by a multilevel analysis of data from the World Values Surveys and European Values Study covering 170,000 individuals in 80 countries.     

国家内部地域文化差异及其对组织的影响

近年来,跨文化管理研究越来越关注国家内部（次国家层面）地域文化差异。在类似中国这样幅员辽阔历史悠久的多民族国家中,经济发展带来的人口流动和企业的跨地域布局使得员工与管理者都需要面对不同外部地域文化环境和组织内部人员地域多样化的挑战,研究国家内部地域文化差异及其对组织的影响有重要意义。 现有实证研究的一个重要共识是国家内部地域文化差异普遍存在于亚洲、欧洲和南北美洲各国。覆盖的国家类型多样,既有美国、巴西等地理跨度较大或有多民族多宗教历史文化背景的国家,也有日本、德国等地理跨度较小或历史上民族和信仰成分较单一的国家;既包括高度工业化的发达国家,也有发展中国家;既有集体主义倾向的东南亚和南美国家,也有个人主义倾向的北美和西欧国家。差异的内容主要包括霍夫斯泰德和施瓦茨的文化价值观维度,尤其是个人主义-集体主义。此外,不同国家之间内部地域文化差异的程度也显著不同。 聚焦中国大陆的研究主要关注了大陆地域文化区的划分和地域文化差异的内容维度。研究早期主要是从理论上根据影响文化的外部因素（如地理环境特征）讨论了文化差异的存在和文化区域划分,后来直接根据价值观相似度对不同省市或地区进行聚类;近年来,少数研究进一步依据多个指标综合划分地域文化区,并开始假设和验证不同区域价值观对个人和组织的影响。本文整合现有的几种中国大陆地域文化区划,用层次聚类法,获得了有较大共识的8个文化区。现有实证研究结果表明,中国大陆在集体主义、长期导向、风险偏好、儒家价值观等文化价值观维度存在地域差异。 有关国家内部地域文化差异如何影响组织行为和企业经营管理的实证文献仍然非常有限。 从跨地区文化比较的视角看,国家内部不同地区的文化价值观有可能影响当地人群的消费模式、员工行为、管理风格和决策（如投资）,进而影响企业生产效率和创新。从跨地区文化互动研究看,母公司企业文化与子公司所在地文化互动融合的模式有可能影响子公司经营绩效。最后,国家内部地域文化差异的程度不仅有可能影响本国企业跨地区布局的方式,还有可能影响企业跨境投资方式、企业国际化程度和经营绩效。 未来研究应更多的关注个人主义-集体主义以外的文化维度,探索主位视角来丰富研究理论和测量方法,尤其亟需更多对地域文化差异和跨地域互动在个人,团队和组织层面的结果的研究。最后,文化随着经济活动、政治变化、人口流动、对外交流互动而不断演化。在经济持续发展、商业活动地理布局不断拓展、人员流动极大增加、改革开放进一步深化的大背景下,我国大陆各区域及港澳台地区的地域文化价值观的演变,及其组织中不同层面的行为和结果的影响也值得探究。     

Infrastructure and Scaffolding: Interpretation and Change of Research Involving Human Genetic Information

This essay addresses the relationship of interpretation to change, at two levels. One level concerns the revolutionary claims of molecular biology and biotechnology about using genetic information, read literally or with a minimum of interpretation, to reshape human life. The other level concerns the relationship in social studies of science and technology (STS) between interpreting projects in the life sciences and influencing their direction. On that level, the essay is experimental, employing a series of vignettes that introduce themes and questions—scaffolding—intended to stimulate readers to make their own connections between interpretation and change, in science, STS, and society. The vignettes in Part 1, which range from treatment of individuals with PKU or MAOA genes to personalized medicine and biobanks, indicate in different ways that the use of genetic information always requires social infrastructure. Once attention is given to the actual or implied social infrastructure, the prospect of reshaping life using human genetic information raises more questions than it answers. This thread carries over into Part 2, which speaks to an area of STS that needs more development, namely, conceptualizing the structure of the social context of scientific and technological developments and the nature of human agency in the ongoing restructuring of that context. The vignettes create a picture in which the influence on science of an STS interpretation will, like any effort to produce change, depend on how it links with other engagements and with the heterogeneous components that make up ongoing, intersecting processes of science in society.     

Structural heterogeneity in a binary Pd–Si metallic glass

A Pd₈₁Si₁₉ bulk metallic glassy rod with a diameter of 4.5 mm was produced by water quenching the fluxed alloy. Despite a negative heat of mixing between Pd and Si elements and very simple components constituting the binary Pd–Si glass-forming system, structural heterogeneity was induced either by slow cooling of a liquid or sub-T_g annealing of glassy ribbons. The sub-T_g annealing experiments evidenced that a more ordered amorphous phase emerged from the original glassy matrix. Our work provides an alternative way to tune the microstructure of metallic glasses by subsequent thermal treatment on an as-prepared single glassy phase.     

非正态分布测量数据对克隆巴赫信度α系数的影响

对“增大被试群体异质性,能提高测验信度”观点提出质疑。讨论非正态分布测量数据的偏度对克隆巴赫信度α系数的影响,以模拟方法验证Box—COX正态化变换对信度的高估现象,进而给出对克隆巴赫信度α系数估计的改进方法。     

Omitted Variables in Multilevel Models

Statistical methodology for handling omitted variables is presented in a multilevel modeling framework. In many nonexperimental studies, the analyst may not have access to all requisite variables, and this omission may lead to biased estimates of model parameters. By exploiting the hierarchical nature of multilevel data, a battery of statistical tools are developed to test various forms of model misspecification as well as to obtain estimators that are robust to the presence of omitted variables. The methodology allows for tests of omitted effects at single and multiple levels. The paper also introduces intermediate-level tests; these are tests for omitted effects at a single level, regardless of the presence of omitted effects at a higher level. A simulation study shows, not surprisingly, that the omission of variables yields bias in both regression coefficients and variance components; it also suggests that omitted effects at lower levels may cause more severe bias than at higher levels. Important factors resulting in bias were found to be the level of an omitted variable, its effect size, and sample size. A real data study illustrates that an omitted variable at one level may yield biased estimators at any level and, in this study, one cannot obtain reliable estimates for school-level variables when omitted child effects exist. However, robust estimators may provide unbiased estimates for effects of interest even when the efficient estimators fail, and the one-degree-of-freedom test helps one to understand where the problem is located. It is argued that multilevel data typically contain rich information to deal with omitted variables, offering yet another appealing reason for the use of multilevel models in the social sciences. This research was supported by the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation and the National Science Foundation, Grant Number SES-0436274.     

Supra- and infrasylvian conduction aphasia

Fifteen cases of conduction aphasia which were tested with the Aachen Aphasia Test (AAT), are presented. The CT lesion data were transformed to a standard 3D-reference brain referring to the ACPC line. According to the lesion profiles a group of 6 patients had pure suprasylvian lesions, a group of 4 patients had pure infrasylvian lesions, and a group of 5 patients had lesions in both supra- and infrasylvian regions. Suprasylvian conduction aphasics are superior to infrasylvian conduction aphasics in the token test and in repetition tasks. Infrasylvian conduction aphasics use more stereotypes in spontaneous speech than suprasylvian conduction aphasics. Conduction aphasics with both lesion sites perform less well in tests of naming, writing, and comprehension than the pure types. Thus conduction aphasia is a heterogeneous syndrome anatomically and linguistically.     

Consumers’ Response to an Advertisement Using Brand Popularity in a Foreign Market

Abstract : This research examined how domestic consumers respond to an advertisement using brand popularity in a foreign market. By using structural equation modeling, it shows that the consumers’ response can change as a function of three characteristics of brand popularity in a foreign market: (a) expertise of foreign consumers, (b) similarity between domestic consumers and foreign consumers, and (c) animosity to a foreign country. Meanwhile, the similarity effect is found to be stronger for high‐preference heterogeneity than low‐preference heterogeneity. This research documents the importance of understanding the underlying mechanism to determine the effects of brand popularity in a foreign market on brand attitude and purchase intention.     

实践哲学的传统与创新专题：元实践学与异质性理论——对一套实践哲学研究方案的说明

当今众多以“实践哲学”为名号的研究其实只是家族相似。该文是对笔者的实践哲学方案的说明,目的在于跟其他方案区别开来。该方案的学科名称为“元实践学”,是对实践问题的形上学探讨,学说名称为“异质性理论”,是奠基于“异质性”概念的元实践学。