Predicting the directionality of probability words from their membership functions

Teigen and Brun have suggested that distinct from their numerical implications, most probability phrases are either positive or negative, in that they encourage one to think of reasons why the target event will or will not occur. We report two experiments testing our hypotheses that (a) the direction of a phrase can be predicted from properties of its membership function, and (b) this relation is invariant across contexts, and (c) —originally formulated by Teigen and Brun (1999)—that strong modifiers intensify phrase directionality. For each phrase, participants encoded membership functions by judging the degree to which it described the numerical probabilities 0.0, 0.1, …, 1.0, and also completed sentences including the target phrase. The types of reasons given in the sentence completion task were used to determine the phrase's directionality. The results support our hypotheses (a) and (b) regarding the relation between directionality and the membership functions, but we found only limited support for hypothesis (c) regarding the effects of modifiers on directionality. A secondary goal, to validate an efficient method of encoding membership functions, was also achieved. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

工会实践对员工工作幸福感的影响：基于工具-情感的双路径视角

日益僵化的传统管理手段、多元化的新生代员工利益诉求, 以及频发的企业劳资冲突, 导致中国基层工会在劳资关系中日趋式微, 进而陷入组织不愿投资、员工主动抛弃的双重困境。基于“工具-情感”双路径的视角和遵循“情境-认知”的逻辑框架, 为了在理论上和实证上回答“加强工会的实践效用能否给企业带来回报”这一问题, 拟通过在组织层次和个体层次测量工会实践的跨层次研究方法, 探讨工具性/情感性工会实践是否能够通过缓解劳资冲突提高员工工作幸福感这一理论问题, 并进一步研究在这一作用链上的边界条件。如此便揭示了基层工会在实现劳资双赢的实质性价值以及对员工幸福感的影响功效, 既是对管理科学“有良心研究”的伦理回应, 也是加强基层工会组织建设的重要策略。     

Genius begins at home: Shared social identity enhances the recognition of creative performance

The present research examines the extent to which the recognition of creative performance is structured by social group membership. It does this by analysing the award of merit prizes for Best Actor and Actress in a Leading Role for the international award of US‐based Oscars and British‐based BAFTAs since BAFTA's inception of this category in 1968. For both awards, the exclusive assessment criterion is the quality of artists’ performance in the international arena. Results show that US artists won a greater proportion of Oscars than BAFTAs (odds ratio: 2.10), whereas British artists won a greater proportion of BAFTAs than Oscars (OR: 2.26). Furthermore, results support the hypothesis that these patterns are more pronounced as the diagnostic value of a quality indicator increases – that is, in the conferring of actual awards rather than nominations. Specifically, US artists won a greater proportion of Oscar awards than nominations (OR: 1.77), while British artists won a greater proportion of BAFTA awards than nominations (OR: 1.62). Additional analyses show that the performances of in‐group actors in movies portraying in‐group culture (US culture in the case of Oscars, British culture in the case of BAFTAs) are more likely to be recognized than the performances of in‐group actors in movies portraying the culture of other (out‐)groups. These are the first data to provide clear evidence from the field that the recognition of exceptional creative performance is enhanced by shared social identity between perceivers and performers.     

Doctors inhibit social threat empathy in the later stage of cognitive processing: Electrophysiological evidence

Previous studies have found that repeatedly exposed to a threatening situation may reduce doctors' level of empathy, reducing psychological stress and avoiding burnout and compassion fatigue. However, many essential studies found that it does not seem universal but rather modulated by group membership. In this study, we recorded event-related potentials (ERP) when doctors and controls watched visual stimuli describing patients attacking doctors (Threat events) or shaking hands with doctors (Neutral events). The present study showed an early N190 and a later centro-parietal P3 differential amplitude between threat stimuli and neutral stimuli were observed in the controls. For the doctors, there was such ERP differentiation in early N190. However, later stage P3 differential amplitude was not observed. The current research suggests that doctors could regulate empathy and avoid allocating more attention resources when processing social threats to ensure treatment efficiency and avoid burnout.