Is World Poverty a Moral Problem for the Wealthy?

This article discusses the question of poverty and wealth in light of several theses put forward by Larry Temkin. The claim that there is a sort of cosmic injustice involved when great disparities of ability or of wealth are found. He is concerned especially about disparities that are undeserved. It is agreed that this is unfortunate, but not agreed that they are unjust in a sense that supports the imposition of rectification on anyone else. Nor is poverty typically undeserved in the only really relevant sense: the poor simply do not produce enough to earn them high incomes, and probably correct incomes they derive are indeed what such efforts are worth in the circumstances. That persons with very low incomes may merit our sympathy is accepted, but sympathy leads to charity, rather than to the involuntary exploitation of the better off. The essay concludes with further observations about the relevance of free markets, and points to the iniquities of the restrictions on commerce that are the most potent source of perpetuated poverty today.     

God is great – but not necessary? On Ara Norenzayan,Big Gods (2013)

Norenzayan provides ample evidence to support the claim that beliefs about moralizing Big Gods correlate with prosocial behavior. Atheists, for their part, are the most mistrusted minority wherever there is a widespread belief in moralizing gods. Projecting these patterns of thought and behavior on to our ancestors 10 000 years back is risky, though. It is a plausible hypothesis that prosociality in societies where people meet anonymous others on a regular basis may have coevolved with beliefs about Big Gods, but it remains historically speculative and the direction of causality is impossible to establish.     

Herding by attribution of privileged information

We study a situation where agents take extreme actions and how these actions are imitated by others. First, Experiment 1 showed that an expert first mover had an advantage in obtaining herding by others on his investment decision, when compared to a non‐expert first mover. Experiment 2 showed that this advantage only appeared when the first mover's investment was out‐of‐the‐ordinary (in fact, highly aberrant). We obtained the same level of herding in Experiment 3 when the first mover had privileged information, instead of being an expert. Second, Experiment 4 showed that when people observed the same out‐of‐the‐ordinary investment and did not know whether the first mover had privileged information or not, they herded on him as if he had privileged information. In fact, our data revealed that participants thought that the unknown first mover had privileged information. Furthermore, herding was statistically indistinguishable from the condition where observers knew unambiguously that the first mover had privileged information. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effect of Information Strength and Weight on Behavior in Financial Markets

Griffin and Tversky (1992) explain evidence of individual over- and underconfidence as resulting from attending too much to the strength (i.e., extremity) of information and not enough to the weight (i.e., statistical reliability) of information. We report two experiments that demonstrate how information strength and weight affect confidence, trading, prices, and wealth in laboratory markets. Our results indicate that information strength and weight affect individual over- and underconfidence and that market participants lack sufficient self-insight to avoid trading when they are biased. As a consequence, market prices are biased, and market participants with high-strength, low-weight information systematically transfer wealth to participants with low-strength, high-weight information.     

The Religiosity of Immigrants in Europe: A Cross‐National Study

This study examines cross‐national differences in the religiosity of immigrants in Europe utilizing three different measures of religiosity: religious attendance, praying, and subjective religiosity. Hypotheses are formulated by drawing upon a variety of theories—scientific worldview, insecurity, religious markets, and social integration. The hypotheses are tested using European Social Survey data (2002–2008) from more than 10,000 first‐generation immigrants living in 27 receiving countries. Multilevel models show that, on the individual level, religiosity is higher among immigrants who are unemployed, less educated, and who have recently arrived in the host country. On the contextual level, the religiosity of natives positively affects immigrant religiosity. The models explain about 60 percent of the cross‐national differences in religious attendance and praying of immigrants and about 20 percent of the cross‐national differences in subjective religiosity.     

Consumer behaviour in an unregulated market: the satisfactions and dissatisfactions of illicit drug consumption

Here the case of recreational drug consumption by youths in the West of Scotland is applied to evaluate some prevailing models of consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction (CS/D). The findings suggest dissatisfactory and satisfactory outcomes do not always result in the types of future consumption behaviours proposed by some models of consumer CS/D. Although, as some models of CS/D suggest, satisfactory experiences tended to reinforce the desire to repeat consumption, when consumption was dissatisfactory, users tended to employ several strategies to justify further use. Whereas users attributed positive or pleasurable experiences to the narcotic effect of the substances consumed, dissatisfactory outcomes were attributed to other factors. Users develop sophisticated responses to dissatisfaction, such as deferment and denial. The findings have important implications for some theories and models of CS/D for consumer expectation: in particular, the effect of dissatisfactory experiences on future consumption intentions. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Researching a Local Heroin Market as a Complex Adaptive System

This project applies agent-based modeling (ABM) techniques to better understand the operation, organization, and structure of a local heroin market. The simulation detailed was developed using data from an 18-month ethnographic case study. The original research, collected in Denver, CO during the 1990s, represents the historic account of users and dealers who operated in the Larimer area heroin market. Working together, the authors studied the behaviors of customers, private dealers, street-sellers, brokers, and the police, reflecting the core elements pertaining to how the market operated. After evaluating the logical consistency between the data and agent behaviors, simulations scaled-up interactions to observe their aggregated outcomes. While the concept and findings from this study remain experimental, these methods represent a novel way in which to understand illicit drug markets and the dynamic adaptations and outcomes they generate. Extensions of this research perspective, as well as its strengths and limitations, are discussed.     

Countries with fewer males have more violent crime: marriage markets and mating aggression

Violent crimes (murders, rapes, and assaults) are substantially higher in countries with a relative scarcity of men according to research using INTERPOL data [Barber, 2000a]. This is a paradox given that males are more criminally violent and likely reflects increased direct mating competition. The present research sought to confirm and extend Barber's [2000a] finding, using murder data from the United Nations and homicides from World Health Organization that are of higher quality than the INTERPOL data, and using more rigorous controls. In addition to level of economic development, control variables included, income inequality, urbanization, population density, the number of police, and whether the country was a major center of illegal drug trafficking. Regression analyses with all controls found that killings in both data sets increased with declines in the male proportion of the population. The findings are discussed in terms of direct reproductive competition and alternative explanations are considered.     

Complexity as a guide to understanding decision bias: A contribution to the favorite‐longshot bias debate

This paper investigates the origins of a widespread decision bias in betting markets, the favorite‐longshot bias (FLB); in particular, whether it is caused by cognitive errors on the part of bettors or by the pricing policies of bookmakers. The methodology is based on previous literature, which has suggested that: (i) races, as decision tasks for bettors, can be distinguished by their degree of complexity and their attractiveness to those with access to privileged information (insiders), (ii) cognitive errors increase as complexity increases, and (iii) bookmakers set odds in a manner to protect themselves from insiders. The degree of FLB was examined in races of varying complexity and attractiveness to insiders using a dataset of 8545 races drawn from the parallel bookmaker and pari‐mutuel markets operating in the UK in 2004. The results, interpreted in the light of the cognitive error and complexity literature, suggest that neither bettors' nor bookmakers' cognitive errors are the main cause of the bias. Rather, bettors' preferences for risk and the deliberate pricing policies of bookmakers play key roles in influencing the bias in markets where bookmakers and pari‐mutuel operators coexist. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘It seems at the moment my career is dependent on factors outside of my control’: reflections on graduates’ experiences of employment and career enactment in an era of economic uncertainty and austerity

ABSTRACT

This paper explores contested notions of the purpose of education and careers work. The research for the paper examines public sector employee reactions to notion of a psychological contract breach, when cuts in funding put their jobs and careers at risk. It argues that, in this environment, the search for career fulfilment can be marked by feelings of cruel optimism, wicked problems and broken expectations. The findings are then used to present the case for further research, firstly, to address the notion of possible selves, as individuals explore alternative identity affirming career opportunities; and secondly, the impact of changes in public policy on the processes of psychological contracting between students and staff in further and higher education.