I'm free but I'll comply with your request: generalization and multidimensional effects of the “evoking freedom” technique

The “evoking freedom” technique is a verbal compliance procedure that solicits someone to comply with a request by simply telling them they are free to accept or to refuse the request. The measure of the efficiency of this technique on compliance with large samples and the evaluation of its influence on various requests was tested in the first set of experiments. This technique was found to be efficient in increasing the number of people who agreed to give money to a requester, the number of smokers who agreed to give a cigarette, passersby who agreed to respond to a survey, and homeowners who agreed to buy pancakes. In the second set of experiments in which the mode of interaction between the requester and the person solicited was tested, the “evoking freedom” technique was found to be associated with greater compliance with a request addressed by mail and through face‐to‐face, phone‐to‐phone, or computer‐mediated interaction. The third set of experiments tested the effect of semantic variations of the “evoking freedom” technique and the weight of the repetition of the semantic evocation of freedom. These later experiments that used various phrases evoking the freedom to comply were found to be associated with greater compliance. Moreover, a double evocation of freedom was associated with even greater compliance than a single evocation. The importance of this technique for commitment communication is discussed.     

A Critical Examination of the Reliability and Validity of a Gender Role Attitude Scale in Flanders (Belgium): What Lessons Can be Learned?

Western societies have shifted toward more egalitarian gender role attitudes (GRA). Quantitative research on GRA has been critiqued for not having kept up with societal changes in GRA. GRA scales are claimed to lack discriminative power and not fully capture the diversity within non-traditional attitudes. The present study gives an overview of the theoretical critiques with regard to GRA scales and empirically assesses these critiques. A typical example of a GRA scale measuring adolescents’ GRA in Flanders (Belgium) is used to test the scale’s quality across three waves of surveys completed by 4063 early secondary school students. Our analysis identifies the drawbacks of this particular scale. First, a ceiling effect was found, with most respondents being egalitarian. Second, the representativeness of roles inquired about is restricted; relevant societal domains are not questioned and most roles are only questioned for one gender. Third, a gender-binary approach is dominant. Finally, our results confirm that adolescents demonstrate ambivalent feelings toward balancing female employment and motherhood; although paid employment is encouraged, childcare is prioritized. We recommend that other researchers critically examine the usability and quality of GRA scales in today’s society. Using outdated GRA scales might conceal the ambivalence that adolescents feel due to new gender inequities. Also, investing in structures and regulations supporting the work-family balance is key in further promoting gender equity.     

Settings and misunderstandings in mathematics

Synthese - This paper pursues two goals. Its first goal is to clear up the “identity problem” faced by the structuralist interpretation of mathematics. Its second goal, through the...     

Diagrams as sketches

This article puts forward the notion of ??evolving diagram?? as an important case of mathematical diagram. An evolving diagram combines, through a dynamic graphical enrichment, the representation of an object and the representation of a piece of reasoning based on the representation of that object. Evolving diagrams can be illustrated in particular with category-theoretic diagrams (hereafter ??diagrams*??) in the context of ??sketch theory,?? a branch of modern category theory. It is argued that sketch theory provides a diagrammatic* theory of diagrams*, that it helps to overcome the rivalry between set theory and category theory as a general semantical framework, and that it suggests a more flexible understanding of the opposition between formal proofs and diagrammatic reasoning. Thus, the aim of the paper is twofold. First, it claims that diagrams* provide a clear example of evolving diagrams, and shed light on them as a general phenomenon. Second, in return, it uses sketches, understood as evolving diagrams, to show how diagrams* in general should be re-evaluated positively.     

The Versatility of Universality in Principia Mathematica

In this article, I examine the ramified-type theory set out in the first edition of Russell and Whitehead's Principia Mathematica. My starting point is the ‘no loss of generality’ problem: Russell, in the Introduction (Russell, B. and Whitehead, A. N. 1910. Principia Mathematica, Volume I, 1st ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 53–54), says that one can account for all propositional functions using predicative variables only, that is, dismissing non-predicative variables. That claim is not self-evident at all, hence a problem. The purpose of this article is to clarify Russell's claim and to solve the ‘no loss of generality’ problem. I first remark that the hierarchy of propositional functions calls for a fine-grained conception of ramified types as propositional forms (‘ramif-types’). Then, comparing different important interpretations of Principia’s theory of types, I consider the question as to whether Principia allows for non-predicative propositional functions and variables thereof. I explain how the distinction between the formal system of the theory, on the one hand, and its realizations in different epistemic universes, on the other hand, makes it possible to give us a more satisfactory answer to that question than those given by previous commentators, and, as a consequence, to solve the ‘no loss of generality’ problem. The solution consists in a substitutional semantics for non-predicative variables and non-predicative complex terms, based on an epistemic understanding of the order component of ramified types. The rest of the article then develops that epistemic understanding, adding an original epistemic model theory to the formal system of types. This shows that the universality sought by Russell for logic does not preclude semantical considerations, contrary to what van Heijenoort and Hintikka have claimed.