Theory and Research to Study Principles of Social Cognition and Decision-Making in Adaptive Environmental Governance

AbstractInstitutional overlap emerges not only as an unintended by-product of purposive state action but also as its deliberate result. In two ways, this article expands existing research on the causes and consequences of institutional overlap. First, we establish that three different types of dissatisfaction may lead states to deliberately create institutional overlap: dissatisfaction with substantive norms and rules, dissatisfaction with decision-making rules and dissatisfaction with the institutional fit of an existing governance arrangement for a given cooperation problem. Each type of dissatisfaction triggers a distinct motivation for the creation of institutional overlap: to induce policy change, to increase influence on collective decision-making or to enhance governance effectiveness. Second, we demonstrate that whereas the motivation to induce policy change leads to interface conflicts, the motivations to increase influence on collective decision-making and to enhance governance effectiveness give rise to inter-institutional coordination. Three empirical case studies on global energy governance, the governance of global development banking and global environmental governance probe these analytical claims.

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P-1222 - Decision making in schizophrenia: a neuroeconomic trial on social cognition

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/s0924-9338(12)75389-0 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 27 ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

A. Castelnovo ◽

R. Ranieri ◽

M. Marcatili ◽

S. Scarone

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Social Cognition

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A Procedural Idea of Environmental Democracy: the 'Débat Public' Paradigm within the EU Framework

Review of European Administrative Law ◽

10.7590/187479821x16254887670919 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 85-106

Author(s):

Alberto Nicòtina

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Environmental Governance ◽

National Level ◽

Research Subject ◽

Environmental Decision Making ◽

Legislative Framework ◽

Débat Public ◽

Environmental Democracy ◽

The Eu ◽

Environmental Decision

The aim of this paper is to analyse the 'débat public' procedure, which finds its roots in the Canadian legal system and its most defined formulation in France, and which more recently has been circulating to Italy – first at the regional level and, since 2016, at the national level. The first part of the paper will thus be devoted to a historical overview of the débat public and to how it is implemented in each of the two legal systems. The second part will subsequently distil the 'paradigm', i. e. those distinctive traits that make the débat public an autonomous research subject, within the multi-layered legislative framework of environmental governance in Europe. Three main features of the paradigm will be pointed out (Participation, Effectiveness, Authority), thus highlighting how it can respond to the needs in light of which it has been designed, namely dealing with proximity conflicts and providing a forum for the construction of shared rational decisions in environmental decision-making. The paper eventually leads to the conclusion that the débat public, with its codified rules and procedures, represents the first and probably the most noticeable attempt towards the institutionalisation and generalisation of deliberative practices in environmental decision-making, thus towards developing a procedural stance in environmental democracy.

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Governance and socio-political issues in management of acid mine drainage in South Africa

Water Policy ◽

10.2166/wp.2017.068 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 77-89

Author(s):

Charles Mpofu ◽

Thabiso John Morodi ◽

Johan Petrus Hattingh

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Decision Making ◽

Acid Mine Drainage ◽

Environmental Governance ◽

Mine Drainage ◽

Mineral Resources ◽

Political Issues ◽

Acid Mine ◽

Black Economic Empowerment ◽

Decision Making Processes

Abstract The water resources in South Africa are threatened by current and past mining practices such as abandoned and closed mines. While mining is considered valuable for its contribution to this country's gross domestic product, its polluting effects on water and land resources have been criticised as unsustainable. Acid mine drainage (AMD) is one specific public health and ecological issue that has stirred debates in political and social circles in this country. This paper examines the scalar politics and other related dimensions of water and AMD governance, thereby revealing evidence of deep-rooted challenges regarding the governance of water and mineral resources. The specific focus is on the socio-political context of labour laws and Black Economic Empowerment and the decision-making processes adopted by government. Thus, this paper has implications for the improvement of environmental governance and decision-making strategies and the adoption of a national strategy for adequately addressing AMD and related policy issues.

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Reply to Cronin: Consistency between decision-making, gaze, and natural social behavior validates inferences on macaque social cognition

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1600687113 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 113 (10) ◽

pp. E1332-E1333

Author(s):

Sebastien Ballesta ◽

Jean-René Duhamel

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Social Cognition ◽

Social Behavior

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Social cognition in schizophrenia: The role of mentalizing in moral dilemma decision-making

Comprehensive Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.comppsych.2018.10.013 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 87 ◽

pp. 171-178 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Katja Koelkebeck ◽

Lisa Kuegler ◽

Waldemar Kohl ◽

Alva Engell ◽

Rebekka Lencer

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Social Cognition ◽

Moral Dilemma

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Neurocomputational mechanisms of confidence in self and others

10.1101/2021.03.05.434065 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Dan Bang ◽

Rani Moran ◽

Nathaniel Douglass Daw ◽

Stephen M Fleming

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Social Cognition ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Social Situations ◽

Self And Other ◽

Difficult Decision ◽

Substantial Progress ◽

Decision Difficulty

Computing confidence in one's own and others' decisions is crucial for success in many social situations. There has been substantial progress in our understanding of confidence in oneself, but little is known about how we form confidence in others. Here, we address this question by asking subjects undergoing fMRI to place bets on perceptual decisions made by themselves or one of three other players of varying ability. We show that subjects' compute confidence in another player's decisions by combining distinct estimates of player ability and decision difficulty - allowing them to predict that a good player may get a difficult decision wrong and that a bad player may get an easy decision right. We find that this computation is supported by an interaction between brain systems traditionally implicated in decision-making (LIP) and theory of mind (TPJ, dmPFC). These results reveal a neurocomputational interplay between self- and other-related processes during social cognition.

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Social Cognition through the Lens of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience

BioMed Research International ◽

10.1155/2018/4283427 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 ◽

pp. 1-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Maria Arioli ◽

Chiara Crespi ◽

Nicola Canessa

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Social Cognition ◽

Cognitive Deficits ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Social Cognitive ◽

Acquired Brain Injury ◽

Clinical Neuroscience ◽

Pathological Conditions ◽

The Social ◽

Social Cognitive Deficits

Social cognition refers to a set of processes, ranging from perception to decision-making, underlying the ability to decode others’ intentions and behaviors to plan actions fitting with social and moral, besides individual and economic considerations. Its centrality in everyday life reflects the neural complexity of social processing and the ubiquity of social cognitive deficits in different pathological conditions. Social cognitive processes can be clustered in three domains associated with (a) perceptual processing of social information such as faces and emotional expressions (social perception), (b) grasping others’ cognitive or affective states (social understanding), and (c) planning behaviors taking into consideration others’, in addition to one’s own, goals (social decision-making). We review these domains from the lens of cognitive neuroscience, i.e., in terms of the brain areas mediating the role of such processes in the ability to make sense of others’ behavior and plan socially appropriate actions. The increasing evidence on the “social brain” obtained from healthy young individuals nowadays constitutes the baseline for detecting changes in social cognitive skills associated with physiological aging or pathological conditions. In the latter case, impairments in one or more of the abovementioned domains represent a prominent concern, or even a core facet, of neurological (e.g., acquired brain injury or neurodegenerative diseases), psychiatric (e.g., schizophrenia), and developmental (e.g., autism) disorders. To pave the way for the other papers of this issue, addressing the social cognitive deficits associated with severe acquired brain injury, we will briefly discuss the available evidence on the status of social cognition in normal aging and its breakdown in neurodegenerative disorders. Although the assessment and treatment of such impairments is a relatively novel sector in neurorehabilitation, the evidence summarized here strongly suggests that the development of remediation procedures for social cognitive skills will represent a future field of translational research in clinical neuroscience.

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Pathways to Implementation: Evidence on How Participation in Environmental Governance Impacts on Environmental Outcomes

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory ◽

10.1093/jopart/muz034 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 30 (3) ◽

pp. 383-399 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nicolas W Jager ◽

Jens Newig ◽

Edward Challies ◽

Elisa Kochskämper

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Latent Variables ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Environmental Governance ◽

Social Outcomes ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Environmental Standard ◽

Stakeholder Perspectives ◽

Decision Making Processes ◽

Modes Of Governance

Abstract There is much enthusiasm among scholars and public administrators for participatory and collaborative modes of governance as a means to tackle contemporary environmental problems. Participatory and collaborative approaches are expected to both enhance the environmental standard of the outputs of decision-making processes and improve the implementation of these outputs. In this article, we draw on a database of 307 coded published cases of public environmental decision-making to identify key pathways via which participation fosters effective environmental governance. We develop a conceptual model of the hypothesized relationship between participation, environmental outputs, and implementation, mediated by intermediate (social) outcomes such as social learning or trust building. Testing these assumptions through structural equation modeling and exploratory factor analysis, we find a generally positive effect of participation on the environmental standard of governance outputs, in particular where communication intensity is high and where participants are delegated decision-making power. Moreover, we identify two latent variables—convergence of stakeholder perspectives and stakeholder capacity building—to mediate this relationship. Our findings point to a need for treating complex and multifaceted phenomena such as participation in a nuanced manner, and to pay attention to how particular mechanisms work to foster a range of social outcomes and to secure more environmentally effective outputs and their implementation.

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