scholarly journals Reciprocity: Weak or strong? What punishment experiments do (and do not) demonstrate

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Guala
Keyword(s):  
Repeated Games ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Laboratory Data ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Social Dilemma ◽  
Wide Reading ◽  
Free Riders ◽  
Costly Punishment ◽  
Field Evidence ◽  
In The Wild

AbstractEconomists and biologists have proposed a distinction between two mechanisms – “strong” and “weak” reciprocity – that may explain the evolution of human sociality. Weak reciprocity theorists emphasize the benefits of long-term cooperation and the use of low-cost strategies to deter free-riders. Strong reciprocity theorists, in contrast, claim that cooperation in social dilemma games can be sustained by costly punishment mechanisms, even in one-shot and finitely repeated games. To support this claim, they have generated a large body of evidence concerning the willingness of experimental subjects to punish uncooperative free-riders at a cost to themselves. In this article, I distinguish between a “narrow” and a “wide” reading of the experimental evidence. Under the narrow reading, punishment experiments are just useful devices to measure psychological propensities in controlled laboratory conditions. Under the wide reading, they replicate a mechanism that supports cooperation also in “real-world” situations outside the laboratory. I argue that the wide interpretation must be tested using a combination of laboratory data and evidence about cooperation “in the wild.” In spite of some often-repeated claims, there is no evidence that cooperation in the small egalitarian societies studied by anthropologists is enforced by means of costly punishment. Moreover, studies by economic and social historians show that social dilemmas in the wild are typically solved by institutions that coordinate punishment, reduce its cost, and extend the horizon of cooperation. The lack of field evidence for costly punishment suggests important constraints about what forms of cooperation can or cannot be sustained by means of decentralised policing.

The strategic logic of costly punishment necessitates natural field experiments, and at least one such experiment exists

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Strong Reciprocity ◽  
Natural Field ◽  
Wide Reading ◽  
Costly Punishment ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Strategic Logic

AbstractCostly punishment's scarcity “in the wild” does not belie strong reciprocity theory as Guala claims. In the presence of strong reciprocators, strategic defectors will cooperate and sanctioning will not occur. Accordingly, natural field experiments are necessary to assess a “wide” reading of costly punishment experiments. One such field experiment exists, and it supports the hypothesis that costly punishment promotes cooperation.

scholarly journals Strong reciprocity is real, but there is no evidence that uncoordinated costly punishment sustains cooperation in the wild

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Guala
Keyword(s):  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Social Motives ◽  
Strong Reciprocity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Costly Punishment ◽  
Field Evidence ◽  
Target Article ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Rule Out ◽  
Made In

AbstractI argue in my target article that field evidence does not support the costly punishment hypothesis. Some commentators object to my reading of the evidence, while others agree that evidence in favour of costly punishment is scant. Most importantly, no rigorous measurement of cost-benefit ratios in the field has been attempted so far. This lack of evidence does not rule out costly punishment as a cause of human cooperation, but it does pre-empt some overconfident claims made in the past. Other commentators have interpreted my article as an anti-experimental pamphlet or as a flat denial of the existence of pro-social motives – which it was not intended to be. While we have enough data to establish the existence (and theoretical relevance) of strong reciprocity motives, I argue in this response that their efficacy (and policy relevance) has not been demonstrated.

scholarly journals A Person-to-Person and Person-to-Place COVID-19 Contact Tracing System Based on OGC IndoorGML

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soroush Ojagh ◽  
Sara Saeedi ◽  
Steve H. L. Liang
Keyword(s):  
Data Model ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Trajectory Data ◽  
Sequential Order ◽  
Human Contact ◽  
Wide Availability ◽  
Data Points ◽  
The Impact

With the wide availability of low-cost proximity sensors, a large body of research focuses on digital person-to-person contact tracing applications that use proximity sensors. In most contact tracing applications, the impact of SARS-CoV-2 spread through touching contaminated surfaces in enclosed places is overlooked. This study is focused on tracing human contact within indoor places using the open OGC IndoorGML standard. This paper proposes a graph-based data model that considers the semantics of indoor locations, time, and users’ contexts in a hierarchical structure. The functionality of the proposed data model is evaluated for a COVID-19 contact tracing application with scalable system architecture. Indoor trajectory preprocessing is enabled by spatial topology to detect and remove semantically invalid real-world trajectory points. Results show that 91.18% percent of semantically invalid indoor trajectory data points are filtered out. Moreover, indoor trajectory data analysis is innovatively empowered by semantic user contexts (e.g., disinfecting activities) extracted from user profiles. In an enhanced contact tracing scenario, considering the disinfecting activities and sequential order of visiting common places outperformed contact tracing results by filtering out unnecessary potential contacts by 44.98 percent. However, the average execution time of person-to-place contact tracing is increased by 58.3%.

Effects of Aircraft Motion on Passengers' Comfort Ratings and Response Times

1980 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward J. Rinalducci
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Field Study ◽  
Ride Comfort ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Laboratory Data ◽  
Large Body ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Human Reaction ◽  
Aircraft Motion ◽  
Human Reaction Time

Comfort ratings and response times for changes in the experienced level of comfort were examined in 20 subjects using the NASA Flight Research Center's Jetstar aircraft modified to carry the GPAS system (General Purpose Airborne Simulator). Data were obtained for each of the subjects during two runs of 10 1-min. flight segments. In general, as the magnitude of aircraft motion increased in either the vertical or transverse (lateral) directions, there was an increase in feelings of discomfort and a decrease in response times to those changes. These results suggest parallels between the large body of laboratory data on human reaction time and that collected in this field study on response times to changes in ride comfort.

scholarly journals 70 Can a Wholefood Plant-based Diet Affect Healthy Ageing?

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. iii17-iii65
Author(s):  
Ailin O'Mullan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Healthy Ageing ◽  
Average Life ◽  
Average Life Expectancy ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Inflammatory Conditions ◽  
Co Morbidity

Abstract Background This study sought to examine existing evidence regards the effects of a wholefood plant-based diet on healthy ageing. As of March 2018 the average life expectancy in Ireland was 81.4 years, ten years above the global average. However approximately 1 million people suffer from chronic disease with 64.8% of people over 65 living with co-morbidity (TILDA 2014). The prevention and treatment of these diseases is central to the healthy ageing of our population. Methods This systematic review of the literature explored diet, health, ageing and disease. A scoping search, with relevant key words, was followed by an in-depth search with reference to a pre-ordained search syntax template. Specific eligibility criteria, determined by a PICOSS system were applied to the results. All included studies underwent quality assessment in line with the critical appraisal checklist for cross sectional studies. Extracted data was displayed in table format initially and then explained through narrative synthesis. Results A large body of evidence was found to suggest that cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders and inflammatory conditions improved with a wholefood plant-based diet. Evidence in relation to certain cancers was present but not conclusive. Breast cancer was the exception to this. Evidentiary support, for reductions in BMI and in the need for polypharmacy were also found. Conclusion More research is needed into the benefits of a wholefood plant-based Diet. However as this diet is a low cost, low risk intervention it could be applied beneficially in the interim. Ageing was found to be a life-wide, life–long process so the research concluded that this diet could provide benefit to all. “The side effects of a plant-based diet could be the elimination of the need to take drugs, and further research is needed to find ways to make Plant-Based Diet the new normal” Tuso, et al (2013).

scholarly journals Re-establishment of an endangered subspecies: the Norfolk Island Boobook Owl Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata

1996 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Penny D. Olsen
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Female Offspring ◽  
Nest Boxes ◽  
Large Trees ◽  
Island Group ◽  
Norfolk Island ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Original Female

SummaryThe Norfolk Island Boobook Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata is confined to the small, isolated Norfolk Island group, an Australian territory. On morphological and biogeographical grounds, it is here classified as a large, distinctive subspecies of the New Zealand Morepork N. novaeseelandiae. In 1986 only one specimen, a female, survived. A shortage of large trees with suitable nesting holes appeared to be the immediate problem. The Australian Nature Conservation Agency, islanders and New Zealand wildlife authorities have cooperated in an attempt to re-establish an owl population in situ. Nest-boxes were erected in trees in the area frequented by the female and were used readily as roosts. In September 1987, two male New Zealand Moreporks were introduced. The female paired with one male and produced four hybrid F offspring (in 1989 and 1990). Two of these paired in mid-1991 and have since produced five F offspring (two in 1993 and three in 1994). The original female remains paired but now appears to be reproductively senile. At present there seems to be a shortage of mature males, since two female offspring are paired and both lay eggs and attempt to incubate them in the same nest; and a lone female has established a territory. In early 1995 all eleven owls appeared to be alive in the wild. The effort is low-cost, requires relatively little manpower, is carried out with minimal disturbance to the owls, and goes hand in hand with other conservation programmes.

scholarly journals Grasping in the Wild: Learning 6DoF Closed-Loop Grasping From Low-Cost Demonstrations

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 4978-4985 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuran Song ◽  
Andy Zeng ◽  
Johnny Lee ◽  
Thomas Funkhouser
Keyword(s):  
Closed Loop ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
In The Wild

Becoming Interested In Experiments: American Igneous Petrologists and the Geophysical Laboratory, 1905-1965

1995 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl-Henry Geschwind
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Laboratory Data ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Experimental Science ◽  
World War ◽  
Igneous Petrology

The establishment of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Geophysical Laboratory in 1905 and the pathbreaking work conducted there by Norman L. Bowen in the 1910s and 1920s are commonly considered to have rendered igneous petrology an experimental science. A closer examination of the work of American igneous petrologists outside the Laboratory reveals, however, that consideration of experimental data did not become an integral part of petrological practice until after World War II. To be sure, igneous petrologists celebrated the Geophysical Laboratory and its experimental approach in speeches and historical reviews throughout the interwar period. In their actual research, though, most igneous petrologists ignored the large body of experimental results gathered by the Geophysical Laboratory and treated Bowen's theory of differentiation as merely another speculative petrogenetic hypothesis to be tested against field data. These petrologists, many of whom were engaged in mapping for state and federal surveys, regarded laboratory data on simple anhydrous systems as simply inapplicable to real rocks. Not until after World War II, when the Geophysical Laboratory began large-scale experimentation on hydrous systems and natural rocks, did field petrologists generally accept the relevance of experimental data. At the same time, the institutional framework of igneous petrology changed in the late 1940s and 1950s as a number of experimental petrologists took advantage both of support from new government agencies, and of the rapidly increasing prestige of geochemistry within the discipline, to establish numerous new experimental laboratories. This change in the structure of the discipline, coupled with the greater reliance on hydrous systems and natural rocks in experimental work, finally led to the general incorporation of experimentation into petrological practice.

scholarly journals Effect of Seed Priming on Germination Properties and Seedling Establishment of Cowpea (Vigna sinensis)

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 113-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamdollah ESKANDARI ◽  
Kamyar KAZEMI
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Tests ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Germination Rate ◽  
Seedling Emergence ◽  
Laboratory Data ◽  
Seed Priming ◽  
Germination Percentage ◽  
Seed Vigor ◽  
Seedling Vigor ◽  
Contributing Factors

Early emergence and stand establishment of cowpea are considered to be the most important yield-contributing factors in rainfed areas. Laboratory tests and afield experiment were conducted in RCB design in 2011 at a research farm in Ramhormoz, Iran, to evaluate the effects of hydropriming (8, 12 and 16 hours duration) and halo priming (solutions of 1.5% KNO3 and 0.8% NaCl) on seedling vigor and field establishment of cowpea. Analysis of variance of laboratory data showed that hydropriming significantly improved germination rate, seed vigor index, and seedling dry weights. However, germination percentage for seeds primed with KNO3 and non-primed seeds were statistically similar, but higher than those for NaCl priming. Overall, hydropriming treatment was comparatively superior in the laboratory tests. Invigoration of cowpea seeds by hydropriming and NaCl priming resulted in higher seedling emergence and establishment in the field, compared to control and seed priming with KNO3. Seedling emergence rate was also enhanced by priming seeds with water, suggesting that hydropriming is a simple, low cost and environmentally friendly technique for improving seed and seedling vigor of cowpea.

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