Elaborating the role of reflection and individual differences in the study of folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.

1959 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 742-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz Eulau ◽  
John C. Wahlke ◽  
William Buchanan ◽  
Leroy C. Ferguson

The problem of representation is central to all discussions of the functions of legislatures or the behavior of legislators. For it is commonly taken for granted that, in democratic political systems, legislatures are both legitimate and authoritative decision-making institutions, and that it is their representative character which makes them authoritative and legitimate. Through the process of representation, presumably, legislatures are empowered to act for the whole body politic and are legitimized. And because, by virtue of representation, they participate in legislation, the represented accept legislative decisions as authoritative. But agreement about the meaning of the term “representation” hardly goes beyond a general consensus regarding the context within which it is appropriately used. The history of political theory is studded with definitions of representation, usually embedded in ideological assumptions and postulates which cannot serve the uses of empirical research without conceptual clarification.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Duplais ◽  
Vincent Sarou-Kanian ◽  
Dominique Massiot ◽  
Alia Hassan ◽  
Barbara Perrone ◽  
...  

AbstractAcross the evolutionary history of insects, the shift from nitrogen-rich carnivore/omnivore diets to nitrogen-poor herbivorous diets was made possible through symbiosis with microbes. The herbivorous turtle ants Cephalotes possess a conserved gut microbiome which enriches the nutrient composition by recycling nitrogen-rich metabolic waste to increase the production of amino acids. This enrichment is assumed to benefit the host, but we do not know to what extent. To gain insights into nitrogen assimilation in the ant cuticle we use gut bacterial manipulation, 15N isotopic enrichment, isotope-ratio mass spectrometry, and 15N nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to demonstrate that gut bacteria contribute to the formation of proteins, catecholamine cross-linkers, and chitin in the cuticle. This study identifies the cuticular components which are nitrogen-enriched by gut bacteria, highlighting the role of symbionts in insect evolution, and provides a framework for understanding the nitrogen flow from nutrients through bacteria into the insect cuticle.


Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 373 (6551) ◽  
pp. 226-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuka Toda ◽  
Meng-Ching Ko ◽  
Qiaoyi Liang ◽  
Eliot T. Miller ◽  
Alejandro Rico-Guevara ◽  
...  

Early events in the evolutionary history of a clade can shape the sensory systems of descendant lineages. Although the avian ancestor may not have had a sweet receptor, the widespread incidence of nectar-feeding birds suggests multiple acquisitions of sugar detection. In this study, we identify a single early sensory shift of the umami receptor (the T1R1-T1R3 heterodimer) that conferred sweet-sensing abilities in songbirds, a large evolutionary radiation containing nearly half of all living birds. We demonstrate sugar responses across species with diverse diets, uncover critical sites underlying carbohydrate detection, and identify the molecular basis of sensory convergence between songbirds and nectar-specialist hummingbirds. This early shift shaped the sensory biology of an entire radiation, emphasizing the role of contingency and providing an example of the genetic basis of convergence in avian evolution.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keerthic Aswin ◽  
Srinivasan Ramachandran ◽  
Vivek T Natarajan

AbstractEvolutionary history of coronaviruses holds the key to understand mutational behavior and prepare for possible future outbreaks. By performing comparative genome analysis of nidovirales that contain the family of coronaviruses, we traced the origin of proofreading, surprisingly to the eukaryotic antiviral component ZNFX1. This common recent ancestor contributes two zinc finger (ZnF) motifs that are unique to viral exonuclease, segregating them from DNA proof-readers. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that following acquisition, genomes of coronaviruses retained and further fine-tuned proofreading exonuclease, whereas related families harbor substitution of key residues in ZnF1 motif concomitant to a reduction in their genome sizes. Structural modelling followed by simulation suggests the role of ZnF in RNA binding. Key ZnF residues strongly coevolve with replicase, and the helicase involved in duplex RNA unwinding. Hence, fidelity of replication in coronaviruses is a result of convergent evolution, that enables maintenance of genome stability akin to cellular proofreading systems.


Author(s):  
Thomas Boraud

This chapter describes the neurobiological approach of decision-making. Until the late 1980s, ignoring the work of experimental economists and behaviourists, electrophysiologists restricted themselves to the study of sensory and motor function, believing it to be impossible for them to access cognitive processes. In 1989, William Newsome and Anthony Movshon broke the dogma while studying the role of neurons in the medio-temporal area of the cortex (an associative visual area) in the visual discrimination of macaques. They became the first researchers who were able to correlate decision-making with a pattern of electrophysiological activity in neurons. This correlation, which they called psychometric–neurometric pairing, became the backbone of all subsequent studies into the neurobiology of decision-making. The chapter then looks at the development of functional MRI, and presents a normative approach to decision-making and learning.


Author(s):  
Alain Cribier ◽  
Helene Eltchaninoff

Decision-making for the management of valvular disease (VHD) is rapidly evolving with advances in surgical and interventional techniques. The main causes of VHD has moved from rheumatic to degenerative, more particularly in industrial countries. In this chapter will be briefly discuss the aetiologies, presentation, and natural history of VHD in adults. The medical and surgical options available to date and the threshold for intervention will be then described. The role of a multidisciplinary Heart Valve Team working together with a geriatrician has become crucial to determine the optimal therapeutic option for VHD in older adults. Surgical valve replacement has been for decades the only possible option for the three leading VHDs in developed countries: aortic stenosis (AS), aortic regurgitation (AR) and mitral regurgitation (MR). Mitral stenosis (MS) has almost disappeared in Western countries while its prevalence remains high in the developing world.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jouko Rikkinen ◽  
David A. Grimaldi ◽  
Alexander R. Schmidt

AbstractMyxomycetes constitute a group within the Amoebozoa well known for their motile plasmodia and morphologically complex fruiting bodies. One obstacle hindering studies of myxomycete evolution is that their fossils are exceedingly rare, so evolutionary analyses of this supposedly ancient lineage of amoebozoans are restricted to extant taxa. Molecular data have significantly advanced myxomycete systematics, but the evolutionary history of individual lineages and their ecological adaptations remain unknown. Here, we report exquisitely preserved myxomycete sporocarps in amber from Myanmar, ca. 100 million years old, one of the few fossil myxomycetes, and the only definitive Mesozoic one. Six densely-arranged stalked sporocarps were engulfed in tree resin while young, with almost the entire spore mass still inside the sporotheca. All morphological features are indistinguishable from those of the modern, cosmopolitan genus Stemonitis, demonstrating that sporocarp morphology has been static since at least the mid-Cretaceous. The ability of myxomycetes to develop into dormant stages, which can last years, may account for the phenotypic stasis between living Stemonitis species and this fossil one, similar to the situation found in other organisms that have cryptobiosis. We also interpret Stemonitis morphological stasis as evidence of strong environmental selection favouring the maintenance of adaptations that promote wind dispersal.


2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Konrath ◽  
Irene Cheung

AbstractWe review two subjective (mis)perceptions that influence revenge and forgiveness systems. Individual differences predict more (e.g., narcissism) or less (e.g., empathy) revenge, with the opposite pattern for forgiveness. Moreover, differences in victim versus perpetrator perceptions can influence revenge and forgiveness systems, perpetuating never-ending cycles of revenge. These two examples point to the need for theories of revenge and forgiveness to address the role of cognitive and motivational biases in the functionality of such behavioral responses.


2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silke Oldenburg

This paper explores the decision-making processes used by the inhabitants of Goma during the Kivu Crisis in October 2008. The paper's aim is twofold: After providing a short history of the October 2008 events, it seeks in the empirical part to distinguish and clarify the role of rumours and narratives in the setting of violent conflict as well as to analyse their impact on decision-making processes. As the epistemological interest lies more on the people who stay rather than those who flee, in the second part the paper argues that the practice of routinization indicates a conscious tactic whose purpose is to counter the non-declared state of exception in Goma. Routinization is defined as a means of establishing order in everyday life by referring to narratives based on lived experiences.


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