The behaviour of corporate actors: How much can we learn from the experimental literature?

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPH ENGEL
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Experimental Economics ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Corporate Actor ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Organization Science ◽  
Socially Relevant

Abstract:Much of socially relevant behaviour does not originate in isolated individuals. It is embedded in institutional arrangements. Embeddedness can be so pronounced that outsiders no longer focus on the judgement and decision making of individuals contributing to the course of action. Instead, they ascribe the behaviour to the institution, which they refer to as a corporate actor. This social practice makes it meaningful to compare isolated individuals and corporate actors undertaking the same tasks. This paper surveys the empirical literature on the question from experimental economics, social psychology, and organization science.

A Person × Intervention Strategy Approach to Understanding Health Behavior

2018 ◽  
pp. 830-856
Author(s):  
Alexander J. Rothman ◽  
Austin S. Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Health Behavior ◽  
Intervention Strategy ◽  
Moderated Mediation ◽  
Behavior Interventions ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Mediated Moderation ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Health Behavior Interventions

This chapter suggests that an integration of perspectives from personality and social psychology (i.e., a Person × Intervention strategy framework) provides a rich context to explore precise specifications of the mediators and moderators that guide health behavior and decision-making. First discussed is how conceptualizations of moderated mediation and mediated moderation can enrich theory and serve to enumerate specific principles to guide the development and dissemination of more effective health behavior interventions. Second, research is reviewed from four different literatures that rely on a similar Person × Intervention strategy framework (i.e., the effectiveness of an intervention strategy depends on the degree to which it matches features of the target person) to examine evidence for the processes that mediate the effect of this moderated intervention approach. Finally described is how a more systematic analysis of the interplay between mediating and moderating processes can stimulate advances in theory, intervention research, and practice of health behavior.

Psychology and the New Private Law

2020 ◽  
pp. 124-142
Author(s):  
Tess Wilkinson-Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Law And Economics ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Legal Decision ◽  
Psychological Analysis ◽  
Legal Decision Making ◽  
Normative Models

This chapter presents a framework for understanding the most promising contributions of psychological methods and insights for private law. It focuses on two related domains of psychological research: cognitive and social psychology. Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes, which one might shorthand as “thinking.” Social psychology asks about the role of other people—actual, implied, or imagined—on mental states and human behavior. The chapter is oriented around five core psychological insights: calculation, motivation, emotion, social influence, and moral values. Legal scholarship by turns tries to explain legal decision-making, tries to calibrate incentives, and tries to justify its values and its means. Psychology speaks to these descriptive, prescriptive, and normative models of decision-making. The chapter then argues that psychological analysis of legal decision-making challenges the work that the idea of choice and preference is doing in private law, especially in the wake of the law and economics movement.

scholarly journals Nursing Home Staff’s Perceptions of Healthcare Decision Making for Unbefriended Residents

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 384-384
Author(s):  
Hyejin Kim ◽  
Molly Perkins ◽  
Thaddeus Pope ◽  
Patricia Comer ◽  
Mi-Kyung Song
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Geographic Area ◽  
Care Physician ◽  
Healthcare Decision ◽  
Do Not Resuscitate ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Care Plans ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Healthcare Decision Making ◽  
Facility Level

Abstract ‘Unbefriended’ adults are those who lack decision-making capacity and have no surrogates or advance care plans. Little data exist on nursing homes (NHs)’ healthcare decision-making practices for unbefriended residents. This study aimed to describe NH staff’s perceptions of healthcare decision making on behalf of unbefriended residents. Sixty-six staff including administrators, physicians, nurses, and social workers from three NHs in one geographic area of Georgia, USA participated in a 31-item survey. Their responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and conventional content analysis. Of 66 participants, eleven had been involved in healthcare decision-making for unbefriended residents. The most common decision was do-not-resuscitate orders. Decisions primarily were made by relying on the resident’s primary care physician and/or discussing within a facility interdisciplinary team. Key considerations in the decision-making process included “evidence that the resident would not have wanted further treatment” and the perception that “further treatment would not be in the resident’s best interest”. Compared with decision making for residents with surrogates, participants perceived decision making for unbefriended residents to be equally-more difficult. Key barriers to making decisions included uncertainty regarding what the resident would have wanted in the given situation and concerns regarding the ethically and legally right course of action. Facilitators (reported by 52 participants) included some information/knowledge about the resident, an understanding regarding decision-making-related law/policy, and facility-level support. The findings highlight the complexity and difficulty of healthcare decision making for unbefriended residents and suggest more discussions among all key stakeholders to develop practical strategies to support decision-making practices in NHs.

Focal Concerns and Police Decision Making in Sexual Assault Cases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 152483802199128
Author(s):  
David S. Lapsey ◽  
Bradley A. Campbell ◽  
Bryant T. Plumlee
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Campbell Collaboration ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Police Decision Making ◽  
The Impact

Sexual assault and case attrition at the arrest stage are serious problems in the United States. Focal concerns have increasingly been used to explain police decision making in sexual assault cases. Because of the popularity of the focal concerns perspective and potential to inform evidence-based training, a systematic review and meta-analysis are needed to condense the literature. In this study, we assess the overall strength of the relationship between focal concerns variables and police decisions to arrest in cases of sexual assault. Our assessment of the effects of focal concerns variables on arrest decision making in sexual assault cases followed the systematic review protocols provided by the Campbell Collaboration of Systematic Reviews. Specifically, we used the Campbell Collaboration recommendations to search empirical literature and used meta-analysis to evaluate the size, direction, and strength of the impact of focal concerns variables on arrest decisions. Our search strategy detected 14 eligible studies and 79 effect sizes. The meta-analysis found several robust and statistically significant correlates of arrest. In fact, each focal concerns concept produced at least one robust arrest correlate. Overall, focal concerns offers a strong approach for explaining police decisions in sexual assault cases. Although practical concerns and resource constraints produced the strongest arrest correlates, results show the importance of additional case characteristics in officers’ decision to arrest.

scholarly journals Choosing Among Options Presented Sequentially or Simultaneously

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shankha Basu ◽  
Krishna Savani
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Experimental Economics ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Eyewitness Identification ◽  
Simultaneous Presentation ◽  
Judgment And Decision Making ◽  
Choice Architecture ◽  
Processing Styles ◽  
Presentation Formats

When choosing among multiple options, people can view the options either one at a time or all together. In this article, we review an emerging stream of research that examines the ways in which viewing options sequentially as opposed to simultaneously influences people’s decisions. Multiple studies support the idea that viewing options simultaneously encourages people to compare the options and to focus on the ways in which the options differ from each other. In contrast, viewing options sequentially encourages people to process each option holistically by comparing the option with previously encountered options or a subjective reference point. Integrating research from judgment and decision making, consumer behavior, experimental economics, and eyewitness identification, we identify ways in which the different processing styles elicited by sequential- and simultaneous-presentation formats influence people’s judgment and decision making. This issue is particularly important because presenting options either sequentially or simultaneously is a key element of choice architecture.

scholarly journals Leverage Points for Governing Agricultural Soils: A Review of Empirical Studies of European Farmers’ Decision-Making

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bartosz Bartkowski ◽  
Stephan Bartke
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Agricultural Soils ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Symbolic Capital ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Behavioural Characteristics ◽  
Peer Orientation ◽  
Economic Constraints

What drives farmers’ decision-making? To inform effective, efficient, and legitimate governance of agricultural soils, it is important to understand the behaviour of those who manage the fields. This article contributes to the assessment and development of innovative soil governance instruments by outlining a comprehensive understanding of the determinants of farmers’ behaviour and decision-making. Our analysis synthesises empirical literature from different disciplines spanning the last four decades on various farm-level decision-making problems. Based on a conceptual framework that links objective characteristics of the farm and the farmer with behavioural characteristics, social-institutional environment, economic constraints, and decision characteristics, empirical findings from 87 European studies are presented and discussed. We point out that economic constraints and incentives are very important, but that other factors also have significant effects, in particular pro-environmental attitudes, goodness of fit, and past experience. Conversely, we find mixed results for demographic factors and symbolic capital. A number of potentially highly relevant yet understudied factors for soil governance are identified, including adoption of technologies, advisory services, bureaucratic load, risk aversion and social capital, social norms, and peer orientation. Our results emphasise the importance of a broad behavioural perspective to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and legitimacy of soil governance.

scholarly journals THE EFFECT OF COGNITIVE AND EMOTIONAL BIASES ON THE CAPITAL STRUCTURE DECISIONS: A LITERATURE REVIEW

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tekin Bilgehan ◽  
Gor Yusuf
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Capital Structure ◽  
Behavioral Finance ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Behavioral Characteristics ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Emotional Process ◽  
The Capital Structure

Each decision-making process is an important cognitive and emotional process which is open to the emotional effect. Individuals make a decision about a future uncertainty either to feel good or maximizing gain by minimizing the loss ratio. Recently, researches in finance have criticized that the capital structure decisions and firms’ funding and strategic choices deviate from the traditional neoclassical paradigm. Furthermore there is a nascent empirical literature that has exposed interesting evidence of the effects of managerial behavioral biases. Managers’ decisions, that to create the capital structure, have a vital importance for the company. The behavioral finance (BF) approach may be revealed useful results in the process of solving decision-makers’ behaviors and thoughts. In this context the purpose of this study is to reveal if the managers are affected by their behavioral characteristics in the process of the financing decision-making, based on the findings of studies in the literature. From this point of view behavioral finance literature, which is about the financing and capital structure decisions, is investigated. As a result, theoretical and empirical analyses, which discussed in the literature, show that managers’ biases play an important role in explaining the capital structure choice.

scholarly journals PRIORITIZATION OF QUALITY CARE CRITERIA TO DELIVER QUALITY SERVICE USING DEMATEL

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raja Rub Nawaz ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Graphical Representation ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Quality Care ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Quality Service ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Importance Ratings ◽  
Multiple Variables

Purpose:-Hospitals are very vital as an element in Quality Care delivery and their evaluation in these terms on perpetual basis are much needed as these organizations contribute in improving health outcomes for general people. Hospitals, especially privately owned, are also run like businesses these days to remain competitive in the respective arena. The environment and situation faced by many hospitals are often complicated and which definitely requires insightful solutions to steer the direction of these businesses. This study was focused on the application of group decision-making tool, DEMATEL as one of the valid methods in Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). Methodology:- The study was exploratory in nature and efforts were made to justify by highlighting the criteria prioritization procedure to be undertaken by any healthcare organization. A slight deviation from the standard four-steps of DEMATEL, a course of action was created in the shape of an eight-step procedure to exhibit a practical approach rather than mathematical theory approach. In order to make it more empirical in nature, a five-stage research framework was also devised and acted upon with the help of three separate questionnaires. Avedis Donabedian’s (1988) Quality Care framework was followed and multiple variables were devised, importance ratings were collected from patients on these devised variables and after reduction of variables in to manageable latent factors, called criteria in the study, DEMATEL method was applied to depict the prioritization of Quality Care criteria for the delivery of quality service via digraph. Findings:-The graphical representation through digraph showed that criteria were vertically divided in two halves as C1, C5, and C4 are shown as criteria influencing the lower half criteria C3, C6, and C2. The horizontal span of digraph reflected the importance of criteria prioritized and showed C1 criterion as the most important and C2 criterion with the least importance. Implications:-The prioritization of the criteria along with their cause and effect distribution gave an insight into the constitution framework of localized healthcare services of Karachi, Pakistan

scholarly journals Cognitive-Inspired Conversational-Strategy Reasoner for Socially-Aware Agents

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar J. Romero ◽  
Ran Zhao ◽  
Justine Cassell
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Conversational Agent ◽  
Conversational Analysis ◽  
Dialogue System ◽  
The Social ◽  
Conversational Style ◽  
Prior Literature ◽  
Task Goals ◽  
The Relationship

In this work we propose a novel module for a dialogue system that allows a conversational agent to utter phrases that do not just meet the system's task intentions, but also work towards achieving the system's social intentions. The module - a Social Reasoner - takes the task goals the system must achieve and decides the appropriate conversational style and strategy with which the dialogue system describes the information the user desires so as to boost the strength of the relationship between the user and system (rapport), and therefore the user's engagement and willingness to divulge the information the agent needs to efficiently and effectively achieve the user's goals. Our Social Reasoner is inspired both by analysis of empirical data of friends and stranger dyads engaged in a task, and by prior literature in fields as diverse as reasoning processes in cognitive and social psychology, decision-making, sociolinguistics and conversational analysis. Our experiments demonstrated that, when using the Social Reasoner in a Dialogue System, the rapport level between the user and system increases in more than 35% in comparison with those cases where no Social Reasoner is used.

Is an Emoji Worth a Thousand Words? The Effect of Emoji Usage on Nonprofessional Investors’ Perceptions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilda E. Carrillo ◽  
Robin Pennington ◽  
Yibo (James) Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Bad News ◽  
Good News ◽  
Verbal Cues ◽  
Nonprofessional Investors

Emojis act as non-verbal cues to disambiguate and communicate affect and are increasingly used in online corporate disclosures. Emotion work, a concept founded in social psychology, suggests that individuals adjust their behavior as emotions are evoked or suppressed. Despite the growing evidence that emojis may influence judgments and decisions due to their deliberate expression of context and affect, the accounting research community has yet to investigate emojis’ impact. We experimentally explore whether emojis can soften nonprofessional investors’ perceptions of bad news or enhance perceptions of good news. We find that emojis modestly suppress participants’ positive emotions on positive news, influencing their investment-related judgments and decision-making. Subsequent data collection fails to replicate the initial findings in a less experienced participant pool, suggesting that investing experience may play a role. Our study enhances our understanding of the unintended consequences of emojis and introduces a sociology-based principle into the accounting literature.

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