scholarly journals Default neglect in attempts at social influence

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (52) ◽  
pp. 13643-13648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian J. Zlatev ◽  
David P. Daniels ◽  
Hajin Kim ◽  
Margaret A. Neale
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Social Influence ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Policy Relevance ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
The Status ◽  
Default Setting

Current theories suggest that people understand how to exploit common biases to influence others. However, these predictions have received little empirical attention. We consider a widely studied bias with special policy relevance: the default effect, which is the tendency to choose whichever option is the status quo. We asked participants (including managers, law/business/medical students, and US adults) to nudge others toward selecting a target option by choosing whether to present that target option as the default. In contrast to theoretical predictions, we find that people often fail to understand and/or use defaults to influence others, i.e., they show “default neglect.” First, in one-shot default-setting games, we find that only 50.8% of participants set the target option as the default across 11 samples (n = 2,844), consistent with people not systematically using defaults at all. Second, when participants have multiple opportunities for experience and feedback, they still do not systematically use defaults. Third, we investigate beliefs related to the default effect. People seem to anticipate some mechanisms that drive default effects, yet most people do not believe in the default effect on average, even in cases where they do use defaults. We discuss implications of default neglect for decision making, social influence, and evidence-based policy.

scholarly journals Challenging the Status Quo through Social Influence: Changes in Sustainable Consumption through the Influence of Social Networks

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5513
Author(s):  
Iljana Schubert ◽  
Judith I. M. de Groot ◽  
Adrian C. Newton
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Influence ◽  
Food Consumption ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Injunctive Norms ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Consumption Choices ◽  
The Status ◽  
Consumption Practices

This study examines the influence of social network members (versus strangers) on sustainable food consumption choices to investigate how social influence can challenge the status quo in unsustainable consumption practices. We hypothesized that changes to individual consumption practices could be achieved by revealing ‘invisible’ descriptive and injunctive social norms. We further hypothesized that it matters who reveals these norms, meaning that social network members expressing their norms will have a stronger influence on other’s consumption choices than if these norms are expressed by strangers. We tested these hypotheses in a field experiment (N = 134), where participants discussed previous sustainable food consumption (revealing descriptive norms) and its importance (revealing injunctive norms) with either a stranger or social network member. We measured actual sustainable food consumption through the extent to which participants chose organic over non-organic consumables during the debrief. Findings showed that revealed injunctive norms significantly influenced food consumption, more so than revealed descriptive norms. We also found that this influence was stronger for social network members compared to strangers. Implications and further research directions in relation to how social networks can be used to evoke sustainable social change are discussed.

Politics of Nature: The board game

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-164
Author(s):  
Jakob Raffn ◽  
Frederik Lassen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Board Game ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Political Ontology ◽  
The Status ◽  
Group Ideation ◽  
Politics Of Nature

Here we introduce the board game Politics of Nature, or PoN as it is now known. Inspired by the work of Bruno Latour, PoN offers an alternative take on co-existence by implementing a flat political ontology in a gamified meeting protocol. PoN does not suggest that humans have no special abilities, only that humans at the outset, are bestowed with no more rights than other kinds of beings. Designed to enable people of all walks of life to playfully unpack and resolve controversies, PoN provides a space where beings can have their existence renegotiated. The aim of PoN is to play as a team to explore and decide on potential good common worlds in which more indispensable beings can exist than if the status quo is continued. By playing PoN iteratively through rounds, each having four stages, the players gradually construct PoN - a planet mirroring ‘real worlds’. The four stages provide a novel combination of identification, representation, meditation, prioritization, mapping, individual and group ideation, proposal formulation, and decision-making; only to ask the players to challenge and change PoN to fit their requirements after each round. What follows is taken directly from the manual.

The Promotion of Avoidable Ignorance in the British Journal of Social Work

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Gambrill
Keyword(s):  
British Journal ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Evidence Based Practice ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Professional Journals ◽  
The Status ◽  
Dangerous Knowledge

The manifest purpose of professional journals is to share important knowledge. Increasing revelations of flaws in the peer-reviewed literature shows that this purpose is often not honored and that inflated claims of knowledge as well as other concerns such as misrepresentations of disliked or misunderstood views are rife. In this article, avoidable misunderstandings of science and evidence-based practice (EBP) in publications in the British Journal of Social Work 2005–2016 are described as well as strategies used to forward misinformation. Such discourse misinforms rather than informs readers and decreases opportunities to accurately inform social workers about possibilities to help clients and to avoid harming them and to involve clients as informed participants. Those writing about avoidable ignorance highlight how it is used strategically, perhaps to neutralize what is viewed as dangerous knowledge—the process of EBP and science generally, which may threaten the status quo.

The status quo tendency in decision making

1990 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 34-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
William S. Silver ◽  
Terence R. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Status

Identifying and Assessing the Implementation of Human Rights Decisions

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-148
Author(s):  
Alice Donald ◽  
Debra Long ◽  
Anne-Katrin Speck
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
European Regions ◽  
The Status ◽  
Public Record

Abstract Assessing the extent to which states have implemented the decisions of supranational human rights bodies is a challenging task. It requires supranational bodies—be they judicial, quasi-judicial or political—to create an evidence-based public record of the status quo of implementation at any point in time and determine whether the measures taken do, in fact, satisfy the requirements of the decision. This, in turn, relies upon states engaging in good faith, victims having a voice, and civil society organizations seizing the opportunity to influence the follow-up process. Using empirical data from interviews in selected states in the African, Inter-American and European regions, and within regional and United Nations bodies, this article argues that in no human rights ‘system’ are all these expectations met, in part because follow-up work is inadequately resourced. It argues that supranational bodies should proactively seek out diverse sources of information and adopt more transparent and responsive working methods so as to enable ‘real time’ participation by all interested parties. The article concludes with recommendations for supranational bodies, and state and non-state actors.

scholarly journals Research on the Status Quo and Countermeasures of Medical Students’ CPC History Learning Education in the New Era

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiamei Chen ◽  
Haijiao Feng ◽  
Zihui Zhou ◽  
Tianwenjing Huang ◽  
Yu Kuang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
New Era ◽  
History Learning ◽  
The Status

scholarly journals Multifunctionality of agriculture, public policies and scientific evidences: Some critical issues of contemporary controversies

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 53-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Laurent ◽  
Marielle Berriet-Solliec ◽  
Marc Kirsch ◽  
Pierre Labarthe ◽  
AurélieT AurélieTrouvé
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Evidence Based Practices ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Science And Policy ◽  
Public Policy Analysis ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
The Status ◽  
New Situation

Various theoretical models of public policy analysis are used to treat situations of decision-making in which public deciders have to take into account the multifunctionality of agriculture. For some, science-society relations are not really problematical. Others acknowledge the current attempts of these policy-makers to find adequate scientific knowledge, and the difficulties they encounter. These difficulties stem partly from the very content of knowledge produced by research. Could other modes of production be more efficient? The status of the knowledge produced by these approaches is a subject of debate. Bridging the divide between science and policy more effectively is not only a question of knowledge brokerage.Accessibility and reliability of the existing evidences are also problems to be addressed. The debates around evidence-based practices may provide some landmarks in this new situation although they also emphasize the limits of the tools that can be built for this purpose.  

Revising Swiss Policies

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 494-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Frey ◽  
Thomas Widmer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Efficiency Analysis ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Do So

Evidence-based policy-making and other recent reforms in public steering emphasize the role systematic evidence can play in improving decision making and public policies. Increasing deficits heighten the pressure on public authorities to legitimate public spending and to find savings. Existing studies show that the influence of research-based information on decision making is shaped by several factors, but they typically do not distinguish between different types of information. Our contribution aims to compare the influence of efficiency analysis to information about performance effectiveness. We do so by looking at 10 cases in which public policies are being revised at the federal level in Switzerland, and do so by tracing the entire policy reform process. This qualitative analysis sheds light on which actors use efficiency information, how and under which conditions, and highlights the contribution of efficiency analysis for evidence-based policy-making.

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