Prosociality, International Law, and Humanitarian Intervention

2021 ◽  
pp. 90-109
Author(s):  
Tomer Broude
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
International Law ◽  
Bystander Effect ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
Individual Psychology ◽  
Broad Framework ◽  
Other Regarding

A significant insight of behaviouralism and social psychology, well-established through experimental research, is that actors display ‘social preferences’, other-regarding or non-self-interested decision-making. Contrary to rational choice assumptions, people may have only ‘bounded selfishness’ in decisions, caring not only about their own payoffs, but about those of others. This chapter provides a broad framework for assessing the relevance of prosociality to international law, discussing the levels of analysis problem that inheres in any shift from individual psychology to corporate actors such as states. The chapter focuses on one area in which prosociality may enrich discussion of a contested issue in international law and the problems it raises—humanitarian intervention. How can motivation and personality—the main variables of prosociality—apply to international actors? Is the ‘bystander effect’ prevalent in international relations? Which other areas of international law relate to prosociality? And can (or should) international law encourage prosociality?

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 Elite Decision-making and International Law: Promises and Perils of the Behavioral Revolution

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 242-247
Author(s):  
Emilie M. Hafner-Burton
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
International Law ◽  
Real World ◽  
General Public ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Direct Study ◽  
The People ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Actual Decision

A growing body of research applies behavioral approaches to the study of international law, mainly by studying convenience samples of students or other segments of the general public. Alongside the promises of this agenda are concerns about applying findings from non-elite populations to the people, and groups of people, charged with most real-world decision-making in the domain of law and governance. This concern is compounded by the fact that it is extremely difficult to recruit these actual decision-makers in a way that allows for direct study.

Piercing the Corporate Veil: The Responsibility of Member states of an International Organization

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odette Murray
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Member State ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Member States ◽  
Draft Article ◽  
Legal Limit ◽  
Primary Rule

AbstractThis paper applies two manifestations of the principle of good faith – pacta sunt servanda and the doctrine of abuse of rights – to the complex relationship between member states and international organizations. The paper argues that these existing doctrines operate as a legal limit on the conduct of states when creating, controlling and functioning within international organizations. The paper begins by exploring an innovative provision in the International Law Commission's recently finalised Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organisations – Draft Article 61 – according to which a member state will bear international responsibility for the act of an international organization where the member state uses the organization to circumvent its own international obligations. Examining the development of Draft Article 61 and the jurisprudence upon which it is based, this paper argues that the principle which the Commission in fact seeks to articulate in Draft Article 61 is that of good faith in the performance of treaties. As such, being based on a primary rule of international law, this paper queries whether Draft Article 61 belongs in a set of secondary rules. The paper then considers the role of states in the decision-making organs of international organizations and argues that the widely held presumption against member state responsibility for participation in decision-making organs can and should be displaced in certain cases, in recognition of the various voting mechanisms in international organizations and the varied power which certain states may wield. The paper argues that the doctrine of abuse of rights operates as a fundamental legal limit on the exercise of a member state's voting discretion, and thereby forms a complementary primary obligation placed on states in the context of their participation in international organizations.

scholarly journals Individual goals and social preferences in operational decisions

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nienke Hofstra ◽  
Wout Dullaert ◽  
Sander De Leeuw ◽  
Eirini Spiliotopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Operational Planning ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Monetary Incentives ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Planning Decisions ◽  
Multiple Data ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop propositions explaining the influence of individual goals and social preferences on human decision making in transport planning. The aim is to understand which individual goals and social preferences planners pursue and how these influence planners’ decisions. Design/methodology/approach Propositions are developed based on investigation of decision making of transport planners in a Dutch logistics service provider using multiple data collection methods. Findings The study shows how decision making of transport planners is motivated by individual goals as well as social preferences for reciprocity and group identity. Research limitations/implications Further research including transaction data analysis is needed to triangulate findings and to strengthen conclusions. Propositions are developed to be tested in future research. Practical implications Results suggest that efforts to guide planners in their decision making should go beyond traditional (monetary) incentives and consider their individual goals and social preferences. Moreover, this study provides insight into why transport planners deviate from desired behaviour. Originality/value While individual decision making plays an essential role in operational planning, the factors influencing how individuals make operational planning decisions are not fully understood.

The Institutionalization of a Process

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 308-340
Author(s):  
Gloria Fernández Arribas
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Kimberley Process ◽  
Law Making

The Kimberley Process represents a new method of international cooperation between subjects of international law. It was named by its creators as a process, setting it apart from international organizations, and leading too to its consideration as informal international law-making or soft law. In this study we shall analyze the extent to which the Kimberley Process falls into these categories. Our main task, however, is to compare it to formal international organizations, with a view to establishing whether what really has been created is an institutionalization process that is like an international organization, but with a different name. To do this, we will analyze with reference to the Kimberley Process the various respective fields of international organizations, such as founding agreement, membership, structure, decision-making process and legal order.

scholarly journals The Duty to Consult the Sámi in Norwegian Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (0) ◽  
pp. 233
Author(s):  
Øyvind Ravna
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
General Review ◽  
Decision Making Processes

This article deals with the duty to consult indigenous peoples and the obligation to involve these peoples in decision-making processes in matters that concern them. After a general review of international legislation and obligations, particularly the ILO Convention no. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, the article focuses on how these obligations are implemented towards the indigenous Sámi in Norwegian law. Here, the consultation agreement from 2005 and the Sámi Rights Committee’s 2007 draft are still central. The review includes an analysis of the extent to which these duties meet international law requirements, and a deliberation on the concept of free, prior and informed consent.

scholarly journals Doing good vs. avoiding bad in prosocial choice: A refined test and extension of the morality preference hypothesis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben M Tappin ◽  
Valerio Capraro
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Judgment And Decision Making ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Social Life

Prosociality is fundamental to human social life, and, accordingly, much research has attempted to explain human prosocial behavior. Capraro and Rand (Judgment and Decision Making, 13, 99-111, 2018) recently provided experimental evidence that prosociality in anonymous, one-shot interactions (such as Prisoner’s Dilemma and Dictator Game experiments) is not driven by outcome-based social preferences – as classically assumed – but by a generalized morality preference for “doing the right thing”. Here we argue that the key experiments reported in Capraro and Rand (2018) comprise prominent methodological confounds and open questions that bear on influential psychological theory. Specifically, their design confounds: (i) preferences for efficiency with self-interest; and (ii) preferences for action with preferences for morality. Furthermore, their design fails to dissociate the preference to do “good” from the preference to avoid doing “bad”. We thus designed and conducted a preregistered, refined and extended test of the morality preference hypothesis (N=801). Consistent with this hypothesis, our findings indicate that prosociality in the anonymous, one-shot Dictator Game is driven by preferences for doing the morally right thing. Inconsistent with influential psychological theory, however, our results suggest the preference to do “good” was as potent as the preference to avoid doing “bad” in this case.

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