scholarly journals Why Being Wrong Can Be Right: Magical Warfare Technologies and the Persistence of False Beliefs

2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (5) ◽  
pp. 582-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Nunn ◽  
Raul Sanchez de la Sierra
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Group Level ◽  
False Beliefs ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
Pareto Efficient ◽  
The Individual

Across human societies, one sees many examples of deeply rooted and widely held beliefs that are almost certainly untrue. Examples include beliefs about witchcraft, magic, ordeals, and superstitions. Why are such incorrect beliefs so prevalent and how do they persist? We consider this question through an examination of superstitions and magic associated with conflict in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Focusing on superstitions related to bullet-proofing, we provide theory and case-study evidence showing how these incorrect beliefs persist. Although harmful at the individual-level, we show that they generate Pareto efficient outcomes that have group-level benefits.

scholarly journals Indices of Bad Governance by African Political Leaders: The Case Study of Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1506-1514
Author(s):  
Blaise Ngambinzoni Kombeto ◽  
Romain Bakola Dzango ◽  
Modeste Ndaba Modeawi ◽  
Gédéon Bongo Ngiala ◽  
Muhammad Ridwan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The People ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Individual

Marcel SONY LabouTansi, the author of the novel "The Shameful State", denounces the dictatorial system often practiced by most African leaders in the management of the "res publica". He paints the barbarity of man in relation to his fellow man. It also presents the duality between the traditional society characterized by democracy, peace ... and the modern society based on dictatorship in which the government behaves as a state, as absolute master, and the governed in the eternal "- mute", "voiceless". It invites the recipients to renounce to the bad principle in order to establish democracy, a system that respects the individual freedom of the people, that of human rights, of professional promotion for the harmonious development of a sovereign and democratic State. The novel "The Shameful State" unfolds the spiral of the unpleasant reign of a megalomaniacal, criminal and lustful president, Colonel Martillimi Lopez, who "shamefully" manages power and ends with the crying and gnashing of his constituents' teeth. After having committed: pedophilia, adultery, assassination of opponents, he was deposed by his relatives who created an insurrection and was forced to hand over power to civilians to return to his native village.

scholarly journals Analysis of Individual-Level Epidemic Data: Study of 2018-2020 Ebola Outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harley Vossler ◽  
Pierre Akilimali ◽  
Yuhan Pan ◽  
Wasiur Khudabukhsh ◽  
Eben Kenah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Ebola Virus ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Ring Vaccination ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
The Individual

Abstract The 2018-2020 Ebola virus disease epidemic in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) resulted in 3481 cases (probable and confirmed) and 2299 deaths. In this paper, we use a novel statistical method to analyze the individual-level incidence and hospitalization data on DRC Ebola victims. Our analysis suggests that an increase in the rate of quarantine and isolation by approximately 12% during the epidemic’s third and final wave was likely responsible for the eventual containment of the outbreak. The analysis further reveals that the total effective population size or the average number of individuals at risk for the disease exposure in three epidemic waves over the period of 24 months was around 19,000—a much smaller number than previously estimated and likely an evidence of at least partial protection of the population at risk through ring vaccination and contact tracing as well as adherence to strict quarantine and isolation policies.

Reply to Connor and Evers (2020): Critique of the Bias of Crowds Model Simply Restates the Model

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Payne ◽  
Heidi A. Vuletich ◽  
Kristjen B. Lundberg
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Bias ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Core ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Implicit Biases ◽  
The Individual

The Bias of Crowds model (Payne, Vuletich, & Lundberg, 2017) argues that implicit bias varies across individuals and across contexts. It is unreliable and weakly associated with behavior at the individual level. But when aggregated to measure context-level effects, the scores become stable and predictive of group-level outcomes. We concluded that the statistical benefits of aggregation are so powerful that researchers should reconceptualize implicit bias as a feature of contexts, and ask new questions about how implicit biases relate to systemic racism. Connor and Evers (2020) critiqued the model, but their critique simply restates the core claims of the model. They agreed that implicit bias varies across individuals and across contexts; that it is unreliable and weakly associated with behavior at the individual level; and that aggregating scores to measure context-level effects makes them more stable and predictive of group-level outcomes. Connor and Evers concluded that implicit bias should be considered to really be noisily measured individual construct because the effects of aggregation are merely statistical. We respond to their specific arguments and then discuss what it means to really be a feature of persons versus situations, and multilevel measurement and theory in psychological science more broadly.

scholarly journals Examining the Effects of Three Group-Level Metacognitive Scaffoldings on In-Service Teachers’ Knowledge Building

2021 ◽  
pp. 073563312110308
Author(s):  
Fan Ouyang ◽  
Si Chen ◽  
Yuqin Yang ◽  
Yunqing Chen
Keyword(s):  
Small Groups ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Peer Interactions ◽  
Knowledge Building ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Question Asking ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Task Oriented ◽  
Metacognitive Scaffolding

Group-level metacognitive scaffolding is critical for productive knowledge building. However, previous research mainly focuses on the individual-level metacognitive scaffoldings in helping learners improve knowledge building, and little effort has been made to develop group-level metacognitive scaffolding (GMS) for knowledge building. This research designed three group-level metacognitive scaffoldings of general, task-oriented, and idea-oriented scaffoldings to facilitate in-service teachers’ knowledge building in small groups. A mixed method is used to examine the effects of the GMSs on groups’ knowledge building processes, performances, and perceptions. Results indicate a complication of the effects of GMSs on knowledge building. The idea-oriented scaffolding has potential to facilitate question-asking and perspective-proposing inquiry through peer interactions; the general scaffolding does not necessarily lessen teachers’ idea-centered explanation and elaboration on the individual level; the task-oriented scaffolding has the worst effect. Pedagogical and research implications are discussed to foster knowledge building with the support of GMSs.

scholarly journals National-scale estimation of gross forest aboveground carbon loss: a case study of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 044039 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Tyukavina ◽  
S V Stehman ◽  
P V Potapov ◽  
S A Turubanova ◽  
A Baccini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Republic ◽  
National Scale ◽  
Carbon Loss ◽  
Scale Estimation ◽  
Aboveground Carbon ◽  
Republic Of The Congo

scholarly journals Isolated individuals and groups show opposite preferences toward humidity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariano Calvo Martín ◽  
Stamatios C. Nicolis ◽  
Isaac Planas-Sitjà ◽  
Jean-Christophe de Biseau ◽  
Jean-Louis Deneubourg
Keyword(s):  
Relative Humidity ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractCockroaches, like most social arthropods, are led to choose collectively among different alternative resting places. These decisions are modulated by different factors, such as environmental conditions (temperature, relative humidity) and sociality (groups size, nature of communications). The aim of this study is to establish the interplay between environmental conditions and the modulation of the interactions between individuals within a group leading to an inversion of preferences. We show that the preferences of isolated cockroaches and groups of 16 individuals, on the selection of the relative humidity of a shelter are inversed and shed light on the mechanisms involved. We suggest that the relative humidity has a multi-level influence on cockroaches, manifested as an attractant effect at the individual level and as a negative effect at the group level, modulating the interactions.

scholarly journals The Online Elicitation of Personal Utility Functions (OPUF) tool: a new method for valuing health states

2022 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Paul Schneider ◽  
Ben van Hout ◽  
Marike Heisen ◽  
John Brazier ◽  
Nancy Devlin
Keyword(s):  
Utility Functions ◽  
Health State ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Health States ◽  
Online Tool ◽  
Value Set ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Personal Utility ◽  
Value Sets ◽  
The Individual

Introduction Standard valuation methods, such as TTO and DCE are inefficient. They require data from hundreds if not thousands of participants to generate value sets. Here, we present the Online elicitation of Personal Utility Functions (OPUF) tool; a new type of online survey for valuing EQ-5D-5L health states using more efficient, compositional elicitation methods, which even allow estimating value sets on the individual level. The aims of this study are to report on the development of the tool, and to test the feasibility of using it to obtain individual-level value sets for the EQ-5D-5L. Methods We applied an iterative design approach to adapt the PUF method, previously developed by Devlin et al., for use as a standalone online tool. Five rounds of qualitative interviews, and one quantitative pre-pilot were conducted to get feedback on the different tasks. After each round, the tool was refined and re-evaluated. The final version was piloted in a sample of 50 participants from the UK. A demo of the EQ-5D-5L OPUF survey is available at: https://eq5d5l.me Results On average, it took participants about seven minutes to complete the OPUF Tool. Based on the responses, we were able to construct a personal EQ-5D-5L value set for each of the 50 participants. These value sets predicted a participants' choices in a discrete choice experiment with an accuracy of 80%. Overall, the results revealed that health state preferences vary considerably on the individual-level. Nevertheless, we were able to estimate a group-level value set for all 50 participants with reasonable precision. Discussion We successfully piloted the OPUF Tool and showed that it can be used to derive a group-level as well as personal value sets for the EQ-5D-5L. Although the development of the online tool is still in an early stage, there are multiple potential avenues for further research.

Cost-effectiveness of caesarean sections in a post-conflict environment: a case study of Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Disasters ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. S105-S120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Deboutte ◽  
Tim O'Dempsey ◽  
Gillian Mann ◽  
Brian Faragher
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Republic Of The Congo

scholarly journals Understanding permaculturist motivations among residents of the “PermaKulturRaum” in Goettingen, Germany: a qualitative analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinrich Petri ◽  
Heiko Faust
Keyword(s):  
Global Scale ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Behavioral Determinants ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Micro Scale ◽  
The Core ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
The Individual

AbstractBy using an inductive qualitative approach, investigating the micro scale, that is, the individual level, we conducted a case study on the PermaKulturRaum in Goettingen, Germany—an experimental space for students to explore alternative lifedesigns. On the supposition that only a radical transition can achieve sustainability on a global scale, we identified permaculture as an appropriate method to achieve this. However, permaculture is not widely spread and largely ignored by scientific research. We started a first attempt to understand the underlying motivations of permaculturists. Using behavioral studies as our theoretical framework, we found out that behavioral determinants, like biospheric values, green-identity, and the intention to act green were extraordinarily high and that the core of their pro-environmental behavior is most likely their strong intrinsic motivation. Regarding the PermaKulturRaum, we could formulate following theses: (1) a comprehensive implementation of permacultural aspects requires an urge for an alternative lifedesign, (2) a radical lifedesign attracts primarily like-minded people, which creates isolated spaces, (3) early childhood experiences or single key moments are important to trigger a pro-environmental interest.

scholarly journals Counting Happiness from the Individual Level to the Group Level

2012 ◽  
Vol 114 (2) ◽  
pp. 621-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edsel L. Beja ◽  
David B. Yap
Keyword(s):  
Group Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual
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