scholarly journals Hyper-altruistic behavior vanishes with high stakes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Branas-Garza ◽  
Diego Andrés Jorrat ◽  
Jaromir Kovarik ◽  
Maria C Lopez
Keyword(s):  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Altruistic Behavior ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Environmentally Friendly Behaviors ◽  
Modal Behavior ◽  
Human Feature ◽  
Psychological Experiments ◽  
Average Monthly Salary ◽  
Monthly Salary

Using a powered and incentivized experiment, this paper explores the role of stakes in charitable giving of lottery prizes, where subjects commit to donate a fraction of the prize before they learn the outcome of the lottery. We study three stake levels: 5€ (n = 177), 100€ (n = 168), and 1,000€ (n = 171). We find that individuals decrease the donated fraction of the pie as the stakes increase. However, people still share roughly 20% of 1,000€, an amount as high as the average monthly salary of people at the age of our subjects. We further report that the number of people sharing 50% of the pie is remarkably stable across stakes but donating the whole pie -the modal behavior in charity-donation experiments- disappears with stakes. Such hyper-altruistic behavior thus seems to be an artifact of the stakes typically employed in economic and psychological experiments. Our findings point out that sharing with others is a prevalent human feature, but stakes are an important determinant of sharing and policies frequently promoted via prosocial frames (such as stressing the effects of mask-wearing or social distancing on others during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic or environmentally-friendly behaviors on future generations) may thus be miscalibrated if they disregard the stakes at play.

scholarly journals Hyper-altruistic behavior vanishes with high stakes

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0255668
Author(s):  
Pablo Brañas-Garza ◽  
Diego Jorrat ◽  
Jaromír Kovářík ◽  
María C. López
Keyword(s):  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Altruistic Behavior ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Environmentally Friendly Behaviors ◽  
Modal Behavior ◽  
Human Feature ◽  
Psychological Experiments ◽  
Average Monthly Salary

Using an incentivized experiment with statistical power, this paper explores the role of stakes in charitable giving of lottery prizes, where subjects commit to donate a fraction of the prize before they learn the outcome of the lottery. We study three stake levels: 5€ (n = 177), 100€ (n = 168), and 1,000€ (n = 171). Although the donations increase in absolute terms as the stakes increase, subjects decrease the donated fraction of the pie. However, people still share roughly 20% of 1,000€, an amount as high as the average monthly salary of people at the age of our subjects. The number of people sharing 50% of the pie is remarkably stable across stakes, but donating the the whole pie–the modal behavior in charity-donation experiments–disappears with stakes. Such hyper-altruistic behavior thus seems to be an artifact of the stakes typically employed in economic and psychological experiments. Our findings point out that sharing with others is a prevalent human feature, but stakes are an important determinant of sharing. Policies promoted via prosocial frames (e.g., stressing the effects of mask-wearing or social distancing on others during the Covid-19 pandemic or environmentally-friendly behaviors on future generations) may thus be miscalibrated if they disregard the stakes at play.

Do Writing Directions Influence How People Map Space onto Time?

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-184
Author(s):  
Wenxing Yang ◽  
Ying Sun
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Horizontal Axis ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Temporal Cognition ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Psychological Experiments ◽  
Vertical Up

Abstract. The causal role of a unidirectional orthography in shaping speakers’ mental representations of time seems to be well established by many psychological experiments. However, the question of whether bidirectional writing systems in some languages can also produce such an impact on temporal cognition remains unresolved. To address this issue, the present study focused on Japanese and Taiwanese, both of which have a similar mix of texts written horizontally from left to right (HLR) and vertically from top to bottom (VTB). Two experiments were performed which recruited Japanese and Taiwanese speakers as participants. Experiment 1 used an explicit temporal arrangement design, and Experiment 2 measured implicit space-time associations in participants along the horizontal (left/right) and the vertical (up/down) axis. Converging evidence gathered from the two experiments demonstrate that neither Japanese speakers nor Taiwanese speakers aligned their vertical representations of time with the VTB writing orientation. Along the horizontal axis, only Japanese speakers encoded elapsing time into a left-to-right linear layout, which was commensurate with the HLR writing direction. Therefore, two distinct writing orientations of a language could not bring about two coexisting mental time lines. Possible theoretical implications underlying the findings are discussed.

School Success and School Engagement of Immigrant Children and Adolescents

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frosso Motti-Stefanidi ◽  
Ann S. Masten
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
School Engagement ◽  
School Success ◽  
Immigrant Children ◽  
Integrative Model ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
The Individual

Academic achievement in immigrant children and adolescents is an indicator of current and future adaptive success. Since the future of immigrant youths is inextricably linked to that of the receiving society, the success of their trajectory through school becomes a high stakes issue both for the individual and society. The present article focuses on school success in immigrant children and adolescents, and the role of school engagement in accounting for individual and group differences in academic achievement from the perspective of a multilevel integrative model of immigrant youths’ adaptation ( Motti-Stefanidi, Berry, Chryssochoou, Sam, & Phinney, 2012 ). Drawing on this conceptual framework, school success is examined in developmental and acculturative context, taking into account multiple levels of analysis. Findings suggest that for both immigrant and nonimmigrant youths the relationship between school engagement and school success is bidirectional, each influencing over time the other. Evidence regarding potential moderating and mediating roles of school engagement for the academic success of immigrant youths also is evaluated.

Social-economic development of the Transcarpathian region: interregional and transboundary comparisons

2020 ◽  
pp. 30-36
Author(s):  
Lyubomyr Sozanskyy
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Employment Rate ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Key Indicators ◽  
Social Economic Development ◽  
Average Monthly Salary ◽  
Monthly Salary

In the article, a comparative interregional and cross-border assessment of socio-economic development of the Transcarpathian region is conducted. The results of the study are based on an analysis of the level and dynamics of such key indicators of economic and social development of the region as GRP per capita, employment rate, unemployment rate, average monthly salary, etc. According to the results of interregional comparisons, the low level of efficiency of the economy but the positive dynamics of some indicators of the labor market of the Transcarpathian region was revealed. In particular, among the regions of Ukraine in 2013-2017, the region was 22nd in terms of GRP per capita and 19th in terms of employment. At the same time, by unemployment, it rose from 15th in 2013 to 10th in 2018, and the average monthly wage ranged from 20th to 7th, respectively. Cross-border comparisons showed a significant lag behind the Transcarpathian region from the neighboring regions of Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary for all considered socio-economic indicators. Thus, in particular, according to the indicator of GRP per capita, this lag compared to the Kosice region (Slovakia) in 2017 was 11.4 times. The average monthly salary in Transcarpathian region is 4 times lower than in the neighboring Kosice and Presov regions of Slovakia and the Podkarpackie voivodship of Poland. The positive dynamics in the direction of reducing the above-mentioned gaps in the level of socio-economic development of the analyzed regions in 2017-2018 are revealed. In addition, a regional peculiarity has been identified – the Transcarpathian region and the regions it borders, lag substantially behind the countries they belong to by the level of socio-economic development. As a result, the conclusion is drawn that the results of the conducted inter-regional and transboundary assessment of the socio-economic development of the Transcarpathian region will facilitate the development of inter-regional and interstate programs and strategies for the development of the Carpathian transboundary region to eliminate the identified imbalances.

scholarly journals Does Spelling Still Matter—and If So, How Should It Be Taught? Perspectives from Contemporary and Historical Research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven C. Pan ◽  
Timothy C. Rickard ◽  
Robert A. Bjork
Keyword(s):  
Approaches To Teaching ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Relevant Evidence ◽  
Spelling Instruction ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Traditional Approaches

AbstractA century ago, spelling skills were highly valued and widely taught in schools using traditional methods, such as weekly lists, drill exercises, and low- and high-stakes spelling tests. That approach was featured in best-selling textbooks such as the Horn-Ashbaugh Speller of 1920. In the early 21st century, however, skepticism as to the importance of spelling has grown, some schools have deemphasized or abandoned spelling instruction altogether, and there has been a proliferation of non-traditional approaches to teaching spelling. These trends invite a reevaluation of the role of spelling in modern English-speaking societies and whether the subject should be explicitly taught (and if so, what are research-supported methods for doing so). In this article, we examine the literature to address whether spelling skills are still important enough to be taught, summarize relevant evidence, and argue that a comparison of common approaches to spelling instruction in the early 20th century versus more recent approaches provides some valuable insights. We also discuss the value of explicit spelling instruction and highlight potentially effective ways to implement such instruction, including the use of spelling tests. Overall, our goals are to better characterize the role of spelling skills in today’s society and to identify several pedagogical approaches—some derived from traditional methods and others that are more recent—that hold promise for developing such skills in efficient and effective ways.

The Return of the New Woman and Other Subjects of Weimar Gender History

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-137
Author(s):  
MARTI LYBECK
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Weimar Republic ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Gender History ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Femininity And Masculinity ◽  
The New Woman

After a drought of more than a decade, a substantial group of recent works has begun revisiting Weimar gender history. The fields of Weimar and Nazi gender history have been closely linked since the field was defined thirty years ago by the appearance of the anthologyWhen Biology Became Destiny: Women in Weimar and Nazi Germany. Following a flurry of pioneering work in the 1980s and early 1990s, few new monographs were dedicated to investigating the questions posed in that formative moment of gender history. Kathleen Canning, the current main commentator on Weimar gender historiography, in an essay first published shortly before the works under review, found that up to that point the ‘gender scholarship on the high-stakes histories of Weimar and Nazi Germany has not fundamentally challenged categories or temporalities’. Weimar gender, meanwhile, has been intensively analysed in the fields of cultural, film, and literary studies. The six books discussed in this essay reverse these trends, picking up on the central question of how gender contributed to the end of the Weimar Republic and the rise to power of National Socialism. In addition, four of the books concentrate solely on reconstructing the dynamics of gender relations during the Weimar period itself in their discussions of prostitution, abortion and representations of femininity and masculinity. Is emerging gender scholarship now shaping larger questions of German early twentieth-century history? How are new scholars revising our view of the role of gender in this tumultuous time?

Private Wealth, Philanthropy, and Social Development

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Barchi ◽  
Guosheng Deng ◽  
Chien-Chung Huang ◽  
Carolyn Isles ◽  
Juliann Vikse
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Charitable Giving ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Income Gap ◽  
Supportive Environment ◽  
Performance Based Funding ◽  
Opportunity Gaps

Growing income inequality has created excessive barriers to social mobility for the poor. Charitable giving by the wealthy can reduce the societal effects of the income gap by reinvestment in public goods such as education. We apply the cipp model to investigate the role of philanthropy in advancing educational opportunities in the United States and China, using historical and contemporary cases of individual philanthropists. The findings suggest that the cases reviewed in this study created mechanisms by which to contribute to social development in their respective countries. Government policies play a key role in philanthropic development, particularly in China. It is important to continue to foster a supportive environment for the sector to grow, which may include expanding tax incentives, emphasizing performance-based funding, and eliminating administrative barriers. In short, educational philanthropy holds great promise for reducing opportunity gaps and economic inequality, by providing the key to success for future generations.

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