scholarly journals Funny but aversive: A large-scale survey of the emotional response to Covid-19 humor in the Italian population during the lockdown

Author(s):  
Luca Bischetti ◽  
Paolo Canal ◽  
Valentina Bambini

We often see an upsurge of humor inspired by tragic circumstances: this happened also during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak. However, little is known about the emotional response to tragedy-triggered humor, let alone Covid-19 humor. With a large-scale survey completed during the early stages of Italy’s lockdown, we studied the appreciation (funniness and aversiveness) of different formats of Covid-19 humor shared on social media. Results of an analysis of the role of demographic, personality, and psychological distance factors with linear mixed models showed that Covid-19 humor lacks a “signature” of funniness, but displays a mark of aversiveness. Among demographics, age and gender were key factors: with increasing age and in women, Covid-19 humor was judged as more aversive. Individuals using humor to cope with uneasy circumstances judged Covid-19 humor as funnier and less aversive. Furthermore, the perceived risk of infection amplified Covid-19 humor aversiveness, while kilometrical distance from the first Italian contagion hotspot raised the amusement in global terms. These findings expand our knowledge about dark humor and should raise awareness of the great variation in the emotional impact of Covid-19 humor and of the need to ponder where and with whom to share the laugh about the pandemic.

Author(s):  
Moyassar Al-Taie ◽  
Michael Lane ◽  
Aileen Cater-Steel

This chapter explores the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). A detailed review of the existing literature traces the evolution of this role and highlights its characteristics and configurations. CIO role effectiveness can be described in terms of three demand-side roles: strategist, relationship architect, integrator, and three supply-side roles: educator, information steward, and utility provider. To explore the configuration of roles of CIOs in Australia, a large-scale survey of CIOs was conducted. The Australian results, based on 174 responses, are compared with those from similar studies in USA. The top priority for the Australian CIO was information steward, ensuring organizational data quality and security and recruiting and retaining IT skilled staff. In comparison, the first priority for the USA CIOs was utility provider - building and sustaining solid, dependable, and responsive IT infrastructure services. This study's findings have implications for CIO career development and recruitment.


2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randy R. Gainey ◽  
Brian K. Payne

Although research on the public's attitudes towards the police has a long history, and gender has long been considered a potential correlate, theoretical and empirical development concerning the role of gender in forming positive or negative attitudes towards the police is limited. In this paper we approach this issue in three ways to understand better how gender may or may not affect attitudes towards the police among a sample of residents in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in two south-eastern cities. We find that the total bivariate effect of gender in the sample is small and not statistically significant. However, there is some evidence that gender plays a distal causal role because women feel less safe or at greater risk of victimisation, but are less likely to be victimised or confronted with a drug dealer. Theoretical and policy implications are provided.


2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Karthick Ramakrishnan ◽  
Janelle Wong ◽  
Taeku Lee ◽  
Jane Junn

AbstractIn the 2008 presidential primaries, Barack Obama seemed to have a problem connecting with Asian American voters, as he lost heavily to Hillary Clinton in states such as California and New Jersey. Many speculated that race-based considerations played a significant role in Asian Americans' overwhelming support for Clinton over Obama, with conjectures built on a limited set of aggregate exit poll data from three states. Race may also have accounted for the high proportion of Asian Americans who in polls said they were undecided heading into the November election. In this article, we analyze the importance of race-based considerations in the Asian American vote, after controlling for other factors such as partisanship, issue preferences, age, and gender. We rely on the National Asian American Survey, a large-scale telephone survey of Asian American voters conducted mostly in the fall of 2008, with interviews in eight languages and with sizable numbers of respondents from the six largest national-origin groups. We find that race-based considerations do indeed help explain the Asian American vote in 2008. Respondents who failed to see political commonality between Asian Americans and Blacks were less likely to vote for Obama in the primary, although other factors, such as age and gender, played a more significant role. Finally, the role of race-based considerations paled in comparison to party identification and issue preferences in the general election, suggesting that election contexts can play an important role in shaping whether or not race is relevant to vote choice.


Author(s):  
Emily Gasser ◽  
Claire Bowern

Australian languages are famous for their uniform phonological systems. Cross-linguistic surveys of (or including) Australian languages have reinforced this view of Australian inventories and phonotactics. Such uniformity is surprising and unusual given the phylogenetic diversity in the country (28 phylic families). Moreover, although Australianists have assumed that uniformity in phonemic inventory is coupled with unity in phonotactics, this has not been tested.  Here we statistically test the generalizations current in the literature on Australian languages by deriving inventory information from lexical data (rather than grammatical descriptions).  We utilize a comparative database of lexical items from predominantly Pama-Nyungan languages in order to test published generalizations about phoneme inventories, phonotactics, and other phenomena (such as root internal vowel harmony patterns). By using lexical materials to derive inventories and segment frequencies, we are able to assemble a nuanced picture of the diversity of systems present among the languages. Inventory studies confirm, to some degree, the impression of uniformity. However, phoneme frequencies vary substantially across the sample even among languages with similar inventory types. This work is of particular importance to phonological typologies of Australian languages, but it has implications for wider phonological theory as well. The survey used here is the largest comparative database of a single language family. Rarely do we have the opportunity to conduct a large-scale typological investigation of related languages in this way. We also make a contribution to the role of typology in Optimality Theory. A large-scale survey of markedness patterns (in related languages) allows us to study occurring and non-occurring grammars. Finally, we can investigate the predictions of competing theories.


IFLA Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 034003522110541
Author(s):  
Simon Wakeling ◽  
Jane Garner ◽  
Philip Hider ◽  
Hamid Jamali ◽  
Jessie Lymn ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 crisis has had a significant impact on public libraries around the world. In Australia, almost all public libraries experienced some period of building closure, requiring libraries to adapt their services and delivery models. This article reports findings from a large-scale survey of public library managers in Australia, which was conducted in August 2020. In particular, it presents the results of a thematic analysis of the participants’ free-text responses to open questions asked as part of the survey. This analysis reveals important insights relating to responses to library closures, staffing issues, new and expanded services and programmes, relationships with parent bodies, and the role of public libraries during the crisis and beyond. While public libraries are perceived by managers to have been agile and adaptable, and to have utilised technology effectively, the findings clearly demonstrate the value to users of library buildings, with important consequences for understanding the role of public libraries.


Urban Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (13) ◽  
pp. 2635-2653 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaihuai Liao ◽  
Rainer Wehrhahn ◽  
Werner Breitung

This study takes an actor-oriented perspective and focuses on the role of urban planners in the production of gated communities in China. It probes their related values and the structural factors influencing their preferences and planning choices. The main empirical basis is a large-scale survey of urban planners throughout China. The results show for example that most of the surveyed planners are residents of gated communities themselves. This is highly important, because their residential experiences and middle-class identities are likely to affect their values and professional perspectives. Their attitudes towards gating furthermore strongly correlate with the views of the local governments for whom they work, which is understandable in view of the prevailing power structures. It is found that most planners either support gated communities or do not see much leverage to act against them, but that many are able to achieve amendments to reduce negative effects of gating.


2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Ping Liu ◽  
Zhong-Ming Wang

Perceived risk in employment and organizational trust were integrated into the development of organizational commitment, based on key factors in the social exchange process. The results show that perceived risk in employment correlated negatively with organizational trust and organizational commitment, and that organizational trust correlated positively with organizational commitment. Moreover, organizational trust acted as a partial mediator between perceived risk in employment and organizational commitment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (02) ◽  
pp. 04-30
Author(s):  
Tu Tran Thi Thanh ◽  
Dung Nguyen Thi Phuong

This paper aims at studying the factors affecting green banking practices in Vietnam and the role of green banking in sustainable development of the Vietnamese economy. A large scale survey con-ducted with 32 banks and financial organizations in Vietnam to obtain 329 questionnaire forms in the period from May to July 2016 provides evidence for the research. By using EFA analysis and the regression model, we find that understanding the definitions of green banking, the current activities of green banking, the advantages in developing green banking, and the focused sectors have positive relationships with the willingness of Vietnamese banks to adopt green banking practices, whereas the barriers have negative relation-ships with the willingness to utilize green banking services among Vietnamese banks. From the research findings, we suggest some solutions to not only enhance the understanding of the importance of green banking in economic development but also improve the willingness to follow green banking practices among Vietnam’s banking institutions.


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