scholarly journals Unconscious Gender Bias in Academia: Scarcity of Empirical Evidence

Societies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Torsten Skov
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Gender Bias ◽  
Present State ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Unconscious Bias ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Career Opportunities

Implicit or unconscious bias is commonly proposed to be responsible for women’s underrepresentation in academia. The aim of this scoping review was to identify and discuss the evidence supporting this proposition. Publications about unconscious/implicit gender bias in academia indexed in Scopus or psycInfo up to February 2020 were identified. More than half were published in the period 2018–2020. Studies reporting empirical data were scrutinized for data, as well as analyses showing an association of a measure of implicit or unconscious bias and lesser employment or career opportunities in academia for women than for men. No studies reported empirical evidence as thus defined. Reviews of unconscious bias identified via informal searches referred exclusively to studies that did not self-identify as addressing unconscious bias. Reinterpretations and misrepresentations of studies were common in these reviews. More empirical evidence about unconscious gender bias in academia is needed. With the present state of knowledge, caution should be exercised when interpreting data about gender gaps in academia. Ascribing observed gender gaps to unconscious bias is unsupported by the scientific literature.

Workplace experience of parents coping with perinatal loss: A scoping review

Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Sophie Meunier ◽  
Francine de Montigny ◽  
Sabrina Zeghiche ◽  
Dominique Lalande ◽  
Chantal Verdon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Perinatal Loss ◽  
Quantitative Studies ◽  
Workplace Experience ◽  
Returning To Work ◽  
Perinatal Grief

BACKGROUND: Perinatal loss affects many parents in the workforce. Yet, current knowledge about their workplace experience while facing this difficult event is sparse. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to review and synthesize the extent of scientific literature on the specific experiences of workers coping with perinatal loss and the resulting bereavement. METHODS: A scoping review was carried out using eight different databases. A total of 15 references, all using a qualitative methodology, were identified. Most of the references focused on the experience of mothers and on late perinatal loss (from the 20th week of pregnancy). RESULTS: All references highlighted the taboo and the non-recognition of perinatal grief and bereavement in both organizational practices and interpersonal relationships with colleagues and immediate supervisors. They also emphasized the difficulties associated with returning to work after the loss and the significant changes in the meaning attributed to work. CONCLUSIONS: While the studies included in this review clearly indicate that perinatal loss can affect working life, larger, quantitative studies are needed to quantify this phenomenon and its impact on employees and their organizations.

scholarly journals Public health decisions in the COVID-19 pandemic require more than ‘follow the science’

2021 ◽  
pp. medethics-2020-107134
Author(s):  
Thana Cristina de Campos-Rudinsky ◽  
Eduardo Undurraga
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Ethical Reasoning ◽  
Reliable Data ◽  
Good Decision

Although empirical evidence may provide a much desired sense of certainty amidst a pandemic characterised by uncertainty, the vast gamut of available COVID-19 data, including misinformation, has instead increased confusion and distrust in authorities’ decisions. One key lesson we have been gradually learning from the COVID-19 pandemic is that the availability of empirical data and scientific evidence alone do not automatically lead to good decisions. Good decision-making in public health policy, this paper argues, does depend on the availability of reliable data and rigorous analyses, but depends above all on sound ethical reasoning that ascribes value and normative judgement to empirical facts.

Stewart-Williams and Halsey argue persuasively that gender bias is just one of many causes of women’s underrepresentation in science

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-44
Author(s):  
Stephen J Ceci ◽  
Shulamit Kahn ◽  
Wendy M Williams
Keyword(s):  
Gender Bias ◽  
Spatial Abilities ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Teaching Evaluations ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Funding Success ◽  
Acceptance Rates ◽  
Recent Synthesis ◽  
Letters Of Recommendation

Stewart-Williams and Halsey provide an unusually broad synthesis of the enormous literature on gender gaps in hiring, letters of recommendation, mathematical and spatial abilities, email appointment-making, people vs things orientation, within-gender variability, salaries, occupational preferences, and employment discrimination. They argue that sociocultural factors, while important, cannot by themselves account for the entirety of these gaps. In addition, they argue that factors resulting from evolutionary origins, cognitive ability gaps at the extreme right tail of the distribution, and underlying gender differences in abilities, preferences, and values are needed to explain why women are less well represented in the most math-intensive fields. In our commentary, we reprise our own recent synthesis (unpublished) of gender gaps in six domains (letters of recommendation, academic hiring, salaries, teaching evaluations, journal acceptance rates, grant funding success) and put our results in the context of these authors' arguments.

scholarly journals Ecosystem-Based Adaptation to Protect Avian Species in Coastal Communities in the Greater Niagara Region, Canada

Climate ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Samantha Gauthier ◽  
Bradley May ◽  
Liette Vasseur
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
Coastal Ecosystems ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Living Shorelines ◽  
Human Wellbeing ◽  
Living Shoreline

Coastal communities are increasingly vulnerable to climate change and its effects may push coastal ecosystems to undergo irreversible changes. This is especially true for shorebirds with the loss of biodiversity and resource-rich habitats to rest, refuel, and breed. To protect these species, it is critical to conduct research related to nature-based Solutions (NbS). Through a scoping review of scientific literature, this paper initially identified 85 articles with various ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) strategies that could help conserve shorebird populations and promote ecotourism. Of these 85 articles, 28 articles had EbA strategies that were examined, with some like coral reefs and mangroves eliminated as they were inappropriate for this region. The scoping review identified four major EbA strategies for the Greater Niagara Region with living shorelines and beach nourishment being the most suitable, especially when combined. These strategies were then evaluated against the eight core principles of nature-based solutions protecting shorebird as well as human wellbeing. Living shoreline strategy was the only one that met all eight NbS principles. As the coastline of the region greatly varies in substrate and development, further research will be needed to decide which EbA strategies would be appropriate for each specific area to ensure their efficacy.

scholarly journals Cross-cultural data shows musical scales evolved to maximise imperfect fifths

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Mcbride ◽  
Tsvi Tlusty
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Harmonic Series ◽  
Selection Pressures ◽  
Empirical Distributions ◽  
Efficient Communication ◽  
The World ◽  
Cultural Data ◽  
Musical Scales

Musical scales are used throughout the world, but the question of how they evolved remains open. Some suggest that scales based on the harmonic series are inherently pleasant, while others propose that scales are chosen that are easy to communicate.However, testing these theories has been hindered by the sparseness of empirical evidence. Here, we assimilate data from diverse ethnomusicological sources into a cross-cultural database of scales. We generate populations of scales based on multiple theories and assess their similarity to empirical distributions from the database. Most scales tend to include intervals which are close in size to perfect fifths (“imperfect fifths”), and packing arguments explain the salient features of the distributions. Scales are also preferred if their intervals are compressible, which may facilitate efficient communication and memory of melodies. While scales appear to evolve according to various selection pressures, the simplest, imperfect-fifths packing model best fits the empirical data.

scholarly journals Theoretical insights into expression of leadership competencies in the process of management

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 220-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Andriukaitienė ◽  
Valentyna Voronkova ◽  
Olga Kyvliuk ◽  
Marina Maksimenyuk ◽  
Aita Sakun
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Development ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Leadership Competencies ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Literature Analysis ◽  
The Core ◽  
Career Opportunities ◽  
Analysis And Synthesis ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Leadership Research

The relevance of the topic is defined through the idea that appropriate leadership competencies and their application in certain activities enabling the followers can ensure the prospects of organizational development and individual career opportunities. To review and summarize the aspects of research findings of leadership science in expression of competencies in managerial processes, highlighting the leadership competencies in the context of general competencies. Methods. In order to formulate analytical findings describing the concept of leadership, generalizing the stages of development of theories, expression of leadership competencies and impact, there were used the methods of scientific literature analysis and synthesis as well as simulation. Results. According to the scientists insights, the article deals with leadership concept analysis, leadership research overview according to development stages. Scientific novelty. The analyzed theme has a scientific novelty, because recently there has been more and more discussion about the importance of leadership, but it is important to analyze the core leadership competencies that would predetermine both the findings of decisions of organizations’ managerial processes and positive changes of individual career in the integration in the activities of organizations. Practical significance. The need in leadership competencies is related to the issues of good leadership in organizations. Aiming to implement ideas of modern leadership in organisations, the leader has to have certain characteristics of leadership expressions, such as ability to communicate effectively, respond to the needs of others, and influence the behavior of the followers directing them towards the achieving of the set goals and implementation of the leader’s vision.

Gender Bias Produces Gender Gaps in STEM Engagement

Sex Roles ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 79 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 651-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinne A. Moss-Racusin ◽  
Christina Sanzari ◽  
Nava Caluori ◽  
Helena Rabasco
Keyword(s):  
Gender Bias ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Stem Engagement

A New Agenda for Cognitive Development

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Siegler
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Change Process ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
The Core ◽  
Initial Decision ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Children’S Thinking ◽  
The Way

My goal in writing this book is to change the agenda of the field of cognitive development. In particular, I want to promote greater attention to the question that I believe is inherently at the core of the field: How do changes in children’s thinking occur? Focusing on change may not sound like a radical departure from current practice, but I believe it is. It will require reformulation of our basic assumptions about children’s thinking, the kinds of questions we ask about it, our methods for studying it, the mechanisms we propose to explain it, and the basic metaphors that underlie our thinking about it. That modifications of all of these types are being proposed as a package is no accident. Just as existing approaches have directed our attention away from the change process, so may new ones lead us to focus squarely on it. This concluding chapter summarizes the kinds of changes in assumptions, questions, methods, mechanisms, and metaphors that I think are needed. My initial decision to write this book was motivated by a growing discomfort with the large gap between the inherent mission of the field—to understand changes in children’s thinking—and most of what we actually have been studying. As I thought about the problem, I came to the conclusion that existing assumptions, methods, and theories acted in a mutually supportive way to make what we typically do seem essential, and to make doing otherwise—that is, studying change directly—seem impossible. Even approaches that proclaimed themselves to be radical departures from traditional theories maintained many fundamental assumptions of those theories. An increasing body of empirical evidence, however, indicates that some of the assumptions are wrong and that the way in which they are wrong has led us to ignore fundamental aspects of development. In this section, I describe prevailing assumptions regarding variability, choice, and change, and propose alternatives that seem more consistent with empirical data and more useful for increasing our understanding of how changes occur.

Quantitative Concession Behavior Analysis and Prediction for Decision Support in Electronic Negotiations

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 16-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Réal A. Carbonneau ◽  
Rustam Vahidov ◽  
Gregory E. Kersten
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Real World ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Automated Negotiation ◽  
Electronic Negotiations ◽  
Memory Decay ◽  
Negotiation Agents

Quantitative analysis of negotiation concession behavior is performed based on empirical data with the purpose of providing simple and intuitive decision support in electronic negotiations. Previous work on non-linear concave preferences and subsequent concession crossover provides a theoretical basis for the model. The authors propose a model which quantifies the remaining concession potential for each issue and a generalization of the model which permits the memory/decay of past concessions. These models permit the analysis of negotiators' concession behavior. Using the proposed models, it was possible to quantitatively determine that negotiators in the authors' negotiation case exhibit concession crossover issues and thus have a tendency to give concessions on issues with the most remaining concession potential. This finding provides empirical evidence of concession crossover in actual concessions and the corresponding model permits the design of a simple and intuitive prediction methodology, which could be used in real world negotiations by decision support systems or automated negotiation agents.

scholarly journals Approaches to the initiation of life-sustaining technology in children: A scoping review of changes over time

2020 ◽  
pp. 136749352096188
Author(s):  
Denise Alexander ◽  
Jessica Eustace-Cook ◽  
Maria Brenner
Keyword(s):  
Scoping Review ◽  
Full Text ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Screening Process ◽  
Joint Decision ◽  
Technology Dependence ◽  
Futile Care ◽  
Text Reading ◽  
Changes Over Time

Little is understood about the dynamic circumstances within which the initiation of technology dependence takes place in children. The aim of this scoping review was to identify the influences on the initiation of technology dependence and the issues that require further exploration and consideration. Scientific literature that directly or indirectly discussed the initiation of technology dependence in children was identified. A three-stage screening process of title and abstract scrutiny, full-text scanning and in-depth full-text reading resulted in 63 relevant articles from 1133 initially reviewed. These were then subjected to descriptive and thematic analysis. Articles ranged from the 1970s to the present, reflecting the evolution of ethical debates around the approaches to clinical practice and changes in cultural and societal attitudes. Three themes emerged: how technology alters the meaning of futile care, dissonance in the perspectives of decision makers and increasing support for joint decision-making. Only articles in English and predominantly from the clinician’s rather than the patient’s perspective were included. Societal and cultural factors as well as the structural, financial and cultural environment influence the initiation of technology dependence in children. However, to what extent these overt and implicit influences guide decision-makers in this field remains largely unknown.

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