scholarly journals Effective Policy Applications of Psychological Science: Drawing Parallels between COVID-19 and Climate Change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehrgol Tiv ◽  
David Livert ◽  
Trisha Dehrone ◽  
Maya Godbole ◽  
Laura López-Aybar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
The World ◽  
Effective Policy

In 2021, the world continues to face a serious, widespread challenge from the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments and civil society are grappling with unprecedented impacts on healthcare and the economy as well as restrictions of normal social interactions of millions. Still, the climate emergency has not rested. Unless addressed, carbon levels will continue to rise through this pandemic, the development and disbursements of vaccines, and the next pandemic. From a psychological perspective, there are many commonalities between the current COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing crisis of climate change. This whitepaper begins by summarizing the broad similarities between these two crises. From there, we draw parallels between COVID-19 and climate change across four domains of psychological research. In doing this, we identify evidence-based approaches that policymakers and other key decision-makers can adopt to holistically respond to the two global crises of climate change and public health. We conclude with a broad discussion on the role of psychological science (and other social and behavioral sciences) in policy.

Promoting Savings for Financial Resilience: Expanding the Psychological Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-54
Author(s):  
Crystal C. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Financial Security ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Personal Savings

In the United States, the lack of personal savings has been a perennial concern in the world of public policy. Policymakers and other practitioners constantly struggle with how to encourage families to accumulate funds in preparation for inevitable, but often unpredictable, financial emergencies. The field of applied behavioral science has attempted to address this challenge—often with mixed or modest results. I argue that psychological science (personality and social psychology in particular) offers underappreciated insights into the design and implementation of policy interventions to improve the rate of individual savings. In this article, I briefly discuss examples of prior interventions that have attempted to increase saving and then lay out some opportunities that have not been deeply explored. Future research in this area should broaden and deepen the way that psychology is leveraged as a tool to improve the financial security of the people who are the most vulnerable.

scholarly journals Development of a Shipment Policy for Collection Centers

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1385
Author(s):  
Irais Mora-Ochomogo ◽  
Marco Serrato ◽  
Jaime Mora-Vargas ◽  
Raha Akhavan-Tabatabaei
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Markov Decision Process ◽  
Decision Process ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Humanitarian Organizations ◽  
The World ◽  
Markov Decision ◽  
Unsatisfied Demand

Natural disasters represent a latent threat for every country in the world. Due to climate change and other factors, statistics show that they continue to be on the rise. This situation presents a challenge for the communities and the humanitarian organizations to be better prepared and react faster to natural disasters. In some countries, in-kind donations represent a high percentage of the supply for the operations, which presents additional challenges. This research proposes a Markov Decision Process (MDP) model to resemble operations in collection centers, where in-kind donations are received, sorted, packed, and sent to the affected areas. The decision addressed is when to send a shipment considering the uncertainty of the donations’ supply and the demand, as well as the logistics costs and the penalty of unsatisfied demand. As a result of the MDP a Monotone Optimal Non-Decreasing Policy (MONDP) is proposed, which provides valuable insights for decision-makers within this field. Moreover, the necessary conditions to prove the existence of such MONDP are presented.

scholarly journals The structure of professional attorney’s consciousness

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-220
Author(s):  
O.A. Hulbs ◽  
O.V. Kobets ◽  
V.V. Ponomarenko ◽  
A.D. Turyanskіy
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Legal Reform ◽  
Professional Behavior ◽  
Professional Activities ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Psyche ◽  
Ukrainian Society

The problem of studying consciousness has been quite relevant and significant throughout the lifetime of psychology, since it is the consciousness that builds the inner picture of the world and forms a semantic representation of reality, performing the reflective, regulatory and instrumental functions of the human psyche. Consciousness arises and forms in the process of regulation of social activity and allows a person to set himself a certain goal, to isolate himself from the outside world, to determine his attitude to the objects and phenomena of the outside world. The objective necessity of successful socio-economic development of the Ukrainian society, the task of formation of the state of law, implementation of a complex of measures related to the implementation of legal reform lead to an increase in the role of professional   attorney, their responsibility for the results of their activities. The professional consciousness of   attorney is a special phenomenon of modern reality, the study of which is possible only with a thorough analysis of it as a theoretical and legal construction. Proceeding from the approaches developed in psychological science, in some cases, this kind of consciousness can be regarded as a set of views, ideas, theories, representations and feelings of a group of people with a certain status of a   attorney, with respect to the law, current and desirable. In others - as a "reflection of legal reality" by   attorney in the process of carrying out their professional activities. Features of the content of professional consciousness of   attorney should be analyzed, based on the following elements: professional knowledge, attitude to the profession, skills of professional behavior

scholarly journals Cycling Pathways

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henk-Jan Dekker
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
The Road ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World ◽  
Road Space ◽  
History Of ◽  
On The Road

In an effort to fight climate change, many cities try to boost their cycling levels. They often look towards the Dutch for guidance. However, historians have only begun to uncover how and why the Netherlands became the premier cycling country of the world. Why were Dutch cyclists so successful in their fight for a place on the road? Cycling Pathways: The Politics and Governance of Dutch Cycling Infrastructure, 1920-2020 explores the long political struggle that culminated in today’s high cycling levels. Delving into the archives, it uncovers the important role of social movements and shows in detail how these interacted with national, provincial, and urban engineers and policymakers to govern the distribution of road space and construction of cycling infrastructure. It discusses a wide range of topics, ranging from activists to engineering committees, from urban commuters to recreational cyclists and from the early 1900s to today in order to uncover the long and all-but-forgotten history of Dutch cycling governance.

Awe, consumer conformity and social connectedness

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Yang ◽  
Jing Hu ◽  
Bang Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Consumer Decision Making ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Choice Tasks

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of the feeling awe on individuals' endorsement of conformist attitudes in consumption choices and the mediating role of social connectedness in generating this effect.Design/methodology/approachWe test our hypotheses across three studies. Study 1 used an online survey. Study 2 and 3 conducted two laboratory experiments to induce awe and measured consumer conformity in two consumption choice tasks.FindingsThis research shows that both dispositional awe and induced awe can increase individuals' preferences for majority-endorsed vs. minority-endorsed choice alternatives in subsequently unrelated consumption situations, and this effect is mediated by perceptions of social connectedness with other decision-makers.Practical implicationsMarketers can promote the sales of mass-market products through inducing awe.Social implicationsPublic regulators could utilize people's incidental awe as an effective policy intervention to nudge individual cooperation in some cases.Originality/valueThe research is the first to demonstrate a novel consequence of awe on consumer decision-making. It also highlights the significance of desire for social connectedness that explains why the feeling of awe develops conformity to the opinions of unknown people.

scholarly journals The Silent Killer: Consequences of Climate Change and How to Survive Past the Year 2050

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 3757
Author(s):  
Anna Laura Huckelba ◽  
Paul A. M. Van Lange
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Behavioral Change ◽  
Social Dilemma ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The World

There is strong scientific consensus that the climate is drastically changing due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and that these changes are largely due to human behavior. Scientific estimates posit that by 2050, we will begin to experience some of the most damaging consequences of climate change, which will only worsen as the world becomes more populated and resources become scarcer. Considerable progress has been made to explore technological solutions, yet useful insights from a psychological perspective are still lacking. Understanding whether and how individuals and groups cope with environmental dilemmas is the first step to combatting climate change. The key challenge is how can we reduce a tendency to inaction and to understand the psychological obstacles for behavioral change that reduce climate change. We provide a social dilemma analysis of climate change, emphasizing three important ingredients: people need to recognize their own impact on the climate, there is conflict between self-interest and collective interests, and there is a temporal dilemma involving a conflict between short-term and longer-term interest. Acknowledging these features, we provide a comprehensive overview of psychological mechanisms that support inaction, and close by discussing potential solutions. In particular, we offer recommendations at the level of individuals, communities, and governments.

Learning to be a Learner: The Role of Praise

1995 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-26
Author(s):  
Laurie Makin
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Care Centre ◽  
Early Childhood Programs ◽  
Child Care Centre ◽  
The World ◽  
Problem Solvers

It is through social interactions in meaningful contexts that children learn who they are, what the world is, how to relate to others and what is expected of them. In early childhood programs, children are introduced to the institution of education. In culturally diverse settings, there may be significant differences between what is expected in the child care centre and what is expected in the home. One of the most direct ways in which children learn how to play an appropriate role in this new setting is through their experience of being praised by staff. An analysis of praise during group discussion in four child care centres is presented. It is suggested that in all four centres, children in this situation were being schooled in passivity rather than being encouraged to be active problem solvers and seekers after knowledge.

scholarly journals Basic Services for All in an Urbanizing World: GOLD III

2014 ◽  
pp. 178-179
Author(s):  
Claire Frost
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Millennium Development Goals ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Local Democracy ◽  
Economic Uncertainty ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
Development Goals

Basic Services for All in an Urbanizing World is the third instalment in United Cities and Local Government’s (UCLG) flagship series of global reports on local democracy and decentralisation (GOLD III). In the context of rapid urbanisation, climate change and economic uncertainty the report is an impressive attempt to analyse local government’s role in the provision of basic services, the challenges they are facing, and make recommendations to improve local government’s ability to ensure access for all. Published in 2014, the report is well positioned to feed into the current debate on what will follow the UN Millennium Development Goals, and examines the role of local government in the provision of basic services across the world regions.

scholarly journals The Second Most Difficult Job in the World

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-281
Author(s):  
Jan Klabbers
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organization ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Practical Wisdom ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
World Health ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Conflicting Demands ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

This article addresses the ecology and functioning of the World Health Organization in a time of crisis, zooming in on the pressures on both the organization and its leadership generated by the circumstance that the organization cannot avoid allocating costs and benefits when taking decisions. The article argues that the covid-19 crisis illustrates how international organizations generally and the who in particular are subjected to conflicting demands, and how this impacts on the role of decision-makers. The latter, it transpires, need to display considerable practical wisdom.

scholarly journals Insurance Against Extreme Weather Events: An Overview

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-95
Author(s):  
Kati Kraehnert ◽  
Daniel Osberghaus ◽  
Christian Hott ◽  
Lemlem Teklegiorgis Habtemariam ◽  
Frank Wätzold ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
The State ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
The World ◽  
Negative Side Effects ◽  
State Of Research

Abstract Extreme weather events increasingly threaten the economic situation of households and enterprises around the world. Insurance against extreme weather events is among the climate change adaptation instruments that are currently discussed by the policy community. This overview paper provides a synopsis of the state of research on insurance against extreme weather events, outlining advantages and limitations inherent in three main types of insurance: indemnity-based insurance, index-based insurance, and insurance-linked securities. The paper discusses issues related to insurance uptake, distributional effects, misleading incentives and potentially negative side effects, as well as the role of the state.

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