Actively Open-Minded Thinking, Bullshit Receptivity, and Susceptibility to Framing: Evaluating the Dual-Process Account in North America and Bulgaria

The framing effect occurs when different presentations of the same problem lead to predictably different preferences. The dual-process framework of higher cognition assumes that the effect violates rational principles, but alternative accounts and recent evidence have contested this interpretation. Contributing to this debate, we tested the dual-process assumption by investigating associations between susceptibility to framing and the willingness and ability to think in line with rational norms, conceptualized as actively open-minded thinking and pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity. We conducted two online studies among North American (N = 259) and Bulgarian (N = 248) university students and administered several framing problems within subjects, presumably a necessary condition for the associations to appear. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that susceptibility to framing was associated with decreased actively open-minded thinking and increased bullshit receptivity in both sites. Exploratory multi-group analyses demonstrated partial strong invariance and showed that the findings generalize across both sites in terms of direction and partially in terms of magnitude. These results broadly support the dual-process account of the framing effect. Our study further contributes to adapting existing measures to a novel setting and expanding the findings across borders and populations.

Null results for the steal-framing effect on out-group aggression

Whether intergroup conflict is a necessary condition for the evolution of human prosociality has been a matter of debate. At the center of the debate is the coevolutionary model of parochial altruism—that human cooperation with in-group members has coevolved with aggression toward out-group members. Studies using the intergroup prisoner’s dilemma–maximizing difference game to test the model have repeatedly shown that people do not exhibit out-group aggression, possibly because of an inappropriate operationalization and framing of out-group aggression. The coevolutionary model predicts out-group aggression when the actor understands that it will lead to the in-group’s benefit. However, in the game, such an aspect of out-group aggression that benefits the in-group is typically not well communicated to participants. Thus, this study tested the hypothesis that out-group aggression in the game would be promoted by a framing that emphasizes that attacking out-group members enhances the in-group’s gain. Results of two laboratory experiments with 176 Japanese university students in total showed that such a framing did not promote out-group aggression and individuals invested more money to cooperate with in-group members only, avoiding the strategy of cooperating with in-group members to harm out-group members. These results do not support the coevolutionary model.

Later J.-P. Sartre and Early K. Marx: The Humanistic Content of the General and the Depth of the Discrepancies of the Particular

Turning to this topic, one cannot but take into account the fact that some thinkers and philosophers who understand the philosophy of J.-P. Sartre, agreeing with him, are the young intellectuals of France, namely, Hervé Bazin, Pierre Courtade and others. Others do quite the opposite: they are categorically critical in their works, for example, Henri Lefebvre, "L'Existentialisme" (1946), Henri Muzhin "La Sainte famille existentialiste" (1947), Jean Canap "L'Existentialisme n'est pas un humanisme" (1947), Georg Lukacs "Existentialisme ou marxisme?" (1948) and others. In this situation, the question arises of where J.-P. Sartre was a follower of Marxism and where not. Besides, researchers usually do not fully take into account all stages of the development of J.-P. Sartre’s philosophy. Sartre. However, this is a necessary condition for understanding how Marxism influenced the last stage of Sartre's work (we define it as starting from about 1950). The lack of agreement between researchers on the Marxist component of Sartres’s work demonstrates, in our opinion, a lack of attention to all its stages. Of course, the volume of our article does not allow us to make up for this deficiency in full. But we tried, at least briefly, to take into account all the essential points that determine the specifics of the Marxist component in the work of J.-P. Sartre.

Border Security in Modern Customs Administration as an Organisational and Managerial Principle (US Case)

The article attempts to complex, systemic consideration of border management mechanisms. This question is analyzed by the author from the point of view of various research approaches for a comprehensive study of the organizational and functional nature of this phenomenon. The text gives the most pressing reasons for the transformation of border management processes in the modern world, as well as some significant threats and challenges to collective security in the global economy. The author focuses on North American management experience, as North American countries today demonstrate the highest productivity and innovation in border management and trade security. As the main conclusion of the article, we can cite the thesis that the necessary condition for effective border management in the modern world is interstate cooperation and international cooperation of administrative institutions and commercial organizations.

Nationality and Equal Political Rights: A Necessary Link?

Main justifications for regarding common nationality as a necessary condition for holding equal political rights – Critique of collective self-determination, equal stakes, nature of political activity, and stability justifications – Rejection of the incommensurability of legitimacy and justice – Socioeconomic interdependence and liberal democratic values as the normative grounds for equal stakes – Risk of entrenchment of hostility among national groups as a consequence of a competitive conception of political activity – Instrumental value of stability – Stability through democratic inclusion – Possibility of sustainable pluralism through deliberative democracy – Modified version of the equal stakes argument – Equal political rights on the basis of long-term residence – Association of citizenship with nationality in contemporary European states – Redefinition of citizenship as top-down redefinition of nationality – Need to reconceptualise equal political rights independently of citizenship – Legal argument for interpreting references to popular sovereignty in national constitutions in accordance with long-term residence, rather than nationality – Available legal remedies

Which urban communities are susceptible to COVID-19? An empirical study through the lens of community resilience

Background After the lockdown of Wuhan on January 23, 2020, the government used community-based pandemic prevention and control as the core strategy to fight the pandemic, and explored a set of standardized community pandemic prevention measures that were uniformly implemented throughout the city. One month later, the city announced its first lists of “high-risk” communities and COVID-19-free communities. Under the standardized measures of pandemic prevention and mitigation, why some communities showed a high degree of resilience and effectively avoided escalation, while the situation spun out of control in other communities? This study investigated: 1) key factors that affect the effective response of urban communities to the pandemic, and 2) types of COVID-19 susceptible communities. Methods This study employs the crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis method to explore the influencing variables and possible causal condition combination paths that affect community resilience during the pandemic outbreak. Relying on extreme-case approach, 26 high-risk communities and 14 COVID-19 free communities were selected as empirical research subjects from the lists announced by Wuhan government. The community resilience assessment framework that evaluates the communities’ capacity on pandemic prevention and mitigation covers four dimensions, namely spatial resilience, capital resilience, social resilience, and governance resilience, each dimension is measured by one to three variables. Results The results of measuring the necessity of 7 single-condition variables found that the consistency index of “whether the physical structure of the community is favorable to virus transmission” reached 0.9, which constitutes a necessary condition for COVID-19 susceptible communities. By analyzing the seven condition configurations with high row coverage and unique coverage in the obtained complex solutions and intermediate solutions, we found that outbreaks are most likely to occur in communities populated by disadvantaged populations. However, if lacking spatial-, capital-, and governance resilience, middle-class and even wealthy communities could also become areas where COVID-19 spreads easily. Conclusions Three types of communities namely vulnerable communities, alienated communities, and inefficient communities have lower risk resilience. Spatial resilience, rather than social resilience, constitutes the key influencing factor of COVID-19-susceptible communities, and the dual deficiencies of social resilience and governance resilience are the common features of these communities.

On (Dis)Connections and Transformations: The Role of the Agricultural Innovation System in the Adoption of Improved Forages in Colombia

Feeding improvement strategies are key in increasing cattle productivity and reducing its environmental footprint. Nevertheless, Colombian tropical cattle systems still feature serious deficiencies in both forage quality and availability. As a result of past and on-going forage Research and Development (R&D) processes, institutions have released 23 grass and legume cultivars of superior characteristics in terms of forage quality, supply, or adaptation to different soil and climate conditions, while providing numerous environmental benefits. However, low levels of adoption are observed: although R&D processes are a necessary condition for adoption, they are still not sufficient to guarantee agricultural technification in Colombia. The ultimate success occurs only when end-users make effective use of a technology–a link constantly interrupted. Agricultural innovation requires complex processes of interaction in which knowledge is shared amongst organizations involved in the Agricultural Innovation System (AIS), namely: suitable links, attitudes, practices, governance structures, and policies. The objective of this study is to identify limitations and opportunities in R&D, adoption, and diffusion of forage technologies in Colombia from an AIS perspective. Particularly, we present a study case pertaining to research institutions only, to (a) map the involved actors and describe their roles and links, and (b) identify the events that marked the evolution of the AIS and the course of forage R&D in its research-related components. We applied a qualitative methodology based on focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, literature review, and historical analysis. Results show that the complex nature of institutions and the interactions between them determine the historical transformation of diffusion of forage technologies. The lack of connection between institutions and the weak intensity of the relationships, prevent the convergence of interests and objectives, leading to vicious cycles that hamper technology adoption. Insufficient synchronization between institutions of different nature (and even between those that share similar objectives) results in efficiency losses due to an unnecessary repetition of activities and processes. We provide recommendations for policy- and decision-makers that will help in both a restructuration of the AIS and a better allocation of funds for R&D, and thus support the development of more effective pathways for forage adoption and scaling.

Sustainable Intensification Practices Reduce Food Deficit for the Best- and Worst-Off Households in Ethiopia and Mozambique

An adequate food supply is widely recognized as a necessary condition for social development as well as a basic human right. Food deficits are especially common among semi-subsistence farming households in eastern and southern Africa and farm productivity is widely regarded as the locus for enhancing household food outcomes. However, knowledge gaps surrounding benefits associated with climate smart, productivity-enhancing technologies require attention. This study evaluates benefits associated with sustainable intensification farm management practices (crop residue retention, minimum tillage, manure application and use of herbicides, pesticides, fertilizer, and improved seeds) for household calorie and protein supplies and demonstrates their scope across households with high-, moderate- and low- likelihoods of calorie and protein deficits. Household-level calorie and protein deficits were estimated from survey data on food production, acquisition and consumption for households in Ethiopia and Mozambique. Multinomial logistic models were used to identify drivers of household food deficit status and logistic model trees established “rules of thumb” to classify households by food deficit status as low, moderate or high likelihood. In Ethiopia, especially wet seasons were associated with a high likelihood of a food deficit while especially dry seasons were associated with a high likelihood of food deficit in Mozambique. The practices associated with sustainable intensification and related technologies substantially enhanced food outcomes in groups with a high- and a low-likelihood of food deficit, and associated benefits were high for the best-off households. Benefits associated with sustainable intensification technologies were not observed for households with a moderate likelihood of a food deficit and some technologies even increased risk. The sustainable intensification practices assessed here were associated with improved food outcomes yet benefits were limited in scope for households of intermediate status. Thus, there is a need to expand the technical options available to reduce food deficit.

DIAGNOSIS WITH THE HACKATHON ECOSYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE READINESS OF STUDENTS FOR RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES. The changes in society associated with the country's transition to an innovative way of development radically change the nature and goals of labor activity. Profession under such conditions is considered by a person as a source of material well-being and gaining the desired social status. Professional self-determination occurs too late or is realized as forced, so the lack of opportunity to realize one's professional preferences has a negative impact on the individual and on society as a whole. As a result, in recent decades there has been a significant increase in the requirements of modern employers to the professional training of graduates of educational institutions. A young specialist must improve in the profession, be ready to change professional activity, i.e. be socially and professionally mobile, scientifically established, which can be realized with the help of Hackathon-ecosystem.METHODS. Collection of information, survey of students and teachers were carried out using a systematic approach on the basis of the Hackathon ecosystem. Processing of the obtained information, definition of scientific statements, generation of conclusions and practical recommendations were carried out with the help of the software product "Methodology of studying students' adaptation to dual education in higher education".FINDINGS. It is proved that the research activity of students is a necessary condition for their professional self-determination, acts as part of a holistic, long-term, dynamic process of entry into the profession and as a result of the choice and design of their future professional activity. Students' involvement in research activity largely determines the effectiveness of their social and professional development.CONCLUSION. Research activity of university students is an effective means of forming knowledge, abilities and skills necessary for personal and professional self-determination. It not only stimulates and motivates personal and intellectual development, contributes to the continuation of education, proves the degree of its readiness and acts as one of the guarantors of the success of the process of professional self-determination in general.

Queer Epidemics

This chapter of my book Bodies Out of Rule (2014) considers John Greyson's Zero Patience – a 1993 musical satire on the early days of the AIDS epidemic – in the context of the epidemiological and immunity discourses inherent in neoliberal biopolitics. Greyson's film can be read as a queer critique of the broadly understood epidemiological operations of biopower, especially its authoritarian systematizations and taxonomizations that establish a certain "regime of truth" and are a necessary condition for the effective regulation of social practices and subjects. Through my reading of Greyson's film, I argue for a queer reclamation of the feared figure of the virus as a thoroughly transversal figure that transcends existing boundaries, identities, and cognitive categories.