Are companies using Twitter to greenwash and hide bad environmental performance?

Companies and related consumer behaviours contribute significantly to global carbon emissions. However, consumer behaviour is shifting, with the public now recognising the real and immediate impact of climate change. Many companies are aware and seemingly eager to align to consumer’s increasing environmental consciousness, yet there is a risk that some companies could be presenting themselves as environmentally friendly without implementing environmentally beneficial processes and products (i.e. greenwashing). Here, using longitudinal climate leadership, environmental messaging (Twitter) and stock price data, we explore how climate leadership (a relative climate change mitigation metric) and environmental messaging have changed for hundreds of UK companies. Using the environmental messaging, we also assess whether companies are simply greenwashing their true climate change performance. Finally, we explore how climate leadership and environmental messaging influence companies’ stock prices. We found that companies (on average) have increased their climate leadership (coef: 0.14, CI 0.12–0.16) and environmental messaging (coef: 0.35, CI 0.19–0.50) between 2010 and 2019. We also found an association where companies with more environmental messaging had a higher climate leadership (coef: 0.16, CI 0.07–0.26), suggesting messaging was proportionate to environmental performance, and so there was no clear pattern of using Twitter for greenwashing across UK companies. In fact, some companies may be under-advertising their pro-environmental performance. Finally, we found no evidence that climate leadership, environmental messaging or greenwashing impacts a company’s stock price.

Earning like a Prof: Academic rank wage premia in Ústí nad Labem, Czechia

The article attempts to estimate the size of the wage premia fetched by ranked academics on the academic market in Ústí nad Labem, Czechia. We employed a large (anonymized) data set of contracts and wages of employees of a medium-sized regional public university in Ústí nad Labem. We used OLS regression in various specifications to determine the wage premia of all educational levels (mainly full professors over associate professors/ docents and associate professors/docents over assistant professors/PhDs) while controlling for many attributes (of employees or contracts) possibly affecting wage levels. The local context regarding the topic of this article is discussed as well. The results generally confirm the intuition and show a clear pattern of increasing wages with levels and ranks. Focusing predominantly on the academic ranks, the monthly premium of associate professors (docents) over PhDs seems to be somewhere between 5 and 6 thousand CZK (185 and 220 EUR), and the premium of full professors over associate professors to an average of around 4 thousand CZK (150 EUR). The latter premium, however, exhibits systematic variation across different schools within the university: in some it is insignificant (around 0), while in others it is rather large and averages around 8 thousand CZK (300 EUR).

The 2016–2018 excavation of the cemetery at the Sunjiagang site, Lixian County, Hunan

Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated at the site of Sunjiagang during 2016–2018 after 33 earthen pit tombs were uncovered in 1991. It yielded 192 pit tombs and one urn burial along with a number of pottery vessels and jade artifacts. The whole cemetery was laid out with a clear pattern of spatial arrangement, organized in an orderly style. A unique burial practice prevailed in the cemetery, for which the deceased was laid upon a layer of grave goods. According to the typology of unearthed pottery vessels and jade artifacts, the cemetery at the Sunjiagang site dates sometime from 2200 to 1800 BCE. It represents a new local variant of the Xiaojiawuji culture, and thus can be named the Sunjiagang type culture.

Crystalline structure analysis of all-cellulose nanocomposite films based on corn and wheat straws

Cellulose solution and nanocellulose were prepared from corn straw and wheat straw and then used to fabricate an all-cellulose nanocomposites film (ANF). The crystal structure (CS) of ANFs was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR). Cellulose-I and cellulose-II were found to coexist within regenerated cellulose films (RCF) and ANFs. With the change of nanocellulose content, the proportions of cellulose-I and cellulose-II changed. Cellulose transformation was found to depend on the raw material and the preparation method. When cellulose solution was prepared from corn straw that had been extracted, the cellulose type tended to be transformed from cellulose-I to cellulose-II; the proportion of cellulose-I showed a tendency to increase when nanocellulose content exceeded 1.5%. When the dissolved cellulose had been treated by an acid-alkali method, the results did not follow a clear pattern. However, when cellulose solution was prepared from wheat straw, under extraction method, the cellulose type tended to transform from cellulose-I to cellulose-II; under acid-alkali method, cellulose-I did not follow a clear pattern with nanocellulose content. Though the small amount of nanocellulose can’t dominate the content of cellulose-I, it could cause an increase in disorder of the cellulose matrix.

What’s in a Word? Just vs. Fair vs. Appropriate Earnings for Self and Others

Despite Rawls’ famous call to distinguish between justice and fairness, these and other justice-related words often seem to be used interchangeably by both ordinary people and justice researchers. Based on a survey-embedded question wording experiment (N = 4534) fielded in Germany as part of the GESIS Panel, we explore the effects of three justice words— “just,” “fair,” and “appropriate”—on the sense of justice about earnings for self and others. We observe differences in the just reward, justice evaluation, and justice consequences by justice word. For example, justice evaluations of one’s own earnings are more negative, i.e., deeper in the underreward territory, signaling larger just rewards, when using “just” instead of “fair” or “appropriate” in the question wording. No such clear pattern emerges for justice evaluations of others’ earnings. Our analyses show the decreasing effect of an underreward situation on psychosocial health to be significantly stronger in the “just” condition compared to the “fair” condition but do not reveal differential consequences by justice word for measures of satisfaction and trust. Overall, the observed differences by justice words are moderate in size. Nonetheless, our findings suggest caution for justice researchers in communicating with peers and respondents and warrant further inquiry extending research on the role of “justice language” to other language–country contexts.

Color-validity associations put to the test: Examining the robustness of red-false and green-true associations in the Implicit Association Test

Although there is a considerable amount of research on color associations, not much is known about color-validity associations. Initial work with a Stroop task suggests automatic green-true and red-false associations. In the present work, we were interested in testing the generalizability of these associations by using a different procedure, the Implicit Association Test (IAT). In four IAT-experiments we investigated red-false and green-true associations across different color contexts and stimulus materials. Participants categorized objects presented in two different colors as well as true and false statements (Experiment 1), true and false mathematical equations (Experiment 2), or true-related and false-related words (Experiment 3). The hypothesized green-true and red-false associations were observed in all experiments when both red and green stimuli appeared within the same task but varied in tasks involving only one of both colors and a respective control color. The use of conceptual color representation instead of colored objects (Experiment 4) did not produce a clear pattern. A final, registered experiment aims at finding an explanation in valence- and/or salience-asymmetries as potential confounds of IAT effects.

Pregnancies and Pregnancy Desires at the State Level: Estimates for 2017 and Trends Since 2012

Key Points In almost all U.S. states, pregnancies reported as occurring at the right time or being wanted sooner than they occurred comprised the largest share of pregnancies in 2017, though proportions varied widely by state. The proportion of pregnancies that were wanted later or unwanted was higher in the South and Northeast than in other regions, and the proportion of pregnancies that occurred at the right time or were wanted sooner was higher in the West and Midwest. From 2012 to 2017, the wanted-later-or-unwanted pregnancy rate fell in the majority of states. However, no clear pattern emerged for any changes in the rate of pregnancies that were reported as wanted then or sooner or in the rate of those for which individuals expressed uncertainty.

A global study of hygroscopicity-driven light-scattering enhancement in the context of other in situ aerosol optical properties

The scattering and backscattering enhancement factors (f(RH) and fb(RH)) describe how aerosol particle light scattering and backscattering, respectively, change with relative humidity (RH). They are important parameters in estimating direct aerosol radiative forcing (DARF). In this study we use the dataset presented in Burgos et al. (2019) that compiles f(RH) and fb(RH) measurements at three wavelengths (i.e., 450, 550 and 700 nm) performed with tandem nephelometer systems at multiple sites around the world. We present an overview of f(RH) and fb(RH) based on both long-term and campaign observations from 23 sites representing a range of aerosol types. The scattering enhancement shows a strong variability from site to site, with no clear pattern with respect to the total scattering coefficient. In general, higher f(RH) is observed at Arctic and marine sites, while lower values are found at urban and desert sites, although a consistent pattern as a function of site type is not observed. The backscattering enhancement fb(RH) is consistently lower than f(RH) at all sites, with the difference between f(RH) and fb(RH) increasing for aerosol with higher f(RH). This is consistent with Mie theory, which predicts higher enhancement of the light scattering in the forward than in the backward direction as the particle takes up water. Our results show that the scattering enhancement is higher for PM1 than PM10 at most sites, which is also supported by theory due to the change in scattering efficiency with the size parameter that relates particle size and the wavelength of incident light. At marine-influenced sites this difference is enhanced when coarse particles (likely sea salt) predominate. For most sites, f(RH) is observed to increase with increasing wavelength, except at sites with a known dust influence where the spectral dependence of f(RH) is found to be low or even exhibit the opposite pattern. The impact of RH on aerosol properties used to calculate radiative forcing (e.g., single-scattering albedo, ω0, and backscattered fraction, b) is evaluated. The single-scattering albedo generally increases with RH, while b decreases. The net effect of aerosol hygroscopicity on radiative forcing efficiency (RFE) is an increase in the absolute forcing effect (negative sign) by a factor of up to 4 at RH = 90 % compared to dry conditions (RH < 40 %). Because of the scarcity of scattering enhancement measurements, an attempt was made to use other more commonly available aerosol parameters (i.e., ω0 and scattering Ångström exponent, αsp) to parameterize f(RH). The majority of sites (75 %) showed a consistent trend with ω0 (higher f(RH = 85 %) for higher ω0), while no clear pattern was observed between f(RH = 85 %) and αsp. This suggests that aerosol ω0 is more promising than αsp as a surrogate for the scattering enhancement factor, although neither parameter is ideal. Nonetheless, the qualitative relationship observed between ω0 and f(RH) could serve as a constraint on global model simulations.

The Institutional Order of Liberalization

When authoritarian regimes liberalize, are there observable patterns in the ordering of reforms, and are these patterns distinct for cases that transition to democracy? While the prevailing literature tends to focus on exogenous ‘determinants’ of democracy, this letter describes the endogenous dynamics of liberalization itself. Using pairwise domination analysis, it assesses the institutional order of reforms during 371 episodes of liberalization in autocracies between 1900 and 2019. Based on twenty-four indicators of democratic institutions and practices, our findings reveal (1) a clear pattern of reform during liberalization episodes, (2) with strong similarities across outcomes, but also that (3) reforms to the administration of elections tend to develop comparatively earlier in episodes of liberalization that produce a democratic transition.

Nudging in the time of coronavirus? Comparing public support for soft and hard preventive measures, highlighting the role of risk perception and experience

The importance of researching public support for preventive policies have been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a representative sample of the Hungarian population, we investigated the support for commonly used preventive measures (social distancing, hand hygiene and wearing masks) comparing two different policy tools (nudges and regulations). Because of the high risk and unfamiliarity of the pandemic, the respondents’ risk perception and experience with the disease was also assessed. All preventive measures were generally supported and, contrary to the findings of previous nudge research, there was no clear pattern whether regulations or nudges are preferred. People with higher level of risk perception supported both types of policies more but slightly favoured the regulations. Those who had contact with the disease (either themselves or a close friend or family member contracting COVID-19) reported a higher level of risk perception. When the person themselves was afflicted, this higher levels of risk perception did not translate to a higher level of support, moreover, it even decreased support for the regulations according to regression analysis. In case of a loved one contracting the disease, there was an increased support for both types of measures, but that is explained by the higher risk perception.