Social value orientations and public confidence in institutions: A young democracy under the imprint of COVID-19

Social value orientations (SVOs) of a society determine peoples' behaviour and are critical for young democracies in crises. This paper draws on the Maldives Values in Crisis survey, conducted during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. SVOs assessed using the Schwartz Personal Values Questionnaire shows that Maldivian society weigh slightly towards prosocial. Urban-rural, age, and gender determine the SVOs on the dimension of Openness to change versus Conservation while age and gender determine the SVOs on Self-enhancement versus Self-transcendence dimension. Confidence in the public institutions were moderate and not associated with the SVOs. The moderate level of SVOs and confidence in institutions reflects the democratic landscape of the country. Although prosocial SVOs are favourable for implementing containment measures of the pandemic, without a strong value orientation towards conservation and self-transcendence, and confidence in the institutions, the country faces the risk of non-compliance to measures and escalation of the crisis.

The intergenerational similarity of social value orientations in adolescents and emerging adults: Variable-centered and person-centered approaches

The current study examined the intergenerational similarity of middle adolescents’ and emerging adults’ social value orientations (SVO) using different variable-centered and person-centered approaches and whether perceived parental autonomy support and conditional regard would play a role in similarity. The sample consisted of 218 middle adolescents (ages 14–15, eighth and ninth grades) and 219 emerging adults (ages 19–25, attending university) and their mothers and fathers in a metropolitan area of Ankara, Turkey ( N = 437 triads). Our findings revealed that mother-father similarity was higher than parent-child similarity. Results indicated more similarities between emerging adults-parents than adolescents-parents, and autonomy support contributed to the similarity. Higher levels of maternal and paternal SVO has linked with prosociality of offsprings. Besides, when mothers and fathers were incongruent in reporting SVO, the emerging adults’ probability of having prosocial SVO was lower.

Socio-humanitarian framework for evaluating innovations in the field of artificial intelligence

The paper addresses the issue of identification the social and humanitarian grounds for constructing criteria for assessing the impact of various factors on the development of innovations using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The analysis of basic concepts, standards and criteria for evaluating innovations has been carried out; an analytical review of foreign scientific publications was made. It is shown that modern systems for assessing innovations related to digital technologies and AI place the main emphasis on technological factors in the development of innovations. Social value orientations, including defining the ethical dimensions and social consequences of the malicious use of AI was identified; the analysis of innovation models in the context of quality management and differentiation of semantics of AI models is carried out. As a result, a classification of various types of AI was constructed, taking into account the social and humanitarian grounds for constructing criteria for assessing the impact of various factors on the development of innovations in the field of AI. It allows to increase the reputation potential of companies developing AI systems and AI systems themselves, to counter negative trends in the field of ethics associated with the use of digital technologies and AI.

Change of social value orientation affected by the observed mimical expression of the interaction partner

The issues addressed in this paper relate to a possible change in the observer’s social value orientation under the influence of a specific emotional expression being perceived on another individual’s face. The paper fits into the trend in the research into the link between social value orientations and the perception of a facial emotional expression. An „omnibus” type representative survey was carried out according to the experimental scheme, entirely via the Internet (N = 972). The following tools were used: for the measurement of social value orientations, a modified version of the Ring Measure of Social Values; for the experimental manipulation, photographs of facial expressions (happiness, anger, neutrality). In the light of the data obtained, one may, for the very first time, speak of social value orientations as of a dimension being susceptible to a change under the influence of a facial expression. A diversity of the indicators of the orientation on the others was shown, as well as of the distribution of the groups of the dominant social value orientations before and after the experimental manipulation, depending on the type of a basic facial emotional expression being presented (happiness vs anger). Directional predictions were confirmed with regard to the negative manipulation (expression of anger) which was followed by a reduction in the orientation on the others and a reduction in the total number of altruists, while the positive manipulation (expression of happiness) resulted in a general increase being observed in the number of altruists. It remains in line with the trend in predictions that observation of a positive facial expression triggers prosocial tendencies, while observation of a negative facial expression undermines prosocial tendencies. Keywords: social value orientations; prosociality; orientation on the self/orientation on the others; variability of social value orientations; Ring Measure of Social Values; facial emotional expressions

Interaction of the underdog with equality and scarcity

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating roles of equality and scarcity on the impact of underdog brand positioning on consumer purchase intentions. Beyond testing the relationship between underdog brand positioning and purchase intentions (Study 1), the study examines how the equality perception affects consumer choices on underdog brands (Study 2) and how the reasons for product scarcity influence purchase intentions of consumers with prosocial orientations (Study 3). Design/methodology/approach A research model is developed, depicting the impact of underdog brand positioning on purchase intentions via social value orientations and scarcity types. The conceptual model is validated using moderation process modeling and data for which are collected through sets of structured questionnaires analyzed through PROCESS modeling in SPSS. Findings The findings support that compared with top dog brand positioning, underdog brand positioning has a greater impact on consumers’ purchase intentions, and consumers with prosocial orientations generate greater purchase intentions than consumers with proself orientations. In addition, the demand-caused product scarcity also moderates the relationship between underdog brand biography and purchase intentions. Originality/value The study contributes to the ongoing research on brand positioning by examining the associations between equality perception and purchase intentions in the context of underdog brand biography. The study also shows the value of demand-caused scarcity as a moderator of the underdog brand–purchase intention linkage.

Social identity and social value orientations

This study provides an extension of the social value orientation model and a tool, other-other Decomposed Games, to quantify the influence of social identity on social value orientations. Social identity is induced experimentally using the minimal group paradigm. Subsequently, the weights subjects add to the outcomes of outgroup others relative to ingroup others and to the absolute difference between the outcomes of ingroup and outgroup others are estimated. Results are compared to a control condition in which social identity is not induced. Results show that when the outgroup is better off than the ingroup, the average subject is spiteful: they derive negative utility from the outcomes of the outgroup other. When the ougroup is worse off than the ingroup, the average subject attaches similar weights to the outcomes of outgroup and ingroup others. There is also significant variation across subjects with respect to the level of ingroup bias.

The Ethics of Neuroenhancement

According to several recent studies, a big chunk of college students in North America and Europe uses so called ‘smart drugs' to enhance their cognitive capacities aiming at improving their academic performance. With these practices, there comes a certain moral unease. This unease is shared by many, yet it is difficult to pinpoint and in need of justification. Other than simply pointing to the medical risks coming along with using non-prescribed medication, the salient moral question is whether these practices are troubling in and of themselves. In due consideration of empirical insights into the concrete effects of smart drugs on brain and behavior, our attempt is to articulate wherein this moral unease consists and to argue for why the authors believe cognitive enhancement to be morally objectionable. The authors will contend that the moral problem with these practices lies less in the end it seeks, than in the underlying human disposition it expresses and promotes. Some might ask, what is wrong with molding our cognitive capacities to achieve excellence, get a competitive edge, or, as the whim takes us? In all of these occasions, the usage of smart drugs serves a certain goal, a telos. The goal is, broadly speaking, this: outsmarting opponents in an arms race for limited resources and thereby yielding a competitive edge. In plain words: competition is valued higher than cooperation or solidarity. What is wrong with striving for this goal? The authors submit that the question whether people really want to live in a society that promotes the mentality ‘individual competition over societal cooperation' deserves serious consideration. In developing their answer, the authors draw on an ‘Ethics of Constraint' framework, arguing that widespread off-label use of smart drugs bears the risk of negative neural/behavioral consequences for the individual that might, in the long run, be accompanied by changing social value orientations for the worse.

Modeling the Social Dynamics of Moral Enhancement

How individuals tend to evaluate the combination of their own and other’s payoffs—social value orientations—is likely to be a potential target of future moral enhancers. However, the stability of cooperation in human societies has been buttressed by evolved mildly prosocial orientations. If they could be changed, would this destabilize the cooperative structure of society? We simulate a model of moral enhancement in which agents play games with each other and can enhance their orientations based on maximizing personal satisfaction. We find that given the assumption that very low payoffs lead agents to be removed from the population, there is a broadly stable prosocial attractor state. However, the balance between prosociality and individual payoff-maximization is affected by different factors. Agents maximizing their own satisfaction can produce emergent shifts in society that reduce everybody’s satisfaction. Moral enhancement considerations should take the issues of social emergence into account.