EXPRESS: Choice Deprivation, Choice Overload, and Satisfaction With Choices Across Six Nations

Whether consumers have too little, too much, or the ideal amount of choice can have profound consequences. The present research explores patterns of choice deprivation (having less choice than desired) and choice overload (having more choice than desired) across six choice domains in six countries that together provide home to about half the human population (Brazil, China, India, Japan, Russia, and the U.S.; combined N = 7,436). In most domains in most countries, choice deprivation was the norm—only in the U.S. was choice overload sometimes commonly reported. Deprivation was also more strongly related to decreased satisfaction with choices than was overload, suggesting that choice deprivation can be both more common and more consequential than overload. The present research has implications for “inverted-U” theories of consumer choice experiences and underlines the need for more diverse samples, including cross-cultural samples, in research on choice deprivation and overload.

Self-Transcendent Wisdom Mediates the Association Between Spirituality and Well-Being in Six Nations

Distraught individuals sometimes turn to religion for solace, particularly in old age, so spirituality is not necessarily positively related to well-being. However, spirituality might lead to greater well-being if it promotes self-transcendent wisdom. Using a sample of 307 respondents from six nations (USA, Canada, Serbia, Ukraine, Iran, and China), ranging in age from 59 to 99 years (M=73.00, SD=8.13), this study tested the generalizability of the hypothesized mediated pathway. Results showed only weak correlations between spirituality and well-being measures in the whole sample. Yet, as predicted, spirituality, mediated by self-transcendent wisdom, was indirectly related to greater well-being in all six nations, despite significant differences by nation in variable means. Spirituality had additional direct positive effects on life satisfaction in Canada, Iran, and China and on general well-being in Iran and China. These findings suggest that spirituality likely results in greater well-being when it transcends egocentric concerns.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the associations between interparental and sibling relationships: Positive or negative?

According to family systems theory, a family is regarded as an organized whole and relations within this system are interconnected. However, it is not clear to date whether the interparental and the sibling relationship are associated and, if such an association exists, whether it is positive or negative. Previous findings on the associations between the interparental and sibling relationships are inconsistent and there is as yet no pertinent review or meta-analysis. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis set out (1) to aggregate previous studies investigating the links between the interparental and sibling relationships and (2) to examine potential moderators in this link. Based on 47 studies reporting 234 effect sizes (N = 29,746 from six nations; 6–12 years; 49% boys), meta-analytic results suggest a small positive correlation between interparental and sibling relationship quality (r = .14). Only the percentage of male children in the sample moderated this effect. Sex composition of sibling dyad and source of publication affected whether positive or negative associations were found. The findings support a growing consensus that family relations do not function in isolation, but are mutually interdependent, which should be considered in clinical practice.

Municipal-Indigenous Relations in Ontario: Initiatives in Brantford, Hamilton, and Niagara

The relationship between local government and urban Indigenous Peoples in Ontario is understudied, even though over half of Canada’s Indigenous population live in urban centres, one in five of Canada’s Indigenous population live in Ontario, and the Six Nations of the Grand River has the largest reserve population in Canada. Brantford, Hamilton, and Niagara were selected to build on previous research that mapped Municipal-Indigenous relations in seven municipalities across Canada. Studies regarding Municipal-Indigenous relations indicate the degree of inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in policy processes is as unique as each municipality. Some municipalities are urban Indigenous policy innovators with formal mechanisms for Indigenous inclusion in policy processes while others lag. An investigation of three Ontario municipalities is pivotal in partially supporting the finding that larger urban centres with proportionately smaller Indigenous populations are moving toward substantive Indigenous relationship building when compared to smaller municipalities with proportionately higher Indigenous populations.

The COVID-19 pandemic in Africa’s Island Nations: A descriptive study of the course of the COVID-19 outbreaks and the national response plans

Introduction: The main objective is to present an overview of the evolution of the COVID-19pandemic in the six African island nations: Cabo Verde, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, SãoTomé e Príncipe and Seychelles, up until 29 November 2020. The relevance of studying theoutbreak in these countries is their distinct geography, which may facilitate rapid closure andcontrol of their international borders. Here, we investigate whether this geography may haveled to an effective response and management of their respective COVID-19 epidemics.Methods: A literature review and analysis of national public health reports, officialcoronavirus websites and previously published research in each of the studied countries fromthe start of the pandemic through 29 November 2020 was performed. Data on metrics on thecountry-specific progression of COVID-19, the level of strictness of the governmental policies,the testing practices, as well the national healthcare systems, the description and the state ofhealth of the populations in the African island nations were reported.Results: Five out of six countries controlled their respective COVID-19 epidemics at an earlystage in the context of the total number of confirmed cases and deaths. In Cabo Verde, therewas an increasing number of cases as of 29 November 2020, when 10,526 total cases and 104total deaths were reported nationally. All six nations maintained a case fatality rate (CFR)lower than the global average, estimated between 2 - 3% in previously published research.Among the island nations, Mauritius had the highest CFR of 2%.Discussion: African island nations have different demographic, socioeconomic, and healthcareprofiles. However, their shared geographic characteristics likely played a role in limiting thespread of the infection. Furthermore, data from these nations support the idea that theimplementation of strict restrictions at an early stage, such as border closure and lockdowns,was crucial for the epidemic response.

Are COVID-19 Data Reliable? A Quantitative Analysis of Pandemic Data from 182 Countries

When it comes to COVID-19, access to reliable data is vital. It is crucial for the scientific community to use data reported by independent territories worldwide. This study evaluates the reliability of the pandemic data disclosed by 182 countries worldwide. We collected and assessed conformity of COVID-19 daily infections, deaths, tests, and vaccinations with Benford’s law since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. It is commonly accepted that the frequency of leading digits of the pandemic data shall conform to Benford’s law. Our analysis of Benfordness elicits that most countries partially distributed reliable data over the past eighteen months. Notably, the UK, Australia, Spain, Israel, and Germany, followed by 22 different nations, provided the most reliable COVID-19 data within the same period. In contrast, twenty-six nations, including Tajikistan, Belarus, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, published less reliable data on the coronavirus spread. In this context, over 31% of countries worldwide seem to have improved reliability. Our measurement of Benfordness moderately correlates with Johns Hopkin’s Global Health Security Index, suggesting that the quality of data may depend on national healthcare policies and systems. We conclude that economically or politically distressed societies have declined in conformity to the law over time. Our results are particularly relevant for policymakers worldwide.

Happiness and Criminal Victimization: A Study of Relationship and Restoration

Even well-developed nations with the highest economic growth rates have failed to bring happiness amongst their citizens. Consequently, recent studies have shifted their focus from economic variables, such as Human Development Index (HDI), gross development product (GDP) per capita, etc., to happiness as an indicator of growth, development and social progress. Amidst others, criminal victimization is one of the important indicators of happiness. The present article intends to study the relationship between happiness using the happiness measurement index and criminal victimization using the crime statistics of selected nations. It consists of a descriptive statistical analysis of six nations selected based on their happiness score, including two nations each with a high, average and low happiness measurement index. The results show that people living in nations with high crime rates were less happy and satisfied than individuals living in nations with comparatively lower crime rates. However, the article could not conclusively establish the relation between the happiness level and the nature of crime.

Scotland’s Atlantic Visions, 1660–1691

This chapter focuses on Scottish Atlantic literature from the 1660s to the early 1690s. It explores how colonial utopian writing broadened in the mid-seventeenth century to include drama, life writing, legal sources, and abolitionist texts, including not only literature directly linked to Atlantic expansion but also texts usually associated with domestic Scottish literature, such as Thomas Sydserf's Tarugo's Wiles: Or, the Coffee-House (1668) or Archibald Pitcairne's The Assembly; Or, Scotch Reformation (1691). Engaging with recent works on Scotland's role in Atlantic slavery and the Black Atlantic, the chapter seeks to broaden understandings of how Scottish literature and culture participated in the development of the Black Atlantic and Eurocentric thought. The chapter further looks at legal and governmental sources relating to New Jersey and the Middle Colonies from the 1680s onwards, at abolitionist writings, and texts that pertain to the Six Nations and indigenous populations of the Americas. All of these bring out the paradoxes of possession versus dispossession and of freedom versus enslavement in Scottish colonial literature. They illustrate how aesthetic devices of utopianism work towards spatializing the colonial sphere and trying to stabilize boundaries between colonizing and colonized subjects.