The companion effect on adventure tourists’ satisfaction and subjective well-being: the moderating role of gender

Purpose In an adventure tourism context (i.e. sky diving, bungee jumping) the effect of the absence or presence of a travel companion; companion relative ability (i.e. perception of a companion’s possessed resources useful for the achievement of travel goals); and tourist gender on the impact of companion relative ability on tourists’ satisfaction and subjective well-being is examined. This paper aims to investigate the mediating role of satisfaction that combines companion relative ability, tourist gender, tourist satisfaction and subjective well-being. Design/methodology/approach This research uses three situational experiments. A one-factor between-subjects experimental design was used for Study 1. Studies 2 and 3 used a one-factor between-subjects and a 2 × 3 factorial between-subjects design. Participants included tourists visiting a national park in China assigned to scenarios using an anonymous intercept approach and an online survey. Findings Having a companion with greater/comparable relative ability produces a greater effect on tourist satisfaction and subjective well-being than having a companion with lower relative ability. Furthermore, the perceived relative ability of a travel companion results in a stronger positive effect on tourist satisfaction and subjective well-being for female tourists. Meanwhile, satisfaction fully mediates the impact of the interaction between companion relative ability and tourist gender on subjective well-being. Originality/value The current research validates the companion effect on adventure tourists’ satisfaction and subjective well-being. An additional contribution is an investigation into the effect of companion relative ability. The study is the only one the authors are aware of that examines the moderating role of tourist gender on the effect of companion relative ability on tourist satisfaction and subjective well-being and identifies the mechanism that combines companion relative ability, tourist gender, tourist satisfaction and subjective well-being.

Overconfidence in news judgments is associated with false news susceptibility

We examine the role of overconfidence in news judgment using two large nationally representative survey samples. First, we show that three in four Americans overestimate their relative ability to distinguish between legitimate and false news headlines; respondents place themselves 22 percentiles higher than warranted on average. This overconfidence is, in turn, correlated with consequential differences in real-world beliefs and behavior. We show that overconfident individuals are more likely to visit untrustworthy websites in behavioral data; to fail to successfully distinguish between true and false claims about current events in survey questions; and to report greater willingness to like or share false content on social media, especially when it is politically congenial. In all, these results paint a worrying picture: The individuals who are least equipped to identify false news content are also the least aware of their own limitations and, therefore, more susceptible to believing it and spreading it further.

Inducing Amusement in the Laboratory and Its Moderation by Experiential Approach

The relative ability of four comedic sketches to induce amusement in the laboratory and its moderation by dispositional differences in experiential approach as a form of positive emotion regulation were investigated. College student participants reported significant and equivalent diminished levels of negative affect relative to baseline following each sketch, while the level of positive affect induced by The Office exceeded that elicited by two of the three other sketches as well as by a top-ranked French comedic film clip. Regression models indicated that the two subscales of the Experiential Approach Scale and their interaction accounted for significant variability in negative mood reductions following the sketches. Unexpectedly, college student participants who enjoyed the greatest decrement in negative affect reported a regulation style in which anxiously clinging to positive emotions dominates over sustaining and savoring them. The limitations of this project and implications of its findings for laboratory inductions of amusement, as well as further investigations of its possible moderation by experiential approach as form of positive emotion regulation are discussed.

Balance Tests in Pre-Adolescent Children: Retest Reliability, Construct Validity, and Relative Ability

Balance is an essential prerequisite for the normal physical development of a child. It consists of the ability to maintain the body’s centre of mass over its base of support, which is enabled by automatic postural adjustments, and maintain posture and stability in various conditions and activities. The present study aimed to determine the measurement characteristics (reliability and concurrent validity) and the relative ability of balance tests and different motor tests in healthy 11-year-olds. We also evaluated the impact of vision on balance ability. Our results showed high interrater reliability (from 0.810 to 0.910) and confirmed the construct validity of the included balance tests. Girls performed significantly better than boys in laboratory tandem stance in following balance components: total sway path with eyes open (BSEO) (t = 2.68, p = 0.01, effect size (ES) = 0.81), total body sway with eyes closed of centre of pressure (CoP) displacement in the a-p direction (BSEC) (t = 1.86, p = 0.07, ES = 0.57), mean velocity of CoP displacements (VEO) (t = 2.67, p = 0.01, ES = 0.83), mean amplitude of CoP displacements in the a-p direction (AapEO) (t = 3.38. p = 0.00, ES = 1.01) and in mean amplitude of CoP displacements in the m-l direction (AmlEO) (t = 3.68, p = 0.00, ES = 1.19). With eyes closed, girls performed significantly better (t = 2.28, p = 0.03, ES = 0.70) than boys did in the mean amplitude of COP displacements in the a-p direction (AapEO) and significantly better (t = 2.37, p = 0.03, ES = 0.71) in the mean amplitude of COP displacements in the m-l direction (AmlEC). Insignificant correlations between different balance tests, except for a correlation between the flamingo test and one-leg stance on a low beam (r = 0.558, p < 0.01), show that each test assesses different aspects of balance ability; therefore, balance cannot be assessed with a single test.

FINANCIAL DIGITALIZATION: BANKS, FINTECH, BIGTECH, AND CONSUMERS

This article explores some recent macroeconomic and microeconomic approaches to financial digitalization and the relationship between banks, FinTech and BigTech. It also deals with new approaches to identify the adoption and implications of financial digitalization by consumers. We show competition between traditional banks and tech companies is mostly driven by their relative ability to manage information sharing. Regulation is still considering ways of providing a level playing field while industry participants are reacting with a mixture of strategies, many of them based on cooperation. The paper also shows there are different ways in which customers access financial digital channels and new approaches from matching learning and brain studies to identify behavioral patterns in financial digitalization decisions.

The Impact of Gender and Socio-economic Background on Attainment in Scottish State Secondary Schools

Attainment in Scottish Secondary education is characterised by entrenched socio-economic and gender gaps. Pupils from the most deprived 20% of households are significantly less likely to achieve benchmark attainment thresholds set by policymakers in terms of the number of awards gained at different levels. In general, females have outperformed males in secondary education since the 1970s. Subjects studied for formal qualification are important too, not just the number of awards and/or grades. Some subjects carry more weight than others, facilitating entry to more prestigious universities and degree programmes that attract higher labour market premia and social status. This paper used Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) administrative data for 2002-2009, linked to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), to investigate the influence of gender and socio-economic background on attainment in so-called facilitating subjects: English, Maths, Geography, History, Modern Studies, Modern Languages, Biology, Chemistry, Physics. Multinomial logit models were estimated for each subject, at each qualification level, to examine within subject attainment in terms of the likelihood of achieving either a low, middle or high pass compared to failing. The impact of socio-economic background was greater than that of gender. Individuals’ relative ability was important for securing low passes but not strong enough to overcome disadvantage to achieve high grades. The effects were particularly stark for age-16 qualifications, with the likelihood of securing any pass grade, in any subject, falling dramatically as disadvantage increased. Socio-economic effects were much reduced at Higher, the crucial qualification for university entry in Scotland, but increased as pass grades rose. Females outperformed males in most subjects at different qualification levels with the notable exceptions of Maths and named sciences at Higher, where males were significantly more likely to pass these at all grades.

Explaining interest group access to the European Commission’s expert groups

Conventional wisdom holds that interest group access to the European Commission is biased in favor of specific interests and against diffuse interests. Yet, patterns of access vary between policy areas. In this article, I map and explain the relative access of specific and diffuse interests to the European Commission’s expert groups. I find that specific interests gain more access in general, but there are considerable variations across issues. I argue that variations in access across expert groups are explained by the relative ability of specific and diffuse interests to contest policies in different policy areas. This argument gains support by statistical analyses using a novel dataset comprising all expert groups with interest group participants. The findings suggest that a political logic helps explain variations in specific and diffuse interest access to the Commission.