The effect of personal relative deprivation on food choice: An experimental approach

Growing evidence suggests that relative disadvantage is more relevant than absolute socioeconomic factors in explaining disparities in healthfulness of diet. In a series of pre-registered experiments, we tested whether personal relative deprivation (PRD), i.e. the sense that one is unfairly deprived of a deserved outcome relative to others, results in choosing more palatable, rewarding foods. Study 1 (N = 102) demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of a game for inducing real-time experiences of PRD. Study 2 (N = 287) showed no main effect of PRD condition on hypothetical food choices, but an interaction between chronic PRD and condition revealed that those in the PRD condition chose more rewarding foods when feeling chronically deprived. In Study 3 (N = 260) the hypothesized main effect was found on real, non-hypothetical food choices: those in the PRD condition chose more rewarding foods, controlling for sensitivity to palatable food. Our results provide preliminary indications that the experience of being relatively deprived, rather than the objective amount or resources, may result in a higher preference for high-caloric and palatable foods. It may be suggested that efforts to reduce societal disparities in healthfulness of diet may need to focus on perceptions of injustice beyond objective inequalities.

Similarity-based interference and relative clauses in second language processing

Relative clauses have long been examined in research on first (L1) and second (L2) language acquisition and processing, and a large body of research has shown that object relative clauses (e.g. ‘The boy that the girl saw’) are more difficult to process than subject relative clauses (e.g. ‘The boy that saw the girl’). Although there are different accounts of this finding, memory-based factors have been argued to play a role in explaining the object relative disadvantage. Evidence of memory-based factors in relative clause processing comes from studies indicating that representational similarity influences the difficulty associated with object relatives as a result of a phenomenon known as similarity-based interference. Although similarity-based interference has been well studied in L1 processing, less is known about how it influences L2 processing. We report two studies – an eye-tracking experiment and a comprehension task – investigating interference in the comprehension of relative clauses in L1 and L2 readers. Our results indicated similarity-based interference in the processing of object relative clauses in both L1 and L2 readers, with no significant differences in the size of interference effects between the two groups. These results highlight the importance of considering memory-based factors when examining L2 processing.

Not a Penny off the Pay, Not a Second on the Day: Long-term Wage Settlement at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited

This case study presents the delicately poised situation of the workers who were on strike, demanding better wages from their employer, during wage negotiations in India. It highlights the dispute resolution mechanisms, the rubric to evaluate the strike as well as whether wages are to be paid for the duration of the strike period within the framework of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, of India. This case study is based on the strike, which occurred in September 2019, during the wage settlement at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). It is developed completely from secondary and publicly available reports and information. The researchers have used the specific legislative framework of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, of India to understand certain practical aspects of the applications of the legislation. The major issues highlighted in this specific case study are the process outlined for the workers to go on a strike, rubric to evaluate a strike and whether wages are to be paid for the duration of the strike period. It is also a good case study to explore the strategies for effective collective bargaining when one is at a relative disadvantage as opposed to their opponents.

Take Care When Cutting

Education research that omits or insufficiently defines geographic locale can impair policy formulation, enactment, and evaluation. Such impairments might be especially detrimental for communities in rural and/or remote areas, particularly when they pertain to gifted education programs that struggle to operate at large scale (e.g., Advanced Placement). To enhance researchers’ precision when analyzing school-level data, we developed five statistical approaches to operationalize rurality and remoteness using the Urban-Centric codes from the National Center of Education Statistics. With national data, we found important variations across these statistical approaches in (a) percentage of schools identified as rural and/or remote, (b) effect sizes, and (c) characterizations of schools’ relative disadvantage in the breadth of opportunity to learn Advanced Placement content that they provide. These findings challenge prevailing practices of classifying communities dichotomously as nonrural or rural. The authors demonstrate several ways to address policy makers’ and practitioners’ needs by incorporating geographic locale into analyses of school data, operationalizing geographic locale precisely in theoretically sound ways, and avoiding dichotomies that can obscure meaningful variation.

Promoting Bank Usage Habits in Africa’s Savings Mobilization Programs: A Strategic Marketing Perspective

Despite widespread liberalization of savings mobilization marketing systems in African economies, consumers continue to rely more heavily on informal financial services than formal financial services, within these systems. The authors draw on habit theory and the strategic marketing framework to develop a rural, customer-centric marketing (CCM) model for promoting rural savings programs in the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) context. Results based on data from Ghana’s savings mobilization program show that under the current, liberalized policy regime, formal financial institutions generate a more significant relative advantage than informal financial arrangements. Of the four customer-centric marketing activities (i.e., service affordability, accessibility, acceptability, and awareness), consumers only viewed service affordability as generating a relative disadvantage. Relatedly, only service affordability positively influenced savings likelihood, while service accessibility negatively influenced the bank usage habit. The results confirm that the customer-centric marketing approach effectively identifies which service inducements promote the bank usage habit in Africa’s savings mobilization programs.

The Model

The chapter extends the theoretical model of Chapter 3 by introducing time dimension into strategic interactions between firms in terms of the Pre-reforms and the Post-reforms eras. New entrants into industries are mostly Transnational corporations with advantages in intangible assets in technology and brand names. Incumbent firms were taken to Indian firms with relative disadvantage in technology but advantages in institutional knowledge of Indian markets. This triggers intense competition between the Indian firms and Transnational corporations. Incumbents replaced outdated technologies with imports and mastered codified and tacit elements of technologies. Transnationals made efforts at acquiring knowledge of India’s institutions and adopting their technologies to local firms. We traced this with discussion of technological and organizational behaviour in the Post-reform era.

Coexistence of Poverty and Cancer

In some relatively undeveloped rural areas of China, cancer is deeply entangled with poverty and other social problems. This study discusses a state-owned farm in Jiangxi, where residents believed that cancer was caused by pollution from a local glass factory and phosphorus fertilizer plant. Our analysis of what the villagers considered ‘iron proof’ could not confirm an association between cancer and pollution from existing industries, but despite this, residents took their evidence and petitioned various levels of government. Their persistence was fuelled by their resentment of their relative disadvantage in relation to surrounding villages and their desire to get the government to improve their water supply. The case illustrates how different social problems become ‘bundled,’ and how emotions shape perceptions of risk.

Age, gender and COVID-19 infections

Data for ten European countries which provide detailed distribution of COVID-19 cases by sex and age show that among people of working age, women diagnosed with COVID-19 substantially outnumber infected men. This pattern reverses around retirement: infection rates among women fall at age 60-69, resulting in a cross-over with infection rates among men. The relative disadvantage of women peaks at ages 20-29, whereas the male disadvantage in infection rates peaks at ages 70-79. The elevated infection rates among women of working age are likely tied to their higher share in health- and care-related occupations. Our examination also suggests a link between women’s employment profiles and infection rates in prime working ages. The same factors that determine women’s higher life expectancy account for their lower fatality and higher male disadvantage at older ages.

The grapes are sour: An envier's attributional perspective of coworker impression management

Arguing that it would serve scholars and practitioners better to view impression management (IM) from a coworker's perspective than from that of an actor's outcomes, this study demonstrates that IM by a coworker triggers a self-serving attributional process. The authors reason that denial of another's relative advantage leads the observing coworker to attribute this behavior to the actor's incompetence, consequently leading to counterproductive behavior toward them in efforts to reduce their own relative disadvantage. Data were collected at T1 and T2 from 142 service sector employees. Our results were consistent with our hypotheses. However, the moderated-mediation models for conditional effects of hostile attributional style were not supported. This study offers an integrated view of previously isolated domains of IM and attribution, suggesting future literature considers a similar perspective for more meaningful investigations.

University food environment: characterization and changes from 2011 to 2016 in a Brazilian public university

ABSTRACT Objective To describe the food environment of a public university located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and to review the changes that occurred between the years 2011 and 2016. Methods Time trend study (through repeated cross-sectional studies) of the sale of food, culinary preparations and beverages in the University Campus establishments in 2011, 2012 and 2016. Variables regarding the description of the establishments and the offer, price and advertising of food, beverages and culinary preparations were assessed through a checklist. Comparisons between establishments in each year and the analysis of such comparison changes during the period were performed by assessing the difference between absolute and relative values observed in each year. Results Increased number of establishments available, good convenience and financial accessibility were observed. There was a relative disadvantage in the availability of fresh or minimally processed foods and culinary preparations; a predominance of advertising of ultra-processed foods; and lack of nutritional information of culinary preparations. The predominance of establishments selling snacks and candies increased over the years. Conclusion In the period studied, the university food environment did not favor healthy food choices.