The Impact of Experience on Preference Formation and Context Effects in Multi-alternative, Multi-attribute Choice

Within the domain of preferential choice, it has long been thought that context effects, such as the attraction and compromise effects, arise due to the constructive nature of preferences and thus should not emerge when preferences are stable. We examined this hypothesis with a series of experiments where participants had the opportunity to experience selected alternatives and develop more enduring preferences. Our results suggest that context effects can still emerge when stable preferences form through experience. This suggests that multi-alternative, multi-attribute decisions are likely influenced by relative evaluations, as hypothesized by many computational models of decision-making, even when participants have the opportunity to experience options and learn their preferences. In addition, the direction of observed context effects is opposite to standard effects and appears to be quite robust. Our post-hoc explorations suggest that the context effect reversals we observe may relate to the subjective representation of options.

Shilpakar Mahasabha in Colonial Uttarakhand: Subjective Representation of Collective Self

The caste system in India got transformed as a consequence of the policies of the British Raj. The introduction of the census under the colonial government, among other things, made the most direct impact because for the first time the castes have been enumerated with great details. As a result, castes immediately not only organized themselves but also formed caste associations in order to get their status recorded in the way they thought was honourable to them. Caste associations emerged over the period to pressurize the colonial administration to improve their rank in the census. This process was especially prevalent among the lower castes in different parts of India. Shilpakar Mahashaba was a case in point in Uttarakhand. Shilpakar Mahasabha claimed new advantages from the state like reservations (quotas) in educational institutions and in the civil service. Subsequently, they also became mutual aid structures. Shilpakar Mahasabha founded schools and hostels for the children of Shilpakars and led a sort of co-operative movement. Some have argued that caste associations acted like a collective enterprise with economic, social and political objectives for their caste.

Quantum Core Affect. Process-Semantic Theory of Emotions

The paper describes model of human affect based on quantum theory of semantics. The model considers emotion as subjective representation of behavioral context relative to a basis binary choice, organized by cyclical process structure and an orthogonal evaluation axis. The resulting spherical space, generalizing well-known circumplex models, accommodates basic emotions in specific angular domains. Predicted process-semantic structure of affect is observed in the word2vec data, as well as in the previously obtained spaces of emotion concepts. The established quantum-theoretic structure of affective space connects emotion science with quantum models of cognition and behavior, opening perspective for synergetic progress in these fields.

Using genetic algorithms to uncover individual differences in how humans represent facial emotion

Emotional facial expressions critically impact social interactions and cognition. However, emotion research to date has generally relied on the assumption that people represent categorical emotions in the same way, using standardized stimulus sets and overlooking important individual differences. To resolve this problem, we developed and tested a task using genetic algorithms to derive assumption-free, participant-generated emotional expressions. One hundred and five participants generated a subjective representation of happy, angry, fearful and sad faces. Population-level consistency was observed for happy faces, but fearful and sad faces showed a high degree of variability. High test–retest reliability was observed across all emotions. A separate group of 108 individuals accurately identified happy and angry faces from the first study, while fearful and sad faces were commonly misidentified. These findings are an important first step towards understanding individual differences in emotion representation, with the potential to reconceptualize the way we study atypical emotion processing in future research.

Racism in Arabic literature: Glimpses from Poetry, novel and folklore: ظواهر عنصرية في الأدب العربي - ملامح من الشعر والرواية والسير الشعبية

This paper discusses the idea of racism in Arabic literature. It mainly focuses on the subjective representation of black people as early as the pre-Islamic era until the modern ages. We trace the subjective representation of black people in poetry, the novel and folklore. In this paper, we do not intend we defend the Arabic culture or Arabic literature, nor do we aim to beautify the biased representation of people of color in Arabic writings. Rather, we will try to study this phenomenon in an objective and balanced way. In this regard, we would like also to reiterate the fact that the image of black people in Western literature is not in any way brighter than their depiction in Arabic literature.

Phishing for (Quantum-Like) Phools—Theory and Experimental Evidence

Quantum-like decision theory is by now a theoretically well-developed field (see e.g., Danilov, Lambert-Mogiliansky & Vergopoulos, 2018). We provide a first test of the predictions of an application of this approach to persuasion. One remarkable result entails that, in contrast to Bayesian persuasion, distraction rather than relevant information has a powerful potential to influence decision-making. We first develop a quantum decision model of choice between two uncertain alternatives. We derive the impact of persuasion by means of distractive questions and contrast them with the predictions of the Bayesian model. Next, we provide the results from a first test of the theory. We conducted an experiment where respondents choose between supporting either one of two projects to save endangered species. We tested the impact of persuasion in the form of questions related to different aspects of the uncertain value of the two projects. The experiment involved 1253 respondents divided into three groups: a control group, a first treatment group and the distraction treatment group. Our main result is that, in accordance with the predictions of quantum persuasion but in violation with the Bayesian model, distraction significantly affects decision-making. Population variables play no role. Some significant variations between subgroups are exhibited and discussed. The results of the experiment provide support for the hypothesis that the manipulability of people’s decision-making can to some extent be explained by the quantum indeterminacy of their subjective representation of reality.

Economics and Economic Order of Societies

Departing from the distinction proposed by J. Buchanan between thinking in economics in terms of the theory of choice and analysis in categories of exchange and coordination, we claim that the Hayekian concept of economic order has a significant heuristic potential and can be fruitfully used to explain some important socio-economic phenomena. The goal of this paper is to confirm this claim through the application of the concept of economic order in the analysis of economic transformation and the discussion of the relation between economic order and moral norms. The paper is organised as follows. Section I contains introductory remarks. In section II, the two systems of economic thinking and reasoning: the theory of choice and analysis in categories of exchange and coordination are briefly presented. Section III contains a discussion of the concept of economic order, its origin, relation to the Freiburg School notion Ordo, and J. Buchanan’s perspective on the market and exchange. In section IV, two areas of the application of the concept of economic order are presented: a) systemic transformation as a change in formal and informal institutions, their subjective representation by economic agents and the complex economic order, b) a relation between economic order and moral norms. Conclusions are drawn in section V.

Perception of economic inequality in Spain: Between daily-life and political ideology

Perception of economic inequality is defined as the subjective representation of economic resources. However, this representation is not abstract, but it is contingent on the individuals’ context and ideologies. The aim of the study (N = 290) is to analyse how economic inequality is perceived in Spain, and how such perceptions vary according to individuals’ political ideology. We analysed 705 responses (10626 words) by using content analysis and network analysis techniques, in order to figure out the network of topics associated with perceiving economic inequality. We found that economic inequality in Spain is mainly perceived by processes of social comparison and relative deprivation between individuals and groups. We also found that perceptions of economic inequality were clustered in four groups: inequality of opportunities, inequality between social classes, income inequality and work conditions, and inequality between specific social groups. What is more, we found that individuals that position themselves to the left in the ideological political spectrum, mentioned topics about social justice in a greater extent that individuals at the right. We discuss how the perception of economic inequality is a multidimensional phenomenon, placed in the daily-life and people and conditioned by ideologies.

The middle classes and the subjective representation of urban space in Santiago de Chile

This article examines how symbolic representations of social-spatial differences help to maintain social stratification within Santiago de Chile. Several focus group discussions illuminated the approaches and resources used by the middle classes to build the boundaries that define them within the city. The way in which the middle class understands and describes the city of Santiago confirms that social position is linked to symbolic elements that are associated with occupied spaces within the city. Our analysis shows those elements that confer a particular identity upon a given territory and delimit spatial frontiers between territories.