Social Science posts
- May 23, 2013
- 01:00 PM
- 10 views
Microbial Misadventures: Exploits in Botulism & Pruno In Our Prison Population
by Rebecca Kreston in BODY HORRORS
Drinking pruno is a risky endeavor, both in terms of its offense to culinary sensibilities and to one's health. However, turned stomachs are not the only hazard here; you may add a desire to avoid botulism to your list of reasons to shy away from you'r mates latest batch of prison hooch. The soil-dwelling bacterium Clostridium botulinum can contaminate fruits and veggies, and, in warm, oxygen-deprived conditions, produces the neuroparalytic toxin botulinum. Even more wholesome DIY endeavors, such as canning fruits and crafting jams, can create an excellent staging ground for growing one's own C. botulinum.... Read more »
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2013) Notes from the field: botulism from drinking prison-made illicit alcohol - Arizona, 2012. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 62(5), 88. PMID: 23388552
- May 23, 2013
- 01:48 AM
- 20 views
What if 501(c)4 Organizations Had to Disclose Their Donors?
by Eric Horowitz in peer-reviewed by my neurons
The IRS kerfuffle has increased interest in the tax code by about 5700%, and one outcome is that people are starting to put the various exemption groups under a microscope. Dylan Matthews has thoughtful piece on 501(c)4 organizations, the groups at the center of the scandal. Matthews thinks the real issue is disclosure, and it’s [...]... Read more »
Dowling, C., & Wichowsky, A. (2013) Does It Matter Who's Behind the Curtain? Anonymity in Political Advertising and the Effects of Campaign Finance Disclosure. American Politics Research. DOI: 10.1177/1532673X13480828
- May 22, 2013
- 01:01 PM
- 32 views
Decision Theory Journal Club: Our brains are perfect machines
by neuroecology in Neuroecology
A few of us have started a Decision Theory journal club where we plan on reading papers from a variety of fields that examine how decisions are made. We have people from neuroscience, economics, and cognitive science participating (so far), including people participating through Google+ hangouts!, which will hopefully make lead to some productive discussions. […]... Read more »
Brunton, B., Botvinick, M., & Brody, C. (2013) Rats and Humans Can Optimally Accumulate Evidence for Decision-Making. Science, 340(6128), 95-98. DOI: 10.1126/science.1233912
Znamenskiy, P., & Zador, A. (2013) Corticostriatal neurons in auditory cortex drive decisions during auditory discrimination. Nature, 497(7450), 482-485. DOI: 10.1038/nature12077
- May 22, 2013
- 03:18 AM
- 30 views
Science Proves Connection Between Racism and Stupidity
by Simone Munao in United Academics
In a recent research conducted by two scientists from Brock University in Canada, the authors have proposed and tested several mediation models. With such models they have proven that lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice, an effect mediated through the endorsement of right-wing ideologies (social conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism) and low levels of contact with out-groups.... Read more »
Hodson, G., & Busseri, M. (2012) Bright Minds and Dark Attitudes: Lower Cognitive Ability Predicts Greater Prejudice Through Right-Wing Ideology and Low Intergroup Contact. Psychological Science, 23(2), 187-195. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611421206
- May 21, 2013
- 01:33 AM
- 38 views
How Your Social Status Influences the Way You’re Judged
by Eric Horowitz in peer-reviewed by my neurons
One of the palpable weaknesses in the American justice system is the tendency for it to produce different outcomes for people from different social classes. Part of this is a result of discrepancies in the quality of legal representation people can afford, but part of it is also due to inconsistencies in the way morally questionable activities [...]... Read more »
Polman, E., Pettit, N., & Wiesenfeld, B. (2013) Effects of wrongdoer status on moral licensing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(4), 614-623. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.03.012
- May 20, 2013
- 01:46 PM
- 20 views
Never Rely on Self-Diagnosis of Bias
by Persuasion Strategies in Persuasive Litigator
By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm: Think of the situations where self-diagnosis wouldn't work very well: A police officer asking, "Do you think you were speeding?" or a doctor inquiring, "Do you believe your cancer is in remission?" Yet we still rely on self-diagnosis when trying to discover and eliminate bias in civil and criminal cases by essentially asking prospective jurors, "Are you biased?" A new study (Robertson, Yokum & Palmer, 2013) takes a look at whether we can rely on jurors to identify their own attitudes and know the sources of their own judgments well enough to say whether they would...... Read more »
Robertson, C., Yokum, D., . (2013) The Inability of Jurors to Self-Diagnose Bias. 7th Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies Paper, 12-35. info:/
- May 20, 2013
- 12:25 PM
- 33 views
Cancer increases the chances of bankruptcy - a new study on Americans
by Usman Paracha in SayPeople
Main Points:
Researchers have found that the cancer patients in America are more than two times more likely to go bankrupt than the healthy people. I think this is the case not only in America but everywhere in the world.
Published in:
Health Affairs
Study Further:
Researchers collected data in Washington State from about 400,000 adults and found that the patients of cancer have more chances of bankruptcy, i.e. 2.65 times more chances, even if they have the health insurance as the high cost of cancer treatment is really high.
“Younger cancer patients had 2–5 times higher rates of bankruptcy than cancer patients age sixty-five or older, which indicates that Medicare and Social Security may mitigate bankruptcy risk for the older group,” Researchers wrote.
“People who have fewer assets, less income and less generous insurance because of entry-level jobs or no insurance are more vulnerable to severe financial distress,” lead author, Dr. Scott Ramsey, said in a statement.
These financial crises could be solved by the help from the governments and employers.
“The findings suggest that employers and governments may have a policy role to play in creating programs and incentives that could help people cover expenses in the first year following a cancer diagnosis,” Researchers wrote.
Source:
Think Progress, NBC News
Reference:
Ramsey, S., Blough, D., Kirchhoff, A., Kreizenbeck, K., Fedorenko, C., Snell, K., Newcomb, P., Hollingworth, W., & Overstreet, K. (2013). Washington State Cancer Patients Found To Be At Greater Risk For Bankruptcy Than People Without A Cancer Diagnosis Health Affairs DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1263... Read more »
Ramsey, S., Blough, D., Kirchhoff, A., Kreizenbeck, K., Fedorenko, C., Snell, K., Newcomb, P., Hollingworth, W., & Overstreet, K. (2013) Washington State Cancer Patients Found To Be At Greater Risk For Bankruptcy Than People Without A Cancer Diagnosis. Health Affairs. DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1263
- May 16, 2013
- 11:16 AM
- 28 views
'Vocal mimicry hypothesis' falsified? [Part 2]
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
A few entries ago I uploaded a fragment from a study that discusses an intriguing experiment with three chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) which were trained to tap regularly on a piano keyboard...... Read more »
Hattori, Y., Tomonaga, M., & Matsuzawa, T. (2013) Spontaneous synchronized tapping to an auditory rhythm in a chimpanzee. Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/srep01566
Hasegawa, A., Okanoya, K., Hasegawa, T., & Seki, Y. (2011) Rhythmic synchronization tapping to an audio–visual metronome in budgerigars. Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/srep00120
Honing, H., Merchant, H., Háden, G., Prado, L., & Bartolo, R. (2012) Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta) Detect Rhythmic Groups in Music, but Not the Beat. PLoS ONE, 7(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051369
- May 16, 2013
- 02:12 AM
- 47 views
We’re All Just Looking For a Patsy
by Eric Horowitz in peer-reviewed by my neurons
If often seems as though policy-making has devolved into nothing more than a contest where the goal is to blame as many people as possible (but not yourself) for the country’s problems. Fossil fuel companies blame environmental regulations for economic stagnation and high energy prices. Neocons blame civil libertarians for national security weaknesses. And of [...]... Read more »
Rothschild, Z., Landau, M., Molina, L., Branscombe, N., & Sullivan, D. (2013) Displacing Blame over the Ingroup’s Harming of a Disadvantaged Group can Fuel Moral Outrage at a Third-Party Scapegoat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.05.005
- May 15, 2013
- 06:49 PM
- 92 views
Six Arguments For the Elimination of Cigarettes
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Prohibition and the “tobacco control endgame.”
Despite all our efforts in recent years to reduce the percentage of Americans who smoke cigarettes—currently about one in five—the idea of full-blown cigarette prohibition has not gained much traction. That may be changing, as prominent nicotine researchers and public police officials start thinking about what is widely referred to as the “tobacco control endgame.”
Considering the new regulatory powers given the FDA under the terms of the Tobacco Control Act of 2009, as a commentary in Tobacco Control framed it, “will the government be a facilitator or barrier to the effective implementation of strategies designed to achieve this public health goal?”
Two newer approaches have gained some traction in the research community: Reduce the level of nicotine in cigarette products (the FDA is prohibited by law from reducing nicotine content to zero), and continuing to emphasize the non-combustible forms. Plus, everybody pretty much agrees on higher prices.
Here are the six arguments for going all the way:
1) Death. Six million of them a year, worldwide, a number that will grow before it starts shrinking. A billion deaths this century, compared to 100 million in the 20th Century. Robert Proctor, author of The Golden Holocaust and a professor of history at Stanford, whose six arguments these are, calls the cigarette “the deadliest object in the history of human civilization.” So there’s that.
2) Other product defects. The cigarette is defective, Proctor writes in defense of his six arguments in Tobacco Control, because it is “not just dangerous but unreasonably dangerous, killing half its long-term users.” Indeed, it is hard to imagine the FDA green-lighting a drug product like that today. In addition, Proctor claims cigarettes are defective because the tobacco has been altered by flue curing to make it far more inhalable than would otherwise be the case. “The world’s present epidemic of lung cancer is almost entirely due to the use of low pH flue-cured tobacco in cigarettes, an industry-wide practice that could be reversed at any time.”
3) Financial burdens. These can be reckoned principally in terms of the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses. This, in turn, leads to diminished labor productivity, especially in the developing world, a process that “in many parts of the world makes the poor even poorer,” Proctor observes.
4) Big Tobacco’s impact on science. By sponsoring shoddy and distracting research, by publishing “decoy” findings and by otherwise confusing and corrupting scientific discourse on the cigarette question in the advertising-dependent popular media. The tobacco industry has proved to everyone’s satisfaction that it can put politicians and regulators under intense pressure to see things its way. Not to mention other institutions that have been “bullied, corrupted or exploited,” according to Proctor: The AMA, The American Law Institute, sports organizations, Hollywood, the military, and the U.S. Congress, for starters. (Until 2011, American submarines were not smoke-free.)
5) Environmental harms. More than you might think falls into this category: Deforestation, pesticide use, loss of savannah woodlands for charcoal used in flue curing, fossil fuels for curing and transport, fires caused by burning cigarettes, etc.
6) Smokers want to quit. Smoking is not a recreational drug, as Proctor takes pains to point out. Most smokers hate it and wish they could quit. This makes cigarettes different from alcohol or marijuana, Proctor insists. He quotes a Canadian tobacco executive, who said that smoking isn’t like drinking; it’s more like being an alcoholic. This rings true to for the majority of addicted smokers I know, and was certainly true of me when I was a smoker.
So there it is, the case for tobacco prohibition. But hasn’t all this prohibition business been tried and found wanting? We know the results of drug and alcohol prohibition, whatever their rationales: Smuggling, organized crime, increased law enforcement, more money. This argument, says Proctor, has been central to the cigarette industry since forever: “Bans are ridiculed as impractical or tyrannical. (First they come for your cigarettes…)”
Proctor’s response is that smuggling is already common, and people should be free to grow tobacco for their personal use. He advocates a ban on sales, not possession.
There are at least two major obstacles to cigarette prohibition. First, an enormous amount of tax revenue is generated by the production and sale of cigarettes. And the troubling question of a steep rise in black marketeering goes largely ignored or unaddressed. In the same special issue of Tobacco Control, Peter Reuter has sobering thoughts on that front: “Cigarette black markets are commonplace in high tax jurisdictions. For example, estimates are that contraband cigarettes now account for 20-30% of the Canadian market, which has restrained government enthusiasm for raising taxes further. All the proposed ‘endgame’ proposals for shrinking cigarette prevalence toward zero run the risk of creating black markets.”
In the end, Proctor argues that the cigarette industry itself has repeatedly promised to quit the business if its products where ever found to be profoundly harmful to consumers. As recently as 1997, Philip Morris CEO Geoffrey Bible swore under oath that if cigarettes were found to cause cancer “I’d probably… shut it down instantly to get a better hold on things.” Incredible statements like this by company executives go back to the 1950s. Perhaps it’s time to let them stop lying. “The cigarette, as presently constituted,” writes Proctor, “is simply too dangerous—and destructive and unloved—to be sold.”
Proctor R.N. (2013). Why ban the sale of cigarettes? The case for abolition, Tobacco Control, 22 (Supplement 1) i27-i30. DOI: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2012-050811
Photo: AAP/April Fonti
... Read more »
Proctor R. N. (2013) Why ban the sale of cigarettes? The case for abolition. Tobacco Control, 22(Supplement 1). DOI: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2012-050811
- May 14, 2013
- 04:32 AM
- 47 views
Internationalization of Higher Education, 1933
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
While the internationalization of higher education is a hot topic at the moment and is widely seen as unique to the present, internationalization of higher education is not new. The politics of internationalization at Istanbul University in the early years … Continue reading →... Read more »
Ergin, M. (2009) Cultural encounters in the social sciences and humanities: western emigre scholars in Turkey. History of the Human Sciences, 22(1), 105-130. DOI: 10.1177/0952695108099137
- May 14, 2013
- 01:49 AM
- 47 views
Teacher Expectations Have a Stronger Impact On Low-Income Students
by Eric Horowitz in peer-reviewed by my neurons
In their 1968 book Pygmalion in the Classroom, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson presented their groundbreaking research that showed teacher expectations are self-fulfilling prophecies. If two students start the school year at the same achievement level, the student the teacher is told is a high achiever will make more gains than the student the teacher believes is [...]... Read more »
Sorhagen, N. (2013) Early teacher expectations disproportionately affect poor children's high school performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(2), 465-477. DOI: 10.1037/a0031754
- May 13, 2013
- 07:27 AM
- 53 views
Boosting your wage by lowering your voice
by Katja Keuchenius in United Academics
t’s sexier, we already knew that. But lower voices do more than just turning people on. It appears a deep sound also means more success in your career. A new study makes some pretty clear statements about the associations between wage, management power, tenure and the tone of voice.... Read more »
Mayew, W., Parsons, C., & Venkatachalam, M. (2013) Voice pitch and the labor market success of male chief executive officers. Evolution and Human Behavior. DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.03.001
- May 12, 2013
- 06:18 AM
- 46 views
Fluent chunks 2: How to label your chunks
by Ray Carey in ELFA project
Most people recognise that we don’t speak in “sentences”. Still, speech is analysed and described using the concepts of sentence grammars, even when these writing-based systems must be bent and stretched, or vice versa – isn’t it cheating to “clean up” naturally occurring speech so it fits into a sentence grammar? In a previous post […]... Read more »
Mauranen, Anna. (2012) Linear Unit Grammar. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. DOI: 10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0707
- May 10, 2013
- 11:30 PM
- 50 views
Learning and evolution are different dynamics
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
A couple of weeks ago, if you randomly woke me in the middle of the night and demanded to know the fundamental difference between evolution and learning as adaptive processes, I would probably respond: “how did you get into my house? and umm… I guess they are mostly the same, it is just a matter […]... Read more »
Brenner, T. (1998) Can evolutionary algorithms describe learning processes?. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 8(3), 271-283. DOI: 10.1007/s001910050064
- May 10, 2013
- 11:06 AM
- 73 views
How To Make Yourself A Popular Tweeter
by Katja Keuchenius in United Academics
Twitter has a pretty bad reputation caused by a lot of people twittering about their personal issues. But is that really what Twitter is about? Researchers just discovered that this typical Twitter behavior actually decreases your followers. Time for a do’s and don’t list.... Read more »
C.J. Hutto, Sarita Yardi, & Eric Gilbert. (2013) A Longitudinal Study of Follow Predictors on Twitter. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems . DOI: 10.1145/2470654.2470771
- May 10, 2013
- 10:56 AM
- 47 views
When Voting, Political Preferences Outweigh the Evidence
by amikulak in Daily Observations
Supporters of a political measure are more influenced by their initial preferences than cold, hard evidence suggesting that the measure won’t go their way, according to new research published in The post When Voting, Political Preferences Outweigh the Evidence appeared first on Association for Psychological Science.... Read more »
Krizan, Z., & Sweeny, K. (2013) Causes and Consequences of Expectation Trajectories: "High" on Optimism in a Public Ballot Initiative. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/0956797612460690
- May 9, 2013
- 11:05 PM
- 33 views
Stop to smell the flowers. Especially lavender.
by Cobb & Hecht in Do You Believe In Dog?
(source)Hi Julie, WOW!Dogs in clothes. Corgis in bikinis at the beach. Greyhounds in onesies. We people do some weird things to our canine friends, no?! I'm pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy being dressed up in a padded outfit all day long, so I think I'll pass on sharing that experience with my dogs. As you said, cultural perceptions, ethics and expectations add a whole layer of extra consideration. It's not always easy to work out what dogs want or need. That's why I like science. It helps us work this stuff out.I've been super busy this week - working hard (as always!) and still thinking a lot about dogs living in kennel facilities. So I wanted to pull your head away from dogs dressed as flowers, back to dogs getting the opportunity to smell the flowers. No, really. Lavender in fact.(source)Dogs should stop to smell the flowers. Especially lavender.When I talk to people about the body of research that's been conducted in the area of environmental enrichment for dogs housed in kennels, they never fail to be amazed at what has been studied. Or what hasn't. One topic that usually results in a snort, a laugh or a quizzical raised eyebrow is olfactory (smelly) stimulation. Which is kind of weird. Because we know that dogs can smell on a level that's basically in another galaxy compared to our smelling experiences. Research conducted in a rescue shelter kennel in 2005 exposed dogs to five different diffused aromas: - a blank control, or essential oil of- chamomile - lavender - peppermint- rosemary The study showed that olfactory stimulation had a significant effect on behaviour. Dogs were more likely to rest and less likely to bark when exposed to the smells of lavender and chamomile. Peppermint and rosemary exposure resulted in more active and noisy behaviour. The researchers suggested that the welfare of dogs in shelter kennel environments (and also their attractiveness to potential adopters) could be improved by using this kind of aromatherapy. What a dog's nose knows.Further research has shown a similar effect of lavender in effecting the behaviour of dogs with travel-induced excitement in cars: they spent more time sitting, resting and less time vocalising when they were exposed to the smell of lavender.Interestingly, human studies show a similar effect of lavender on us: reduced mental stress.So if a dog is in a kennel environment and can't get out to romp in a field of flowers, or chomp them up (as dogs tend to do!), perhaps we can help them out by giving them something... Read more »
Wells Deborah L. (2009) Sensory stimulation as environmental enrichment for captive animals: A review. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 118(1-2), 1-11. DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2009.01.002
Graham Lynne, Wells Deborah L., & Hepper Peter G. (2005) The influence of olfactory stimulation on the behaviour of dogs housed in a rescue shelter. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 91(1-2), 143-153. DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2004.08.024
Wells Deborah L. (2006) Aromatherapy for travel-induced excitement in dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 229(6), 964-967. DOI: 10.2460/javma.229.6.964
MOTOMURA NAOYASU, SAKURAI AKIHIRO, & YOTSUYA YUKIKO. (2001) REDUCTION OF MENTAL STRESS WITH LAVENDER ODORANT. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 93(3), 713-718. DOI: 10.2466/pms.2001.93.3.713
- May 9, 2013
- 06:07 AM
- 13 views
Common Coincidence
by Emarkham in GeneticCuckoo
An analysis using the Monte Carlo simulation, to investigate the probability of restaurant bills having the same total. Combining statistics with modeling from the real world allows for a realistic probability for this occurrence. ... Read more »
E Markham. (2013) Common Coincidence . Blogspot. info:/
- May 8, 2013
- 03:15 PM
- 33 views
Internationalization and Englishization in Higher Education
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
The Intercultural Communication Special Interest Group of the British Association of Applied Linguistics is hosting a seminar at Newcastle University next week devoted to “Intercultural Communication in Higher Education – principles and practices.” Given that internationalization of higher education is … Continue reading →... Read more »
Cho, J. (2012) Campus in English or campus in shock?. English Today, 28(02), 18-25. DOI: 10.1017/S026607841200020X
Piller, I., & Cho, J. (2013) Neoliberalism as language policy. Language in Society, 42(01), 23-44. DOI: 10.1017/S0047404512000887
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