Conflict and segregation in networks: an experiment on the interplay between individual preferences and social influence

We examine the interplay between a person's individual preference and the social influence others exert. We provide a model of network relationships with conflicting preferences, where individuals are better off coordinating with those around them, but not all pre- fer the same action. We test our model in an experiment, varying the level of conflicting preferences between individuals. Our find- ings suggest that preferences are more salient than social influence, under conflicting preferences: subjects relate mainly with others who prefer the same. This leads to two undesirable outcomes: net- work segregation and social inefficiency. The same force that helps people individually hurts society

Urban Violence among African American Males: Integrating Family, Neighborhood, and Peer Perspectives

Even though rates have declined in recent years, violence is a serious problem in many American cities. This paper reviews recent perspectives on violence among young, urban African American males. Special attention is afforded the father absent hypothesis, the effect of poverty, the character of neighborhoods, the roots of self-efficacy, and peer influence, particularly the influence of street codes. The latter are argued both to regulate some situational behavior and to promote the use of violence in disputes over social status, drugs, and money. The authors discuss implications for policy and community development

Self-Protecting Access Control: On Mitigating Privacy Violations with Fault Tolerance

Self-protecting access control mechanisms can be described as an approach to enforcing security in a manner that automatically protects against violations of access control rules. In this chapter, we present a comparative analysis of standard Cryptographic Access Control (CAC) schemes in relation to privacy enforcement on the Web. We postulate that to mitigate privacy violations, self-protecting CAC mechanisms need to be supported by fault-tolerance. As an example of how one might to do this, we present two solutions that are inspired by the autonomic computing paradigm1. Our solutions are centered on how CAC schemes can be extended to protect against privacy violations that might arise from key updates and collusion attacks

Altruistically Inclined?: The Behavioral Sciences, Evolutionary Theory, and the Origins of Reciprocity

Altruistically Inclined? examines the implications of recent research in the natural sciences for two important social scientific approaches to individual behavior: the economic/rational choice approach and the sociological/anthropological. It considers jointly two controversial and related ideas: the operation of group selection within early human evolutionary processes and the likelihood of modularity—domain-specific adaptations in our cognitive mechanisms and behavioral predispositions. Experimental research shows that people will often cooperate in one-shot prisoner\u27s dilemma (PD) games and reject positive offers in ultimatum games, contradicting commonly accepted notions of rationality. Upon first appearance, predispositions to behave in this fashion could not have been favored by natural selection operating only at the level of the individual organism. Emphasizing universal and variable features of human culture, developing research on how the brain functions, and refinements of thinking about levels of selection in evolutionary processes, Alexander J. Field argues that humans are born with the rudiments of a PD solution module—and differentially prepared to learn norms supportive of it. His emphasis on failure to harm, as opposed to the provision of affirmative assistance, as the empirically dominant form of altruistic behavior is also novel. The point of departure and principal point of reference is economics. But Altruistically Inclined? will interest a broad range of scholars in the social and behavioral sciences, natural scientists concerned with the implications of research and debates within their fields for the conduct of work elsewhere, and educated lay readers curious about essential features of human nature.https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/faculty_books/1325/thumbnail.jp

A comprehensive view on quantity based aggregation for cadastral databases

Quantity Based Aggregation (QBA) control is a subject that is closely related to inference control in databases. The goal is to enforce k out of n disclosure control. In this paper we work on QBA problems in the context of cadastral databases: how to prevent a user from knowing 1) the owners of all parcels in a region, and 2) all parcels belonging to the same owner. This work combines and extends our previous work on the subject [1, 2, 3]. We overview the legislative context surrounding cadastral databases. We give important definitions related to the QBA concept. We present a complete model for QBA control in cadastral databases. We show how to implement the security policy efficiently, and we present our prototype of secure cadastral databases with some performance evaluations

Voluntary contributions to public goods:A multi-disciplinary examination of prosocial behavior and its antecedents

The four essays collected in this Ph.D. dissertation concern prosocial motivations in different social contexts, applying conceptual, experimental, and survey methodologies to investigate how the complex and diverse interaction between psychological attributes and the social environment shapes prosocial behaviors. The first essay provides a conceptual framework on how cognition links relevant stimuli with innate moralities to construct Public Service Motivation (PSM) and guild various social behaviors. The second essay builds on the first essay and provides empirical evidence for the essential role of innate moralities in shaping Public Service Motivation and affecting behavioral consequences. The third and fourth essay apply methods from experimental economics to investigate the role of contextual stimuli in affecting prosocial motivation in a lab experiment of the volunteer’s dilemma game. The third essay first extends the classic volunteer’s dilemma game and develops novel treatments to examine pro-social risk-taking and competitive behavior in a lab experiment. The fourth essay then incorporates the PSM theory in the extended volunteer’s dilemma game to explore the role of PSM in self-sacrifice behavior and its relationships with external contextual factors

Patient Safety: A Multi-Climate Approach to the Nursing Work Environment: A Dissertation

The purpose of this study was to explore Zohar’s Multi-Climate Framework for Occupational Safety to determine the effects of staff nurse perceptions of safety priorities in their organization (safety climate) and their work ownership climate (Magnet Hospital designation) on safety citizenship behaviors viewed as in role or extra role. Safety citizenship behaviors are described as behaviors that go beyond the job description to ensure safety. Participants from a convenience sample of three Magnet designated community hospitals in New England completed three scales (Zohar’s Safety Climate Questionnaire, Essentials of Magnetism II and the Safety Citizenship Role Definitions Scale) representing the study variables via an online survey platform. Multivariate analysis of covariance informed the results. Findings include a positive unadjusted relationship between safety climate and work ownership climate (rs=.492, pF (1, 86) = 8.4, p=.005, N=92), controlling for work ownership climate and hospital. Implications include support for a continued focus on better understanding the importance of a positive nursing work environment, a characteristic shared by Magnet designated hospitals, on the presence of safety citizenship behaviors in the acute care environment. A professional work environment should be considered as an important factor in reducing errors in the acute care setting

Measuring school effects across grades

This study investigates the issue of the value-added components of the education provided across Grade 3 and Grade 5 in primary schools in South Australia and how these components could be measured. The study shows that it is very difficult to identify effective or ineffective schools because the amount of variance left unexplained at the school-level is small. As a solution to this problem, it is more meaningful to identify effective or ineffective schools when the school effects are expressed in terms of years of learning that a student spends at school.https://research.acer.edu.au/saier/1005/thumbnail.jp

Fan Communities and Subgroups: Exploring Individuals\u27 Supporter Group Experiences

The aggregate of a sport team’s fans may be viewed as a consumption community that surrounds the team and its brand (Devasagayam & Buff, 2008; Hickman & Ward, 2007). Beneath this larger consumption umbrella, smaller groups of consumers may exist (Dholakia, Bagozzi, & Pearo, 2004), such as specific supporter groups for a team. Individuals thus may identify with multiple layers of the consumption group simultaneously (Brodsky & Marx, 2001; Hornsey & Hogg, 2000). Although past researchers have studied supporter groups (Giulianotti, 1996, 1999a; Parry & Malcolm, 2004) and consumption communities (Kozinets, 2001; Muñiz & O’Guinn, 2001; McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig, 2002), there has been limited research on the interaction among subgroups within the superordinate group. The current study examines the American Outlaws (AO), a supporter group for the United States men’s national soccer team (USMNT). AO members belong to local AO chapters (subgroups) as well the national (superordinate) group. This structure creates multiple levels of identification and is conducive to studying the phenomenon in question. Through employing a grounded theory methodology, data were collected via participant observation and ethnographic interviews over a two year period. The current study identifies six prominent foci of identification among AO members: the USMNT, the United States of America (national identity), the sport of soccer, AO National, AO Local, and one’s small social group. These identities are found to be mutually reinforcing and shape members’ interactions with the team, the supporter group, and social groups therein. Specifically, the regional subgroups (AO Local chapters) create opportunities for social interaction, which fosters members’ sense of community and group identification. In turn, this strengthens group cohesion at the subgroup and superordinate group levels. Further, supporter group members alter their team consumption experiences by creating places of prolonged identity salience at live games and when watching games on television. These events increase identification with the supporter group and its related identities. For practitioners, implications of this study include the understanding of supporter groups’ impact on members’ frequency and duration of brand-related consumption