A Theory of Experiments: Invariance of Equilibrium to the Strategy Method of Elicitation and Implications for Social Preferences

Most papers that employ the strategy method (SM) use many observations per subject to study responses to rare or off-equilibrium behavior that cannot be observed using direct elicitation (DE), but ignore that the strategic equivalence between SM and DE holds for the monetary payoff game but not the game participants actually play, which is in terms of utilities. To illustrate the severity of this issue, we formalize the mapping from the monetary payoff game to this actual game. A theorem provides necessary and sufficient conditions for strategic equivalence to apply. When the domain of preferences includes commonlymodeled motivations, such as intentions or disappointment aversion, or less-common ones, such as self-image or duty, strategic equivalence fails and thus the invariance to the method of elicitation does not apply. We use results from the past literature and our own experiments to investigate how well this theorem explains when results with SM and DE differ. We manipulate the salience of off-equilibrium considerations in our own experiments to demonstrate that SM and DE are not strategically equivalent, contrary to conventional wisdom. Three results emerge. First, not accounting for the bias in the estimation when decisions at one information set can influence the utility at another information set can render significant differences in decision-making. Second, the bias can be large and equivalent to some of the other causal effects being measured. Third, subtle interventions on salience can magnify these differences by a similar amount

A Theory of Experiments: Invariance of Equilibrium to the Strategy Method of Elicitation and Implications for Social Preferences

Most papers that employ the strategy method (SM) use many observations per subject to study responses to rare or off-equilibrium behavior that cannot be observed using direct elicitation (DE), but ignore that the strategic equivalence between SM and DE holds for the monetary payoff game but not the game participants actually play, which is in terms of utilities. To illustrate the severity of this issue, we formalize the mapping from the monetary payoff game to this actual game. A theorem provides necessary and sufficient conditions for strategic equivalence to apply. When the domain of preferences includes commonlymodeled motivations, such as intentions or disappointment aversion, or less-common ones, such as self-image or duty, strategic equivalence fails and thus the invariance to the method of elicitation does not apply. We use results from the past literature and our own experiments to investigate how well this theorem explains when results with SM and DE differ. We manipulate the salience of off-equilibrium considerations in our own experiments to demonstrate that SM and DE are not strategically equivalent, contrary to conventional wisdom. Three results emerge. First, not accounting for the bias in the estimation when decisions at one information set can influence the utility at another information set can render significant differences in decision-making. Second, the bias can be large and equivalent to some of the other causal effects being measured. Third, subtle interventions on salience can magnify these differences by a similar amount

'New Femininities' Fiction

I identify and analyse an emergent sub-genre of contemporary literature by women that I am calling ‘New Femininities’ fiction. This fiction is about the distinctly feminine experience of contemporary domestic life written by women about the lives of heterosexual female characters that are married or in committed partnerships, often with children. These texts are concerned with the nature of the self, with a self that is plural and ‘in process’, and make use of particular narrative devices – ironic voice, unreliable narration, free indirect discourse, and interrogative endings that exceed their roles as simply telling stories. ‘New Femininities’ fictions allow their language the necessary freedom to multiply meanings and enact the narrative conflicts they raise and by so doing, undermine the binary oppositions which structure a gendered world. In this dissertation, I argue the models of existing criticism would do a disservice to these texts because much of the criticism either overvalues the theoretical and ignores the literariness of the text or seeks to identify a ‘feminine’ language the definition of which serves to reinforce and revalue patriarchal notions of femininity. The readings that this fiction requires necessitate a negotiation with established models of feminist literary criticism. I attempt to identify the characteristics of their style that allows them to straddle binary oppositions and to look at the language these authors use without having to label it ‘feminine’ and by so doing establish, build, or reinforce a boundary with some undefined ‘masculine’ language which stands in for all occurrences that are not ‘feminine’. Additionally, I attempt to forge a transformed, adapted concept vocabulary for dealing with this group of writers. To this end, I make use of various discourses to show how the different authors either negotiate with that discourse or prove its inadequacy to describe or explain these new femininities

Ethical decision-making in the therapeutic space : a psychoanalytic view

This study examined the ethical decision-making process as it transpired in the everyday context of the therapeutic space. In-depth interviews explored the subjective experiences of six South African psychologists, practicing as psychoanalytic psychotherapists, and their efforts to resolve real-life ethical dilemmas. The theoretical framework used to interpret the data subsumed professional literature in psychology on principle-based ethical decision-making as well as contemporary psychoanalytic debates on the phenomenon of countertransference enactments. A review of ethics codes, survey research and seminal decision-making frameworks suggests that ethical dilemmas have traditionally been resolved by recourse to an objective and impartial “principle ethics” perspective. Empirical evidence shows, however, that logical thinking and the rational application of codes, principles and standards are often insufficient to secure ethical action. The establishment of reflective space and the core theoretical notion of “ethical decision-making enactments” were proposed in order to address the subjective, irrational and unconscious dimension of professional decision-making. This study used a broadly hermeneutic research method which transformed participants‟ descriptions of engagement with real-life dilemmas into a psychoanalytically informed interpretive account of ethical decision-making. Twelve aspirational ethical principles were found to guide participants‟ daily analytic work. Beneficence was the principle most strongly identified with and nonmaleficence was the most neglected ethical principle. Unprocessed countertransference responses were shown to drive earlier prereflective phases of the ethical decision-making process. Mature ethical judgment was predicated upon the retrospective analysis of enactment phenomena. Dissatisfaction was expressed by all participants with regard to the role of professional resources in aiding the resolution of stressful ethical dilemmas. Risk factors for compromised professional decision-making included the paucity and perceived irrelevance of postgraduate ethics training, supervisory failure to confront the ethical and countertransference dimensions of common dilemmas and professional isolation. Rather than eliciting the hope of emotional support and greater insight, professional resources on the contrary mostly appeared to induce anxiety, mistrust and fearfulness. Based on the data and the literature, a pragmatic psychoanalytically informed ethical decision-making model was finally generated. The model, which considers both principle ethics as well as countertransference phenomena, offers a preliminary contribution to professional dialogue on the development and evaluation of empirically based decision-making frameworks. Practical recommendations are made for both the revision of the current South African ethics code and for improving the postqualifying ethics education of psychoanalytic practitioners and supervisors. The limitations of the data are discussed and directions for future research initiatives are proposed

Tourist understanding of and engagement with the climate change impacts of holidays.

Climate change has become a very important global issue and has risen to the top of the international political agenda. Tourism’s contribution to climate change has been the subject of considerable research and debate, with the UNWTO estimating the tourism industry generates 5% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Research shows air travel dominates the overall greenhouse gas emissions from the international tourism industry. The rapid growth of low cost carriers has opened up international holidays to the masses, as well as enabling more wealthy members of society to become hyper-mobile tourists. The expansion in the aviation market has realised people’s social and cultural aspirations for international travel and has resulted in air travel becoming firmly embedded in contemporary tourism practices. Although air travel contributes the bulk of tourism’s greenhouse gas emissions, it is the wider tourism practice that needs to be addressed, as tourists engage in air travel in order to fulfil their desires for international holidays, rather than specifically consuming flights because of ‘a love to fly’. Treating holidays as a social practice, in which the type of holiday, destination and transport mode are considered integral to the holiday package, this research examines tourist understanding of and engagement with climate change. The aim of this study is to analyse the role that the climate change impacts of holidays play in the decisions of tourists in order to develop a conceptual framework of the barriers to behavioural change. A mixed methods strategy has been employed, based on a sequential exploratory design. The results of focus group research in the initial qualitative stage of data collection and analysis were used in the formulation of the questionnaire survey adopted in the second quantitative stage of the study. The survey generated 647 useable questionnaires and was conducted in the Bournemouth postcode area using a drop and collect technique. A cluster sampling design was adopted based on postcode sectors and a probability sampling method was used at each stage of the process. The findings of the research indicate that levels of awareness of the impacts of flying on climate change are high, but awareness and understanding of other ways that holidays contribute to climate change is low. Climate change impacts do not feature in the thoughts of the vast majority of tourists when they are planning their holidays, and only a very small minority of respondents in the questionnaire survey said that they think about the impacts their holidays have on climate change. Although there were high levels of awareness of the impacts of air travel on climate change, this did not manifest in tourists’ holiday decisions and their attitudes towards behavioural change. The most salient barriers to behavioural change in a holiday context are a combination of internal, external and structural constraints. Cluster analysis shows that different barriers to action are more prominent for different groups and that some groups identify fewer barriers to behavioural change than others. A pattern reflected throughout the analysis was that respondents that had taken the most overseas holidays in the last 3 years were also those that exhibited lower levels of awareness of the contribution of holidays to climate change, were less likely to consider climate change impacts as being important when planning their holidays, and expressed the strongest reluctance to change their future holiday behaviour. The results of the research illustrate the magnitude of the barriers to action and demonstrate the enormity of the task facing policymakers in achieving significant changes in holiday taking behaviour

Living in the Commons: Local Institutions for Natural Resource Management

Garett Hardin' s essay "The Tragedy of the Commons" has for almost three decades stimulated research on common property regimes. This report provides an overview of this research and reviews a selection of empirical and theoretical contributions to the "commons" debate. Despite the hectic research activity, the report is critical of the tendency to reproduce well-worn arguments instead of questioning them. In order to progress beyond a rebuttal of Hardin, the report calls for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of common property regimes and advocates an analytical focus on local institutions. In paricular, the report discusses those circumstances under which local institutions represent an alternative to state management of renewable natural resources. Are J. Knudsen is a social anthropologist and research fellow at the Chr. Michelsen Institute. His research interests include natural resource management, economic change and modernization. He is currently working on forest management and entrepreneurship in Northern Pakistan

Course Catalog 2013-14

https://repository.wellesley.edu/catalogs/1141/thumbnail.jp

Bowdoin Orient v.132, no.1-24 (2002-2003)

https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/bowdoinorient-2000s/1003/thumbnail.jp