Saddam Hussein is “dangerous to the extreme”: The ethics of professional commentary on public figures

People are intrinsically interested in the personalities of public figures such as the celebrities they follow, political leaders, and citizens at the center of newsworthy events. The goal of the present article is to examine the key issues that surround ethical commentary on public figures by psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals. Public commentaries carry with them a host of issues from representing a given discipline such as psychology well, to potentially harming an individual who is discussed, to furthering public education about personality and mental health issues. For this reason such commentary deserves special consideration as to when and how it is appropriate to carry out

Collaborative Multi-Agent Heterogeneous Multi-Armed Bandits

The study of collaborative multi-agent bandits has attracted significant attention recently. In light of this, we initiate the study of a new collaborative setting, consisting of $N$ agents such that each agent is learning one of $M$ stochastic multi-armed bandits to minimize their group cumulative regret. We develop decentralized algorithms which facilitate collaboration between the agents under two scenarios. We characterize the performance of these algorithms by deriving the per agent cumulative regret and group regret upper bounds. We also prove lower bounds for the group regret in this setting, which demonstrates the near-optimal behavior of the proposed algorithms.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of ICML 202

Towards a typology of gosspip in the workplace.

In today’s communication-driven world, informal communication can at some point be construed as malicious gossip. Literature shows that certain areas of gossip are insufficiently studied, such as how gossip is defined in the workplace, when communication is construed as gossip, and what characteristics highlight the parameters between healthy communication and gossip. This research is of value because workplace gossip could have direct implications on trust in workplace relationships, might undermine principles espoused by corporate governance and could therefore lead to higher staff absenteeism and turnover. A qualitative research study was undertaken to explore individual constructions surrounding this phenomenon. Data was collected from structured individual interviews and the technique of card sorting, and a grounded theory analysis resulted in the formulation of a working definition of the concept, the identification of its parameters as well as the development of a typology of gossip in the workplace. The implications of the findings are discussed

Word-of-mouth and forms of conversations: what people share

1Dottorato di Ricerca in Management (XXVII ciclo), LUISS Guido Carli, Roma, 2016. Relatori: Prof. Michele Costabile, Prof. Matteo De Angelis.openThis dissertation highlights the importance to understand how word-of-mouth is an aspect extremely important in the communication process among peers with the ability to modify and persuade differently consumers. A main property of word-of-mouth and that represents the pillar of this dissertation is the content of the communication and how consumers share their messages. The present dissertation is the first to examine different types of communication into interpersonal domain taking both the perspective of the sender and the receiver of the messages. Paper 1 discusses how the language abstraction is a valuable communicational sign in order to optimize interactions. Specifically, I study the effect of language abstractness in word-of-mouth communication on the recipients’ perceptions about message effectiveness and their purchase intentions. I hypothesize that the effect of language abstractness depends on the word-of-mouth recipient’s prior knowledge, and demonstrate that abstract (concrete) language is more effective than concrete (abstract) language for recipients with high (low) prior knowledge. Moreover, I predict that the higher (lower) effectiveness of abstract messages for consumers with high (low) prior knowledge is explained by consumers’ engagement in mental imagery processing. Two experiments conducted in different service settings provide support for our hypotheses. Paper 2 focuses on specific types of information which contain controversial arguments and where the process of sharing on virtual platforms can modify behaviors. Controversial topics are those topics on which people tend to take different, quite polarized opinions. While I acknowledge that people tend to hold extreme positions on controversial topics, I hypothesize that whether they share their extreme opinions with others importantly depends on the communication channel they use for sharing. Across three experiments, I show that opinion extremeness generally increases tendency to share, but, more importantly, I show this is more likely to occur when sharers use communication platforms that allow them to select specific, identified recipients, thus having more control on their audience. More specifically, I demonstrate that individuals are more likely to share the extreme versus moderate opinions about controversial topics via email, but such a difference no longer exists when sharing via post on social network pages. Paper 3 demonstrates how form of communications that contain gossip is surrounded by false myths. Popular beliefs encourage people in believing that negative gossips are shared more than positive gossip and thus I demonstrate the contrary. Through three experiments, I show that people are more likely to share a positive form of gossip in a network composed by the sender, the target of the gossip and the receiver. I hypothesize that individuals are more likely to share positive (negative) gossip in respect the target of the gossip (in-group versus out-group) and that the sender is more (less) likely to share gossip with whom has less (more) capacity to verify the truthfulness of the gossip’s content. This dissertation is of interest to marketers for two reasons. First, these findings may help firms to understand and interpret word-of-mouth. By analyzing the content of the messages companies would be able to adapt their communication strategies, implement more fruitful one-toone communications and deal, positively, with possible crisis management especially in virtual settings. Secondly, the effect of different types of communications can be used by marketers in order to achieve an higher number of consumers and encourage them in sharing voluntarily. Moreover, understanding the effect of word-of-mouth on receivers may support firms in improve communicational campaigns and increase the level of customer satisfaction in different stage of the marketing processes. Future research should examine what are the boundaries between word-ofmouth and electronic word-of-mouth and whether consumers differently depending to the context.openDottorato di Ricerca in ManagementTASSIELLO, VITOTassiello, Vit

The Development and Failure of Social Norms in Second Life

This Note analyzes the development and efficacy of social norms in maximizing the welfare of participants in the virtual community of Second Life. Although some of these norms developed appropriately in response to the objectives and purposes of this virtual world, Second Life is so thoroughly steeped in conditions that have impeded the development of successful social norms in other communities that any system of social norms in Second Life will ultimately fail. Because social norms will likely,fail to successfully maximize resident welfare, regulatory schemes imposed both by the operators of the virtual world and by real-world governing institutions are needed to enhance the functioning of this particular alternative reality inhabited by millions

The Development and Failure of Social Norms in Second Life

This Note analyzes the development and efficacy of social norms in maximizing the welfare of participants in the virtual community of Second Life. Although some of these norms developed appropriately in response to the objectives and purposes of this virtual world, Second Life is so thoroughly steeped in conditions that have impeded the development of successful social norms in other communities that any system of social norms in Second Life will ultimately fail. Because social norms will likely,fail to successfully maximize resident welfare, regulatory schemes imposed both by the operators of the virtual world and by real-world governing institutions are needed to enhance the functioning of this particular alternative reality inhabited by millions