Involving Others: Towards an Ethical Concept of Risk

Dr. Rehman-Sutter argues for a juridical concept of risk as it relates to an ethic of care. He also contrasts his view with traditional economic risk analysis

Perfectionism and attitudes toward cognitive enhancers (“smart drugs”)

Perfectionism is a personality disposition characterized by exceedingly high standards of performance and pressure to be perfect which may incline students to take cognitive enhancers (“smart drugs”) to boost their academic performance. So far, however, no study has investigated the relationships of multidimensional perfectionism and attitudes toward cognitive enhancers. The present study investigated these relationships in 272 university students examining different dimensions of perfectionism. Results showed that socially prescribed perfectionism, perfectionist concerns and doubts, and perceived parental pressure to be perfect showed positive correlations with attitudes favoring the use of cognitive enhancers. In contrast, self-oriented perfectionism, perfectionist personal standards, and organization showed negative correlations. The findings suggest that perfectionism may play a role as both a risk factor for and a protective factor against using cognitive enhancers depending on what dimensions of perfectionism are regarded

The limits of law in the protection of public health and the role of public health ethics

Peer reviewe

Consumer trust and confidence: Some recent ideas in the literature

This is a post-print version of the article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - © IWA Publishing 2008This paper reflects on two recent debates in the consumer literature on trust that have implications for consumer relations in the water industry. The first concerns an important yet seldom made distinction between trust and confidence. The second concerns when and how trust is related to acceptance of, for example, new tariffs or new technologies, and it challenges the conventional view that trust is usually a precursor of acceptance. New conceptual models addressing these debates are described and their implications for future water-related consumer research are discussed as are potential implications for industry relationships with consumers

Gene Technology in the eyes of the public and experts. Moral opinions, attitudes and risk perception.

Risk perceptions and attitudes to genetically modified food (GMF) were investigated in a survey study of the public (N=469) and experts (N=49). The response rate was 47 percent for the public. For the experts, response rate was 60 percent. GMF technology was rated as the worst of 18 technologies by members of the public and highly replaceable. Experts had a very different view but also saw GMF as replaceable. Models of risk perceptions and attitudes with regard to policy and consumer intentions were fitted to data. It was found that a very large share of the variance, about 70 percent, was accounted for in the latter cases, while risk perception was somewhat harder to account for (about 50 percent was explained). Traditional explanatory factors such as Dread and Novelty were weak explanatory factors as compared to new approaches, which included Interfering with Nature, Moral value of technology and Epistemic trust. Experts were throughout much more positive to GMF than were members of the public. However, their attitudes and risk perceptions still showed dynamic properties similar to those found in the data from the public. The differences between experts and the public could be well explained in terms of the models tested. In comparisons with recent Eurobarometer studies of attitudes towards GMF, risk emerged in the present study as a more important factor in attitudes, equally important as benefits. The models formulated for the present data were about twice as powerful as those in published analyses of Eurobarometer data.Gene technology; risk perception; policy attitude; consumer behavior; experts; epistemic trust; risk sensitivity

Consumer Valuation of the Second Generation of Genetically Modified (GM) Foods with Benefits Disclosure

Employing contingent valuation method (CVM), the study explores whether or not consumers risk/benefit beliefs and knowledge about GM foods affect their behavior as measured by willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for GM beef with benefits. The results demonstrate that risk/benefit perceptions play a significant role to elicit WTP for GM beef with benefitsConsumer/Household Economics,

Responsible Research and Innovation between \u201cnew governance\u201d and fundamental rights

This chapter frames RRI as an emerging governance approach in the EU regulatory context. We argue that reference to fundamental rights makes RRI a distinctive approach to responsibility compared to other existing paradigms and that human rights, in particular those laid down in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, are not necessarily a constraint but can instead be a catalyst of innovation. Eventually we maintain that a governance framework based on the complementarity between legal norms and voluntary commitments might successfully combine the respect of fundamental rights with the openness and flexibility of the innovation process

A Broader Liberty: JS Mill, Paternalism, and the Public’s Health

Is the ‘harm principle’, famously propounded by JS Mill and widely adopted in bioethics, an appropriate principle to guide public health regulation? The harm principle limits liberty-limiting interventions to only those instances where the person poses a significant risk of harm to others. However, much of public health regulation is not primarily directed to avert risk to others, but to safeguard the health and safety of the individual him or herself. Think about regulations regarding seatbelts, motorcycle helmets, or the fluoridation of water as illustrations of pervasive public health regulations that are primarily intended to safeguard the individual’s own health or safety. Even laws designed to reduce smoking are justified, at least in substantial part, by the reduction of risk to the smoker. Certainly, scholars argue that there are ‘other-regarding’ aspects to these kinds of laws, but there is little doubt that there are strong paternalistic features to these, and many other, public health laws, such as bans on trans fat in foods. This article directly and forcefully questions the Millian principle, making the case for hard paternalism. When seen from a population-based perspective that counts the number of lives saved, paternalism becomes a plausible justification for interventions that do not pose a truly significant burden on individual liberty, but go along way toward safeguarding the health and wellbeing of the populace

Tax Morale, Slippery-Slope Framework and Tax Compliance: A Cross-section Analysis

Following two important strands of tax compliance literature, this empirical paper develops a cross-section analysis in order to test both the role of tax morale on tax compliance decisions and the main predictions of the slippery slope framework. Using data from the World Value Surveys (WWS), we find empirical support for the slippery slope framework, since trust in and power of tax authorities are negatively and significantly related to a proxy for tax non-compliance behavior given by the size of the hidden economy. In particular, trust in tax authorities exerts a larger effect on shadow economy than the power of tax authorities. Instead, the relation between tax morale and our proxy for tax evasion is not statistically significant.

Towards a More Holistic Understanding of American Support for Genetically Modified Crops: An Examination of Influential Factors Using a Binomial Dependent Variable

This paper is an investigation into the relative importance of a wide variety of factors in influencing whether members of the American public support or oppose the use of biotechnology in agriculture and food production. To accomplish this end, as well as to facilitate the examination of a large number of independent variables simultaneously, several statistical methods, including factor analyses, instrumental variables analysis, and probit and logistic regressions were performed. It was determined that people’s perceptions of risks and moral acceptability were important contributors to opinion formation in this regard. The effects of expected benefits, feelings of trust in information, and knowledge about biotechnology and genetics, were also investigated and found to exert varying levels of influence depending on the identity of the expected beneficiary or information source, as well as the kind of knowledge under consideration. The roles of religious and political party affiliation were also examined and determined to be significant.genetically modified foods, biotechnology, public opinion