The importance of different culinary aspects when travelling - the case of international tourists to South Africa

Published ArticleTourists spend a good portion of their travel budget on food and beverages. Culinary preference knowledge should thus be important to numerous stakeholders. Little is, however, known about the determinants of culinary preferences of international tourists. Furthermore, in the context of developing countries, very little has been published about cuisine in tourism. The purpose of this research is to identify the determinants of culinary preferences of international tourists to South Africa. A newly developed questionnaire based on literature was completed by 627 international tourists. Five culinary preference factors were identified from the results of the study, namely social influence, culture and religion, exploration, the culinary experience and environmental sensitivity. Social influence was the most important factor, followed by environmental sensitivity and then the culinary experience. Only two socio-demographic variables were found to influence the culinary preferences of international tourists to South Africa. Implications for each of the findings are put forth. Specific recommendations are also made to national and provincial government, tourism marketers and dining establishments alike, in order to reap the numerous benefits associated with culinary preference knowledge

A comparative investigation of the attribution of desires and preferences

Although it is widely accepted that adult humans possess a ‘theory of mind’, debate has surrounded whether non-human animals may also be capable of attributing mental states such as knowledge, beliefs and desires to others. While researchers agree that animals are unlikely to possess a human-like theory of mind; theory of mind is now viewed as a continuum of social cognitive abilities and as such animals may possess limited elements of mental state attribution. A minimal form of theory of mind has been proposed by Apperly and Butterfill in human adults, which would allow rapid, efficient responses alongside a separate, slower, ‘full blown’ theory of mind. It has been suggested that this minimal system may be behind the limited theory of mind proposed in animals. Given that desires are representationally simpler than beliefs, desire attribution may be a good candidate for convergent minimal social cognitive abilities. In this thesis I therefore used Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) as a comparator with human adults, due to existing evidence of Eurasian jays’ sensitivity to their partner’s desires. I focused on three key questions in my thesis: 1. Do adult humans have an implicit sensitivity to the desires and preferences of others? 2. Do Eurasian jays have a generalised sensitivity to others’ desires and preferences? 3. Are non-human animals’ responses to others’ desires and preferences comparable to adult humans’ implicit responses? To address these questions I assessed adults’ implicit sensitivity to others’ desires in various scenarios, but did not find evidence of a consistent minimal system (Chapters 2, 3, 6). In addition, I investigated whether Eurasian jays’ sensitivity to the desires of others may be applied outside of the food sharing context, as well as the flexibility of this sensitivity within food sharing (Chapters 4-6). Finally, I considered the similarities between the responses of Eurasian jays and humans and discuss the consequences of these findings for the hypothesis of a shared minimal system. I conclude by discussing the difficulties facing comparative cognition research and the possibility that theory of mind may be overestimated as a driver of social interactions in both humans and non-human animals

Early Adolescent Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Sensory Preference Differences: An Exploratory Study

BACKGROUND: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) occurs in 13% to 20% of adolescents, and is often indicative of deeper internal or social problems. A close review of current explanatory models of NSSI suggested that underlying individual sensory preferences may contribute substantial explanations for the self-regulatory functions of NSSI, as well as have implications for treatment approaches. In the context of integrating sensory processing models with prominent functional NSSI models, this dissertation research compared sensory preferences in youth who engaged in NSSI to sensory preferences of youth who did not engage in NSSI. OBJECTIVE: NSSI-engaging youth were hypothesized to have lower threshold sensory preferences (sensation avoiding and sensory sensitive), and higher sensitivity (low threshold) in touch processing, auditory processing, and modulation of sensory input affecting emotional response. Sensory preferences were hypothesized to predict NSSI functionality, and trauma history and symptomology were hypothesized to predict NSSI and sensory preferences. METHODS: Youth (n = 108; 56% female; 43% Hispanic) aged 8-14 completed self-report items regarding knowledge, thoughts, and engagement in NSSI, the Functional Assessment of Self-Mutilation (FASM) to evaluate type and functionality of NSSI, and the Adolescent / Adult Sensory Profile to evaluate sensory preferences (low registration, sensation seeking, sensory sensitive, sensation avoiding). Parents (90% female; Mage = 39.4 (SD = 6.9)) completed the Sensory Profile as a secondary measure of youth sensory preferences and the UCLA post- traumatic stress disorder reaction index (PTSD-RI) to evaluate youth trauma history and symptomology. RESULTS: NSSI-engaging youth (N = 14) scored significantly higher than Non-NSSI-engaging youth (N = 85) in the sensation avoiding (Cohen\u27s d = .83) and low registration (Cohen\u27s d = .66) domains. Auditory sensitivity (youth-reported) significantly predicted NSSI after controlling for age. While parent-reported sensory preferences and trauma history and symptomology were not predictive of NSSI, auditory sensitivity (parent-reported) predicted PTSD symptomology in youth with trauma history. CONCLUSIONS: Results provide preliminary insight into better understanding the self-regulatory role of NSSI, and offer insight into specific sensory preferences of young adolescents who engage in NSSI. In combination with future research, findings contribute to existing comprehensive models of NSSI, and provide evidence for sensory considerations in NSSI treatment

Empirical welfare analysis in random utility models of labour supply

The aim of this paper is to apply recently proposed individual welfare measures in the context of random utility models of labour supply. Contrary to the standard practice of using reference preferences and wages, these measures preserve preference heterogeneity in the normative step of the analysis. They also make the ethical priors, implicit in any interpersonal comparison, more explicit. On the basis of microdata from the Socio Economic Panel (SOEP) for married couples in Germany, we provide empirical evidence about the sensitivity of the welfare orderings to different normative principles embodied in these measures. We retrieve individual and household specific preference heterogeneity, by estimating a structural discrete choice labor supply model. We use this preference information to construct welfare orderings of households according to the different metrics, each embodying different ethical choices concerning the preference heterogeneity in the consumption-leisure space. We then discuss how sensitive the assessment of a hypothetical tax reform is to the choice of metric. The chosen tax reform is similar to a subsidy of social security contributions.

Empirical Welfare Analysis in Random Utility Models of Labour Supply

The aim of this paper is to apply recently proposed individual welfare measures in the context of random utility models of labour supply. Contrary to the standard practice of using reference preferences and wages, these measures preserve preference heterogeneity in the normative step of the analysis. They also make the ethical priors, implicit in any interpersonal comparison, more explicit. On the basis of microdata from the Socio Economic Panel (SOEP) for married couples in Germany, we provide empirical evidence about the sensitivity of the welfare orderings to different normative principles embodied in these measures. We retrieve individual and household specific preference heterogeneity, by estimating a structural discrete choice labor supply model. We use this preference information to construct welfare orderings of households according to the different metrics, each embodying different ethical choices concerning the preference heterogeneity in the consumption-leisure space. We then discuss how sensitive the assessment of a hypothetical tax reform is to the choice of metric. The chose tax reform is similar to a subsidy of social security contributions.Welfare measures, labour supply, random utility, preference heterogeneity

Empirical Welfare Analysis in Random Utility Models of Labour Supply

The aim of this paper is to apply recently proposed individual welfare measures in the context of random utility models of labour supply. Contrary to the standard practice of using reference preferences and wages, these measures preserve preference heterogeneity in the normative step of the analysis. They also make the ethical priors, implicit in any interpersonal comparison, more explicit. On the basis of microdata from the Socio Economic Panel (SOEP) for married couples in Germany, we provide empirical evidence about the sensitivity of the welfare orderings to different normative principles embodied in these measures. We retrieve individual and household specific preference heterogeneity, by estimating a structural discrete choice labor supply model. We use this preference information to construct welfare orderings of households according to the different metrics, each embodying different ethical choices concerning the preference heterogeneity in the consumption-leisure space. We then discuss how sensitive the assessment of a hypothetical tax reform is to the choice of metric. The chose tax reform is similar to a subsidy of social security contributions.welfare measures, labour supply, random utility, preference heterogeneity

Social Norms and the Evolution of Conditional Cooperation

This paper develops a model of social norms and cooperation in large societies. Within this framework we use an indirect evolutionary approach to study the endogenous formation of preferences and the coevolution of norm compliance. Thereby we link the multiplicity of equilibria, which emerges in the presence of social norms, to the evolutionary analysis: Individuals face situations where many others cooperate as well as situations where a majority free-rides. The evolutionary adaptation to such heterogenous environments will favor conditional cooperators, who condition their pro-social behavior on the others' cooperation. As conditional cooperators react flexibly to their social environment, they dominate free-riders as well as unconditional cooperators