Across-time change and within-country variance in cultural tightness-looseness in Estonia

An article by Gelfand and colleagues (2006) brought the construct of cultural tightnesslooseness to the attention of social scientists once again. Tight cultures have strong social norms and low tolerance of deviant behaviour, whereas loose cultures have weak norms and high tolerance of different behaviour. The aim of the current study was to examine the across-time change (over ten years) as well as the within-country variance in tightnesslooseness in Estonia. It was found that the tightness score increased significantly in Estonia from 2002 to 2012, but the change was rather small. A significant within country variance in 2002 (females had slightly higher tightness scores than males and people who had at the most primary or secondary education reported higher tightness than respondents who had higher education) had disappeared by 2012. An item-level analysis revealed that both in 2002 and 2012 people believed that there are many social norms in Estonia and inappropriate behaviour will be disapproved by others, but in 2012 respondents reported that the norms were clearer; there was more general agreement about appropriate vs. inappropriate behaviour and expected compliance with social norms was higher. The possible reasons for strengthened tightness in 2012 compared with 2002 include the end of the transition phase in Estonia and the adoption of new norms through integration with Europe. Such homogenisation of tightness levels across different social subgroups is in line with previous research showing identity clarification and homogenisation in post-transition countries. Further research about the temporal stability and intracultural variation of tightness-looseness in more politically stable but also more heterogeneous countries is needed in order to confirm and extend our current results.http://www.ester.ee/record=b4429009~S1*es

Across-time change and variation in cultural tightness-looseness

Cultural tightness-looseness, a dimension which describes the strength, multitude, and clarity of social norms in a culture, has proved significant in explaining differences between cultures. Although several studies have compared different cultures on this domain, this study is the first that targets both within-country differences and across-time variation in tightness-looseness. Using data from two nationally representative samples of Estonians, we found that the general tightness level had changed over a period of 10 years but the effect size of the change was small. A significant within country variance in 2002 had disappeared by 2012. Our results suggest that tightness-looseness, similarly to cultural value orientations, is a relatively stable and robust characteristic of culture–that is, change indeed takes place, but slowly. Future studies about across-time change and within-country variance in tightness-looseness should target more culturally diverse and socially divided societies

\u3ci\u3eCorynebacterium nebraskense\u3c/i\u3e, a New, Orange-Pigmented Phytopathogenic Species

A new species of Corynebacterium isolated from field corn is described. The isolates form a homogeneous group that is recognized as a new species, Corynebacterium nebraskense. The organism is characterized by orange-pig-mented colonies, inability to grow on 0.005% triphenyltetrazolium chloride agar, specific bacteriophage sensitivity, and a guanine plus cytosine content of 73.5 mol%. These and other characters differentiate this organism from other described phytopathogenic corynebacteria. The type strain of C. nebraskense is Fur-1 (= ATCC 27822 = NCPPB 2578)

Brain correlates of social cognition and interaction

Although humans spend a considerable amount of their time in interaction with other people, brain activity has mostly been studied in artificial and simplified settings without real social interaction. However, such conditions are not optimal for understanding how the brain really processes complex and often non-recurring information that arises during interaction with other people. This Thesis probes the brain basis of social observation and live interaction by studying how subtle facial movements (eye blinks) affect the brain activity of the viewer, and how brain rhythms, especially the rolandic mu rhythm, behave during natural conversation. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was used to track the brain activity of the healthy adults. The results showed that the brain of the viewer responds to observed eye blinks, even if the blinks are embedded in other auditory and visual information (e.g. while watching someone telling a story). Brain responses to eye blinks remained equally fast and strong even when the blink video was considerably slowed down to 38% of the original speed. Moreover, the strength of the brain responses to eye blinks correlated positively with the empathy of the viewers. These findings indicate that even facial movements that often go unnoticed are relevant social cues and affect the brain activity of the viewers in an empathy-related manner. For studies of live social interaction, we developed a dual-MEG system. Using this new setup, we recorded MEG from 9 pairs of healthy adults during natural conversation. The sensorimotor cortex was activated in a left-hemisphere-dominant manner when the subjects were speaking, indicated by the suppression of rolandic mu-rhythm both in 10- and 20-Hz frequency bands. The power of the 10-Hz mu rhythm increased transiently 1–3 s before the end of previous speaker's turn, suggesting that the subjects predicted the turn changes to prepare for their own turns. The results of this Thesis broaden the knowledge about how different aspects of social interaction, ranging from perceiving trivial facial movements to turn changes in conversation, modulate the brain activity of the interacting participants

Sotsiaalkindlustusvaidluste kohtuväline lahendamine

http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2658046~S1*es

Debunking Intellectual Property Myths: Cross Cultural Experiments on Perceptions of Property

For decades, the prevailing view in the United States and many Western countries has been that China does not appropriately respect intellectual property rights. These beliefs lie at the heart of President Donald Trump’s current trade war with China. Despite substantial geopolitical debate over differences between American an d Chinese attitudes towards intellectual property rights, and despite the critical effects that such attitudes have on international economic markets and the function of intellectual property systems, empirical evidence of these attitudes is largely lacking. This Article presents original experimental survey research that explores cross cross-cultural differences between American and Chinese attitudes towards intellectual property rights, personal property rights, and real property rights. The results of the studies are somewhat counterintuitive. First, Chinese participants are found to have more consistent preferences towards different types of property rights than Americans. In a series of vignettes designed to test attitudes towards patented subject matter, copyrighted subject matter, tangible personal property, and real property, Chinese responses were more consistent and less context driven. Second, Americans do identify a preference for stronger intellectual property rights than Chinese, but only where infringement is committed by a private party for private benefit. Where infringement is conducted for public benefit, whether by a private or a governmental entity, Chinese and Americans tend to have the same attitudes towards intellectual property rights. Third , Americans display a lower regard for intellectual property rights than for tangible property rights in most contexts, a differential that is not echoed in Chinese responses. The distinctions that Americans draw based on the use to which property is put, and between intellectual property and tangible property, is not consistent with United States law. Our experiments reveal that the ongoing debates over Chinese attitudes towards intellectual property rights miss the mark in certain regards. Chinese and American preferences for property rights are more similar than most have assumed, and the manners in which they differ are inconsistent with most proffered theories. These results provide important lessons for the future of international intellectual property rights relations, discourse, and enforcement

Intellectual Property Law’s Plagiarism Fallacy

Intellectual property law is caught in a widespread debate over whether it should serve incentive or natural rights objectives, and what the best means for achieving those ends are. This article reports a series of experiments revealing that these debates are actually orthogonal to how most users and many creators understand intellectual property law. The most common perception of intellectual property among the American public is that intellectual property law is designed to prevent plagiarism. The plagiarism fallacy in intellectual property law is not an innocuous misperception. This fallacy likely helps explain pervasive illegal infringing activity on the Internet, common dismissal of copyright warnings, and other previously puzzling behavior. The received wisdom has been that the public is ethically dismissive or indifferent towards intellectual property rights. This research reveals instead that experts have failed to comprehend what the public’s conception of intellectual property law actually is. The studies reported here uncover several additional intellectual property law findings, including that (1) the majority of the American public views intellectual property rights as too broad and too strong, (2) knowledge of intellectual property law does not affect opinions about what the law should be, and (3) there are significant demographic and cultural divides concerning attitudes towards intellectual property rights. The findings as a whole raise central questions concerning the public legitimacy of intellectual property law and, consequently, its ability to function as intended

Intellectual Property Law’s Plagiarism Fallacy

Intellectual property law is caught in a widespread debate over whether it should serve incentive or natural rights objectives, and what the best means for achieving those ends are. This article reports a series of experiments revealing that these debates are actually orthogonal to how most users and many creators understand intellectual property law. The most common perception of intellectual property among the American public is that intellectual property law is designed to prevent plagiarism. The plagiarism fallacy in intellectual property law is not an innocuous misperception. This fallacy likely helps explain pervasive illegal infringing activity on the Internet, common dismissal of copyright warnings, and other previously puzzling behavior. The received wisdom has been that the public is ethically dismissive or indifferent towards intellectual property rights. This research reveals instead that experts have failed to comprehend what the public’s conception of intellectual property law actually is. The studies reported here uncover several additional intellectual property law findings, including that (1) the majority of the American public views intellectual property rights as too broad and too strong, (2) knowledge of intellectual property law does not affect opinions about what the law should be, and (3) there are significant demographic and cultural divides concerning attitudes towards intellectual property rights. The findings as a whole raise central questions concerning the public legitimacy of intellectual property law and, consequently, its ability to function as intended

Binaural interaction and the octave illusion

The auditory octave illusion arises when dichotically presented tones, one octave apart, alternate rapidly between the ears. Most subjects perceive an illusory sequence of monaural tones: A high tone in the right ear (RE) alternates with a low tone, incorrectly localized to the left ear (LE). Behavioral studies suggest that the perceived pitch follows the RE input, and the perceived location the higher-frequency sound. To explore the link between the perceived pitches and brain-level interactions of dichotic tones, magnetoencephalographic responses were recorded to 4 binaural combinations of 2-min long continuous 400- and 800-Hz tones and to 4 monaural tones. Responses to LE and RE inputs were distinguished by frequency-tagging the ear-specific stimuli at different modulation frequencies. During dichotic presentation, ipsilateral LE tones elicited weaker and ipsilateral RE tones stronger responses than when both ears received the same tone. During the most paradoxical stimulus—high tone to LE and low tone to RE perceived as a low tone in LE during the illusion—also the contralateral responses to LE tones were diminished. The results demonstrate modified binaural interaction of dichotic tones one octave apart, suggesting that this interaction contributes to pitch perception during the octave illusion.Peer reviewe

Squeezing of Atomic Quantum Projection Noise

We provide a framework for understanding recent experiments on squeezing of a collective atomic pseudo-spin, induced by a homodyne measurement on off-resonant probe light interrogating the atoms. The detection of light decimates the atomic state distribution and we discuss the conditions under which the resulting reduced quantum fluctuations are metrologically relevant. In particular, we consider a dual probe scheme which benefits from a cancelation of classical common mode noise sources such that quantum fluctuations from light and atoms are the main contributions to the detected signal.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Modern Optic