Green, greener, greenest:Can competition increase sustainable behavior?

Today's world is confronted with alarming environmental problems and it becomes increasingly important to enhance people's sustainable behavior. It is therefore key for companies and policy makers to motivate sustainable behavior among both those who are naturally concerned about the welfare of others and are already more likely to be environmentally conscious (“pro-socials”) and those who are generally less motivated to act sustainably, as they are more concerned with maximizing their own benefits or relative advantage over others (“pro-selves”). Contributing to research in persuasion and environmental psychology, the current work investigates a new strategy that could foster the motivation to behave sustainably across both segments of people: competition. Across four studies in the lab, online, and field we find that competition promotes sustainable behavior, as it corresponds with the underlying motivations of pro-selves and, when used as a mean to a sustainable end, it does not alienate pro-socials from continuing to behave sustainably

Health & Wealth:is weight loss success related to monetary savings in US adults of low-income? Findings from a National Study

BACKGROUND: Many individuals aspire to attain various goals in life, such as committing to a healthful diet to slim down or saving for retirement to enhance future welfare. While these behaviors (weight loss and saving) share the common denominator of self-regulation, it is unclear whether success in one domain is related to the other. Therefore, we examined the relationship between long term weight loss (LTWL) success and monetary savings among U.S. adults who at one point in life diverged from normal weight status. METHODS: Data on 1994 adults with a maximum BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 and with an annual household income equal or less than 200% poverty level. Data were derived from a U.S. population-based study (NHANES). The independent variable was LTWL success (loss maintained for at least 1 year), which was operationalized as < 10% (reference group), 10.00-19.99%, and ≥ 20.00%. The dependent variable was monetary savings (e.g., 401 K), defined as a 3-category ordinal variable. We employed ordered logistic regression to estimate the relationship between LTWL success and increased odds for higher overall savings. RESULTS: Multivariable analysis revealed that adjusting for income, education and other covariates, being in the highest LTWL category (≥20.00%) significantly reduced the likelihood of monetary savings in comparison to the reference group (OR = 0.55, 95%CI = 0.34-0.91). This relationship was not observed in the lower LTWL category (10.00-19.99%). CONCLUSIONS: Adults who in the past were overweight or obese and who presently exhibit high levels of LTWL, were markedly less successful when it came to their finances. This might stem from significant cognitive-affective resources exerted during the weight loss process coupled with a paucity of financial resources which impede financial decision making. This supposition, however, warrants future research

A Cross-National Investigation into the Marketing Department\u27s Influence Within the Firm: Toward Initial Empirical Generalizations

This study of the influence of the marketing department (MD), as well as its relationship with firm performance, includes seven industrialized countries and aims to generalize the conceptual model presented by Verhoef and Leeflang (2009). This investigation considers the antecedents of perceived MD influence, top management respect for the MD, and MD decision influence, as well as the relationships of these three influence variables with market orientation (MO) and business performance (BP). Meta-analytic procedures reveal initial empirical generalizations: Accountability, MD innovativeness, and the customer connection capabilities of the MD relate consistently to all three studied MD influence measures. The generalization also shows that MD influence contributes to BP indirectly through its positive relationship with MO and directly through its positive direct relationship with BP

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements