When emotional intelligence affects peoples' perception of trustworthiness

By adopting social exchange theory and the affect-infusion-model, the hypothesis is made that emotional intelligence (EI) will have an impact on three perceptions of trustworthiness – ability, integrity and benevolence – at the beginning of a relationship. It was also hypothesized that additional information would gradually displace EI in forming the above perceptions. The results reveal that EI initially does not contribute to any of the perceptions of trustworthiness. As more information is revealed EI has an impact on the perception of benevolence, but not on the perceptions of ability and integrity. This impact was observed to be negative when the nature of the information was negative. On the other hand, information alone was shown to have a significant impact on the perceptions of ability and integrity, but not on the perception of benevolence. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are addressed

The influence of emotions on trust in ethical decision making

This paper attempts to delineate the interaction between trust, emotion, and ethical decision making. The authors first propose that trust can either incite an individual toward ethical decisions or drag him or her away from ethical decisions, depending on different situations. The authors then postulate that the feeling of guilt is central in understanding how trust affects the ethical decision making process. Several propositions based on these assumptions are introduced and implications for practice discussed

How betrayal affects emotions and subsequent trust

This article investigates the impact of different emotions on trust decisions taking into account the experience of betrayal. Thus, an experiment was created that included one betrayal group and one control group. Participants in the betrayal group experienced more intense feelings governed by negative emotions than participants in the control group did. Moreover, participants in the betrayal group significantly lowered their trust of another stranger. On the other hand, we found some evidence that neuroticism exaggerated the relationship between experienced betrayal and subsequent trust

Non-PORC behaviour of a class of descendant pp-groups

We prove that the number of immediate descendants of order $p^10$ of $G_p$ is not PORC (Polynomial On Residue Classes) where $G_p$ is the $p$-group of order $p^9$ defined by du Sautoy's nilpotent group encoding the elliptic curve $y^2=x^3-x$. This has important implications for Higman's PORC conjecture

Integration in the Absence of Institutions: China-North Korea Cross-Border Exchange

Theory tells us that weak rule of law and institutions deter cross-border integration, deter investment relative to trade, and inhibit trade finance. Drawing on a survey of more than 300 Chinese enterprises that are doing or have done business in North Korea, we consider how informal institutions have addressed these problems in a setting in which rule of law and institutions are particularly weak. Given the apparent reliance on hedging strategies, the rapid growth in exchange witnessed in recent years may prove self-limiting, as the effectiveness of informal institutions erode and the risk premium rises. Institutional improvement could have significant welfare implications, affecting the volume, composition, and financial terms of cross-border exchange.economic integration, property rights, institutions, transition, China, North Korea

Lines-of-inquiry and sources of evidence in work-based research

There is synergy between the investigative practices of police detectives and social scientists, including work-based researchers. They both develop lines-of-inquiry and draw on multiple sources of evidence in order to make inferences about people, trends and phenomena. However, the principles associated with lines-of-inquiry and sources of evidence have not so far been examined in relation to work-based research methods, which are often unexplored or ill-defined in the published literature. We explore this gap by examining the various direct and indirect lines-of-inquiry and the main sources of primary and secondary evidence used in work-based research, which is especially relevant because some work-based researchers are also police detectives. Clearer understanding of these intersections will be useful in emerging professional contexts where the work-based researcher, the detective, and the social scientist cohere in the one person and their research project. The case we examined was a Professional Studies programme at a university in Australia, which has many police detectives doing work-based research, and from their experience we conclude there is synergy between work-based research and lines of enquiry. Specifically, in the context of research methods, we identify seven sources of evidence: 1) creative, unstructured, and semi-structured interviews; 2) structured interviews; 3) consensus group methods; 4) surveys; 5) documentation and archives; 6) direct observations and participant observations; and 7) physical or cultural artefacts, and show their methodological features related to data and method type, reliability, validity, and types of analysis, along with their respective advantages and disadvantages. This study thereby unpacks and isolates those characteristics of work-based research which are relevant to a growing body of literature related to the messy, co-produced and wicked problems of private companies, government agencies, and non-government organisations and the research methods used to investigate them

Phenotypic responses of zooplankton to variable conditions

Organisms are continually challenged by multiple threats in the environment, and such threats are seldom constant in either time or space. Therefore, organisms must maintain physiological, behavioural, morphological and life- history adaptations across environments to prevent reductions in fitness. Freshwater ecosystems are particularly variable environments, and so organisms inhabiting lakes and ponds exhibit a range of different adaptations in order to survive and propagate. Despite this, the energetic constraints and potentially divergent responses required towards multiple threats creates the necessity to make trade-offs in their phenotypic repertoire. The outcomes of such phenotypic compromises are often difficult to predict and requires both a mechanistic understanding of the threats and responses involved, as well as insights into the resulting fitness consequences. Although this is relatively well understood with regards to some threats like predation for example, other biotic and abiotic stressors are less well studied. In this thesis I identify phenotypic compromises in behavioural, morphological and life-history traits of zooplankton with regards to variable environments.Behaviour is often considered one of the most labile traits and consequently it may provide a quick and inexpensive response to infrequent or rapidly changing contexts. Using 3D tracking, I focused on swimming behaviour of Daphnia magna in response to social context and found that females avoid males in a way that resembles a predation event. In a separate experiment I investigated how the presence of a high-density food patch altered the response to the abiotic threat ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Here I found that despite the potential fitness consequences of UVR the foraging opportunity reduced the avoidance response that has been classically described in Daphnia.UVR is a substantial threat in aquatic systems with documented physiological, behavioural, morphological and life- history responses. It is also a particularly variable stressor as it is absent during night and varies in intensity over the seasons. Despite its variable nature, studies have typically only addressed the presence or absence and not fluctuating UVR stress. I addressed this gap in the knowledge by tracking the survival, reproduction and behavioural response to both fluctuating and stable exposure of UVR. Simply by varying the scheduling but not the quantity of UVR stress, I identified fitness costs that appeared to be linked to the cost of the behavioural avoidance.In high-latitude environments, where phenotypic plasticity is promoted due to seasonal variability, copepods increase pigmentation in response to increased UVR but only in the absence of fish. I tested whether this response is ubiquitous at lower latitudes that experience less seasonality and have evolved with different predation regimes. Copepods from fishless environments had higher pigmentation than those with visually hunting predators. I also found that plasticity towards UVR removal was minor, but plasticity towards predation was mostly idiosyncratic. This suggests that plasticity does exist for the threats that are most variable and constitutive responses may have evolved towards ever present danger

Biopolitics and Bottled Water: Fryeburg, Maine, and the Legalized Uncertainty of Environmental Change

Marcus looks at the environmental politics of the bottled water industry in a small Maine tow