Bias in judgement: Comparing individuals and groups

The relative susceptibility of individuals and groups to systematic judgmental biases is considered. An overview of the relevant empirical literature reveals no clear or general pattern. However, a theoretical analysis employing J. H. Davis's (1973) social decision scheme (SDS) model reveals that the relative magnitude of individual and group bias depends upon several factors, including group size, initial individual judgment, the magnitude of bias among individuals, the type of bias, and most of all, the group-judgment process. It is concluded that there can be no simple answer to the question, "Which are more biased, individuals or groups?," but the SDS model offers a framework for specifying some of the conditions under which individuals are both more and less biased than groups

Should Sixth Grade be in Elementary or Middle School? An Analysis of Grade Configuration and Student Behavior

Using administrative data on public school students in North Carolina, we find that sixth grade students attending middle schools are much more likely to be cited for discipline problems than those attending elementary school. That difference remains after adjusting for the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the students and their schools. Furthermore, the higher infraction rates recorded by sixth graders who are placed in middle school persist at least through ninth grade. A plausible explanation is that sixth graders are at an especially impressionable age; in middle school, the exposure to older peers and the relative freedom from supervision have deleterious consequences.

The ‘drug policy ratchet’: why do sanctions for new psychoactive drugs typically only go up?

It has been much more common for drugs to be subjected to tighter rather than looser control as drugs and evidence about their effects have has emerged. We argue that there is in place a drug policy ratchet which subjects new psychoactive substances (NPS) to increasing control through the continuation of historical patterns that involve the attribution to emerging drugs of guilt by three different kinds of association: guilt by deviant association; guilt by lunatic association; and guilt by molecular association. We use our contemporary ethnographic experience of drug policy-making to show how these processes continue to be applied to policy on NPS, alongside selective, narrative use of evidence and the ‘silent silencing’ by absorption of the concept of evidence-based policy. We show that the drug policy ratchet cannot be justified as an example of the precautionary principle in action, as this principle is itself not rationally justified. We conclude that recognition of the drug policy ratchet and its mechanisms may help researchers and policy-makers to improve regulation of NPS

Mitigating harm: considering harm reduction principles in work with sexually exploited young people

A growing awareness of child sexual exploitation (CSE) in the United Kingdom and throughout the world has prompted human service and legal/policy professionals to seek ways of engaging young people experiencing sexual exploitation, although much remains unknown regarding effective practice, and whether or not current knowledge regarding best practices with young people can be expanded to address CSE. This paper considers how principles of harm reduction, a public health approach widely used to engage adults and young people in help-seeking behaviours, can be considered as part of a children's rights-centred approach to policy and practice with young people experiencing CSE

Transparency and Reproducibility in Participatory Systems Modelling: the Case of Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping

By aggregating semi-quantitative mind maps from multiple agents, fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) allows developing an integrated, cross-sectoral understanding of complex systems. However, and especially for FCM based on individual interviews, the map-building process presents potential pitfalls. These are mainly related to the different understandings of the interviewees about the FCM semantics as well as the biases of the analyst during the elicitation and treatment of data. This paper introduces a set of good practice measures to increase transparency and reproducibility of map-building processes in order to improve credibility of results from FCM applications. The case study used to illustrate the proposed good practices assesses heatwave impacts and adaptation options in an urban environment. Agents from different urban sectors were interviewed to obtain individual cognitive maps. Using this set of data, we suggest good practices to collect, digitalize, interpret, pre-process and aggregate the individual maps in a traceable and coherent way. © 2018 The Authors Systems Research and Behavioral Science published by International Federation for Systems Research and John Wiley and Sons Ltd. © 2018 The Authors Systems Research and Behavioral Science published by International Federation for Systems Research and John Wiley and Sons LtdThis study is part of the project Bottom-up Climate Adaptation Strategies for a Sustainable Europe (BASE) funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under Grant Agreement No. 308337. MO (FPDI-2013-16631 and IJCI-2016-28835) and MBN (RYC-2013-13628) acknowledge co-funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO)