Indian Idols Drinking Milk: Understanding the Phenomenon and Its Implications for Social Reform

The mass media have occasionally been reporting miracles such as stone idols sipping milk or bleeding in India The author argues for viewing such irrational happenings as the examples of the social psychological phenomenon of conformity to the group norms i e informal unwritten prescriptions of what the group might think to be right and desirable By identifying people as likely 1 sources of accurate information and 2 standards of desirable behaviors in a given situation it is proposed that a shift from conformity to the norms to compliance to the laws might be helpful in building a New Indi

Psychological Foundations of the Cleanliness Initiative in Ahmedabad City of India

Spitting on the roads of and littering around a city in India have been of concern to national leaders and civil servants since the pre-independence years It was unsurprising therefore that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan SBA as a nation-wide cleanliness campaign on October 2 2014 at Rajghat New Delhi The cleanliness initiative by the Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner i dissuades spitting on the roads and littering around the city ii collects fines from those whose photos are captured by CCTV cameras and iii invites active participation of all residents of Ahmedabad in the cleanliness drive The authors present psychological foundations of this initiative arguing that all residents ought to hold the offender and anyone else associated with such an offense as accountable Further they raise four new issues with the current cleanliness drive and offer suggestions for how to resolve the

Estimation of water requirement for soybean (Glycine max) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) under vertisols of Madhya Pradesh

The present study was undertaken to evaluate various methods of estimating evapotranspiration to predict water requirement of soybean and wheat crops for nine selected districts of Madhya Pradesh under vertisols. Four methods (Penmann-Montieth, Hargreaves, SCS-Blaney-Criddle and Thornthwaite) of reference evapotranspiration (ET0) estimation were compared for assessing their predictive capability for Bhopal and Indore districts using meteorological data. Reference evapotranspiration was estimated by using Penmann-Montieth method for two districts (Bhopal and Indore) for which data on solar radiation were available and Hargreaves method for remaining seven districts (Chhindwara, Dhar, Guna, Hoshangabad, Jabalpur, Khandawa and Raisen). Crop water requirements were determined through field experiments conducted during 2008 to 2010 for soybean and 2008-09 to 2010-11 for wheat crops using non-weighing type lysimeters at research farm of Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal. The study revealed that among the four methods, Hargreaves method estimated ET0 values with minimum deviation (4.24%) for Bhopal as compared to Penmann-Monteith. The water requirement of soybean and wheat estimated by Penmann-Monteith method was in close agreement (-2.58% and 9.26% deviation) with the measured average water requirement (401.6 and 352.2 mm) respectively followed by Hargreaves method for Bhopal district. It is also inferred that in absence of solar radiation data Hargreaves method could be considered for predicting water requirement of soybean and wheat crops. These water requirement values are useful for effective planning of irrigation scheduling of the soybean and wheat crops in the State

Structure–conductivity correlation in ferric chloride-doped poly(3-hexylthiophene)

Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) matrix has been chemically doped (redox doping) by ferric chloride (FeCl3) with different molar concentrations to get P3HT–FeCl3 charge-transfer complexes. The effect of redox doping on photo-physical, structural, and morphological properties and dc electrical conductivity of P3HT matrices has been examined. The dc conductivity has been measured on films of pristine P3HT and P3HT–FeCl3 charge-transfer complexes in the temperature range 6–300 K. Analysis of dc conductivity data reveals that in the temperature range 40–300 K, the dc conductivity is predominantly governed by Mott's 3-dimensional variable range hopping (3D-VRH); however, below 40 K tunnelling seems to dominate. A slight deviation from 3D-VRH to 1D-VRH is observed with an increase in doping level or precisely with an increase in the extent of P3HT–FeCl3 charge-transfer complexes. We attribute this deviation to the induced expansion in crystallographic lattices as revealed by x-ray diffraction data and formation of discrete conducting domains as observed by atomic force microscope imaging

Research Productivity in Management Schools of India: A Directional Benefit-of-Doubt Model Analysis

Given the growing emphasis on research productivity in management schools in India, the present authors developed a composite indicator (CI) of research productivity, using the directional benefit-of-doubt (D-BOD) model, which can serve as a valuable index of research productivity in India. Specifically, we examined overall research productivity of the schools and the faculty members during the 1968-2014 and 2004-2014 periods in a manner never done before. There are four key findings. First, the relative weights of the journal tier, total citations, impact factor, author h-index, number of papers, and journal h-index varied from high to low in order for estimating the CI of a faculty member. Second, both public and private schools were similar in research productivity. However, faculty members at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) outperformed those at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). Third, faculty members who had their doctoral degrees from foreign, relative to Indian, schools were more productive. Among those trained in India, alumni of IITs, compared to those of IIMs, were more productive. Finally, IIMs at Ahmedabad and Bangalore and the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad have seemingly more superstars than other schools among the top 5% researchers during 2004-2014. These findings indicate a shift in the priority from mere training of managers to generating impactful knowledge by at least two of the three established public schools, and call attention to improving the quality of doctoral training in India in general and IIMs in particular. Suggestions for improving research productivity are also offered

From wrongdoing to imprisonment: Test of a causal-moral model

The authors tested a causal–moral model of punishment in which (a) causal attribution and moral responsibility are distinct precursors of punishment, and (b) dispositional attribution leads to blame which, in turn, determines imprisonment. Specifically, whereas severity of outcome impacts punishment directly, circumstances of the crime and the culture of the observers impact punishment through causal attribution and blame, respectively. In an experiment, Singaporeans and Americans read about a crime that (a) was committed intentionally or under an extenuating circumstance and (b) had low or severe outcome for the victim. They made dispositional attribution to, assigned blame to, and recommended imprisonment for the offender. Results supported the hypotheses and the causal–moral path model that specified a direct effect of severity of outcome, an indirect effect of country via blame, and the indirect effects of circumstance via dispositional attribution to blame on imprisonment

AFFECTIVE IMPLICATIONS OF THE WEIGHTING COEFFICIENT IN ATTRACTION RESEARCH

Abstract not availabl