Do the right thing: experimental evidence that preferences for moral behavior, rather than equity or efficiency per se, drive human prosociality

Decades of experimental research show that some people forgo personal gains to benefit others in unilateral anonymous interactions. To explain these results, behavioral economists typically assume that people have social preferences for minimizing inequality and/or maximizing efficiency (social welfare). Here we present data that are incompatible with these standard social preference models. We use a “Trade-Off Game” (TOG), where players unilaterally choose between an equitable option and an efficient option. We show that simply changing the labelling of the options to describe the equitable versus efficient option as morally right completely reverses the correlation between behavior in the TOG and play in a separate Dictator Game (DG) or Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD): people who take the action framed as moral in the TOG, be it equitable or efficient, are much more prosocial in the DG and PD. Rather than preferences for equity and/or efficiency per se, our results suggest that prosociality in games such as the DG and PD are driven by a generalized morality preference that motivates people to do what they think is morally right

Time pressure and honesty in a deception game

Previous experiments have found mixed results on whether honesty is intuitive or requires deliberation. Here we add to this literature by building on prior work of Capraro (2017). We report a large study (N=1,389) manipulating time pressure vs time delay in a deception game. We find that, in this setting, people are more honest under time pressure, and that this result is not driven by confounds present in earlier work

Social heuristics and social roles: Intuition favors altruism for women but not for men

Are humans intuitively altruistic, or does altruism require self-control? A theory of social heuristics, whereby intuitive responses favor typically successful behaviors, suggests that the answer may depend on who you are. In particular, evidence suggests that women are expected to behave altruistically, and are punished for failing to be altruistic, to a much greater extent than men. Thus, women (but not men) may internalize altruism as their intuitive response. Indeed, a meta-analysis of 13 new experiments and 9 experiments from other groups found that promoting intuition increased giving in a Dictator Game among women, but not among men (Study 1). Furthermore, this effect was shown to be moderated by explicit sex role identification (Study 2, N=1,831): the more women described themselves using traditionally masculine attributes (e.g., dominance, independence) relative to traditionally feminine attributes (e.g., warmth, tenderness), the more deliberation reduced their altruism. Our findings shed light on the connection between gender and altruism, and highlight the importance of social heuristics in human prosociality

Study of fuel cell on-site, integrated energy systems in residential/commercial applications

Three building applications were selected for a detailed study: a low rise apartment building; a retail store, and a hospital. Building design data were then specified for each application, based on the design and construction of typical, actual buildings. Finally, a computerized building loads analysis program was used to estimate hourly end use load profiles for each building. Conventional and fuel cell based energy systems were designed and simulated for each building in each location. Based on the results of a computer simulation of each energy system, levelized annual costs and annual energy consumptions were calculated for all systems

Lower bounds for the first eigenvalue of the magnetic Laplacian

We consider a Riemannian cylinder endowed with a closed potential 1-form A and study the magnetic Laplacian with magnetic Neumann boundary conditions associated with those data. We establish a sharp lower bound for the first eigenvalue and show that the equality characterizes the situation where the metric is a product. We then look at the case of a planar domain bounded by two closed curves and obtain an explicit lower bound in terms of the geometry of the domain. We finally discuss sharpness of this last estimate.Comment: Replaces in part arXiv:1611.0193

PeTTSy: a computational tool for perturbation analysis of complex systems biology models

Abstract Background Over the last decade sensitivity analysis techniques have been shown to be very useful to analyse complex and high dimensional Systems Biology models. However, many of the currently available toolboxes have either used parameter sampling, been focused on a restricted set of model observables of interest, studied optimisation of a objective function, or have not dealt with multiple simultaneous model parameter changes where the changes can be permanent or temporary. Results Here we introduce our new, freely downloadable toolbox, PeTTSy (Perturbation Theory Toolbox for Systems). PeTTSy is a package for MATLAB which implements a wide array of techniques for the perturbation theory and sensitivity analysis of large and complex ordinary differential equation (ODE) based models. PeTTSy is a comprehensive modelling framework that introduces a number of new approaches and that fully addresses analysis of oscillatory systems. It examines sensitivity analysis of the models to perturbations of parameters, where the perturbation timing, strength, length and overall shape can be controlled by the user. This can be done in a system-global setting, namely, the user can determine how many parameters to perturb, by how much and for how long. PeTTSy also offers the user the ability to explore the effect of the parameter perturbations on many different types of outputs: period, phase (timing of peak) and model solutions. PeTTSy can be employed on a wide range of mathematical models including free-running and forced oscillators and signalling systems. To enable experimental optimisation using the Fisher Information Matrix it efficiently allows one to combine multiple variants of a model (i.e. a model with multiple experimental conditions) in order to determine the value of new experiments. It is especially useful in the analysis of large and complex models involving many variables and parameters. Conclusions PeTTSy is a comprehensive tool for analysing large and complex models of regulatory and signalling systems. It allows for simulation and analysis of models under a variety of environmental conditions and for experimental optimisation of complex combined experiments. With its unique set of tools it makes a valuable addition to the current library of sensitivity analysis toolboxes. We believe that this software will be of great use to the wider biological, systems biology and modelling communities

Benevolent characteristics promote cooperative behaviour among humans

Cooperation is fundamental to the evolution of human society. We regularly observe cooperative behaviour in everyday life and in controlled experiments with anonymous people, even though standard economic models predict that they should deviate from the collective interest and act so as to maximise their own individual payoff. However, there is typically heterogeneity across subjects: some may cooperate, while others may not. Since individual factors promoting cooperation could be used by institutions to indirectly prime cooperation, this heterogeneity raises the important question of who these cooperators are. We have conducted a series of experiments to study whether benevolence, defined as a unilateral act of paying a cost to increase the welfare of someone else beyond one's own, is related to cooperation in a subsequent one-shot anonymous Prisoner's dilemma. Contrary to the predictions of the widely used inequity aversion models, we find that benevolence does exist and a large majority of people behave this way. We also find benevolence to be correlated with cooperative behaviour. Finally, we show a causal link between benevolence and cooperation: priming people to think positively about benevolent behaviour makes them significantly more cooperative than priming them to think malevolently. Thus benevolent people exist and cooperate more

Strong Coupling Corrections to the Ginzburg-Landau Theory of Superfluid ^{3}He

In the Ginzburg-Landau theory of superfluid $^{3}$He, the free energy is expressed as an expansion of invariants of a complex order parameter. Strong coupling effects, which increase with increasing pressure, are embodied in the set of coefficients of these order parameter invariants\cite{Leg75,Thu87}. Experiments can be used to determine four independent combinations of the coefficients of the five fourth order invariants. This leaves the phenomenological description of the thermodynamics near $T_{c}$ incomplete. Theoretical understanding of these coefficients is also quite limited. We analyze our measurements of the magnetic susceptibility and the NMR frequency shift in the $B$-phase which refine the four experimental inputs to the phenomenological theory. We propose a model based on existing experiments, combined with calculations by Sauls and Serene\cite{Sau81} of the pressure dependence of these coefficients, in order to determine all five fourth order terms. This model leads us to a better understanding of the thermodynamics of superfluid $^{3}$He in its various states. We discuss the surface tension of bulk superfluid $^{3}$He and predictions for novel states of the superfluid such as those that are stabilized by elastic scattering of quasiparticles from a highly porous silica aerogel.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 2 table

PeTTSy : a computational tool for perturbation analysis of complex systems biology models

Background Over the last decade sensitivity analysis techniques have been shown to be very useful to analyse complex and high dimensional Systems Biology models. However, many of the currently available toolboxes have either used parameter sampling, been focused on a restricted set of model observables of interest, studied optimisation of a objective function, or have not dealt with multiple simultaneous model parameter changes where the changes can be permanent or temporary. Results Here we introduce our new, freely downloadable toolbox, PeTTSy (Perturbation Theory Toolbox for Systems). PeTTSy is a package for MATLAB which implements a wide array of techniques for the perturbation theory and sensitivity analysis of large and complex ordinary differential equation (ODE) based models. PeTTSy is a comprehensive modelling framework that introduces a number of new approaches and that fully addresses analysis of oscillatory systems. It examines sensitivity analysis of the models to perturbations of parameters, where the perturbation timing, strength, length and overall shape can be controlled by the user. This can be done in a system-global setting, namely, the user can determine how many parameters to perturb, by how much and for how long. PeTTSy also offers the user the ability to explore the effect of the parameter perturbations on many different types of outputs: period, phase (timing of peak) and model solutions. PeTTSy can be employed on a wide range of mathematical models including free-running and forced oscillators and signalling systems. To enable experimental optimisation using the Fisher Information Matrix it efficiently allows one to combine multiple variants of a model (i.e. a model with multiple experimental conditions) in order to determine the value of new experiments. It is especially useful in the analysis of large and complex models involving many variables and parameters. Conclusions PeTTSy is a comprehensive tool for analysing large and complex models of regulatory and signalling systems. It allows for simulation and analysis of models under a variety of environmental conditions and for experimental optimisation of complex combined experiments. With its unique set of tools it makes a valuable addition to the current library of sensitivity analysis toolboxes. We believe that this software will be of great use to the wider biological, systems biology and modelling communities

Phase diagram of superfluid 3He in "nematically ordered" aerogel

Results of experiments with liquid 3He immersed in a new type of aerogel are described. This aerogel consists of Al2O3 strands which are nearly parallel to each other, so we call it as a "nematically ordered" aerogel. At all used pressures a superfluid transition was observed and a superfluid phase diagram was measured. Possible structures of the observed superfluid phases are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to Pis'ma v ZhETF (JETP Letters