In your face:A comparative field experiment on racial discrimination in Europe

We present the first large-scale comparative field experiment on appearance-based racial discrimination in hiring conducted in Europe. Using a harmonized methodology, we sent fictitious résumés to real vacancies in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, randomly varying applicants’ ethnic ancestry (signaled foremost by name) and applicants’ racial appearance (signaled by photographs). Applicants are young-adult country nationals born to parents from over 40 different countries of ancestry (N = 12 783). We examine average differences in callback across four phenotypic groups and four regions of ancestry and present the first cross-country comparable estimates of appearance-based racial discrimination reported in the field-experimental literature. We find that applicants’ phenotype has a significant and independent effect on employers’ responses in Germany and the Netherlands, whereas in Spain we only find evidence of hiring discrimination for particular combinations of phenotype and ancestry, which suggests a less direct and more complex effect of phenotype in this country. Implications are discussed.</p

DG-RAR for the treatment of symptomatic grade III and grade IV haemorrhoids: a 12-month multi-centre, prospective observational study

BACKGROUND: Ultrasound-guided techniques represent a new treatment option in the treatment of haemorrhoids. Doppler-guided haemorrhoidal artery ligation (DG-HAL) proved efficacious in early haemorrhoidal disease, but lacks efficacy for stages III/IV. For these patients, haemorrhoidal artery ligation (HAL) has been combined with a running suture to reduce prolapsing haemorrhoidal tissue (recto-anal repair (RAR)). METHODS: A prospective observational study was conducted in 184 patients with grade III (58 %) or grade IV (42 %) haemorrhoids in seven coloproctological centres. Primary endpoints were the recurrence of symptoms and need of further treatment (medical or surgical). RESULTS: Post-operative complications were seen in 8 % of patients. After a follow-up of 3 months, 91 % of patients were free of symptoms and 91 % of patients were satisfied with the result. After a follow-up of 12 months, 89 % of patients were free of symptoms and 88 % were satisfied with the result. Nineteen per cent of patients received further medical or surgical treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Doppler-guided recto-anal repair (DG-RAR) proves to be an effective treatment option for the treatment of advanced haemorrhoidal disease that shows equal results to other established treatment options

Mobile Phone-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia:A Randomized Waitlist Controlled Trial

Background: This study is one of the first randomized controlled trials investigating cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) delivered by a fully automated mobile phone app. Such an app can potentially increase the accessibility of insomnia treatment for the 10% of people who have insomnia. Objective: The objective of our study was to investigate the efficacy of CBT-I delivered via the Sleepcare mobile phone app, compared with a waitlist control group, in a randomized controlled trial. Methods: We recruited participants in the Netherlands with relatively mild insomnia disorder. After answering an online pretest questionnaire, they were randomly assigned to the app (n=74) or the waitlist condition (n=77). The app packaged a sleep diary, a relaxation exercise, sleep restriction exercise, and sleep hygiene and education. The app was fully automated and adjusted itself to a participant’s progress. Program duration was 6 to 7 weeks, after which participants received posttest measurements and a 3-month follow-up. The participants in the waitlist condition received the app after they completed the posttest questionnaire. The measurements consisted of questionnaires and 7-day online diaries. The questionnaires measured insomnia severity, dysfunctional beliefs about sleep, and anxiety and depression symptoms. The diary measured sleep variables such as sleep efficiency. We performed multilevel analyses to study the interaction effects between time and condition. Results: The results showed significant interaction effects (P<.01) favoring the app condition on the primary outcome measures of insomnia severity (d=–0.66) and sleep efficiency (d=0.71). Overall, these improvements were also retained in a 3-month follow-up. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the efficacy of a fully automated mobile phone app in the treatment of relatively mild insomnia. The effects were in the range of what is found for Web-based treatment in general. This supports the applicability of such technical tools in the treatment of insomnia. Future work should examine the generalizability to a more diverse population. Furthermore, the separate components of such an app should be investigated. It remains to be seen how this app can best be integrated into the current health regimens. Trial Registration: Netherlands Trial Register: NTR5560; http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=5560 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6noLaUdJ4

Dynamic Currency Conversion Payment Options Specifically Harm Less Financially Literate Customers

International customers are increasingly exposed to dynamic currency conversion, that is, the option during checkout to proceed with a transaction in the home currency instead of a foreign currency. As conversion markups can be sizable, it is relevant to gain insight into how distinct groups of customers react at point-of-sale terminals to different markups and different ways of presenting information. The authors build on research on effort–accuracy trade-offs to theorize how international customers with different levels of financial literacy react to conversion markups, different degrees of information transparency, and default settings. The authors find that financial literacy moderates the effect of markups, information, and defaults, and they design an intervention that eradicates the effect of financial literacy on dynamic currency conversion usage. The results contribute to our understanding of how customers with different levels of financial literacy respond to conversion markups, to public policies that are intended to protect customer interests, and to evil defaults used by commercial parties that seek to steer customers to noneconomical options. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for public policy making and research

Contextual effects of immigrant presence on populist radical right support: testing the ‘halo effect’ on Front National voting in France

This paper examines the relationship between immigration and populist radical right (PRR) support, based on an analysis of the contextual effects of immigrant presence on Front National vote in France in 2017. Using a unique set of survey data geolocalising respondents at the subcommunal level, it finds evidence for the existence of a curvilinear “halo effect,” with substantial increases in the probability of PRR vote in areas surrounding communities with significantly higher-than-average immigrant populations, and independent of other socio-economic context, as well as individual socio-demographic characteristics. Most importantly, a path analysis confirms the presence of individual attitudinal mediators of this halo effect on PRR vote, thus testing the foundation of the halo, namely that the contextual effects of immigrant presence act on attitudes which drive PRR support. These findings provide a significant step forward in understanding the mechanisms linking subjective experience of immigration with voting for the populist radical right