74 research outputs found
The impact of residential change and housing stability on recidivism: pilot results from the Maryland Opportunities through Vouchers Experiment (MOVE)
Objectives: This article provides a description and preliminary assessment of the Maryland
Opportunities through Vouchers Experiment (MOVE), a randomized housing mobility program
for former prisoners designed to test whether residential relocation far away from former
neighborhoods, incentivized through the provision of a housing subsidy, can yield reductions in
recidivism.
Methods: The MOVE program was implemented as a randomized controlled trial. Participants
were recruited from four different Maryland prisons and randomly assigned to experimental
groups. In the first iteration of the experiment, treatment group participants received six months
of free housing away from their home jurisdiction and control group participants received free
housing back in their home jurisdiction. In the second iteration of the experiment, the treatment
group remained the same and the control condition was redesigned to represent the status quo
and did not receive free housing. Analyses were conducted of one-year rearrest rates.
Results: With respect to reductions in recidivism, pilot results suggest that there is some benefit
to moving and a benefit to receiving free housing. Rearrest was lower among the treatment group
of movers than the non-movers, and was also lower for non-movers who received free housing
versus non-movers who did not receive housing.
Conclusions: To the extent that pilot results can be validated and replicated in a full-scale
implementation of the MOVE program, policies that provide greater access to housing assistance
for formerly incarcerated individuals may yield substantial public safety benefits, particularly
housing opportunities located far away from former neighborhoods
Changing Attitudes Toward Sustainable Transportation: The Impact of Meta-Arguments on Persuasion
An experiment tested the effects of both communications about the functions of an attitude and communications about the functions of an attitude object on persuasion. Participants received a conventional message about the benefits of public transportation, a message about the benefits of positive public transportation attitudes, or a control message. Meta-arguments about the functions of attitudes led to more favorable evaluations and stronger intentions to use public transportation. These effects were moderated by the political and environmental orientation of participants. Surprisingly, the conventional message was not persuasive. The research is novel in showing that the communication of the functions of a particular attitudinal position can change attitudes. Our findings broaden the arsenal of arguments that policymakers, environmentalists, and educators can use to change attitudes toward sustainable transportation
Who multi-tasks and why? Multi-tasking ability, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking.
The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability. The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are not the persons who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. To the contrary, multi-tasking activity as measured by the Media Multitasking Inventory and self-reported cell phone usage while driving were negatively correlated with actual multi-tasking ability. Multi-tasking was positively correlated with participants' perceived ability to multi-task ability which was found to be significantly inflated. Participants with a strong approach orientation and a weak avoidance orientation--high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking--reported greater multi-tasking behavior. Finally, the findings suggest that people often engage in multi-tasking because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task. Participants with less executive control--low scorers on the Operation Span task and persons high in impulsivity--tended to report higher levels of multi-tasking activity
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