[Review of] Leonore Loeb Adler and Uwe P. Gielen. Cross-Cultural Topics on Psychology

It has been over forty years since Gordon Allport published The Nature of Prejudice (Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1954). To Allport, sociocultural factors play an important role in our prejudice, especially when we do not understand cultural differences. However, Allport\u27s book dealt little with cross-cultural research. Fortunately, Leonore Loeb Adler and Uwe P. Gielen, two experts in cross-cultural research, have presented us with their recent study on how cultural understanding helps us to be more open-minded

Categorical Necessity and Utility of Stereotyping and Totemic Thinking: Analyzing and Reviewing the Stereotype EPA Theory, Social Perception Accuracy, and Female Hurricanes

Surprisingly research scientists scholars or lay people in the United States or elsewhere tend to see stereotypes as negative and inaccurate Because stereotypes are regarded as taboos we are usually told not to use them at all Further little research has been done on the relationship between stereotyping and totemic thinking However in order to survive and function well through millions of years our ancestors and modern human beings unconsciously and consciously use stereotypes and totems almost every second of the day which is consistent with Darwin s evolutionary science This article addresses three aspects of the categorical necessity and utility of stereotypes and totems First I will address what totemic thinking is and how totems are related to stereotypes theoretically through evolution Second I will analyze and review Jussim s 2012 book on social perception and social reality which tells us how modern social psychology fails to acknowledge the overwhelming evidence of stereotype accuracy research Finally I will critically examine a recent scientific article about gender stereotypes and female hurricanes by Jung Shavitt Viswanathan and Hilbe 2014 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences PNAS of the United States of America In brief to function well or even survive human beings have to count on categorical thinking including stereotypes and totems evolutionaril

[Review of] Jan Nederveen Pietrse. White on Black: Images of Africa and Blacks in Western Popular Culture

White on Black: Images of Africa and Blacks in Western Popular Culture, by Jan Nederveen Pieterse, a Dutch social scientist, provides us with insightful thoughts about the ethnic conflict between the dominant Whites and the dominated Blacks

Daoist Harmony as a Chinese Philosophy and Psychology

Based on Lee’s prior research on Daoism (Lee, 2003; Lee, 2004; Lee, Han, Byron and Fan, 2008; Lee and Hu, 1993; Lee, Norasakkunkit, Liu, Zhang and Zhou, 2008), this article first introduces Laozi, Dao, De and Daoism in relation to harmony. Then, Daoist harmony is elaborated in the following areas: (1) the yin-yang oneness, (2) the way it is (natural), (3) wei-wu-wei (or nonintervention), (4) water-like characteristics, (5) love for peace, and (6) tolerance and appreciation of differences. The article concludes with a suggestion for harmony with the external world as well as with fellow human beings

How are Asian Americans Seen and Evaluated? Examining Ethnic Stereotypes and their Cultural Complexity

Human stereotypes are more complicated and subtle than scholars or lay people often think. Based on the EPA (i.e., evaluation, potency and accuracy) theory of stereotypes (Lee, 2011; Lee, B., W. & Luo, 2007; Lee, J., & McCauley, 2013; Lee, McCauley & Jussim, 2013; Lee, V. S., & Ma, 2007), it was hypothesized and found that stereotypes of Asian Americans are derived on the basis of both evaluative considerations (prejudice) and a realistic assessment of group characteristics. This produces a pattern of stereotypic judgments that contains both agreement and disagreement when comparing stereotypes of Asian Americans among different perceiver groups (European Americans, non-Asian Minority-Americans). The results of the present study also highlight complexities that arise when one considers the effect of inter-group contact on stereotyping. Specifically, an increase in the frequency of inter-group contact was associated with a reduction in negative stereotyping, whereas an increase in the quality or closeness of inter-group contact was associated with an increase in negative stereotyping. It is concluded that inter-group stereotyping reflects a complex mixture of psychological processes that are in need of further investigation

A Small-Scale Voting Protocol Hiding Vote-Counts of All Candidates

In this paper, we focus on the design of the winner-determination procedure of an electronic voting protocol used at critical elections, e.g. at the meeting of the board of a company for critical business decisions or a parliamentary committee for legislation. The number of participating voters is limited to several hundreds but the voting should satisfy a new privacy requirement that the accumulated vote-counts of all candidates should be kept as secret as possible. This additional requirement is significant only for small/medium-scale elections. Traditional electronic voting frameworks simply take the announcement of vote-counts for granted and hope that each individual¡¦s actual vote is hidden in the accumulated vote-counts. Therefore, it is not easy to modify an existing scheme to approach this new goal. In the proposed protocol, the homomorphic ElGamal cryptosystem is used. An electronic bulletin board holds public announced values. A ballot consists of separate encrypted ¡¥yes¡¦/¡¦no¡¦ vote for each candidate such that the accumulated vote-counts can be calculated from the ciphertexts without any decryption. The correctness of each ballot is guaranteed through ZKPs. The accumulated vote-count ciphertexts are then converted to encrypted unary representation through a mix-and-match sub-protocol such that the vote-counts can be concealed in the winner-determination stage. This protocol is suited for both equal-voting and weighted-voting schemes. Also, the type of voter¡¦s selection can be single choice, multiple choices, ranking choice, or the allocative choice

Concurrent Use in Taiwan of Chinese Herbal Medicine Therapies among Hormone Users Aged 55 Years to 79 Years and Its Association with Breast Cancer Risk: A Population-Based Study

Background. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the concurrent use of Chinese herbal products (CHPs) among women aged 55 to 79 years who had also been prescribed hormonal therapies (HT) and its association with breast cancer risk. Methods. The use, frequency of service, and CHP prescribed among 17,583 HT users were evaluated from a random sample of 1 million beneficiaries from the National Health Insurance Research Database. A logistic regression method was used to identify the factors that were associated with the coprescription of a CHP and HT. Cox proportional hazards regressions were performed to calculate the hazard ratios (HRs) of breast cancer between the TCM nonusers and women who had undergone coadministration of HT and a CHP or CHPs. Results. More than one out of every five study subjects used a CHP concurrently with HT (CHTCHP patients). Shu-Jing-Huo-Xie-Tang was the most commonly used CHP coadministered with HT. In comparison to HT-alone users, the HRs for invasive breast cancer among CHTCHP patients were not significantly increased either in E-alone group or in mixed regimen group. Conclusions. The coadministration of hormone regimen and CHPs did not increase the risk of breast cancer