Does social contact lessen perceived cultural distance? Evidence from tourist–host social contact

2016-2017 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journal201804_a bcm

Tourist typology in social contact: An addition to existing theories

Tourist-host social contact, as a unique type of social contact, is not getting sufficient attention in tourism academia considering its remarkable impacts on tourists’ travel attitudes, behaviors and long-term perceptions. The objectives of the current study are to explore the dimensions of tourist-host social contact and to contribute to the theory of tourist typology according to their dynamic nature in tourist-host social interaction. Forty-five in-depth interviews were conducted to generate insightful information. The software of NVivo 10 was applied to examine and code the transcripts. As a result, six dimensions were adopted to describe tourist-host social contact, which are purposes, determinants, activities, intensity, impacts and attitudes. Five types of tourists were pinpointed and theoretical and practical contributions of the study were discussed

Rousseau and Plato on the Legislator and the Limits of Law

Both Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Plato offer doctrines of the great legislator, that highly virtuous figure who designs foundational laws for a political community, in order to shed light on the problem of legislation. This problem is that positive law is incapable of achieving the ends in political life that are expected of it, even though it is understood to be the chief tool at the disposal of the lawgiver. Close consideration of Rousseau’s and Plato’s political texts reveals that both philosophers are in agreement about the limited function of positive law, insofar as its exclusive purpose is to forestall the ills of human life. But they also agree that the effectiveness of legislation requires something more: the condition of effective laws is a comprehensive system of civic education, directed primarily at the passions, through which individual human beings are turned into good citizens. Taking into account the extreme difficulty of establishing such educational institutions, both Rousseau and Plato put forward doctrines of the legislator to indicate what sort of figure could possibly accomplish this task with success. The study finds that the two philosophers’ conceptions of the legislator are by and large similar, and finally, that they both express pessimism on the capacity of laws to promote the good life.Ph

Rapid, reversible activation of AgRP neurons drives feeding behavior in mice

Several different neuronal populations are involved in regulating energy homeostasis. Among these, agouti-related protein (AgRP) neurons are thought to promote feeding and weight gain; however, the evidence supporting this view is incomplete. Using designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADD) technology to provide specific and reversible regulation of neuronal activity in mice, we have demonstrated that acute activation of AgRP neurons rapidly and dramatically induces feeding, reduces energy expenditure, and ultimately increases fat stores. All these effects returned to baseline after stimulation was withdrawn. In contrast, inhibiting AgRP neuronal activity in hungry mice reduced food intake. Together, these findings demonstrate that AgRP neuron activity is both necessary and sufficient for feeding. Of interest, activating AgRP neurons potently increased motivation for feeding and also drove intense food-seeking behavior, demonstrating that AgRP neurons engage brain sites controlling multiple levels of feeding behavior. Due to its ease of use and suitability for both acute and chronic regulation, DREADD technology is ideally suited for investigating the neural circuits hypothesized to regulate energy balance

Understanding the tourist-resident relationship through social contact: Progressing the development of social contact in tourism

Social contact becomes an essential agenda of tourist-resident relationship research. However, the development of social contact in tourism and how it could influence the tourist-resident relationship is still ambiguous. This conceptual study addresses those research gaps by providing an overview of the current development in tourist-resident social contact; developing a tourist-resident social contact axis to understand different tourist-resident relationship through social contact; and delineating the future research directions of tourist-resident social contact. This research contributes to the theory by clarifying the development of the concept in terms of contact antecedents, contact types and contact impacts, proposing a social contact axis to understand the tourist-resident relationship through four contact scenarios and offering directions to guide the future investigations. Practically, results benefit different stakeholders regarding how to jointly develop a favourable and sustainable tourist-resident relationship