Devil You Research Articles

Better the devil you know: The effects of group identity uncertainty on coordination efficiency

There is extensive evidence documenting the economic consequences of discrimination patterns between individuals belonging to the same or different group identities. However, many group identities rely on convictions and beliefs that are non-observable, and therefore, might be uncertain. This paper investigates the effects of group identity uncertainty on individual interaction preferences and willingness to coordinate. Results from a laboratory experiment using a weakest-link game with endogenous group formation show that group identity uncertainty and diversity differently affect individual interaction preferences. Interestingly, the negative discrimination against individuals with a different group identity weakens and vanishes faster than the negative discrimination against individuals whose group identity is not observable. Furthermore, most discrimination patterns vanish when interactions entail high and mutual economic incentives for individuals. The findings offer several managerial implications for deterring discrimination and increasing coordination efficiency in teams.

‘Better the devil you know’: feminine sexuality and patriarchal liberation in The Witch

ABSTRACT At the end of 2015‘s The Witch, isolated and beaten protagonist, Thomasin, ultimately rejects her puritanical upbringing to become a witch, accepting the invitation of the Devil (in the guise of the family’s goat Black Philip). This essay will discuss Thomasin’s sexual deliverance in terms of her turning away from the authoritarian ‘Law of the Father’ towards female liberation that comes in the form of the Witch. Thomasin transitions from girl to woman, but does not want to do so in the restrictive Puritan fashion where patriarchy and oppression rules. She becomes a woman by embracing her sexuality in the figure of the witch and Black Philip as the figure of lust helping her become free. Western folklore posits the goat as a symbol of fertility, independence, and lust; Black Philip is a figure who represents a connection to wild desires. Therefore, Black Philip becomes not only a physical representation of the devil, but also a symbolic representation of Thomasin’s sexual desire. Drawing on theories of the monstrous-feminine (Creed, Kristeva, Arnold), the symbolism of folklore and Freud’s Electra complex, this work argues that, despite its message of feminine empowerment, The Witch cannot fully reject or escape patriarchal discourse.

The devil you know versus the devil you don’t: Disclosure versus masking in the workplace

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Bedeviled: A Shadow History of Demons in Science

Bedeviled: A Shadow History of Demons in Science

The devil you know: A population-level analysis of tumor-based next-generation sequencing of high-grade epithelial ovarian cancer (151)

<b>Objectives:</b> Clinical use of tumor-based next-generation sequencing (tbNGS) is expanding, but the indications and implications remain vague. We aimed to assess the clinical relevance of tbNGS data in a large cohort of patients with high-grade epithelial ovarian cancer. <b>Methods:</b> Electronic medical records (both internal notes and external scanned documents) of 905 patients with high-grade serous or endometrioid ovarian cancer were queried for tbNGS data using optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NLP) technologies. Identified results and clinical-demographic information were entered into an institutional database. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and log-rank tests comparing selected genetic alterations to progression-free survival (PFS). <b>Results:</b> Three hundred and twelve (34.4%) patients had their tbNGS results identified. Tests used had variable breadth, ranging from 46 genes to whole-exome sequencing. The most common was an institutional panel that evaluated 146 genes. Nearly all (99.7%) patients had their genomic alterations (mutations or copy number variations) identified. On average, each tumor had 2.38 (±2.46) aberrations. Two hundred and fifty-two (80.8%) patients had actionable alterations, defined as relaying eligibility for targeted treatment or clinical trial, according to the Precision Oncology Decision Support System (PODSS) database. Twenty-seven (10.7% of those with actionable abnormalities) enrolled in relevant clinical trials. In total, 630 mutations were detected in the population, with half of these (58.6%) considered actionable. The most common type of abnormality encountered was missense substitution (52.9%), followed by amplification (14.7%) and a frameshift mutation (9.72%). The most frequently mutated genes were <i>TP53</i> (93.0%), <i>PIK3CA</i> (9.35%), <i>BRCA1/2</i> (8.30%), <i>NF1</i> (4.90%), and <i>KRAS</i> (4.52%). Among these, only <i>BRCA1/2</i> was associated with a significant improvement in PFS (20.1 vs 14.1 months, p=0.046). <i>CCNE1</i> amplification, the most prevalent copy number variant, was present in 9.4% of those tested. Specific mutation types or copy number variations were not correlated with PFS. <b>Conclusions:</b> Clinical use of tbNGS is prevalent in ovarian cancer. Of patients undergoing tbNGS at our institution, four out of five gained the opportunity for an FDA-approved treatment or genotypically relevant clinical trial. Description of population-level tumor genomics could help identify therapeutic targets and guide the development of clinical decision support tools.

WS14.01 Outcome measures for airway clearance – better the devil you know? Perspectives from adults with cystic fibrosis (CF)

WS14.01 Outcome measures for airway clearance – better the devil you know? Perspectives from adults with cystic fibrosis (CF)

“Better the devil you know”: Are stated preferences over health and happiness determined by how healthy and happy people are?

Most people want to be both happy and healthy. But which matters most when there is a trade-off between them? This paper addresses this question by asking 4000 members of the UK and US public to make various choices between being happy or being physically healthy. The results suggest that these trade-offs are determined in substantial part by the respondent's own levels of happiness and health, with unhappy people more likely to choose unhappy lives and unhealthy people more likely to choose unhealthy ones: “better the devil you know, than the devil you don't”. Age also plays an important role; older people are more likely to choose being healthy over being happy. Information about adaptation to physical health conditions matters too, but less so than respondent characteristics. These results further our understanding of public preferences with important implications for policymakers concerned with satisfying those preferences.

Is the devil you know better? Testwiseness and eliciting evidence of interactional competence in familiar versus unfamiliar triadic speaking tasks

Research has proven the impact testwiseness and test preparation can have on speaking test discourse (Lam, 2015; Luk, 2010; Hüttner, 2014). The question is perhaps not whether assessment leads to contrived interaction but how interactions may differ between a more familiar task (face-to-face Cambridge B2 First Speaking) and an entirely new online task. This conversation analytic case study of a group of three in two different tasks (one face-to-face, one online) sought to explore how testwiseness is implicated in candidate talk and to explicate differences in what a more familiar and a completely new task elicited. The analytic focus was on the conversational object “I agree” but includes reference to non-verbal behaviours, turn-taking practices and the relationship between agreement and topic shift. The findings indicate a contrast in terms of closure and progressivity – that is, an observable difference in the closure of topics and the forward movement of conversation – across the two tasks. The data illustrates how the same candidates performed very differently in two tasks in the space of 40 minutes. In so doing, it raises questions about broadening the potential assessments have to target interactional competence.

Preferring the devil you know: Potential applicant reactions to artificial intelligence evaluation of interviews

AbstractIn search of greater resource savings and efficiencies, companies are turning to new technologies in the interview process, such as artificial intelligence evaluation (AIE). However, little is known about candidate reactions to this new tool. We identified outstanding questions regarding reactions to AIE arising from justice and signaling theories and conducted interviews with 33 professionals to understand their perceptions of AIE use in selection. Participants raised issues related to all four types of justice and indicated that there is a signaling effect of AIE use. Despite acknowledging the superior objectivity of AIE, participants expressed a desire for the maintenance of human elements in the evaluation process, seemingly preferring ‘the devil they know’ (human biases and intuition) rather than the one they do not (AIE algorithm). This result is explored through the lens of uncertainty reduction, discussing theoretical implications for justice and signaling theories, and providing implications for the implementation of AIE in the selection process.

Bettering the devil you know: Can we drive predator adaptation to restore native fauna?

AbstractPredation of threatened fauna by native and introduced predators can drive extinction and prevent population recovery. Most predator management involves exclusion or culling. Evidence suggests that exclusion may have detrimental effects on a prey species' predator awareness. At the same time, culling can cause selection of control‐resistant predators. There is increasing interest in harnessing evolutionary processes to drive adaptation of threatened fauna to cope, but there is limited attention on trying this from the predator direction. We need to shift the survival advantage away from predators that avoid lethal control, and go on to kill, towards those that demonstrate behaviors that reduce impact on threatened fauna. Instead of driving undesirable predator selection, could we select through management actions desirable traits to make them “less lethal” to threatened fauna? We draw on experimental research on predator aversion that suggests there may be an alternative way to mitigate the impacts of predators, while maintaining the learning opportunities of prey species. Using the case study of the invasive red fox in Australia, we propose a conceptual framework within which future research and management could occur to select for these desirable traits in predators and develop practical regimes for predator impact mitigation.

Better the devil you know than the devil you don't: Neural processing of risk and ambiguity

Risk and ambiguity are inherent in virtually all human decision-making. Risk refers to a situation in which we know the precise probability of potential outcomes of each option, whereas ambiguity refers to a situation in which outcome probabilities are not known. A large body of research has shown that individuals prefer known risks to ambiguity, a phenomenon known as ambiguity aversion. One heated debate concerns whether risky and ambiguous decisions rely on the same or distinct neural circuits. In the current meta-analyses, we integrated the results of neuroimaging research on decision-making under risk (n = 69) and ambiguity (n = 31). Our results showed that both processing of risk and ambiguity showed convergence in anterior insula, indicating a key role of anterior insula in encoding uncertainty. Risk additionally engaged dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and ventral striatum, whereas ambiguity specifically recruited the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), inferior parietal lobe (IPL) and right anterior insula. Our findings demonstrate overlapping and distinct neural substrates underlying different types of uncertainty, guiding future neuroimaging research on risk-taking and ambiguity aversion.

Better the devil you know: Home and sectoral biases in bank lending

This paper empirically investigates banks’ lending and the extent to which they are influenced by specific preferences in terms of geographical location and industry. We study whether banks develop a field of expertise and focus on it, or whether they prefer to grant loans quite evenly among countries and industries. We manually built an original database of syndicated loans for banks in the four major banking systems in the eurozone, to estimate the determinants of loans’ amounts between 2005 and 2013. Our findings highlight a domestic bias and a sectoral bias with banks lending larger amounts to their domestic borrowers and to industries they are more familiar with.

Better the devil you know: Inter-organizational information technology and network social capital in coopetition networks

By enabling more efficient information and knowledge sharing and reinforcing the shared goals for participating members, inter-organizational information technology (IT) becomes instrumental to both accomplishing coopetitive outcomes and avoiding the pitfalls of partner opportunism. We posit that as network social capital is accumulated in technology-enabled coopetition networks, collaboration will enhance the strategic value of outcomes and positively affect goal convergence among network users. Our findings illustrate that the role of technology in coopetition extends beyond facilitating knowledge exchange and may play a vital role in the strategic development of firms pursuing coopetitive options.

Dust devils on Mars

Whirlwinds, familiar on Earth, can be informative probes of the Martian surface environment.

‘The lesser devil you don’t know’: a qualitative study of smokers’ responses to messages communicating comparative risk of electronic and combusted cigarettes

IntroductionCommunicating to smokers that e-cigarettes deliver lower levels of harmful chemicals than combusted cigarettes is a challenging issue. This study qualitatively explored smokers’ interpretations of messages communicating the risk of...

A Fresh Start or the Devil You Know? Examining Relationships Between Release Location Choices, Community Experiences, and Recidivism for High-Risk Parolees.

This study investigated the effects of residential relocation in a sample of 282 high-risk male offenders paroled from New Zealand prisons. Initially we compared those returning to their old neighborhoods (devil you know) and those released to a new location (fresh start). This second category was then further divided: those released to a new location voluntarily (fresh start-voluntary) versus those forced to start anew at the behest of the parole board that was releasing them (fresh start-duress). All three categories were then compared on the quality of their community experiences and recidivism. Results indicated that parolees returning by choice to either their old neighborhood or a new location each were reconvicted in the first year after release at approximately the same rate; however, parolees relocating to a new area at the direction of the parole board (under duress) were reconvicted at a higher rate than those in either of the voluntary location categories. Significant group differences in ratings of community life quality were few, but there were some indications that compared with those choosing to return to a familiar location, making a voluntary residential relocation may lead to better parole experiences, particularly in terms of avoiding criminal peers, and that making a residential relocation under duress may lead to poorer parole experiences than for those returning to a familiar location.

Better the devil you know? The moderating role of brand familiarity and indulgence vs. restraint cultural dimension on eWOM influence in the hospitality industry

ABSTRACTPositive online reviews elicit more positive consumer behaviors than negative reviews in the hospitality industry. However, several variables that influence information processing may affect this well-established link. The present study focuses on the moderating roles of brand familiarity and cultural values, as their influence remains unexplained in the previous literature. To better understand the moderating influence of brand familiarity and cultural values on the relationship between positive/negative online reviews and booking intentions, a 2 (positive vs. negative) x 2 (familiar vs. unfamiliar brand) experimental research design was conducted in two countries, Spain and Mexico, that differ mainly in the “indulgence versus restraint” cultural dimension. The results suggest that, in general, positive/negative online reviews generate higher/lower booking intentions for less familiar than for familiar hotels. In addition, culture moderates the effect of familiarity. This interaction effect is more relevant in restrained cultures. Theoretical and managerial implications, based on these results, are discussed.

Better the devil you know? Reelected politicians and policy outcomes under no term limits

This paper examines the effect of having a reelected politician on policy outcomes in the absence of term limits. Using a regression discontinuity design and data from Peruvian municipalities, we find that having a reelected mayor does not have sizable effects on policy outcomes. That result seems to be driven by rapid learning-by-doing by new politicians. Differences in performance and policy outcomes are observed only early in the electoral cycle. Our findings weaken arguments against term limits based on loss of institutional or human capital and support existing interpretations of term limit effects as driven mostly by electoral incentives.

Asset prices and “the devil(s) you know”

In this paper, we study the asset pricing implications of persistence in the risk-neutral return distribution’s central moments. We detect a both economically and statistically significant premium of stocks with low over stocks with high such persistence. Annual value-weighted excess (risk-adjusted) returns are 4.38% (3.06%). These results cannot be explained by factors and characteristics documented in the previous literature. Furthermore, it is not the persistence of only one of the individual distributional moments but rather the joint persistence in all central moments of the risk-neutral distribution that is priced.

Better the devil you know? How familiarity and kinship affect prey responses to disturbance cues

Prey can greatly improve their odds of surviving predator encounters by eavesdropping on conspecific risk cues, but the reliability of these cues depends on both previous accuracy as well as the cue's relevance. During a predator chase, aquatic prey release chemical disturbance cues that may vary in their reliability depending on the individuals receiving them. Thus, prey may rely differentially on disturbance cues from familiar individuals (due to previous experience) or from kin (due to their relatedness). We examined the responses of wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) tadpoles to disturbance cues from familiar versus unfamiliar conspecifics and kin versus non-kin. In accordance with our prediction, tadpoles responded differently to disturbance cues from familiar versus unfamiliar conspecifics. Tadpoles receiving disturbance cues from unfamiliar individuals displayed a fright response, whereas tadpoles ignored disturbance cues from familiar individuals. Tadpoles may have habituated to familiar cues since they were unaccompanied by a true threat, hence rendering these cues functionally unreliable. Tadpoles responded similarly to disturbance cues from related and unrelated individuals suggesting they were similarly reliable and this mirrors the matching reliability of prey responses to damage-released alarm cues from kin and non-kin. Our findings shed light on a seldom-studied chemical communication system in aquatic prey.