Hypothetical Behavior Research Articles

The willingness to pay for urban parks' amenities: the economic value of 'Bois Sainte Anastasie' in Yaoundé, Cameroon

This paper, through the contingent valuation method and the 'referendum' format, values the preferences of the users of 'Bois Sainte Anastasie' park for a policy of endowment of this environmental non-market good with more amenities. The certainty calibration and the 'consequentialism script' are incorporated to further minimise hypothetical behaviours. Parametric and non-parametric methods are applied to elicit the willingness to pay for the improvement of the park. From the results, the probability that the respondents accept the pre-chosen bid is positively influenced by the income level. The average WTP is USD 0.38 from the parametric model and USD 0.63 from the non-parametric model. 78% of visitors are eager to pay a higher entrance fee if this park is endowed with more amenities. The results reveal high demand for the described change from current users.

Does the horny man think women want him too? Effects of male sexual arousal on perceptions of female sexual willingness

ABSTRACT Disputes over acquaintance rape typically center on the issue of whether the alleged victim consented to sex. Disputed sexual encounters often take place when one or both involved parties is sexually aroused, and this arousal might influence the extent to which the parties perceive sexual consent. Two studies tested the effects of men’s sexual arousal on their interpretations of the extent to which 25 hypothetical female behaviors reflected sexual willingness. Arousal was manipulated via written fantasies (Study 1) or exposure to erotic material (Study 2). Manipulated arousal and individual differences in rated arousal were each associated with greater perceptions of female sexual willingness. Manipulated arousal was significant only for single men in Study 2. Findings suggested present-state sexual arousal affects single men’s interpretations of women’s sexual willingness. Men’s sexual arousal might prominently contribute to misunderstandings in sexual communication.

Instruments measuring behavioural aspects of the nurse-patient relationship: A scoping review.

To identify and map tools measuring behavioural aspects of the nurse-patient relationship. The behaviours nurses employ to develop relationships with patients form a key part of nursing practice. Systematically measuring these behaviours provides an objective means of assessing and evaluating how nurses establish and maintain relationships with patients in a variety of settings. Whilst tools exist to measure these behaviours, little is known about their aims/scope, structure, method of development and contexts of use. Such knowledge is crucial for understanding the nature of the literature, including in which contexts and for which patient groups existing tools are suited. Scoping review informed by Joanna Briggs Institute methodology. A database search was undertaken using CINAHL, PsycINFO, Pubmed and Embase. Primary research articles, theses and methodological papers that developed, refined and/or administered tools measuring behavioural aspects of the nurse-patient relationship, in any setting and for any patient group, were included. Tools had to measure actual not hypothetical behaviour (e.g., perceptions regarding importance). Data from included studies and tools were mapped. Results are reported in accordance with PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Onehundred and twenty-seven studies, containing 35 tools, were included. The literature was characterised by substantial variability, stemming from the continued refinement of tools (e.g., reduction to short forms) but also the development of new tools that appeared to duplicate existing work and the inconsistent use of tools across studies. The volume of tools available demonstrates the importance of measuring the nurse-patient relationship. However, the existingduplication and variability create challenges in choosing amongst the tools available and show that, as a concept, the nurse-patient relationship remains poorly understood. Research is required to synthesise, and assess the quality of, existing tools, enabling clinicians, leaders/managers, educators and researchers to administer appropriate tools to evaluate the nurse-patient relationship.

A comparative analysis of long-term concrete deformation models of a buttress dam

Long-term monitoring is an important topic in assessing the safety and service life of Concrete Dams. Historical data models allow predictions of future behavior of these structures to be made for preventive decision-making. Empirical models use project data to estimate hypothetical behaviors, while numerical models require prior information (actual data) for parameter adjustments. This paper presents a study of four different numerical methods for prediction of concrete deformation using 40-year historical data measured at 5 different strain-meter rosettes of an Itaipu Dam Buttress Block. The results show that ambient temperature-sensitive models as an exogenous variable present a better accuracy (20–50%) in relation to the other two methods, improving the forecasting capability of concrete deformation.

Do students really prefer repeated rereading over testing when studying textbooks? A reexamination

ABSTRACTExperimental studies have shown that testing promotes better long-term retention than repeated rereading. Regarding implications for educational practice, based on a survey study seemingly showing that students prefer repeated rereading over testing when studying [Karpicke, J. D., Butler, A. C., & Roediger, H. L. (2009). Metacognitive strategies in student learning: Do students practise retrieval when they study on their own? Memory, 17, 471–479. doi:10.1080/09658210802647009], it has been concluded that increasing the number of tests may boost students’ achievement. However, a closer look at the survey study reveals that “repeated rereading” has been operationalised in terms of “restudying” which represents a term that may subsume a variety of study strategies. We reexamined the study behaviour of students in a more fine-grained way by surveying both their hypothetical (Study 1) and real (Study 2) study behaviour when restudying texts. Results showed that rereading is preferred only by few students early in the learning process, with almost all shifting to testing late in the learning process, and that rereading is mainly performed in terms of “rereading not understood parts”, and rarely in terms of “repeated rereading”. These results indicate that the implications of the testing effect for educational practice may have to be reconsidered.

The preference for sustainable coffee and a new approach for dealing with hypothetical bias

There is a large literature on the effects of sustainability labels. However, much of this research is based on stated preference methods, thus hypothetical bias must be dealt with. Hypothetical bias can be defined as the difference between stated, hypothetical behavior and actual behavior in the real market. We conducted an online choice experiment with coffees, of which some were labeled as water saving. To mitigate hypothetical bias, we used “cheap talk”. We find a statistically significant effect of a 6% higher choice probability and €1.30 higher willingness to pay for labeled coffee. However, we also implemented the water label in a real online shop, and we do not find this effect. Assuming that hypothetical bias especially affects individuals who are more concerned about their appearance and who lack self-control, we augment our baseline models with interaction terms, estimating separate coefficients for respondents who differ in their concern for appearance and strength of self-control. This approach reveals the hypothetical bias and it controls it away. We propose that our interaction terms are a simple robustness check that complements existing approaches to deal with hypothetical bias.

Contingent Valuation of Environmental Goods: A Comprehensive Critique, edited by DanielMcFadden and KennethTrain. Published by Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, United Kingdom, 2017, pp. 319, ISBN: 978‐1‐78643‐468‐5, AU$210.

Contingent Valuation of Environmental Goods: A Comprehensive Critique, edited by DanielMcFadden and KennethTrain. Published by Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, United Kingdom, 2017, pp. 319, ISBN: 978‐1‐78643‐468‐5, AU$210.

Know where to go: evidence from a controlled trial of a healthcare system information intervention among immigrants

BackgroundImmigrants may face problems with accessing the Danish healthcare system due to, for example, lack of knowledge of how to navigate it, which may cause inappropriate healthcare-seeking. Danish municipalities provide a mandatory introduction and language programme for newly arrived immigrants, but no information on the healthcare system is offered. This study investigated what effects information about the Danish healthcare system may have on the hypothetical healthcare-seeking behaviour of newly arrived immigrants and their actual healthcare use.MethodsA prospective intervention study of 1572 adult immigrants attending two language schools in Copenhagen was carried out. Two intervention groups received either a course or written information on the Danish healthcare system, respectively, while the control group received neither. Survey data included three case vignettes on healthcare-seeking behaviour (flu-like symptoms, chest pain and depression) and were linked to registry data on sociodemographic characteristics and healthcare use in the year to follow. Logistic regression and binomial regression analyses were performed.ResultsAppropriate hypothetical healthcare-seeking behaviour was reported by 61.8–78.8% depending on the vignette. Written information showed no effect on immigrants’ hypothetical healthcare-seeking behaviour, while the course showed a positive effect on hypothetical healthcare-seeking behaviour for flu-like symptoms (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.71, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.01–2.91, p-value = 0.0467), but not on chest pain or depression. The interventions did not affect immigrants’ actual healthcare use; all groups made lower use of health care services in the following year compared with the year where the study took place, except for the use of dental care which remained stable.ConclusionsInformation on the healthcare system embedded in the language school programme has the potential to facilitate immigrants’ access to healthcare. Yet, the results underscore the need for further refinement and development of educational interventions, as well as ensuring adequate utilisation of healthcare services by other means. Multi-dimensional and multi-sectional efforts are important for integration issues within healthcare in Europe.Trial registrationHealth-seeking behaviour among newly arrived immigrants in Denmark ISRCTN24905314, May 1, 2015 (Retrospectively registered).

Understanding Variations in Judgments of Infidelity: An Application of Attribution Theory

ABSTRACTThe current program of research examined how the four dimensions of the attribution (locus of causality, controllability, stability, intentionality) influenced judgments of a partner’s hypothetical infidelity and actor-observer discrepancies associated with judgments of real-life infidelity. The results from Study 1 (N = 396) revealed that the dimensions of the attribution affected the extent to which adults’ judged a partner’s hypothetical behavior as indicative of infidelity differently depending on the type of behavior. When reporting on real-life behavior (Study 2, N = 802), adults attributed the cause of their partner’s infidelity as being a result of internal, controllable, stable, and intentional causes to a greater extent than when judging their own infidelity.

Prediction of saturation magnetostriction in solid-solution ternary alloys

A method for calculating saturation magnetostriction values in solid-solution ternary alloys is proposed using the magnetostriction data of binary alloys implicated in the ternary system and few data of ternary alloy. Studies on three systems are presented: the Fe–Al–Si system where a considerable magnetostriction data available in the literature was employed to perform the method; the Fe–Al–Ge system in which our data are compared and discussed with a previous study in this system; and the Fe–Ge–Si system for which iso-magnetostriction curves are proposed since only one experimental value in the literature was found. The results obtained by this method approximate previously reported experimental data. This can be used to design alloys with a defined value of magnetostriction reducing the number of samples and measurements or in calculations on theoretical models. In this sense, a hypothetical behaviour of magnetostriction in the Fe–Ge binary system for Ge > 20 at.%. is also presented.

Thou shalt not sell nature: How taboo trade-offs can make us act pro-environmentally, to clear our conscience

Many nature/natural areas are threatened by economic development and urban expansion. Oftentimes nature is not considered part of the cost/benefit analyses preceding such economic development, and most people find it offensive to price-tag nature. To pit (sacred) nature-values against other monetized values (these are so-called taboo trade-offs) is seen as morally offensive. Non-nature related taboo trade-offs (e.g. between life-saving and money-saving) were found elsewhere to induce moral cleansing — attempts to reaffirm one's own moral position by performing overly moral ‘cleansing’ behaviour. This study investigated whether trade-offs between nature as sacred value and money as secular induces such moral cleansing in shape of pro-environmental behaviour (PEB).A laboratory experiment measured self-reported (hypothetical) and real donations to an environmental cause, after participants were presented with a taboo or non-taboo trade-off. Taboo trade-offs affected participants' real, but not hypothetical behaviour. Findings support prior evidence that confrontation with certain trade-offs affects people's behaviour, and expand the scope of sacred values to include nature, and moral cleansing-behaviour to PEB.

I Can But You Can't: Inconsistencies in Judgments of and Experiences With Infidelity

Despite strong prohibition against infidelity and endorsement of exclusivity as a norm, many people report engaging in infidelity. The current study examined this paradox by employing a between-subject design using online surveys with 810 adults to assess actor-observer biases in the degree of permissiveness judging own versus partner's hypothetical behaviour, as well as hypocrisy in judgments of infidelity versus self-reported behaviour. Participants judged their own behaviour more permissively than their partner's, but only for emotional/affectionate and technology/online behaviours (not sexual/explicit or solitary behaviours). Many reported having engaged in behaviours that they judged to be infidelity, especially emotional/affectionate and technology/online infidelity behaviours. Sexual attitudes, age, and religion predicted inconsistencies in judgments of infidelity and self-reported behaviour (hypocrisy). This study has implications for educators and practitioners working with couples to improve communication and establish guidelines for appropriate and inappropriate behaviour.

Personality and prosocial behavior: linking basic traits and social value orientations.

Concerning the dispositional determinants of prosocial behavior and cooperation, work based on the classic 5 personality factors, and especially Agreeableness, has turned out somewhat inconsistent. A clearer picture has emerged from consideration of the HEXACO model of personality--though supported entirely by hypothetical behavior as criterion, so far. Thus, in 2 studies and a reanalysis, we investigated "actual behavior" in the form of individually and socially consequential distribution decisions. As expected, HEXACO Honesty-Humility consistently predicted prosocial behavior, including a theory-consistent pattern on the facet level. Importantly, this pattern might explain why five-factor Agreeableness has only sometimes been found to account for prosocial behavior. Indeed, further results indicate that five-factor Agreeableness comprises some aspects that are predictive of prosocial behavior--aspects well covered by HEXACO Honesty-Humility--but also others that play no role for this criterion. As such, the links between five-factor Agreeableness and prosocial behavior are well-covered by HEXACO Honesty-Humility, but not vice versa. Taken together, these findings hint that especially HEXACO Honesty-Humility (and certain aspects of five-factor Agreeableness) account for prosocial behavior--thus explaining previous inconsistencies and providing a more nuanced understanding of the links between basic personality and prosocial or cooperative behavior.

Cultural traits of the future managers from generation Y – an example of young Europeans

Abstract On the one hand, internationalization and globalization processes influence the fact that attitudes and behaviours of representatives of different cultures become similar. On the other one, opposite processes which aim at the manifestation of cultural differences can be observed. The aim of this article is to find an answer to the question whether young people, students of higher schools of economics, future managers show similar cultural traits or whether the influence of the native environment is so strong that young Europeans manifest different values. In order to answer this question selected characteristics, which are significantly applicable at work in an enterprise have been used. The answer to the aforementioned question has been searched both in the literature on the subject as well as in empirical studies conducted in ten European countries (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Great Britain). Their results show significant similarities of cultural traits among the young respondents coming from the surveyed countries. These characteristics are manifested in various attitudes, hypothetical behaviours and the judgment of behaviour of others.

Cognitive Attributions and Emotional Expectancies Predict Emotions in Mother-Adolescent Interactions

The purpose of this study was to examine adolescent’s hostile attributions of mother’s intent and emotional self-expectancies as contributors to expression of emotion between mothers and adolescents. Data were collected from 268 10- to 12-year-olds (133 girls, 135 boys) and their mothers. Each dyad was observed in a conversational activity that was coded for both partners’ expressions of four discrete emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, and fear. Adolescents responded to hypothetical stories to assess their emotional expectancies and attributions. Regression analysis revealed that adolescents’ hostile attributions and emotional expectancies made independent contributions to the expression of happiness and anger with their mother. Adolescents who interpreted their mother’s hypothetical behavior as hostile, and who expected to feel less happiness and more anger in response to their mother’s hypothetical behavior, expressed less happiness and more anger with their mother. The findings support the conceptual distinction between hostile attributions and emotional expectancies.

Voters, Non-Voters, and the Implications of Election Timing for Public Policy

This paper makes use of variation in the timing of local elections to shed light on one of the core questions in democratic politics: what would happen if everyone voted? Does a low voter turnout rate imply that a small subset of special interest voters controls politics and policy? Or, are voters largely representative of non-voters such that neither the outcomes of elections nor resulting public policies would change even if everyone participated? Rather than rely on surveys of nonvoters to extrapolate their hypothetical behavior, we rely on a natural experiment created by a 1980s change in the California Election Code, which allowed school districts to change their elections from off-cycle to on-cycle. Because we are able to observe very large within-district changes in voter turnout resulting from changes in election timing, we are able to isolate the effect of turnout on policy outcomes, including teacher salaries and student achievement tests. Our analysis demonstrates that changes in voter turnout do affect public policy, but modestly.

The effect of psychological traits on mode choice behaviour: an application to a new water transit system in Seoul, Korea

In this paper, we use revealed preference (RP), stated preference (SP) and attitudinal survey data to analyse the behaviour changes caused by a new water transit system on the Han River in Seoul, Korea and to identify the effects of psychological traits on mode choice behaviour. The results confirm that conventional variables, such as individual, household and mode attributes, are significant for mode choice, and that the latent variables, including water transit preference, environmental preferences, comfort and attitudes towards driving and haste, are also very important. In addition, by comparing the estimated scale parameters among a number of scenarios, we also observed the additional impacts of these effects. The latent traits had a more substantial impact on actual mode choice behaviour than on hypothetical behaviour. We systematically captured the taste variation with respect to travellers' latent traits, finding that these significantly reduce or increase the disutility produced by a travel time or cost increase. This heterogeneity was also confirmed in the different willingness-to-pay (WTP) measures at different levels of each latent trait.

Influence of Pile-Soil-Raft Parameters on the Behavior of Piled Raft and Conventional Piled Group Foundations

In the Central Area of Brazil, particularly in the city of Goiânia (and in limited cases of the Brazilian capital Brasília), it is becoming common to observe in few foundation projects the design of a single, thick and large raft, supported by several piles, particularly for the central highly loaded and slender part of very tall buildings. In fact, many of these piles are designed as “settlement reducer” ones, behaving as “floating piles” with distinct geometries or relative pile stiffness (pile-soil) ratios. They are defined with basis on some rationalized procedure adopted to minimize the differential and total settlements of the raft, also based on its relative raft stiffness (raft-soil) together with aforementioned aspects. In such conditions, the calculation is usually done using a capacity and settlement based design approach that is normal in the case of “piled raft” foundation systems. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate this particular topic, scrutinizing numerical results of piled raft cases (and its comparison with “conventional” pile groups) under both cases of horizontal and vertical load conditions. It focuses on the influence of some key parameters of piled raft systems (related to overall pile, soil and raft geometric & mechanical characteristics) on their hypothetical design behavior. It further explores the possible advantages of designing under the concept of piled rafts under few particular conditions, yielding generalized conclusions from a “practical” point of view for those interested in such design methodology.

Memories of the Future: New Insights into the Adaptive Value of Episodic Memory

Ingvar (1979, p. 21) theorized that memory plays a key role in allowing individuals to construct “alternative hypothetical behavior patterns in order to be ready for what may happen,” a process that he characterized as a “simulation of behavior”. Several years later, Ingvar elaborated these ideas by observing that “concepts about the future, like memories of past events, can be remembered, often in great detail” (Ingvar, 1985, p. 128), and that such “memories of the future” may offer important insights into the adaptive nature of human cognition. For instance, although the ability to simulate alternative versions of the future can benefit behavior, at least part of the adaptive advantage of future thinking may depend on the ability to remember the contents of simulated events (for discussion, see Suddendorf and Corballis, 1997, 2007; Szpunar, 2010; Schacter, 2012; Schacter et al., 2012). As an example, enlisting mental simulations of the future to help determine the best approach for resolving a conflict at home or in the workplace may confer few advantages if the outcome of the simulation process is not remembered at the time the simulated behavior is executed. Although much research exists concerning prospective memory – remembering to carry out future intentions (e.g., Kliegel et al., 2008; see also Brewer and Marsh, 2009) – there is a striking lack of evidence concerning “memory of the future” in the sense discussed by Ingvar, that is, memory for the contents of future simulations. Recently, however, several studies have provided the first glimpses into how well people remember details associated with simulated future events. In particular, these studies have demonstrated (1) enhanced memory for event details that are encoded with the future in mind, (2) factors that may influence the retention of simulated future events over extended time periods, and (3) neural correlates associated with encoding simulated future events. Next, we provide a brief overview of this emerging line of research, underscore the significance of various findings along with suggestions for future research directions, and conclude by discussing the relevance of this work to the concept of episodic memory. As we expand on below, it is our opinion that these new studies represent not only a useful extension of Ingvar's (1979, 1985) seminal observations, but that they also offer novel insights into the adaptive value of episodic memory.

‘What Would You Say if You Were Guilty?’ Suspects' Strategies During a Hypothetical Behavior Analysis Interview Concerning a Serious Crime

SummaryPrevious research has shown that the Behavior Analysis Interview (BAI) indicators of guilt or innocence are merely commonsense notions. In this study, we examined whether this would lead suspects of a serious crime to try to manipulate their behavior during a BAI in order to look innocent. A serious crime was described to 74 undergraduates who were asked to imagine that they were guilty or innocent. They then completed a questionnaire about the strategies that they would use during a BAI. Both guilty and innocent suspects were more willing to show the innocence rather than guilt indicators of the BAI. Innocent suspects had a blind faith in the power of innocence to demonstrate that they were not guilty. The general (non‐BAI) strategies coincided with those of previous studies; this indicates that prior findings on strategies can be generalized to serious crimes and that strategies can be examined with uncomplicated procedures such as the one used in this study. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.