Individual Decisions Research Articles

Catalysts of choice: Unraveling the dynamics of housing preferences across diverse societal contexts – Evidence from literature

Housing preferences worldwide are shaped by a myriad of factors, reflecting the diverse and dynamic nature of societal needs and individual choices. The process of evaluating available housing options is intricately linked to underlying motivating factors, shaping individual preferences and decisions in response to evolving circumstances and environments. This comprehensive study delves into the intricate dynamics of housing preferences, examining the interplay of temporal-spatial relationships, psychological factors, social-cultural dimensions, and political-economic aspects. Employing bibliometric-based citation analysis techniques and social network analysis, the research offers a nuanced exploration of scholarly landscapes from 1967 to 2022 across prominent databases—Web of Science, Scopus, and Science Direct.This article undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the preferences within contemporary housing systems, offering insights into diverse dwelling choices and their determinants. The examination encompasses multifaceted considerations, contributing to an understanding of the intricate dynamics influencing housing preferences in varying societal contexts. The article also informs policymakers, urban planners, and researchers about the intricate dynamics influencing housing preferences worldwide, providing valuable guidance for addressing the evolving housing needs of diverse populations.

Decision making for people living with HIV/AIDS using the theory of innovation diffusion model at the Western Provident Association Turen Foundation.

To describe how people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) make decisions using the diffusion of innovation theory model. Decisions occur when individual decision makers engage in activities that guide choices to adopt or reject a particular innovation. This is a descriptive analysis research using a survey method. Data collection was carried out using a decision making questionnaire. The subjects in this research were HIV/AIDS sufferers (PLWHA) who lived in Turen, Indonesia. The number of research subjects was 36 respondents obtained using the purposive sampling technique on January 2023. The research design used the correlation method with a cross sectional approach and the Spearman correlation coefficient statistical test. The research results show significance (2-tailed) of 0.934 (p>0.05). The correlation coefficient results are negative. Where the direction of the correlation produces showed a very weak relationship with a value of 0.014 and the results of the analysis between variables are not the same. This is because the persuasion stage was not tested in the analysis. Research shows that 8 (22.2%) patients rejected the decision making of PLWHA using the diffusion of innovation theory model at the Western Provident Association Turen Foundation, Turen, Indonesia, while 28 (77.7%) patients accepted it. It can be concluded that the majority of decisions made by HIV/AIDS patients at the ADIS Turen Peduli Warga Foundation are accepted. Knowledge of HIV/AIDS sufferers is at a good level, their decision making is mostly accepted and there is a meaningful relationship between knowledge and decision making in using a chatbot innovation. The suggestion from the research is that this chatbot innovation can be a source of further research and help provide education for PLWHA patients in everyday life.

Time Perspective and Motivation to Protective behaviours against Covid-19 in Italian young people

Health Psychology highlights the complexity of factors that influences the individual decision to adopt one, or more, protective behaviours for avoiding diseases and adverse health outcomes. One of the most relevant theory is the Protection Motivation Theory (Rogers, 1975), which has been adopted for identifying the psychological factors involved in many protection behaviours. Another relevant construct for healthy behaviours is represented by the Time Perspective (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). This study analysed the relationships between the Protection Motivation Theory applied on Covid-19 and Time Perspective in Italian young people.A group of 130 young people (m. age 26.4; 40 males and 90 females) participated in the study, filling in the Swedish Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory and the Motivation to Protect against Covid-19 Questionnaire. Three single items furthermore explored the prevailingly sources of information for Covid-19 (social media such as Facebook; traditional media such as TV; specialistic magazines such as Le Scienze) used and a single item tested the level of mistrust in Political Institutions and mass-media and its association with protection motivation, beliefs and perceived vulnerability to Covid-19.Perceived vulnerability to Covid-19 and use of protections and perceived efficacy of protections, show positive correlations with Future Positive; beliefs on Covid-19 vaccine resulted as negatively correlated with Present Fatalistic; a positive correlation between mistrust in political institutions and Present Fatalistic has been found. Social media (such as Facebook, Instagram) and traditional mass media (such as TV) as preferred systems of information are both positively correlated with beliefs on Covid-19 vaccine, perceived vulnerability and use of protections, highlighting the role of new forms of circulation of information, but also the relevance of traditional ones for young people. Perceived vulnerability to Covid-19, perceived efficacy of protections give a positive contribution to the intention to get vaccinated; mistrust in political institutions and media on the contrary reduces the intention to take the vaccine.Results are discussed in relations to preventive interventions on the young population for the improvement of self-awareness of persistence of this virus and consequently the necessity of adopting self-protection, with special attention to vaccination. The relevance of time perspective dimensions for protection suggests to include it in the programs devoted to reduce the risk of contagion.

A szülő és gyermek egészségmagatartásának kapcsolata

In recent years our daily lives have been characterised by lifestyle diseases, sedentary lifestyle, high level of physical inactivity, global pandemic. Because of this reason health becomes as an important value in our everyday life. It can be said that health status is a dynamic status which is affected by various aspects. The development of health behaviour involves individual decision-making and choices, the social and built environment, as well as various socialization contexts. The family model and the socio-economic status of the family play a crucial role in shaping children's attitudes towards health culture, exerting a significant influence on the formation of children's habits such as physical activity and proper nutrition. In childhood, there is partial control, with parents making decisions about living conditions, nutrition, and most aspects of the child's life. It is also important to note, that adolescents constitute a demographic where primary prevention can achieve the most long-term successes. Because of this reason, at the centre of our research is the examination of parental patterns and their reflection in the health behaviour of young adults, including eating-, sleeping-, and harmful habits as well as covid pandemic's effect on the eating habits of the families.JEL Code: I12

Populism and cultural heritage policies: public statues in Europe

ABSTRACT Cultural heritage is a central domain for key populist themes of threats to national identity and protection of ‘the majority’ against cosmopolitan, ‘wokist’ elites. The article explores how differing government discursive strategies towards populism influence heritage policies. It takes the case of contested public statues. In France, the government has adopted a discursive strategy of ‘patriotic Republicanism’ that reduced the discursive space for contestation and policy has remained largely unchanged. But in Britain and Hungary, governments have increasingly adopted populist discourses, leading to countervailing discursive coalitions, contestation and change in agendas and decisions in both populist and non-populist directions. The proposition developed is that national governments pursuing populist discursive strategies triggers anti-populist discursive coalitions, with contestation and changes in agendas, institutions and individual decisions. Conversely, governments developing their own nationalistic discourses reduces the scope for populist ones but also leads to freezing of existing policies.

FACTORS INFLUENCING INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS’ INVESTMENT DECISIONS AT THE DHAKA STOCK EXCHANGE

The goal of the study is to identify the factors affecting individual investors’ investment decisions on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE). To do this, the research also looks at how accounting issues, information obtained from independent sources, financial needs, advocate recommendations, and personal reputation/company reputation compliance may all affect an investor's behavior. Data were collected from Dhaka, Bangladesh. The researcher individually delivered a standardized questionnaire to each respondent in order to collect data. There were 27 items in the survey. SPSS 26 and AMOS 24 are used to analyze the functional data from 300 surveys. The Friedman rank test is used to test the research hypotheses. The study revealed that there does appear to be some association between the factors affecting the DSE investors' decisions to invest. The researcher found that expected dividends, the stock's past performance, collecting information about firms, stock index fluctuations, interest in non-stock investment, investment diversification, obtaining borrowed funds easily, broker recommendations, family members’ opinions, friend or coworker recommendations, the company's public reputation, well-organized financial markets, and the ethics of a firm are the most crucial factors that affect individual investors' investment decisions. The results of this study will help investors comprehend the various choices they will have to make based on their current circumstances and the likely results of each choice. The research will also help the companies identify the factors that will have the biggest impact on investors' behavior in the future, which will affect future strategies and policies.

Behavioral propagation based on regret-hesitation psychology on multiple networks

There are many factors affecting the social propagation of adoption behavior, and the traditional propagation model is not enough to study the influence of human psychological factors. We introduce the psychological mechanism of regret and hesitation to explain the complexity of individual decision making and information propagation. In this paper, a method based on edge division theory is used to analyze the propagation process on multiple networks, and the experimental results show the phenomenon of mixed phase transition. When the system is dominated by regret psychology, the system can achieve global eruption, but when it is dominated by hesitation psychology, the system cannot achieve global eruption. The results of theoretical analysis and experimental simulation agree well. It is of great significance to the study of sociology, psychology and information propagation.

Vaccination equilibrium: Externality and efficiency

I study individual consumers’ choices of getting vaccinated. A vaccine reduces the severity of an infectious illness, but may produce side-effects and other disutilities at the time of administration. Such private benefits and disutilities vary across consumers in the population. The infection probability depends negatively on the total mass of vaccinated consumers. This is an externality. One consumer’s vaccination choice has negligible contribution to the total mass of vaccinated consumers. Consumers do not internalize the externality. I characterize a unique Vaccination Equilibrium, the sustainable vaccination mass resulting from individual decisions. I show how vaccine improvements in benefits, side-effects, and infection likelihood change the Vaccination Equilibrium. The first-best or efficient vaccination mass takes into account the externality and consumers’ benefits and costs. The unique Vaccination Equilibrium is never first best. Taxes, subsidies, and mandates may change the Vaccination Equilibrium.

The acquired dyad inclination and decreased interpersonal brain communication in the pursuit of collective benefit

People perform better collectively than individually, a phenomenon known as the collective benefit. To pursue the benefit, they may learn from previous behaviors, come to know whose initial opinion should be valued, and develop the inclination to take it as the collective one. Such learning may affect interpersonal brain communication. To test these hypotheses, this study recruited participant dyads to conduct a perceptual task on which they made individual decisions first and then the collective one. The enhanced interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) between participants was explored when individual decisions were in disagreement vs. agreement. Computational modeling revealed that participant dyads developed the dyad inclination of taking the higher-able participants', not the lower-able ones' decisions as their collective ones. Brain analyses unveiled the enhanced IBS at frontopolar areas, premotor areas, supramarginal gyri, and right temporal-parietal junctions. The premotor IBS correlated negatively with dyad inclination and collective benefit in the absence of correction. The Granger causality analyses further supported the negative relation of dyad inclination with inter-brain communication. This study highlights that dyads learn to weigh individuals' decisions, resulting in dyad inclinations, and explores associated inter-brain communication, offering insights into the dynamics of collective decision-making.

Human Behavior in Social Context

Humans are complex social beings, and their behavior is influenced by interactions with their social environment. In this context, a deep understanding of the factors that shape human behavior is essential. This research aims to understand how cultural values, norms, and traditions influence human behavior in a particular social context. This research uses the case study method. Research subjects may include diverse groups of people involved in social interactions, such as individuals from different age groups, cultures, and socio-economic backgrounds. Data collection techniques include participant observation and case studies. The results show that human behavior in social contexts is strongly influenced by various factors, including culture, norms, and interactions between individuals. Data analysis confirmed that culture plays an important role in shaping behavior, with cultural values influencing individual decisions and actions.

Coevolutionary dynamics of collective cooperation and dilemma strength in a collective-risk game

Human behavioral decision-making influences the gaming environment. In turn, changes in the gaming environmental impact individual strategic choices. However, there is scant exploration into how human behavioral decision-making coevolves with dilemma strength. Here, we propose a coevolutionary game model based on collective-risk social dilemma, where an increase in cooperators within the game group reduces the dilemma strength, and vice versa. Upon examining this coupled system, we find that the system is capable of achieving a relatively optimal state, wherein the population sustains a high level of cooperation and the dilemma strength remains at the lowest level. In addition, we have identified the conditions for the emergence of tristability and bistability in the coupled system and numerically validated our theoretical results. Furthermore, we find that the incorporation of institutional rewards not only promotes the appearance of the system's optimal state, where all individuals choose to cooperate and the dilemma strength is at its lowest level, but it also effectively averts the manifestation of the system's worst state, where all individuals resort to defection and the dilemma strength reaches its highest level. These findings illuminate how cooperation can be sustained when a dynamical coupling exists between individual decision-making and dilemma strength. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Cognitive Correlates of Risky Decision-Making in Individuals with and without ADHD: A Meta-analysis.

This meta-analytic study aims to investigate the cognitive correlates of risky decision-making in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and typically developing (TD) individuals. A systematic analysis of existing literature was conducted, encompassing 38 studies (496 ADHD and 1493 TD). Findings revealed a consistent propensity for riskier decision-making in individuals with ADHD, supported by significant correlations with attention, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, time perception, and working memory. The study underscores the relevance of these cognitive functions in shaping decision-making tendencies, with nuanced patterns observed within the ADHD and TD subgroups. Individuals with ADHD often demonstrate altered patterns of correlation, reflecting the specific cognitive challenges characteristic of the disorder.

Cognitive Security in a Changing World: Citizen Perceptions During Finland's NATO Joining Process

Contemporary conflicts are multifaceted and no longer fit the traditional war-and-peace dichotomy due to digital dimensions and the role of the human mind. The concept of warfare has transformed significantly: it's no longer solely reliant on physical capabilities but increasingly fought within digital environments and individuals' minds. These persistent, intertwined crises and psychological information influence present challenges to cognitive security. Psychological influence shapes opinions, attitudes, emotions, behaviors, and decision-making in individuals, groups, and societies using various methods, often involving digital tools to manipulate cognitive processes. It aims to shape the human mind, going beyond altering information to influence how the human brain processes received information. To safeguard human cognition, cognitive security is crucial. It involves the capability to detect, recognize, control, and counter negative psychological information influence aimed at an individual. Cognitive security plays a critical role in enabling individuals and society to recognize, understand, and manage a wide range of threats and risks. The rapidly changing world, driven by technology, politics, and the environment, poses new challenges for citizens' cognitive security. As warfare evolves, individuals struggle to understand the complex threats, including cyber and information influence. Hence, this study aims to ascertain whether individuals' feeling of security has changed and if they are perceiving psychological information influence. The study investigates the sense of security among Finnish people using survey data collected during two significant time periods: after Finland announced its intention to join NATO (N = 1080) and after it officially became a NATO member (N = 1047). Additionally, whether an increase in hostile online influence and disruptions in the cyber environment was noticed by Finnish people during these same time frames is being investigated. The results indicate a statistically significant decrease in the feeling of security and a significant increase in the awareness of hostile influences. This implies that these phenomena warrant further investigation to gain a better understanding of citizens' cognitive security status and to explore ways to improve it.

Double contrast-enhanced ultrasonography improves diagnostic accuracy of T staging compared with multi-detector computed tomography in gastric cancer patients.

Gastric cancer (GC) is the most common malignant tumor and ranks third for cancer-related deaths among the worldwide. The disease poses a serious public health problem in China, ranking fifth for incidence and third for mortality. Knowledge of the invasive depth of the tumor is vital to treatment decisions. To evaluate the diagnostic performance of double contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (DCEUS) for preoperative T staging in patients with GC by comparing with multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT). This single prospective study enrolled patients with GC confirmed by preoperative gastroscopy from July 2021 to March 2023. Patients underwent DCEUS, including ultrasonography (US) and intravenous contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS), and MDCT examinations for the assessment of preoperative T staging. Features of GC were identified on DCEUS and criteria developed to evaluate T staging according to the 8th edition of AJCC cancer staging manual. The diagnostic performance of DCEUS was evaluated by comparing it with that of MDCT and surgical-pathological findings were considered as the gold standard. A total of 229 patients with GC (80 T1, 33 T2, 59 T3 and 57 T4) were included. Overall accuracies were 86.9% for DCEUS and 61.1% for MDCT (P < 0.001). DCEUS was superior to MDCT for T1 (92.5% vs 70.0%, P < 0.001), T2 (72.7% vs 51.5%, P = 0.041), T3 (86.4% vs 45.8%, P < 0.001) and T4 (87.7% vs 70.2%, P = 0.022) staging of GC. DCEUS improved the diagnostic accuracy of preoperative T staging in patients with GC compared with MDCT, and constitutes a promising imaging modality for preoperative evaluation of GC to aid individualized treatment decision-making.

Za Nur Jahan Begum ain Sara Abad: Viewing Inscription and Reading Architecture in the Caravanserai of a Mughal Empress

There has been no dearth of Mughal women in positions of immense power, but their histories have been limited by a shortage of credible, primary sources, and their gendered and colonial readings. This paper addresses the gap thus created, by examining the inscriptions of Serai Nur, a caravanserai constructed under the matronage of Empress Nur Jahan in Punjab. This case study leads an inquiry into the expressive possibilities of architectural matronage, and the potential for structures thus erected to be considered as alternative primary sources where women have been agents of their own representations. In contrast to positivist approaches traditionally employed to read foundational inscriptions, this paper contextualises epigraphy within its wider visual environment instead to recognise performative and phenomenological intents, and traces an interpretive path backwards from individual design decisions manifest in the built fabric to their maker’s creative ambition in order to better understand her mind and motivations.

FEATURES OF THE EXECUTION OF DECISIONS OF THE RUSSIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT IN CASES RELATED TO LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

Using the example of individual decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the peculiarities of the execution of Court decisions in the eld of local self-government are shown. Special attention is paid to those who monitor law enforcement practices and supervise the implementation of decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, examples are given that information on the execution of individual decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation appears in the annual Reports on the state of local self-government prepared by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. Despite the fact that cases related to local self-government are not in the priority of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, it is during the consideration of this category of cases and the subsequent execution of decisions that new legal structures are formed, which have received some coverage in this article. Thus, Resolution No. 30-P of December 1, 2015, issued on the basis of an analysis of the legislation of a particular subject of the Russian Federation, was extrapolated to all subjects of the Russian Federation; a different arsenal of means was used to bring the legislation of the subjects of the Russian Federation in line with the positions formulated by the Court; the results of monitoring the execution of the Court decision were public. The operative part of the Court’s decisions began to formulate obligations addressed not only to the legislator, but also to local governments (to regulate relevant public relations), as well as to courts and supervisory authorities, what to pay attention to when considering a speci c category of cases (Resolution No. 27-P of May 30, 2023). The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation began to independently adjust the mechanism of execution of its own decisions.

A Latent Class Analysis of Reproductive Coercion Experiences Based on Victim-Survivors' Acknowledgment and Disclosure Patterns.

Reproductive coercion (RC) is a form of violence involving behavior that interferes with an individual's contraceptive and reproductive decisions. Like other forms of violence perpetrated by intimate partners, victims of RC do not necessarily identify it as such. Similarly, victim-survivors do not readily disclose their experiences or seek support and treatment. This study identifies patterns of acknowledgment and formal and informal disclosure of RC experiences in a community sample of 317 participants. Latent classes are then compared with respect to characteristics of victims/survivors, RC consequences, and associated contexts. Participants completed measures to assess experiences of RC and violence perpetuated by intimate partners as well as social support, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and consequences for psychological and sexual health. Latent class analysis was performed to identify acknowledgment and disclosure patterns. An optimal three-class solution was selected: High unacknowledgment with ambivalence, High disclosure (41%); High acknowledgment, High disclosure (30%); and Hesitant acknowledgment, No disclosure (29%). Classes were identified according to the presence of social support, living with a disability, victimization experiences, and mental and sexual health consequences. Future studies should explore the relationship between RC acknowledgment and disclosure, which can influence victims' search trajectories for support and services.

Fixed cost allocation based on a data envelopment analysis aggressive game approach

The literature on organizational strategy and production operations suggests that establishing a shared platform would be beneficial for addressing competition and mitigating risks. However, the creation of a common platform inevitably incurs expenditures and costs, prompting the natural question of how to equitably distribute the total fixed cost among all participating units. While the fixed cost allocation (FCA) problem has been explored in the context of data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper addresses a distinct decentralized environment wherein there is no central decision-maker, and each individual decision-making unit (DMU) pursues a self-interested strategy to minimize its allocated cost share. In tackling the challenge of proposing an acceptable allocation plan within this decentralized setting, we initially improve the non-egoistic principle by considering the perspective of operational size. This improvement mandates that each DMU bears the maximum fixed cost per unit of operational size in its own allocation proposal. The improved non-egoistic principle implicitly addresses the platform constraint and fairness concerns, while each DMU remains committed to maximizing other DMUs’ cost shares and minimizing their own performance efficiency. Additionally, we introduce an aggressive game process to amalgamate all DMUs’ allocation proposals into the DEA efficiency analysis. A DEA aggressive game approach and its corresponding computational algorithm are developed to facilitate consensus and determine the final FCA plan. Mathematically, we prove that all average post-allocation efficiencies, incorporating fixed costs, converge to the same aggressive game cross-efficiency for each DMU in the iterative algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, this paper represents the first study that employs an aggressive strategy in the FCA problem to minimize efficiency scores, while existing literature predominantly focuses on maximizing or maintaining efficiency scores. Finally, we apply the proposed approach to a classical numerical example and an empirical study involving nine independent truck fleets to showcase its characteristics and efficacy.

The irrationality of human confidence that an ageless existence would be better

Transhumanists and their fellow travelers urge humanity to prioritize the development of biotechnologies that would eliminate aging, delivering ‘an endless summer of literally perpetual youth.’ Aspiring not to age instantiates what philosopher Martha Nussbaum calls the yearning for ‘external transcendence,’ or the fundamental surpassing of human bounds due to confidence that life without them would be better. Based on Immanuel Kant’s account of the parameters of human understanding, I argue that engineering agelessness could not be a rational priority for humanity on the level of public policy. This stance is complemented by an argument focused on individual decision-making in liberal-democratic milieus, where no governing conception of the good is presumed and the first-personal level matters greatly. Here, drawing on philosopher and cognitive scientist Laurie Ann Paul’s concept of ‘transformative experience,’ I maintain that individuals could not ‘rationally,’ meaning, here, ‘prudentially,’ say ‘yes’ to agelessness. Absorbing the irrationality of human zeal to eliminate aging, based on assurance that an ageless existence would be better, should spur a redoubled dedication to human flourishing.

Vote Trading and Elections in Nigeria: Democracy as an Article of Trade?

This paper is underscored by the commodification and trading of votes in Nigeria which poses a threat to credible elections, democracy, and good governance. Domestic and global studies including election observers have established that there has always been widespread exchange of votes for money in Nigeria. In this regard, this paper looks at the issue of voting commodification in the country with a view to highlighting its attendant implications for present and future elections, democracy, and governance. Using descriptive and content analysis with data gathered through secondary sources the paper sought to answer the following questions: What is behind the narrative of vote trading in Nigeria? Why do politicians buy votes? Why do people sell votes? Is vote trading conditioned by individual beliefs or social norm? What are the consequences of vote trading on governance? What are the possible solutions to the problem? The paper argues that candidates and political parties engage in material gratification and vote trading during elections and that vote trading is propelled by independent, individual decision and mainly driven by material circumstances. It further contends that the more politicians engage in vote buying and gratification the more unstable the electoral process becomes as that prevents credible candidates from running for political office as they may not have the humongous amount required to contest in election. The study concludes that material vote selling and buying, and gratification pose negative tendencies for Nigerian political system, democracy, and good governance if not properly handled. The paper recommends among others taking political financing seriously with the electoral umpire- Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) more proactive in fighting vote trading and the electorates through political education be encouraged to avoid all kinds of inducements from political parties and candidates.