Negative Preferences Research Articles

Public Preferences for Policies to Promote COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake: A Discrete Choice Experiment in The Netherlands

ObjectivesThe COVID-19 pandemic forms an unprecedented public health, economic, and social crisis. Uptake of vaccination is critical for controlling the pandemic. Nevertheless, vaccination hesitancy is considerable, requiring policies to promote uptake. We investigate Dutch citizens’ preferences for policies that aim to promote vaccination through facilitating choice of vaccination, profiling it as the norm, making vaccination more attractive through rewards, or punishing people who reject vaccination. MethodsWe conducted a discrete choice experiment in which 747 respondents were asked to choose between policies to promote vaccination uptake and their impacts on the number of deaths, people with permanent health problems, households with income loss, and a tax increase. ResultsRespondents generally had a negative preference for policies that promote vaccination. They particularly disliked policies that punish those who reject the vaccine and were more favorable toward policies that reward vaccination, such as awarding additional rights to vaccinated individuals through vaccination passports. Respondents who reject vaccination were in general much more negative about the policy options than respondents who consider accepting the vaccine. Nevertheless, vaccination passports are supported by both respondents who accept the vaccine, those who reject vaccination, and those who are unsure about vaccination. ConclusionsThis study provides concrete directions for governments attempting to increase the vaccination uptake in ways that are supported by the public. Our results could encourage policy makers to focus on policy options that make vaccination easier and reward people who take the vaccine, as especially the implementation of vaccination passports was supported.

Save the best for last I: Young adults demonstrate negative time preference—A replication and extension.

Save the best for last I: Young adults demonstrate negative time preference—A replication and extension.

Expression of stable and reliable preference and aversion phenotypes following place conditioning with psychostimulants.

Drug-seeking behavior occurs more readily in some individuals than others. This phenomenon is considered in studies of drug self-administration in which high drug-seeking/taking individuals can be identified. In contrast, studies of conditioned place preference (CPP) often involve a random sample of drug-naïve rodents that includes phenotypes not considered relevant to addiction. The main objective of the current studies was to determine if a priori identification of different conditioning phenotypes could improve the validity and sensitivity of CPP expression as a preclinical test for vulnerability to addiction. Analysis of cocaine place conditioning data from 443 Swiss-Webster mice revealed a trimodal distribution with peaks corresponding to means of k = 3 clusters. The cluster means occurred at high, low, or negative preference scores, the latter suggesting a phenotype acquiring conditioned place aversion (CPA). The same clusters were identified in mice conditioned with methamphetamine, MDPV, or amphetamine, and these clusters remained stable and reliable during three additional expression tests spaced at 24h. A meta-analysis of effect sizes obtained from CPP literature revealed a positively skewed distribution affected by sample size, consistent with the existence of a CPA phenotype within the populations tested. A dopamine receptor antagonist, flupentixol, blocked cocaine CPP expression in a group containing all phenotypes, but sensitivity improved markedly when CPA phenotypes were excluded from the dataset. These studies suggest that taking phenotype into consideration when designing place conditioning studies will improve their application as a preclinical tool in addiction biology and drug discovery.

How to deal with negative preferences in recommender systems: a theoretical framework

Negative information plays an important role in the way we express our preferences and desires. However, it has not received the same attention as positive feedback in recommender systems. Here we show how negative user preferences can be exploited to generate recommendations. We rely on a logical semantics for the recommendation process introduced in a previous paper and this allows us to single out three main conceptual approaches, as well as a set of variations, for dealing with negative user preferences. The formal framework provides a common ground for analysis and comparison. In addition, we show how existing approaches to recommendation correspond to alternatives in our framework.

How to Make a Smartphone-Based App for Agricultural Advice Attractive: Insights from a Choice Experiment in Mexico

Mobile phone apps can be a cost-effective way to provide decision support to farmers, and they can support the collection of agricultural data. The digitisation of agricultural systems, and the efforts to close the digital divide and to include smallholders, make data ownership and privacy issues more relevant than ever before. In Central and South American countries, smallholders’ preferences regarding data licenses and sharing have largely been ignored, and little attention has been paid to the potential of nonfinancial incentives to increase the uptake of digital solutions and participation by farmers. To investigate incentives for smallholder farmers to potentially use an agricultural advisory app in which they share their data, a Discrete Choice Experiment was designed. Based on a survey of 392 farmers in Mexico, preferences for attributes related to its usage were revealed using a conditional logit (CL) model. To explore heterogeneity, groups and profiles were explored through a latent class (LC) model. The CL model results revealed, for example, farmers’ positive preference to receive support at first use and access to training, while negative preference was found for sharing data with private actors. The LC identified three classes which differ in their preference for attributes such as the degree of data sharing. Furthermore, for example, a farmer’s connectedness to an innovation hub was found to be one of the significant variables in the class membership function. The main contribution of the study is that it shows the importance of nonfinancial incentives and the influence of data sharing on farmer preferences.

Public preferences for options to manage chronic wasting disease in Canada: A paired comparisons study

In the past, public stakeholders have indicated strong negative preferences in response to some approaches, such as culling, for managing Chronic wasting disease (CWD). We collect data across Canada from the general public and several stakeholder groups and assess their preferences using a paired comparison approach. The results suggest that the public wants action in managing CWD. Members of the general public seem receptive to a number of different types of management approaches for CWD. Specifically, the public seems to support hunters reducing herd sizes, through increased tags and compensation for submitting positive testing CWD heads, and promoting environmental sampling on private land to detect CWD. In contrast, the public seems to dislike using sharpshooters to cull herds (on public or private land), and a number of options involving landowners, including increasing the number of licenses they may obtain, allowing them to charge hunters for access and providing them with extension services. Another stark result of our study is the remarkable homogeneity of preferences across different segments of society. There are very few cases where we find conflicting positive and negative preferences across groups.

Social preferences for water sensitive housing features in Australia

Without the designing and implementing of water sensitive housing designs, unplanned infill developments could have a substantial adverse effect on the natural environment. Water sensitive housing options could help meet housing demand while minimising the environmental impacts associated with typical infill development. However, whether the market will accept these designs is not known. In this paper, we assess people's preferences for different dwelling options in Adelaide and Melbourne. In both cities, infill is a dominant type of housing development. We use an economic non-market valuation approach, a discrete choice experiment, to understand owners' and renters' preferences for a set of attributes associated with a dwelling. It has been found that people have a very strong tendency to prefer their current dwelling and prefer house and townhouse dwelling types compared to apartments. Access to ‘high’ quality private outdoor space is preferred compared to a ‘minimal’ level. They also prefer covered-secured parking. However, there are low (or negative) preferences for a high level of shared amenity, except for renters in Adelaide. The results suggest that infill markets will be most successful in achieving water-sensitive outcomes if adopting detached dwelling styles with covered-secured parking with high-quality private outdoor space.

Apple flavor and its effects on sensory characteristics and consumer preference

AbstractThe focus within the apple industry is to identify varieties most preferred by consumers. To help with this, it is necessary to emphasize the discovery of flavor perceptions responsible for consumer preference in apples. The present study aimed to determine which flavor attributes are associated with different apple varieties, determine which apple varieties consumers prefer, and to determine which flavor attributes are contributing to consumer preference. Over two subsequent years, a trained sensory panel (n = 10, n = 15) evaluated 27 and 28 varieties, respectively. Intensity ratings of taste, flavor, and texture characteristics for each apple variety were recorded. This data was paired with an untrained consumer hedonic evaluation (n = 226) using a subset of apple varieties (n = 16). Results revealed that two large groups of apple consumers exist. Group 1 (29%) emphasized the importance of texture, while Group 2 (49%) was primarily driven by sweet taste, and honey and floral flavors with less focus on texture.Practical ApplicationsThe results of this research provide insight into the positive and negative preference drivers of apple consumers. By understanding flavors associated with consumer preference, the information can be used as a tool to aid breeding programs in the creation of consumer‐centric apples that will be commercialized. Additionally, through the creation of an external preference map, a point‐of‐reference has been created to serve as a predictor for upcoming apple varieties to the Ontario apple industry.

The Age-Related Positivity Effect and Emotion Regulation: Assessing Downstream Affective Outcomes

While substantial literature suggests that positive preferences are in the service of emotion regulation pursuits, little evidence has directly linked positivity "processes" with well-being "outcomes." The current study examined age-related differences in negative gaze preferences and how such preferences are related to subsequent regulatory outcomes. Participants were 79 older adults and 72 younger adults. They first provided a baseline mood assessment, which was followed by a standardized emotional video clip for three minutes during which visual fixation preferences were recorded via an eye tracker. Mood was again assessed after the film, which was followed by a standardized video recovery task, and completion of a recovery mood measure. Older adults fixated less on negative portions of the emotional video clip relative to younger adults, indicative of an age-related positivity effect. The indirect effect of age on mood recovery through fixation was not supported.

АКСІОЛОГІЧНІ ЗАСАДИ МЕТОДОЛОГІЇ ПРАВО-КУЛЬТУРНОГО ДИСКУРСУ

Scientific approaches to legal culture have traditionally been reduce to social and philosophical and, to a lesser extent, to axiological (value) comprehension. The cognitive approach to legal culture aimed at an objective understanding of legal reality, while the axiological approach aimed at recognizing the highest moral justification for the value of human life. Therefore, legal culture should be understood on the basis of axiological criteria, since it is bound by the concept of values. They direct the behavior of subjects, correct it in accordance with their content, which is normatively formalized. Legal values are the values of culture that embodied in the legal system of society, all its elements – legal doctrines, norms, acts, relations. Legal values are embodied in the categories of ethics, moral norms; they play the role of criteria for evaluating legal phenomena. The hierarchy of principles embodied in the norms of law, legal activity, acts of application of law and lawmaking cannot be comprehend outside of axiological theory. Legal values point to the main causes and form the ideal model of the law of any national legal system. The perception of legal values by society and the individual ideally forms a culture of legal behavior. The value content has many forms of existence. The idea of constitutionalism postulated the value orientations of legal science and law-making, determined the importance of legal ethics as a necessary component of the activities of government institutions. The attitude towards values and their assessment in society is ambiguous: from a categorical refusal to their approval. Legal culture, its values serve as a foundation on the basis of which a multivariate social practice is modified by legal means. Values determine the level of legitimacy of law, legal practice – legislative, law enforcement, judicial, control, limiting legal arbitrariness in the activities of government institutions, in the private legal sphere, hindering negative social experience and cultural preferences unacceptable to society.

Collective Negative Shocks and Preferences for Redistribution: Evidence from the Covid-19 Crisis in Germany

Collective Negative Shocks and Preferences for Redistribution: Evidence from the Covid-19 Crisis in Germany

Apprehensive and frustrative uses of before

In this paper, I look at how context-dependent inferences can enrich the meaning of non-factual before (‘avant que’) clauses in French. My proposal is that, in a sentence like ‘before p, q’, the connective may receive two pragmatically enriched readings: (i) an apprehensive reading, when the agent responsible for q has the goal of avoiding p (after Anderbois & Dabkowski (2020)); (ii) a frustrative reading, when it is contrary to the expectations of the agent responsible for q that p. Going further, I address the question of expletive negation in avant que clauses, arguing that expletive negation puts emphasis on the connective’s invited inferences of negative (teleological or doxastic) preference. Finally, I generalize the account to other contexts where expletive negation occurs in French.

Winning ugly: Profit maximizing marketing strategies for ugly foods

Ugly foods meet nutritional and safety benchmarks but deviate from cosmetic and size standards. The marketability of ugly food is a major factor that frustrates field-level food rescue efforts. We investigate opportunities to promote ugly foods in a way that converts uniform negative preferences towards ugly food to more diverse and horizontally differentiated preferences where some consumers prefer ugly food to standard offerings and pay a premium. We conduct an online discrete choice experiment and find a portfolio of marketing strategies that significantly enhance respondent willingness to pay for ugly carrots. Dual messages that simultaneously (1) link the purchase of ugly food to reductions in food waste and (2) suggest ugly food is natural and authentic significantly improve willingness to pay. We also find respondents tolerate some level of mixing of ugly with standard carrots. We find the most profitable strategy is to form bunches that include 40% ugly and 60% standard carrots and to sell the bunches with green leaves attached at farmers markets where consumers receive dual marketing messages. Profit simulations confirm that, in the absence of such marketing strategies, farmers rationally create waste by discontinuing harvest when the percentage of remaining carrots that are ugly is high.

Do children who exhibit food selectivity prefer to save the best (bite) for last?

AbstractPreference for patterns of outcomes that improve over time is termed negative time preference, in economics. In lay terms, this concept equates to “saving the best for last.” Generally, adults tend to prefer to postpone their more preferred outcomes when options are presented as a sequence of events. Event sequencing seems particularly relevant for children who exhibit food refusal or selectivity. Preference for the sequencing of bites when an array involved preferred and relatively non‐preferred foods was evaluated. Participants experienced pre‐programed bite sequences that improved, worsened, or remained fixed across trials, and we assessed participants' preference for each of the bite sequences. Three of the four participants preferred bite sequences that began with a highly preferred food and either worsened or remained fixed over time, whereas one participant preferred the improving sequence of bite presentation, or in other words, one participant preferred to “save the best for last.”

Demonstration of a negative reinforcement preference assessment to determine aversiveness of types of social interaction

AbstractPrior researchers have validated the use of a latency assessment to create a hierarchy of demand aversiveness. Demand latency assessments help to identify high‐aversive demands for use in functional analyses and/or treatment. The current study used the same approach to evaluate aversiveness of social interaction among four individuals who engaged in target behavior maintained by social avoidance. We obtained clear hierarchies in social interaction aversiveness across all participants. For one participant, we also used the social avoidance latency assessment to demonstrate an intervention approach using gradual fading of less‐ to more‐aversive forms of social interactions. These results indicate latency assessments may be applicable to generate hierarchies of aversive situations that may evoke target behavior maintained by social negative reinforcement other than escape from demands, leading to several clinical implications, and future research directions.

Semen Sojae Praeparatum alters depression-like behaviors in chronic unpredictable mild stress rats via intestinal microbiota

A large number of Chinese medical books present that Semen Sojae Praeparatum, a fermented food, possesses antidepressant effect, but the mechanism of this antidepressant effect remains largely unknown. This study aimed to explore the effect of Semen Sojae Praeparatum on rats with chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS)-induced depression. The results showed that Semen Sojae Praeparatum improved depression-like behaviors (negative preference of sugar water and increased swimming immobility time and time spent in the dark zone) and effectively reduced cell morphological changes in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus in CUMS rats. In addition, Semen Sojae Praeparatum significantly promoted the contents of norepinephrine (NE), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the hippocampus and the content of BDNF in the serum (p < 0.05). 16S rRNA sequencing analysis results showed that Semen Sojae Praeparatum increased the abundance of genus Ruminococcaceae_UCG-008 and decreased those of genera Lactobacillus and Bacteroides. Genus Ruminococcaceae_UCG-008 was positively correlated with GABA and BDNF levels in the hippocampus; genus Lactobacillus had a positive correlation with 5-HT; and genus Bacteroides had negative correlations with 5-HT, BDNF, and NE. In addition, Semen Sojae Praeparatum considerably decreased the concentration of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). These results indicated that Semen Sojae Praeparatum fermented by Rhizopus chinensis 12 and Bacillus sp. DU-106 alleviated the neurotransmitter levels and structural changes in the neuronal morphology of the hippocampus associated with the modulation of gut microbiota and SCFAs. Therefore, this study confirmed that Semen Sojae Praeparatum could alter depression and provide a theoretical basis for the investigation of the relationship between the microbiota–gut–brain axis and antidepressant.

Are Veterans Getting Their Preferred Depression Treatment? A National Observational Study in the Veterans Health Administration

BackgroundPhysician responsiveness to patient preferences for depression treatment may improve treatment adherence and clinical outcomes.ObjectiveTo examine associations of patient treatment preferences with types of depression treatment received and treatment adherence among Veterans initiating depression treatment.DesignPatient self-report surveys at treatment initiation linked to medical records.SettingVeterans Health Administration (VA) clinics nationally, 2018–2020.ParticipantsA total of 2582 patients (76.7% male, mean age 48.7 years, 62.3% Non-Hispanic White)Main MeasuresPatient self-reported preferences for medication and psychotherapy on 0–10 self-anchoring visual analog scales (0=“completely unwilling”; 10=“completely willing”). Treatment receipt and adherence (refilling medications; attending 3+ psychotherapy sessions) over 3 months. Logistic regression models controlled for socio-demographics and geographic variables.Key ResultsMore patients reported strong preferences (10/10) for psychotherapy than medication (51.2% versus 36.7%, McNemar χ21=175.3, p<0.001). A total of 32.1% of patients who preferred (7–10/10) medication and 21.8% who preferred psychotherapy did not receive these treatments. Patients who strongly preferred medication were substantially more likely to receive medication than those who had strong negative preferences (odds ratios [OR]=17.5; 95% confidence interval [CI]=12.5–24.5). Compared with patients who had strong negative psychotherapy preferences, those with strong psychotherapy preferences were about twice as likely to receive psychotherapy (OR=1.9; 95% CI=1.0–3.5). Patients who strongly preferred psychotherapy were more likely to adhere to psychotherapy than those with strong negative preferences (OR=3.3; 95% CI=1.4–7.4). Treatment preferences were not associated with medication or combined treatment adherence. Patients in primary care settings had lower odds of receiving (but not adhering to) psychotherapy than patients in specialty mental health settings. Depression severity was not associated with treatment receipt or adherence.ConclusionsMismatches between treatment preferences and treatment type received were common and associated with worse treatment adherence for psychotherapy. Future research could examine ways to decrease mismatch between patient preferences and treatments received and potential effects on patient outcomes.

Preferences Offset Stressors in Determining Survivability

Pure stress-based models of health predict that accumulated stresses promote illnesses that result in lower life expectancies. However, in mixed subjective preference models, effects of stress, seen as negative preference, can potentially be offset by achievement of positive personal preferences. According to mixed preference models, preventive medicine strategies for promoting health can operate either by alleviating stress or by enhancing subjective preferences. Over many decades we developed a theory and practice of rational, psychoacoustically-driven architectural acoustic design of concert halls.1-3 The theory incorporates both negative acoustic annoyance attributes (stressors, negative preferences) and positive ones. Using self-assessment surveys of 30 dialysis patients in Kobe, Japan, we used the methodology to assess the effects of subjective preferences on delaying onset of dialysis treatment (dialysis onset age, DOA). Hayashi’s multivariate regression method (I) for nonparametric data 5,8 was used to estimate effects of reported factors. Of these, six factors proved predictive of DOA (p-values): better or worse interpersonal relations (0.003), decades of full-time work (0.050), alcohol consumption (0.031) according to individual preference, present noisy home environment (0.090), other pollution (0.060), smoking (0.115). Other factors were either weakly- or un- correlated: hospitalizations, house moves, past hypertension, proteinuria, sex, pet ownership, presence of bad odors, past noise pollution. Preventative measures that enhance subjective preferences may thus delay the need for dialysis.

Preferences and Experiences Regarding the Use of the Self-Sampling Device in hrHPV Screening for Cervical Cancer.

BackgroundTo improve participation in the Dutch cervical cancer screening, a self-sampling device (SSD) was introduced in 2017 into the Dutch population-based screening programme (PBS) for the early detection of cervical cancer. The aim of this study was to gather potential preferences and experiences that might influence a woman’s decision to use the SSD in the Dutch PBS.MethodsA scoping review was performed in the PubMed database. Studies that assessed preferences and experiences of women regarding the SSD were included, and preferences and experiences were extracted. In addition, in a qualitative study, the list of potential preferences and experiences specific for the Dutch PBS was extended based on semi-structured interviews with SSD users as well as non-SSD users who recently participated in the PBS, analysed in a structured manner by translating full sentences to key words.ResultsNinety-eight studies were included in the scoping review and 16 interviews were performed. Frequently mentioned reasons for using the SSD, in both the interviews and the literature, were practicality and comfort. Frequently mentioned reasons for not using the SSD were fear of not performing the SSD procedure correctly and doubts on whether the results of the high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) test will be reliable. A new positive experience elicited in the interviews was accessibility. Negative preferences and experiences were not being aware the SSD was an option, and the inconvenience that after an hrHPV-positive test result of the SSD, an additional smear test at the GP is necessary.ConclusionSeveral preferences and experiences play a role in the choice whether or not to use the SSD. Based on the currently found preferences and experiences, an app will be developed in order to assess which of these are the most important for women participating in the Dutch population-based cervical screening programme.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40271-021-00550-y.

The Impact of the Preferential Attachment Level on the Innovation Network Structure and Innovation Efficiency

In the formation process of innovation networks, the level of preferential attachment between agents has an important impact on the resulting structural and functional characteristics of a network. A simulation model of innovation networks with variable preferential levels of attachment is established to study these impacts. Negative preferences tend to form chain-type structures, while positive preferences tend to form star-type structures. Furthermore, a simulation process of innovation is added to the network model to test the impact of the resulting structures on innovation efficiency. For explorative innovation, the structure with unbiased preference has the fastest innovation speed, but the structures with strong positive preference show lower innovation costs. For exploitive innovation, strong negative preferences generate the fastest innovation speed and relatively low cost, while strong positive preferences show a slightly lower cost than negative preference structures but a much lower innovation speed. Finally, some internal mechanisms of the results are discussed.