Norm Compliance Research Articles

Beliefs also make social-norm preferences social

A growing body of research reveals that various pro-social behaviors result from a desire to follow social norms. Indeed, a recent study by Kimbrough and Vostroknutov (2016) introduced the Rule-following (RF) Task and finds that an individual’s willingness to follow rules in the RF Task predicts her pro-social behavior across many experimental settings. We conduct four experimental studies that use the RF Task. We find that an individual’s willingness to follow rules depends on her belief about others’ rule following and not just an individual-level fixed trait for norm compliance. We discuss the implications of our results for our larger understanding of human pro-sociality.

Descriptive Norms and Guilt Aversion

It has been argued that guilt aversion (the desire to meet others’ expectations) and the social norm compliance (the desire to act similarly to other individuals in the same situation) are important drivers of human behavior. However, as we show in a theoretical model, these two motives are empirically indistinguishable when only one signal (either the expectation of a person affected by the choice or a signal about the descriptive norm) is revealed as each of these signals transmit information on the other benchmark. We address this problem by running an experiment in which signals for both benchmarks are revealed simultaneously. We find that both types of information affect dictator transfers in a one-shot game, yet the information about the behavior of others has a stronger effect than the disclosed recipient’s expectation. The effect of the recipient’s expectation is non-monotonic and becomes negative for very high expectations. We provide further evidence for the importance of guilt aversion in a second experiment where we display the recipient’s expectation and the expectation of a randomly picked recipient of another dictator.

COVID-19 and the Violation of the Right to Basic Education of Learners with Disabilities in South Africa: An Examination of Centre for Child Law v Minister of Basic Education

AbstractThis article explores the extent to which the right to basic education of learners with disabilities in South Africa was guaranteed during the COVID-19 pandemic. It uses the Centre for Child Law v Minister of Basic Education (Centre for Child Law) as the main canvas for discussion. It argues that, notwithstanding its normative compliance with the international regime of the right to an inclusive basic education, the government has failed learners with disabilities during COVID-19. An examination of Centre for Child Law reveals that, not only did the government's directions for the phased return to school exclude learners with disabilities, they also required the closure of special schools where compliance with social distancing rules was impossible. This violated the right to inclusive education and substantive equality of learners with disabilities and highlighted the need to advance these rights through reasonable accommodation initiatives.

Evidence for the existence of emotion dispositions and the effects of appraisal bias.

The concept of emotion disposition is proposed as an important dimension of individual differences. It refers to a stable tendency to experience certain emotions more or less frequently or intensely for similar classes of situations or events in daily experience than the majority of other people. In contrast to classic "trait affect" traditions, the theoretical framework described here proposes a specific mechanism based on the notion of appraisal bias, that is, the evaluation of events or situations in biased, often unrealistic, fashion. The bias toward internal versus external causal attribution is a classic example. It is suggested that such biases can affect virtually all appraisal criteria (e.g., novelty/expectedness, (un)pleasantness, goal conduciveness/obstruction, causation, control, power, and norm compliance), creating a disposition to experience specific emotions more frequently. In some cases, this process may lead to the development of affective disorders. Two studies are herein reported: (a) administering an emotion disposition assessment instrument to several thousand adults in personnel assessment contexts (N = 3,012), demonstrating the existence and intensity of emotion dispositions and identifying potential individual difference correlates; and (b) using an updated version of the instrument in a representative survey panel study (N = 190), assessing both emotion dispositions and appraisal biases, allowing analysis of their relationships (in addition to examining the effect of correlates). The results confirm the viability of the underlying theoretical assumptions as well as of the scenario method used for the assessment and provide leads for further research, particularly in the areas of emotional competence and affective disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The Economy as a Legal Compliance Threat in the Covid-19 Pandemic

This article describes the failure of informal workers to comply with laws and regulations as a policy instrument for controlling COVID-19. This situation critiques Luhmann's theory of expanding the scope of law beyond the consolidated form of legal texts and legal practice. The formation and application of the law still envisage the nature of normative compliance but ignores the interrelation with economic factors and social welfare goals. This socio-legal research involves a survey of social worker communities in four major cities in the Special Region of Yogyakarta and Central Java Province. Research shows the significant need for improvement in the formation and enforcement of laws by considering the interrelationships of the economy and social welfare. © 2021. RIGEO. All Rights Reserved.

Perinatal health impacts of air pollution mitigation policies: applying g formula to preterm birth in Temuco/Padre Las Casas, Chile

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Wood burning is a primary energy source for heating but constitutes a significant source of PM2.5 emissions and is linked to adverse health outcomes, including preterm birth (PTB). There is little evidence on the expected benefits from air pollution mitigation plans with respect to perinatal outcomes, particularly those aimed at decreasing residential wood-burning emissions. We estimated the magnitude of reduction in prevalence and number of PTB cases associated with compliance with air quality guidelines and specific interventions to reduce fine particulate matter in Temuco/Padre Las Casas, Chile, an area heavily affected by wood burning from residential heating. METHODS: A parametric G-computation approach was applied to quantify the relationship between PM2.5 and time to PTB. We relied on a retrospective cohort of all live births between 2009-2015 from a public hospital in Temuco (n=15,516). We simulated the effects of four scenarios to reduce PM2.5 as compared to “business as usual” (no intervention): compliance with i) WHO guidelines; ii) Chilean limit values; reductions associated with iii) a wood heater replacement program and iv) gradual prohibition of less efficient stoves/heaters. RESULTS:Women were exposed to high levels of air pollution in each trimester of pregnancy (30 µg/m3 in each trimester); 10% of births were PTB. Both prevalence and number of cases of PTB decreased with each intervention scenario, with larger decreases associated with compliance to national limits and international guidelines. For gradual prohibition of less efficient stoves, expected prevalence of PTB was 8% compared to 5.7% associated with compliance with Chilean limits, which represented 225 (95% CI -395, -56) and 544 (95% CI -897, -190) fewer cases of PTB compared to business as usual. CONCLUSIONS:We found large potential benefits for prevalence and number of PTB cases associated with the mitigation strategies, with larger reductions for norm compliance compared to specific wood-burning proposed. KEYWORDS: air pollution, mitigation strategies, adverse birth outcomes, G methods

Web-Based Expense Approval System

'Web-Based Expense Approval System’ is a responsive web application whose main aim is to provide a utility to review, approve, and maintain an organization’s financial transactions. When there is a need to approve invoices and transactions by various stakeholders located in different parts of the country, the invoices must go through a designated authority at every level, where they are reviewed and approved/rejected. On similar lines, the invoices should proceed through the stakeholders residing in the subsequent levels until it reaches the highest authority, which generally would be an administrative office of the organization. The invoices undergo a series of checks for regulatory and compliance norms. Once these necessary checks are completed, the invoices get the final approval, and the amount gets disbursed.

Disgust and the logic of contamination: Biology, culture, and the evolution of norm (over)compliance

Many people feel compelled to disassociate themselves from wrongdoing. We call judgments to the effect “disassociation intuitions.” Do disassociation intuitions have a common cause? Why do they seem so obvious and resistant to countervailing reasons? How did they become so widespread? Here, we argue that disassociation intuitions are a natural product of gene‐culture co‐evolution. We also consider the mechanism that gene‐culture co‐evolution employed to achieve this result, arguing that a plausible candidate is disgust and its cultural echoes. This theory of disassociation intuitions suggests a promising research program in the philosophy of psychology, which provides new ways of thinking about higher cognitive emotions, and biologically constrained cognitive capacities generally.

Attention! The meanings of attention to politics in surveys

This research note explores the role of reported attention to politics in survey overclaiming about politics. Using recognition of real and fictitious political parties in the context of the UK's 2019 European Parliament elections, we find that people who report higher attention to politics are more likely to over-report recognition of fictitious parties, and are also more likely to recognize new real political parties - those that emerged around the issue of ‘Brexit’ in the months before the election. To resolve these patterns, we show that political attention makes little difference to the accuracy of responses for people who have high political knowledge, or if it does so, it increases accuracy. However, for those with lower political knowledge, high reported political attention is a source of potential survey error and bias. These findings are consistent with higher survey satisficing and norm compliance among those who report having greater attention to politics, particularly among those who have lower knowledge. The implications are important for understanding the meaning and consequences of ‘attention to politics’ in surveys.

Destruction of the hydraulic unit shaft: Why it is possible?

Hydraulic units produce around 20% from the total world energy and almost 75% from total renewable energy as well as play a vital role in providing energy system stability. The shaft is one of the key lifetime-determining elements for hydraulic units. Its durability, lifetime, fatigue and fracture resistance define reliability and safety of a hydraulic unit in general. Despite the presence of functioning continuous and periodic hydraulic unit technical condition control systems, there are several known cases of shaft destruction leading to their replacement, long downtimes and significant financial losses for energy industries.The goal of this research is determining main reasons for shaft destruction in hydraulic power plant operating conditions. Using computational modeling for a large vertical high-head hydraulic unit as an example shows that a growing crack doesn't significantly influence shaft dynamic properties. As a result, even a long through crack may escape detection by present vibration diagnostics systems. At the same time, non-destructive metal state control methods are also not always effective due to structural design features and large size of hydraulic unit shafts.To prevent serious incidents in the future there is a suggestion to improve vibration diagnostics data-processing algorithms, introducing an additional diagnostic sign – a ratio of registered double rotation frequency runout values to runouts at rotation frequency, which allows to identify a hydraulic unit with a growing shaft circumferential crack even with vibration state meeting compliance norms and requirements. Additionally, it is necessary to estimate residual HU shaft lifetime through calculation taking into account possible initial cracks not revealed previously by non-destructive control.

Topology optimization of dynamic problems based on finite deformation theory

AbstractThis study proposes a topology optimization method for dynamic problems based on the finite deformation theory to derive a structure that can reduce deformations for arbitrary dynamic loads that have large deformations. To obtain a structure that can minimize deformations due to dynamic loading for the isotropic hyperelastic model, the square norm of dynamic compliance is set as the objective function. A sensitivity analysis method of the equation of motion, based on Newmark's method for unknown displacements, is presented in the current study. The analysis is carried out by developing a general design sensitivity equation that can accurately account for the response of the structure to dynamic loading and simultaneously display a high affinity for the general constitutive law by using the adjoint variable method. The accuracy of the obtained sensitivity is verified by using the finite difference method as a benchmark. Numerical examples are then used to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method is able to derive optimization results according to the magnitude of the applied load.

Factors Related To Disability Inclusive Public Transport In A City In Peru

Aims: In Latin America and the Caribbean, a large percentage of the urban and interurban transport service remains inaccessible for citizens with a disability. In Peru, citizens with complex disabilities have been made invisible in the public transport service. The objective of this research is to determine the relationship between the management of inclusive urban public transport and the accessibility of persons with disabilities in the city of Trujillo, 2020, and how public management impacts on this group of citizens. Methodology: A questionnaire was used based on the dimensions of each variable. The variables were: Inclusive urban public transport management composed of 5 dimensions (equipment and services, adapted vehicles, preferential rate, regulatory compliance, state of the roads) and accessibility of people with disabilities, composed of 5 dimensions (physical environment, attitudinal, social activities, mobility, comfort). Spearman's rank correlation was used. Results: The results allowed identifying that the management of inclusive urban public transport in the city of Trujillo has a predominantly deficient level, and the accessibility of people with disabilities is mainly poor. Conclusion: A direct and significant relationship was evidenced between the management of inclusive urban public transport and its dimensions (equipment and services, adapted vehicles, preferential rates, regulatory compliance, state of the roads) with the accessibility of people with disabilities in the city of Trujillo. Social activities, mobility and comfort, as well as preferential rate, normative compliance and state of the roads are decisive for the study of the relationship between the management of inclusive urban public transport and accessibility for the disabled.

Compliance to School Classroom Norms and Perceived School Climate among Senior High School Students in a Private University in Manila,Philippines

This quantitative study aimedto determine the correlation between senior high school Grade 12 students’ perception of school climate and compliance with school classroom normsin a private university in Manila, Philippines. A sample of 249 Grade 12 respondents who were randomly selected answered the online self-administered questionnaire composed of modified scales to explore the two variables, with Cronbach tests exhibiting an acceptable level of internal consistency (perceptions school climate = 0.88, compliance of classroom norms = 0.86). The study found apositive perceptionof school cli-mate (M= 4.19, SD = 0.40)and a very high level of classroom norm compliance (M= 3.40, SD = 0.32) among the respondents. The Pearson R test revealed a significant moderate positive correlation between their perception of school climateand their level of school classroom norm compliance and (r = 0.554, p< 0.001). This implies that their compliance or adherence to school classroom norms increases as their perception of school climate positively increases.

The Problem of Spelling Norms Compliance with the Positional Alternation of "у" and "в" in Modern Scientific Articles of Technical Profile

The Problem of Spelling Norms Compliance with the Positional Alternation of "у" and "в" in Modern Scientific Articles of Technical Profile

Evolutionary institutionalism in Europe’s neighborhood post-enlargement: the European Neighborhood Policy brings geopolitics back in

A major conceptual overhaul is under way in the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) with significant consequences for its eastern dimension. This paper examines such policy adjustments from the perspective of evolutionary institutionalism. The paper revisits the changing rationale of the ENP due to the impact of the broader geopolitical environment on its normative structure and compliance mechanisms on the example of the EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) with six countries in the post-Soviet space. By tracing the evolution of the EaP as a result of the Ukraine crisis and the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union, the paper finds that the EaP’s progressive institutional growth has been replaced with the diversification of its governance mechanism, transforming the established top-down model of conditionality and deep institutionalization of the EU’s neighborhood relations. The evolving institutional arrangements of the EaP, nominally at odds with the principles of institutional continuity, demonstrate that international institutions are resilient vis-a-vis ecological pressures. These findings represent a novel contribution to the literature exploring the institutions-geopolitics dichotomy in the Europe/Eurasia region. The paper concludes that, as the EU has adapted to the structural dependencies of its partners, it is now better positioned to expand its influence in the post-Soviet space. The evolution of the EaP offers valuable insights into the actual process of building a more geopolitical EU: not by advancing pragmatic EU interests or establishing its own “soft” sphere of influence in the Europe/Eurasia region but by sustaining inclusive resilient and efficient institutions with a global outlook.

Regulatory Responses to ‘Fake News’ and Freedom of Expression: Normative and Empirical Evaluation

Abstract National authorities have responded with different regulatory solutions in attempts to minimise the adverse impact of fake news and associated information disorder. This article reviews three different regulatory approaches that have emerged in recent years—information correction, content removal or blocking, and criminal sanctions—and critically evaluates their normative compliance with the applicable rules of international human rights law and their likely effectiveness based on an evidence-based psychological analysis. It identifies, albeit counter intuitively, criminal sanction as an effective regulatory response that can be justified when it is carefully tailored in a way that addresses legitimate interests to be protected.

Human Rights and Corporate Reinsurance: From Ensuring Rights to Insuring Risks

ABSTRACT With the aim of grounding the analysis of private transnational human rights governance, the article examines how a European reinsurance company links its human rights policy to its core business of underwriting risks in the case of Belo Monte, a large hydroelectric dam in the Brazilian Amazon. Based on the current international regulatory framework, the global political economy of reinsurance is becoming a constitutive element of human rights governance. Conceptualising underwriting as a social practice, we observe how human rights norms are translated into the corporate form of risks. This process goes beyond questions of norm compliance and involves practices of valuation and boundary-drawing based on the underwriter’s competences and background knowledge about reinsurance markets, value chains and corporate hierarchies. We conclude with a critique of private governance as an institutional pillar of the human rights system that rests on business rationales rather than lending institutional power to rights-holders.

Behavioral effects of tax withholding on tax compliance: Implications for information initiatives

Using a theory-driven experiment with working adult participants and deliberate tax framing, this paper reports on the effects of tax withholding choices on subsequent individual income tax reporting behavior. We find reporting increases with the level of taxes over-withheld, and decreases with taxes under-withheld, with the latter effect being much larger in magnitude. We explore two information programs designed to influence social norms: compliance information specific to one's income class, and information related to the fairness of the tax system. Increasing either the compliance norm or the fairness measure increases tax reporting but only information on fairness affects the withholding choice. A third information program – a service that resolves uncertainty over tax liability – offsets the undesirable effects of tax under-withholding on reported liability when acquired. Using information from an extensive questionnaire, we find several interesting associations between decision-making in the experiment and the prior tax filing experiences and behaviors of participants.

Organoleptic and physico-chemical characteristics of olive oil obtained in the conditions of the Southern Coast of the Crimea

Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained from the fruits of the European olive (Olea europaea L.). In terms of fatty acid composition, it is a mixture of triglycerides of fatty acids with a very high content of oleic acid esters. It has a color from brownish-yellow to greenish-yellow and has a slight bitterness aftertaste. The beneficial properties of olive oil determined by the content of oleic acid, which ensures low oxidizability of the product and helps to reduce blood cholesterol levels. The quality of the oil and its compliance with GOST requirements are important. The purpose of this report is to study the organoleptic and physicochemical characteristics of olive oil from different manufacturers, including that obtained by the Nikitsky Botanical Gardens - National Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, their compliance with the approved norms of Russian and European standards and requirements, regulations, as well as determining the class produced oil. The work uses generally accepted methods of organoleptic, physicochemical, and other research. The analysis of existing systems of olive oil classification is given. The chemical indicators of the composition of olive oils from NBG and leading manufacturers on the Russian market are presented. The issues of the organoleptic assessment of the oil and its physical and chemical indicators are highlighted, the composition of fatty acids of olive oil obtained in the conditions of the Southern Coast of the Crimea is analyzed and its comparative analysis with olive oil from other manufacturers, as well as the norms of compliance with stand ards, codes and technical regulations. It has been proven that the NBG’s oil, due to the natural and climatic conditions of olive growth, is of high quality and meets the required Extra Virgin oil standards.

Human rights localisation in liberal states: the UK’s responsibility to protect as regime change and political transition in Syria

ABSTRACT This article examines how powerful liberal states localise human rights-based norms. Taking a critical constructivist perspective, it does this through an empirical case study of how the UK understood its Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Syrians during the period 2014–2016. The research has two findings. First, R2P had little impact on the UK’s responses to Syria. Second, the reason why is how R2P has been localised in the UK as regime change and political transition. This is due to contestation over some aspects, which have been modified to fit the local domestic context. The findings allow for two conclusions that have theoretical and practical significance. First, at the broad level, liberal democracies do not have a monopoly on norm compliance as their practice and understanding of some norms and the need to modify and fit them into the local context are just as complex as those in the post-colonial context. Second, the research is the first to empirically answer why R2P does not drive the UK’s responses to cases of mass atrocities despite its ongoing public endorsement of the norm, which brings greater understanding to the norm’s implementation problems.