Normative Considerations Research Articles

Financial Incentives for Improving Maternal Health: A Review of Ethical Considerations

Abstract Maternal health is considered a key global priority by the World Health Organization, and several strategies are used to promote it. Especially in lower- and lower-middle-income countries, one widely used strategy employs financial incentives to motivate pregnant women to access available healthcare. While such interventions have been extensively empirically evaluated, their normative aspects appear to have received less attention. To address this gap, we systematically searched and reviewed normative and qualitative literature to map and analyze the ethical considerations of using financial incentives to promote maternal health. Twenty-three articles (four normative and 19 qualitative) were included in the review. We grouped ethical considerations under six categories, namely the program structure, promoting institutional births, of the ethical significance of cash, justifying conditionalities for maternal health, effects on individuals’ decision-making and the experiences of vulnerable groups. While incentives could be used for beneficent goals, we show how they may emphasize global rather than local solutions, impose unfamiliar sociocultural values, unfairly expect behavior change and disempower individuals and groups. We argue that future maternal health policy, especially those targeting vulnerable groups and minorities, would benefit from taking these normative considerations into account.

Hybrid accountability in global health public-private partnerships: a literature and case study

Abstract Background Recent global health public-private partnerships (PPPs) offer novel approaches to public health issues, yet they lack clear public accountability. Hence, it remains unclear how accountability is organised and practiced. This research examines accountability in global health PPPs, how it is manifested, and derives lessons for developing an accountability framework. Methods The study utilized both a scoping literature review, examining the databases SCOPUS, Web of Science and MEDLINE, which yielded 35 eligible articles from 334 records, and an exploratory case study focused on an accountability event within the Global Stop Tuberculosis Partnership (STBP), incorporating a document analysis and an expert interview to enhance insights from the literature review. Results Authors studying PPPs often conceptualized accountability broadly and favoured a view tied to hierarchical state-led governance and democracy. However, at the global level, this political accountability is largely absent. In PPPs, it is replaced by a mix of bureaucratic, legal, social, audit, fiscal, and rather soft accountability mechanisms. Also, PPPs' accountability landscape is dynamic, shaped by different normative considerations and by the interdependence among partners. In 2020, the allegations for misconduct at the STBP exemplified public reputational accountability, followed by audit accountability leading to an enforced soft accountability to STBPs' mission & purpose. Conclusions This study highlights the necessity for rethinking accountability in global health PPPs due to the limitations of existing structuralist frameworks. A new hybrid accountability framework is proposed. It considers a strong accountability focus on PPPs' purpose, their processual dynamics, and normative aspects. Lastly, it is recommended to further investigate the trade-off between transparent accountability mechanisms and the practical necessity for confidential backstage processes in PPPs. Key messages • Exploring a hybrid accountability framework in global health PPPs beyond only static accountability snapshots, helps to understand PPPs’ true dynamic, purpose-driven and individualized accountability. • Without regulatory mechanisms and state governance, individual action and new collaboration become essential, requiring soft accountability mechanisms as increased trust and cooperation among partners.

Are ideological and partisan affinities determining voters’ support of arms deliveries? Insights from a large-scale survey experiment in France and Germany

Abstract The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine raised for many parties the question of how to position themselves in view of urgently requested arms deliveries. Since, the topic of arms trade, which has hitherto rarely been addressed, has become a heavily politicized and divisive issue and partly even polarized public opinion. A major prerequisite for parties’ position-taking is to anticipate how voters react to such arms transfers and, more specifically, whether their respective attitudes are structured along the predominant left-right axis. Based on a large-scale survey experiment with French and German voters ( $N = 6617$ ) in the year before the Russian invasion, we are able to focus on the relationship between ideological predispositions, vote intentions, and issue attitudes in a non-politicized period. Using both vignette and conjoint experiments, we demonstrate that voters’ attitudes on military transfers can be subsumed remarkably well under the left-right scale. Differentiating the impact of normative and economic considerations, the former is stronger among the left, while the latter also affects the attitudes of rightist citizens. However, normative considerations are the most important concern along the whole political spectrum. The turn of the German Green Party in 2022 to assist countries that are being aggressively attacked (because of the Responsibility to Protect), was not reflected in our data.

Artificial Intelligence and U.S. Military Cadets’ Attitudes About Future War

What shapes warfighters’ trust in military technologies augmented with Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Research often assumes that junior military personnel, including cadets training to become officers, will trust AI during future wars, and at higher levels than senior officers. We test these claims by fielding a survey experiment among a representative sample of cadets assigned to the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program in the United States. Our analysis reveals that cadets are more trusting of AI-enhanced military technologies than senior officers, but that their trust is shaped by a more conservative understanding of the appropriate use and oversight of AI. We also find that cadets’ trust is shaped by a complex set of instrumental, normative, and operational considerations, including ongoing cognitive development, education, and professional enculturation. These results provide the first experimental evidence of cadets’ trust in AI-enhanced military technologies and have implications for future research, policy, and military modernization.

Unveiling the drivers of sustainable housing choices among millennials in emerging markets

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the complex interplay between technology, personal norms and emotional factors in shaping the sustainable housing choices of millennials in emerging economies. It integrates the model of goal-directed behavior, technology acceptance model and norm activation model, incorporating both self-interest and prosocial motivations. Key adaptations involve replacing perceived behavioral control with financial self-efficacy and substituting hedonic motivation for anticipated positive emotions. Moreover, it introduces location as a practical anchor. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative, cross-sectional and descriptive research design was used in this study. Data were gathered from a sample of 610 millennial residential real estate investors across Indian smart cities. A multistage stratified sampling technique was used to ensure a representative sample. For data analysis, partial least squares structural equation modeling was used. The analysis focused on hypothesis testing to examine the relationships between the constructs of interest. Bootstrap t-values and effect sizes were used to assess the significance and magnitude of these relationships, respectively. Findings One of the key findings of this study was the establishment of significant positive relationships between awareness of consequences, ascription of responsibility and personal norms with behavioral intentions. This underscored the importance of personal ethical considerations in shaping intentions. Perceived usefulness and ease of use were found to significantly influence attitudes positively, highlighting the relevance of these factors in forming favorable attitudes toward behaviors. Attitude, subjective norms, financial self-efficacy and location played significant positive roles. However, negative anticipated emotions decreased desire. This illustrated the complex role emotions play in motivational processes. The study also revealed that subjective norms did not significantly contribute to shaping personal norms. This indicated a potential decoupling of societal expectations from personal ethical obligations in the decision-making process. Practical implications This study offers actionable insights for both policymakers and real estate developers. For policymakers, the findings highlight the need to craft initiatives that go beyond mere awareness, instead fostering a deep sense of personal responsibility and environmental stewardship among potential homebuyers. For real estate developers, the emphasis on financial self-efficacy and location suggests a strategy shift toward designing sustainable homes that not only meet environmental standards but also align with buyers’ financial confidence and geographic preferences. Together, these strategies can drive a more widespread adoption of sustainable housing, making sustainability a tangible and appealing choice for millennials. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this empirical research study was one of the first studies that contributed to the literature by integrating the model of goal-directed behavior, technology acceptance model and norm activation model. This study thus offered a nuanced understanding of the interplay between normative influences, usability perceptions, ethical considerations and emotions in the context of behavioral intentions.

행정에서 인공지능의 활용에 있어서 행정법적 문제과 개혁과제

In order to achieve a fair, efficient, rapid and predictable exercise of state power, it is necessary to prepare for the emergence of a “government for the people, using artificial intelligence, for the people,” which has jumped from a “government for the people, by the people, for the people” by accepting advanced science and technology and reflecting the changed social image, so it is necessary to review the active use of artificial intelligence within the framework of the rule of law administration, check administrative law, and improve legislation. Analysis of the use of artificial intelligence in administrative law does not stop at deriving the current law's interpretation or legislative tasks for the use of artificial intelligence under the Administrative Procedure Act or limited to administrative disposition, but also checks the public law interpretation and response to the use of artificial intelligence in all “administrations” subject to administrative law. Criticism or problem consciousness of current artificial intelligence mainly deals with information opacity, process inexplicability, non-decipherability, information contamination, and intentional distortion of information in the deep learning stage and the use of generative artificial intelligence. The general legislative attitude of the EU and others has attempted to establish a legislative safety net to prevent the emergence of market economy monsters using artificial intelligence, but it should be taken into account that policy judgment and normative consideration are needed to prepare for the emergence of information monsters at the same level as public and private areas, and discussions on risks are focused on deep learning-based artificial intelligence. The EU-type behavioral regulation model regulates general behavior in the use of artificial intelligence regardless of the public and private areas, but private economic entities have no democratic legitimacy in the organizational composition and pursue the maximum of private interests by nature. It is overlooked that the administrative entity, which is the public authority, has democratic legitimacy in the composition, and that the possibility of stakeholder participation in administrative processes and specific administrative procedures is guaranteed, as well as checks by the principle of separation of powers. If the act regulation law in the use of artificial intelligence by private economic entities is brought into the public domain, it leads to overregulation in the public domain, but underregulation for private economic entities occurs. Data is the resource of the future and the oil of the future in the age of artificial intelligence. The data must be managed publicly and the public's free and stable use must be guaranteed if the public property of the data is recognized and pseudonymized information is released from the personal personal rights and ownership of the data. A department in charge of creating, collecting, and managing big data at the national level will be essential. Hangeul data, with the originality of Hangeul, needs to approach the protection of Hangeul resources and the development of Hangul-specific artificial intelligence in order to protect national interests. It is necessary to actively utilize artificial intelligence to increase the objectivity and rationality of evaluation in evaluating business feasibility or predicting future demand in various private capital attraction projects and public development projects, and it is necessary to improve the legal system that detects the misappropriation and overcharges of public funds, imposes punitive fines, and the use of artificial intelligence in the process of selecting subjects and verifying them through post-mortem review in the public benefit area.

Blame as participant anger: extending moral claimant competence to young children and nonhuman animals

ABSTRACT Following the social conception of moral agency, this paper claims that many agents commonly exempted from moral responsibility, like young children, adults with late-stage dementia, and nonhuman animals, may nevertheless qualify as participants in moral responsibility practices. Blame and other moral responsibility responses are understood according to the communicative emotion account of the reactive attitudes. To blame someone means having an emotion episode that acts as a vehicle for conveying a particular moral content. Therefore, moral agency is argued to be manifested in communicative exchanges between a claimant and a defendant. While many human and nonhuman agents are justifiably exempted from ascriptions of moral responsibility, this does not necessarily exclude such agents from the community of moral agents altogether. Toddlers and dogs, for instance, seem capable of other-directed reactive attitudes, like resentment, and could, therefore, qualify as participants in moral responsibility practices with respect to the claimant position. Therefore, we may have reason to adopt a distinct claimant-directed participant stance to some beings, even if they fail to qualify as apt targets of blame. This expanded theoretical room for moral agency is argued to make explicit further normative considerations.

Cue-taking, populist attitudes, and support for holding a referendum: evidence from survey experiments

ABSTRACT Why do citizens support holding a referendum? In this article, we argue that citizens are instrumental by using heuristics and cues from parties, independent experts, and the population to decide whether to hold a referendum. We further expect that populist and non-populist citizens differ in how they respond to these cues. Using pre-registered survey experiments in Austria and Germany, we find that citizens’ support depends mainly on their attitudes towards the respective policy and the opinion of their preferred party, while the views of experts and the public play only a subordinate role. Crucially, we find no systematic differences between populist and non-populist citizens, suggesting that even populists’ support for holding a referendum depends mainly on instrumental rather than normative considerations. This study provides comprehensive insights into the causal mechanisms of support for direct democracy and their implications for liberal and representative democracy.

Between Probability and Possibility: Fostering Productive Research in a Dystopian Moment

Abstract Scholars endeavor to understand the world in order to make it better. To do that, they should pay attention not only to probability but also possibility. I argue that accepting, and centering, the uncertainty endemic to the human condition and human relations could lead to at least two productive shifts. First, it could encourage holding tensions between particularity and generalization, description and theorization, and complexity and simplicity rather than resolving them a priori. This would promote more genuine thinking about the issues we study. Second, it could encourage critical reasoning about both epistemological bias and the limits of utopian ideas, leading to more serious ethical and normative considerations. I encourage honest conversations about the ubiquity of uncertainty and braver efforts to hold tensions, use our judgement and think. Holding space for unpredictability and imperfection promises to both yield better arguments about probability and open up insights into what is possible. It will thus foster research that best meets the demands of our time.

Trust criteria for artificial intelligence in health: normative and epistemic considerations

Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) in healthcare raise pressing questions about how much users should trust AI/ML systems, particularly for high stakes clinical decision-making. Ensuring that...

Unveiling the antecedents and the outcome of materiality disclosure: insights from sustainability reporting of Malaysian public listed companies

PurposeThe materiality principle is one of the top trends in sustainability reporting globally. Stakeholders have focused on the principle of materiality because of its vital importance in the context of sustainability. Materiality serves as a content-selection principle for determining the most significant sustainability matters to be included in sustainability reports. This has made reports more relevant for various stakeholders. Using the resource-based view and stakeholder theory, this paper aims to examine and uncover the antecedents and outcome of materiality disclosure in sustainability reporting.Design/methodology/approachTo measure the extent of materiality disclosure, a content analysis was performed on the corporate reports of the largest listed companies in Malaysia. The relationships among the variables under investigation were examined using the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique.FindingsWhile the results show that board activity, board independence and board size play significant roles as antecedents of materiality disclosure, this is not so with nationality diversity and gender diversity. In addition, the results have shown that the outcome of materiality disclosure is not significantly linked to corporate financial performance. The results show that normative stakeholder considerations are the primary motivating factor behind corporate sustainability reporting in Malaysia.Practical implicationsThese results are of great interest to regulators, stakeholders, investors and companies alike. Enhancing materiality disclosure in sustainability reports can help in the transition to sustainable development and the successful achievement of the United Nations sustainable development goals.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to examine the interplay between board diversity and materiality disclosure, along with their connections to corporate financial performance.

O-230 The ethics of disclosing reported conditions in donor-conceived offspring to recipients of the same donor

Abstract Study question To what extent should new genetic risk information, identified after donation, be disclosed to recipients? Summary answer Withholding new genetic risk information from donor sperm recipients may sometimes be ethically justified or even preferred. What is known already In some cases, donor-conceived persons are born with (suspected) harmful genetic mutations. These occurrences may flag increased genetic risks for others if the donor is used for multiple recipients. Genetic conditions can also emerge in donors or their families after donation. Current guidelines, such as those established by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare, recommend contacting recipients “in the case of a diagnosis that may seriously affect a child’s health”. However, the specific timing of such disclosures and the circumstances under which (or even whether) information may be withheld are unclear. Study design, size, duration This normative analysis draws initial insights from empirical data obtained from a quantitative study into current practices of fertility clinics and extends to a comprehensive review of academic literature and international guidelines. It evaluates current practices and explores the justifications for (not) informing recipients about (possible) genetic risks linked to their donor, guided by bioethical principles. Participants/materials, setting, methods In June 2023, an electronic questionnaire was sent to all fertility clinics in Belgium to obtain information on current practices regarding the management of genetic mutations in donor treatment. The responses from 15 clinics provided empirical insights that served as an impetus for the subsequent normative analysis. This analysis integrated the findings with normative considerations using the ‘wide reflective equilibrium’ method. Main results and the role of chance Our findings revealed considerable diversity in current practices. Some clinics always informed recipients of newly identified genetic risks (possibly) related to their donor, while others based their decision on various factors. The main arguments for disclosing this information are clinical utility (beneficence) and respect for the recipient’s autonomy. Withholding health-related information can be harmful, especially if it impedes diagnosis and treatment. Moreover, when sperm samples are reserved for additional children from the same donor, disclosure facilitates better-informed reproductive decisions. Conversely, non-disclosure is sometimes justified on the same grounds. If the recurrence risk is absent or equivalent to the general population risk level, disclosure could cause undue alarm and overtreatment. These harms may outweigh the marginal benefits of (immediate) disclosure, particularly for unconfirmed, late-onset, non-severe, and untreatable conditions. Respecting autonomy also implies recognizing the right not to know, by allowing recipients to prespecify the type of information they wish to receive (e.g., untreatable conditions). However, other factors can complicate this assessment. When early diagnosis is crucial, confirming the donor’s link to the reported condition or determining the recurrence risk may take too long. Additionally, a thorough risk analysis becomes more intricate if insemination is planned, embryos are created, or during pregnancy. Limitations, reasons for caution This analysis focuses on cases with anonymous donors and excludes situations involving identifiable and known donors. If the recipient and donor know each other, a distinct set of ethical considerations and duties may emerge. Wider implications of the findings The need for a nuanced, context-sensitive ethical framework for the disclosure of (potential) harmful genetic mutations in a donor to recipients of donor sperm is highlighted. Such a framework could inspire policy development and support ethical decision-making in fertility treatments. Trial registration number Not applicable

Behavioural Sciences Used by the United Nations to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals: A Roadmap and Some Stop Signs

The United Nations (UN) and several UN Agencies have started to use behavioural sciences in order to achieve their policy goals, including for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). While it is appreciated that insights into actual behavior inform the policymaking of international actors, they also raise scientific and normative considerations that warrant caution. First, for those considerations it matters, who the acting and the targeted actors are: behavioural interventions come in many facets and warrant a differentiated view – a finely built roadmap is thus desirable. Second, there are concerns about the internal and external validity of experimental research on which behavioural sciences largely, but not solely, draws. Third, taking a differentiated view on behavioral sciences also allows for a more finely grained view on normative concerns underlying the operations of the United Nations in environmental policy. This contribution spells out those considerations while still advocating for the approach as such.

The conceptual injustice of the brain death standard.

Family disputes over the diagnosis of brain death have caused much controversy in the bioethics literature over the conceptual validity of the brain death standard. Given the tenuous status of brain death as death, it is pragmatically fruitful to reframe intractable debates about the metaphysical nature of brain death as metalinguistic disputes about its conceptual deployment. This new framework leaves the metaphysical debate open and brings into focus the social functions that are served by deploying the concept of brain death. In doing so, it highlights the epistemic injustice of medicolegal authorities that force people to uniformly accept brain death as a diagnosis of death based on normative considerations of institutional interests, such as saving hospital resources and organ supplies, rather than empirical evidence of brain death as death, which is insufficient at best and nonexistent at worst. In light of this injustice, I propose the rejection of the uniform standard of brain death in favor of a choice-based system that respects families' individualized views of death.

Crisis communication strategies: A qualitative study about a natural medicine controversy in Colombia

Crisis communication strategies: A qualitative study about a natural medicine controversy in Colombia

Expertise, policy advice, and policy advisory systems in an open, participatory, and populist era: New challenges to research and practice

AbstractThis article examines the themes of policy advice, expertise, and policy advisory systems. It argues that persistent challenges and more emergent trends involving their intersection can be effectively understood through the lenses of instrumentality, authority, and adaptability. In the wake of renewed questions about the continued viability of longstanding public administration advisory arrangements, these themes help locate new pressures on those arrangement such as those linked to technological developments, shifting conceptions of expertise, and growing recognition of the challenges of managing systems of advice. These themes help facilitate continued engagement with persistent challenges linked to adequate policy capacity, the role of the public service advice, and question of rigour, legitimacy, and the democratic contexts of policy advising.Points for practitioners Technological innovations and turbulent governance arrangements have renewed debates around technocracy, democratic control and participation, the role of evidence, and normative and ethical considerations inherent in the generation and use of policy advice. Policy capacity remains important for well‐functioning policy advisory systems. It has itself become multifaceted reflecting not only important differences in types of expertise and policy advice, but also concerns around its management and deployment in varying governance contexts. The competencies required for policy workers inside and outside of government should reflect changes in the role of expertise and evolving systems of policy advice.

Women Who Stopped Working Due to Their Husband’s Opposition in Egypt

Abstract This paper investigates a neglected reason underlying the low female labor participation rates in Egypt: husbands’ opposition. We find that opposition falls with increasing levels of educational attainment and chronological age of the husband. Age at first marriage, religious affiliation, wealth, and the extent to which a husband upholds traditional views regarding the participation of women in the labor market and gender equality in general were not significant. We also report an inverse relationship between the likelihood of husband’s opposition and the number of children in the household, which suggests that financial considerations may outstrip normative considerations.

Vicarious punishment of moral violations in naturalistic drama narratives predicts cortical synchronization

Punishment of moral norm violators is instrumental for human cooperation. Yet, social and affective neuroscience research has primarily focused on second- and third-party norm enforcement, neglecting the neural architecture underlying observed (vicarious) punishment of moral wrongdoers. We used naturalistic television drama as a sampling space for observing outcomes of morally-relevant behaviors to assess how individuals cognitively process dynamically evolving moral actions and their consequences. Drawing on Affective Disposition Theory, we derived hypotheses linking character morality with viewers’ neural processing of characters’ rewards and punishments. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine neural responses of 28 female participants while free-viewing 15 short story summary video clips of episodes from a popular US television soap opera. Each summary included a complete narrative structure, fully crossing main character behaviors (moral/immoral) and the consequences (reward/punishment) characters faced for their actions. Narrative engagement was examined via intersubject correlation and representational similarity analysis. Highest cortical synchronization in 9 specifically selected regions previously implicated in processing moral information was observed when characters who act immorally are punished for their actions with participants’ empathy as an important moderator. The results advance our understanding of the moral brain and the role of normative considerations and character outcomes in viewers’ engagement with popular narratives.

To Toe the Party Line? The Impact of Firm and CEO Partisanship on Corporate Mass-Media Normative Legitimacy

Corporate political activity (CPA) research has traditionally focused on instrumental and strategic value, explicitly ignoring how external stakeholders, specifically the public, view the legitimacy implications of CPA, in particular with regard to partisan forms of CPA. Yet, recent research has begun introducing normative considerations into CPA, highlighting the impact of public evaluations on CPA, and partisan CPA, in particular. Focusing on normative affective legitimacy, as proxied by the tone of mass-media reporting rhetoric, this study explores the effect of firm and CEO partisan political contributions on corporate affective legitimacy. Utilizing three types of dynamic panel data analyses on S&P 500 firms over 20 years, the study provides consistent evidence that both firm-level and CEO-level partisan political action committee contributions are negatively associated with affective-based corporate legitimacy. Post hoc analyses reveal that in response to affective-legitimacy evaluations, firms reduce firm-level partisan political contributions and lobbying expenditures, but not other forms of CPA or partisan CPA. The study also finds that state-level public political polarization moderates the association between CEO partisan contributions and firms’ affective-legitimacy evaluations. This study is the first to systematically document the negative normative impact of CPA and partisan CPA. It strongly informs CPA theory and has practical implications for executives’ use of partisan CPA.

Keeping Corporations in the Courts: A Framework for Addressing Jurisdiction over Corporate Defendants in Class Action Litigation

In a series of recent cases, the Supreme Court has made it significantly more difficult for plaintiffs to seek legal redress against corporations by limiting the power of courts to exercise personal jurisdiction over corporate defendants. Beginning in 2011, the Supreme Court limited the inquiry around where a corporation might be subject to general, all-purpose jurisdiction for claims against it. Then, in 2017, in Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court of California (“BMS”), the Court constrained the ability of plaintiffs to join together to sue a corporation when those plaintiffs were harmed by the corporation in different states. Importantly, these decisions left open whether these jurisdictional constraints apply to class actions. This Note argues that because of the important role that class actions play in corporate accountability, it is essential that these limitations not be extended to the class action form. In summary, if the Rule 23 class action certification criteria are met and if the court has jurisdiction over the defendant with respect to class representatives’ claims under current personal jurisdiction doctrine, then the court should impute jurisdiction over that defendant with respect to the claims of class members. Part II of the Note details the scope of the aforementioned string of cases and discusses the scholarly, judicial, and popular responses to the potential applicability of BMS to class actions. Part III identifies the problems with applying BMS to class actions, focusing on the importance of private enforcement in maintaining corporate accountability and the essential role that the class action form plays in that process. Finally, Part IV considers the legal, policy, and normative considerations associated with limiting the scope of BMS and proposes solutions for how to limit BMS in the class action context.