Personal Stake Research Articles

Teaching principles in Type 1 error and reproducible research using dice

AbstractControlling Type 1 error and encouraging reproducible research are important in clinical and translational research. These concepts are frequently discussed in lectures with mathematical language, analytic examples, and probability distributions that demonstrate the issues. However, first‐time learners in biostatistics courses focusing on fundamental topics may benefit from a more interactive demonstration in which learners participate, contribute to the results, and have a personal stake in the outcomes. This article summarizes a simple activity using dice to simulate Type 1 error that requires minimal preparation and cost. The activity may be appropriate for learners enrolled in a first course in statistics, biostatistics, or probability.

Breaking the bank: Personal financial interests of Supreme Court justices and institutional legitimacy

AbstractObjectiveWe study the relationship between lack of recusals by Supreme Court justices in cases where they have a direct or indirect personal financial interest and diffuse support for the Court. Justices should recuse when they have a personal stake in a case; otherwise, decisions are perceived as biased and violating the rule of law. Despite popular interest in this behavior and significant consequences for societal acquiescence, there are no empirical studies assessing this relationship.MethodsWe construct a survey experiment with four conditions and a control. Each condition displays an article discussing the failure of different justices to recuse from a case involving a direct (stocks owned in the litigant party) or an indirect (stocks owned in the industry of the litigant party) personal financial interest.ResultsWe find that not recusing from a case where direct personal financial interests exist negatively affects institutional legitimacy, but indirect conflicts of interest show no effect on diffuse support. Additionally, ideological congruence between the public and justice involved in the scenario not only does not mitigate negative effects but rather enhances harm toward diffuse support.ConclusionNon‐recusals in cases where a justice has a direct financial conflict of interest negatively affect Court legitimacy.

The whitewashing of blame

AbstractI argue that influential recent discussions have whitewashed blame, characterizing it in ways that deemphasize or ignore its morally problematic features. I distinguish “definitional,” “creeping,” and “emphasis” whitewash, and argue that they play a central role in overall endorsements of blame by T.M. Scanlon, George Sher, and Miranda Fricker. In particular, these endorsements treat blame as appropriate by definition (Scanlon), or as little more than a wish (Sher), and infer from blame's having one useful function that it is a good practice overall (Fricker). I use an analogy with revenge to illustrate the mechanisms of whitewashing, including broadening a concept to include available alternatives to it and inference from one feature of a practice to an overall conclusion about that practice. Several features of blame make it particularly prone to whitewashing, including blamers' personal or emotional stake in blaming and widespread disagreement about the nature of blame. I argue that a non‐whitewashing treatment of blame must pay closer attention both to blame's harms, and to comparisons between blame and alternative, non‐blaming reactions.

Transient communities: The case of a refugee choir in the Catholic church of Lesvos — Eirini Papanikolaou, Jennifer Sherrill & Antonis Ververis

For many refugees fleeing conflict in the Middle East and Africa, the Greek island of Lesvos is the first point of entry into the European Union. However, due to an agreement between the European Union and Turkey declared in March of 2016, people crossing the Aegean Sea without formal travel documents would be detained on the Greek islands until their asylum applications were examined. This bureaucratic slowdown trapped refugees on Lesvos for months and years of unknown waiting. At the same time, the arrival of refugees from various African countries led to a flourishing of the small Catholic church in the capital city, Mytilene. In 2017, a parish choir was established by Congolese refugees with the purpose of providing a refuge to members who sought a sense of community, spirituality, and normality. Through interviews, participatory observation, and polyvocal ethnography, we address the following research areas: the importance of spirituality in the lives of refugees, how participation in the choir helped them to feel a sense of community, and the use of choral singing as a form of integration. More specifically, we discuss how the refugee-initiated autonomous aspect of the choir created an environment in which each member had a personal stake in developing and caring for the choir community as a whole. As a majority of the interviewees felt that singing for God was the highest purpose, participation in this choir helped members connect to their faith while also giving a much-needed sense of purpose in uncertain times.

The Outrage Effect of Personal Stake, Effect on Children, Dread, and Controllability on COVID-19 Risk Perception Moderated by Media Use

ABSTRACT Public response to the COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to study how lay people’s risk perception involves their emotive responses. We investigated how outrage factors as emotional responses to risk influence levels of risk perception in the context of the pandemic disease. Furthermore, how media use influences the perception of outrage factors is also examined. A nationwide online survey (n = 1,000) was conducted in South Korea. The survey results indicated that pandemic risk perception was connected to the generic intensity of perceived outrage factors as measured by averaging the perception of multiple outrage factors. Individual outrage factors such as personal stake, effect on children, dread, and controllability directly influenced risk perception regarding COVID-19. When the intensity of media use was considered, individuals with heavy media use perceived outrage factors more intensely than those who used media less frequently. Media use also moderated the outrage effect of catastrophic potential and moral nature on the perception of risk associated with the pandemic disease. For heavy media users, the outrage effect of moral nature was increased, while that of catastrophic potential decreased. The implications of the outrage effect on the pandemic disease risk perception are addressed. Finally, we discuss the meaning of heavy media users’ varying levels of vulnerability to outrage effect by moral nature and catastrophic potential.

When the Researched Refused Confidentiality: Reflections from Fieldwork Experience in Ghana

Meeting appropriate ethical standards for research involving human participants, mean ensuring confidentiality. It is assumed that the research participant will accept the safeguarding protocols necessary to ensure confidentiality. This assumption however oversimplifies the variation of motivations that goes into participants’ decisions to participate in research. Drawing on reflections from my fieldwork experience in Ghana, I answer the questions: Why do research participants reject confidentiality? What ethical position can one take when the researcher and the researched have conflicting perspectives about confidentiality? I contend that participants with personal stake refuse confidentiality when they want to be acknowledged for their data. Rejecting confidentiality is however, embedded in the individual perspective, cultural, and political context of the study area. The ethical concerns of such refusal can be ameliorated if confidentiality is nuanced to include six categorically distinct but mutually non-exclusive stages: research-planning, ongoing-information, writing-up, reality-after-research, differential-disseminations, and no-confidentiality-clause. The paper further argues that whilst maintaining institutional allegiance in this matter is crucial, employing confidentiality should lie at the intersection of participants’ motivation for taking part in the research, the socio-cultural-specific-context of the study location and the nature of the topic being explored.

The Cyclopean Eye: Charity Bazaars, Cinematicity, and Defamiliarized Vision in Ulysses

Abstract: Dublin's themed charity bazaars of the 1890s were a significant influence on Joyce, most obviously as a source of "Araby"'s negative epiphany but more pervasively by showcasing visual science and technology and preparing the ground for cinema. This essay explores some key impacts on Ulysses . "Cyclopia" (1896) was the most scientific and technological. Joyce had a personal stake in its theme given his eyesight problems but also precocious fascination with optics and "cinematicity." "Cyclopia" punned on the objective of producing "one eye hospital" for Dublin through merging institutions. Similarly, the "cyclopean image" denotes binocular vision's merging of images from different eyes into 3-D. "Cyclopia" showcased a giant mechanical model of the eye, amid a spectrum of entertainments defamiliarizing vision, including a giant outdoor magic lantern screen, film projection by "Animatograph," and Ireland's first popular demonstrations of X-rays. "Cyclopia" responded to the mission of Victorian scientists to enlighten the public about vision and its manipulation. Newspaper reports confirm that Dubliners were enthralled by its "Cyclopean Eye"'s camera-like gaze, which also recalled the Odyssey 's one-eyed giant. Similarly, by modernizing Homer's monster in the tropes of Ulysses , Joyce subverted his counterpart's monoptic nationalism by Bloom's more "rounded," stereoscopic vision.

Ethical Considerations Surrounding Surgeon Ownership of Ambulatory Surgery Centers.

As surgical care continues to transition to an outpatient setting, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) present favorable options for physician investment. As of 2017, more than 90% of ASCs have at least some physician ownership, with 64% solely physician-owned. Yet, physician ownership creates an inherent conflict of interest known as dual agency, where clinicians have a personal financial stake in addition to their obligation towards patient well-being. Here, we assess the ethical considerations surrounding dual agency in the setting of ASCs through the lens of beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice. We further propose strategies for appropriate navigation of such situations, including disclosure of ownership status, instruction on unfamiliar techniques, and adherence to accepted clinical practice guidelines for materials selection and surgical indications.

The privileged liberal principle‐implementation gap: How the personal behavior of privileged liberals contributes to social inequality

AbstractMuch of the work on the development and maintenance of group inequality has focused on a select number of advantaged groups, resulting in a “blind spot” regarding the role of liberals in contributing to social inequality. The present work tests for a privileged liberal principle‐implementation gap, the notion that under conditions that make personal stake salient privileged liberals exhibit a gap between their self‐reported principles and behavioral tendencies. The studies focus on three areas critical to inequality: employment (i.e., affirmative action; Studies 1a and 4), education (i.e., equal access to education for the working class; Study 1b), and housing (i.e., access to affordable housing; Study 1c), as well as support for the homeless (Studies 2 and 3). The results demonstrate that privileged liberals report higher principles to reduce inequality compared to conservatives, but in settings with salient personal stake exhibit no differences in behavior compared to conservatives. The findings also provide direct experimental evidence for the role of personal stake in shaping the privileged liberal P‐I gap. Implications for the study of inequality and impact on Black/Brown working‐class communities, as well as a class‐based approach to social change, are discussed.

Barry Jenkins and Moonlight in Miami: Home Girls Respond

The genesis of this essay is the coincidence of geography. Director Barry Jenkins, co-screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney, and the author grew up, in different time periods, in the same segregated neighborhood in Miami, Florida. Moonlight, winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2016, is set mostly in this neighborhood. The author provides background—historical, personal, and social—that contextualizes characters and motivations, Jenkins's personal stake in the neighborhood and its citizens, and his ascendency in Hollywood.

The Phenomenology of a Performative Knowledge System: Dancing With Native American Epistemology

The Phenomenology of a Performative Knowledge System: Dancing With Native American Epistemology

Linguistic changes in the transition from summaries to abstracts: The case of the Journal of Experimental Medicine

Linguistic changes in the transition from summaries to abstracts: The case of the <scp> <i>Journal of Experimental Medicine</i> </scp>

Party over Pocketbook? How Party Cues Influence Opinion When Citizens Have a Stake in Policy

Do political parties influence opinion when citizens have a personal stake in policy? With an experimental design that exploits a naturally occurring, sharp variation in party cues, we study the effects of party cues during a collective bargaining conflict over the salary and work rights for public employees in Denmark. Even in this context—where the self-interest of public employees was strongly mobilized and where their party went against it—we find that party cues move opinion among partisans at least as much as in previous studies. But party cues do not lead citizens to go against their self-interest. Rather, we show that party cues temper the pursuit of self-interest among public employees by moderating the most extreme policy demands. These findings highlight an unappreciated potential of political parties to moderate—not fuel—extreme opinion.

Dashboards and report cards: Using staff performance to drive outcomes.

Dashboards and report cards: Using staff performance to drive outcomes.

Information sources used by charterers to select shipowners

This study aims to identify the information search behaviour of charterers in selecting shipowners within a business-to-business framework. It focuses on charterers' information sources and how different factors (individual, organisational, and purchase-related) affect the information search since this construct is a major component of comprehensive theories of organisational buying behaviour. Understanding the buying behaviour of charterers also helps marketers to increase customer satisfaction. The analysis is based on questionnaire responses from 141 firms that have recently chartered vessels. From a principal components analysis, the study identified eight sets of information sources, of which impersonal, e-mails and reference-based information were the most important. The results show that the business-to-business information sources used by ship charterers vary significantly according to organisation size, centralisation, type of purchase, purchase complexity and experience. Further analyses revealed a significant relationship between these factors and business-to-business information sources, specifically between the importance of the purchase, perceived risk, formalisation, standardisation, personal stake, specialisation, and use of information resources. Finally, the study revealed a significant relationship between business-to-business information sources and customer satisfaction.

Panoptical Time, Cissexism, and Heterosexism: How Discourses of Adultism Discipline Queer and Trans Youth

In this article, I apply Nancy Lesko's concept of panoptical time to a critical analysis of the interconnectedness between adultism, cissexism, and heterosexism. I explore the impacts of these interconnections on LGBTQ youth in the United States through two case examples: rapid-onset gender dysphoria and its links to the transtrender phenomenon in digital spaces, and the It Gets Better Project. I use an intersectional feminist lens to examine media and scholarly discourses that exemplify the instruments and techniques of panoptical time, as well as the mechanisms that reinforce it. The first case example draws from blog posts, YouTube videos, and scholarly literature about rapid-onset gender dysphoria and transtrenders to illustrate how disciplines that support these phenomena reflect ties between adultism, cissexism, and other systems of subordination. The second case example uses footage from the original It Gets Better video and findings from previous studies to demonstrate how this campaign relies on similar instruments of discipline to normalize heterosexism and cissexism in youth-related contexts. Finally, I discuss the implications of this analysis and explain why LGBTQ communities have a personal stake in advocating for the rights of LGBTQ youth.

Research on Non-verbal Signs of Lies and Deceit: A Blind Alley.

Research on the detection of lies and deceit has a prominent place in the field of psychology and law with a substantial research literature published in this field of inquiry during the last five to six decades (Vrij, 2000, 2008; Vrij et al., 2019). There are good reasons for this interest in lie detection. We are all everyday liars, some of us more prolific than others, we lie in personal and professional relationships (Serota et al., 2010; Halevy et al., 2014; Serota and Levine, 2015; Verigin et al., 2019), and lying in public by politicians and other public figures has a long and continuing history (Peters, 2015). However, despite the personal problems that serious everyday lies may cause and the human tragedies political lies may cause, it is lying in court that appears to have been the principal initial motivation for the scientific interest in lie detection. Lying in court is a threat to fair trials and the rule of law. Lying witnesses may lead to the exoneration of guilty persons or to the conviction of innocent ones. In the US it is well-documented that innocent people have been convicted because witnesses were lying in court (Garrett, 2010, 2011; www.innocenceproject.com). In evaluating the reliability and the truthfulness of a testimony, the court considers other evidence presented to the court, the known facts about the case and the testimonies by other witnesses. Inconsistency with the physical evidence or the testimonies of other witnesses might indicate that the witness is untruthful, or it may simply reflect the fact that the witness has observed, interpreted, and later remembered the critical events incorrectly—normal human errors all too well known in the eyewitness literature (Loftus, 2005; Wells and Loftus, 2013; Howe and Knott, 2015). When the facts of the case are not well known, witness testimonies, including the testimony from alleged victims, may be critical to a verdict, and these testimonies are sometimes from witnesses who hold a personal stake in the case and shun self-incriminating statements. In many countries, a witness lying in court risks being charged with perjury—the accused typically does not risk such a reaction—but there are still cases where witnesses lie. In such cases, when there is a possibility that one or more of the witnesses are lying and the court's verdict depends upon the perceived credibility of the witnesses, the issue arises of distinguishing between lying and truthful witnesses. Is it possible to identify liars vs. truth tellers based on the non-verbal signals transmitted by the sender?

The Angelus: Devotional Television, Changing Times

The ringing of the Angelus, a Catholic call to prayer, is a staple of Irish state television broadcasting, occurring at 6 o’clock every evening. Over the years, the image track accompanying the bell has changed, transitioning from still to moving images and incorporating an increasingly secular pictorial repertoire. Although the Angelus is TV you are not supposed to watch, the document archives at Radió Teleifís Éireann offer plenty of rich evidence that people have always watched the Angelus closely, that they feel a personal stake in its modes of representation, and that they approach religious images as statements about religion and the Church.

My Personal Stake

My Personal Stake

Asma T. Uddin, When Islam is Not a Religion: Inside America’s Fight for Religious Freedom

American Religion 2, no. 1 (Fall 2020), pp. 211–213 Copyright © 2020, The Trustees of Indiana University • doi: 10.2979/amerreli.2.1.25 Book Review Asma T. Uddin, When Islam is Not a Religion: Inside America’s Fight for Religious Freedom (New York: Pegasus Books, 2019) Tazeen M. Ali Washington University, St. Louis, USA In When Islam is Not a Religion, Asma T. Uddin advocates for the protection of religious freedom for all Americans across political affiliations and faith backgrounds . Specifically, Uddin argues that when American Muslims’ religious freedoms are curtailed, the case for religious liberty is weakened for everyone. A key theme of the book is that religious freedom for all groups, as protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, is inextricably bound together. Written for a public audience, When Islam is Not a Religion is notable in its appeal to Christian conservatives who argue against Muslims’ religious freedom. For the sake of simplicity, Uddin uses “the Right” and “conservatives,” and “the Left” and “liberals” interchangeably throughout the text, a pattern I replicate in this review (27). The title of the book is a nod to Islamophobic rhetoric advanced by lawmakers , policy advisors, and media personalities who argue that, “Islam is not a religion, but rather a geopolitical system bent on instituting jihadist and sharia law in America” (35). These critics insist that the freedom of religion protected by the First Amendment does not apply to Muslims, reflecting the Islamophobia increasingly mainstream in US public discourse. As a religious liberty lawyer, Uddin has worked extensively defending diverse religious claimants in the US American Religion 2:1 212 and is a frequent media commentator on Islam (323). In the book, Uddin presents evidence from high profile court cases, legal briefs, and news media. She also analyzes survey data, scholarly texts, and diverse media produced by American Muslims. An appendix detailing major Supreme Court cases on religious liberty also serves as a helpful resource for readers. While Uddin primarily draws on her legal expertise, she also writes as a Muslim with a personal stake in the contentious debates over religious freedom in the US. Throughout the book, she inserts personal anecdotes about her own relationship to Islam and its central role in her life and also shares reflections on raising children amidst rampant Islamophobia. In the first part of the book, “Stop the Islamization of America,” Uddin enumerates several harrowing instances of Islamophobia: Anti-Sharia legislation, employment discrimination, and violence against Muslims and those mistaken for Muslim. She begins with a vivid description of the August 2010 case of arson in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, at the site where the local mosque board had plans to build a new Islamic Center. Indicating that arson was just one of multiple attacks on this site, she describes how a group of Murfreesboro residents filed a lawsuit that claimed Islam was inherently threatening to American values. Following a countersuit that claimed “the unequal treatment of Muslims violated religious liberty,” the Islamic Center was eventually built, but the community backlash posed ongoing barriers to its construction (37). Notably, Uddin draws historical parallels between American Muslims’ experiences and the significant challenges faced by Catholics, Jews, and Mormons in their religious expression. In so doing, she situates Islamophobia within a broader US history that has limited other religious minorities’ rights, rather than presenting these hurdles as unique. Whereas the first part of the book analyzes explicit attacks on Islam orchestrated by conservatives, the second part, “‘Good’ versus ‘Bad’ Muslims,” focuses on how liberals undermine American Muslim identity in more subtle ways. Here, Uddin persuasively argues that the fashion, beauty, and entertainment industries reify the binary between acceptable and unacceptable Islam by producing images of Muslim women that are palatable to an American liberal mainstream. Uddin asserts that the selective liberal embrace of Muslims secularizes Islam and robs it of “its religiousness, its spiritual character, maybe even its authenticity” (281). To her, Muslims are rendered totems in the culture wars between conservatives and liberals, thereby limiting their expressions of faith in the public sphere (280). Uddin calls attention to the hypocrisy of conservative Christian groups who discriminate against Muslims’ religious freedom while feeling attacked for their...