Private Behavior Research Articles

The Impact of Chinese Public Environmental Awareness on Environmental Behavior: An Analysis Based on China National Surveys in 2003, 2010 and 2021

Environmental awareness and behavior play a crucial role in the improvement of the environment. Five dimensions of environmental awareness are considered here including environmental values, environmental knowledge, environmental responsibility, environmental ability and environmental concern while we also distinguish between private and public environmental behaviors. Based on data from the China General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2003, 2010 and 2021, this research investigated changes in Chinese residents’ environmental awareness and environmental behavior and the relationship between them. The relevant empirical methods were the MV-Probit model, the Poisson model and a mediating effect model. The results are as follows: (1) From 2003 to 2021, environmental awareness of the public has improved significantly. Among them, environmental values, environmental knowledge and environmental concern have increased by 24.5%, 12.6% and 12.77%, respectively, while environmental capacity has decreased by 7.27% from 2010 to 2021. The eastern region of China has the highest score of environmental awareness, while the western region has the lowest one. (2) From 2003 to 2021, the public’s green consumption behavior changed from more than half of the public never consuming green products in 2003 to nearly 75% always or often consuming green products in 2021. Increases in recycling were also found over time. However, the participation rate in public environmental behavior declined. In 2021, environmental behaviors were lowest in the eastern region and highest in the western region. (3) Environmental responsibility, environmental concern and environmental capacity direct and indirectly affect private and public environmental behaviors and the number of environmental behaviors through the willingness to protect the environment, which plays a semi-mediating role. Environmental knowledge only has a direct impact on private green consumption behavior. (4) There is a correlation between public and private environmental behaviors. Given the results of this study, a series of policy implications and recommendations are provided.

Sociodemographic influences on private and professional contact behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: cross-sectional analysis based on a Regional Blood Donor Cohort

ObjectiveThe COVID-19 pandemic has had significant health and socioeconomic impacts worldwide. Extensive measures, including contact restrictions, were implemented to control the spread of the virus. This study aims to examine the factors that influenced private and professional contact behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic.ResultsWe used baseline data (January–April 2021) from the SeMaCo study (Serologische Untersuchungen bei Blutspendern des Großraums Magdeburg auf Antikörper gegen SARS-CoV-2), a longitudinal, regional cohort study assessing COVID-19 seroprevalence in blood donors from Magdeburg and surrounding areas in Germany. In the blood donor cohort (n = 2,195), there was a general reduction in private contacts (by 78.9%) and professional contacts (by 54.4%) after March 18, 2020. Individuals with higher education reduced both private (by 84.1%) and professional (by 70.1%) contacts more than those with lower education levels (private contacts 59.5%; professional contacts 37%). Younger age groups (18–30 years) reduced private contacts more frequently (by 85.4%) than older individuals (61–83 years, by 68.6%) and demonstrated a higher likelihood of private contact reduction compared to older age groups (51–60 years: odds ratio (OR) 0.45 [95% [CI] 0.32–0.65]; 61–83 years: OR 0.33 [95% [CI] 0.22–0.48]).

Institutional investor network and idiosyncratic volatility of stocks

AbstractThis paper constructs an institutional investor network based on the heavy holdings of the same stock in China and conducts a social network analysis to investigate the influence of this network on stock price volatility from the perspectives of network structure (density) and location (centrality). The study demonstrates that institutional investor network density is negatively related to stock price volatility, while network centrality is positively related to it. Mechanism analyses further reveal that network density reduces stock price volatility by mitigating private information arbitrage behavior among institutional investors, whereas network centrality increases stock price volatility by creating private information arbitrage opportunities within the network. Additionally, the paper finds that information asymmetry enhances the positive effect of network centrality on stock price volatility. These findings are generally consistent across subsample analyses for different market states, reactions to good and bad news, and types of equity ownership, as well as in other robustness tests. The practical implications of these findings are significant for market stability regulation.

Risk perception, compliance with COVID-19 measures, and the role of social media after China's lockdown lift

IntroductionFew studies have investigated people's reactions after a sudden lift. The transitional experiences of Chinese people at the end of 2022 serve as a valuable reference for pandemic management. Therefore, this study investigates Chinese people's perception of risks after the lifting, the influence of risk perception on their compliance with COVID-19 measures, and the moderating effect of social media on this influence. MethodsInitially, using a random sampling approach, we carried out an online questionnaire survey through Questionnaire Star, an online questionnaire platform. 417 (304 females, 13–64 years old) participants responded to questions on their perception of risks, compliance with COVID-19 measures, and trust in social media. Then, in the follow-up experiment, we observed another 60 (30 females, 18–22 years old) participants’ actual behaviors to see how they comply with COVID-19 measures (for the peak of the confirmed cases, we chose to make do with this small size). We also asked them to complete a paper questionnaire on risk perception and trust in social media. ResultsThe initial survey indicated that, after the lifting, Chinese citizens perceived high risks (they reported a possibility of 61.04 out of 100 to be infected and threatened by COVID-19. The number was 54 in a previous study), showed a low degree of adherence to COVID-19 measures (on a scale of 1–5, they reported a score of 2.04 in private, and 1.89 in public), and social media positively moderated the relationship between risk perception and adherence (ΔR2 = 0.10, p < .01 for private behavior; ΔR2 = 0.13, p < .01 for public behavior). The follow-up experiment further confirmed these findings. ConclusionThis study suggests that, when lifting lockdowns on a national scale, the government should inform the public about the risks accurately, encourage healthy behaviors, and make full use of social media to promote adherence to COVID-19 measures. By using a hybrid approach that combines a questionnaire survey with actual behavior observation, this study expands earlier research into the understudied context of lockdown lifts. Finding effective strategies to support individuals through the transition period can facilitate global pandemic management.

High-performance Human Resource and Knowledge Sharing: The Mediating Roles of Organizational Commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Knowledge sharing has been shown to be beneficial for organizational development, but as a private behavior, it is not considered to occur spontaneously. To explore the antecedents of knowledge sharing, this study examines the influence of high-performance human resource on knowledge sharing behavior. To address this problem, the mediating roles of organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior and the moderating role of transformational leadership are conducted in the relationship between high-performance human resource and knowledge sharing. Based on 448 survey questionnaires from employees across various industries, the results indicate that high-performance human resource is positively related to knowledge sharing, and organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior could take positive mediating effects respectively. In addition, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior sequentially mediate the relationship between high-performance human resource and knowledge sharing. Moreover, transformational leadership strengthens the effects of high-performance human resource on organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior, respectively.

How different types of environmentalists are perceived: changing perceptions by the feature.

Previous research found stereotypes of environmentalists as barriers to public engagement and identification with environmentalism. Yet, there is limited understanding of the distinct attributes of an environmentalist that influence public perceptions and self-identification. In our research, we address this knowledge gap by analyzing reactions to a range of fictional environmentalist profiles. We investigated how multiple features of these profiles (e.g., gender, occupation, type of pro-environmentalism) influenced stereotypes (such as competence, friendliness, and trustworthiness), perceived typicality, and participants' self-identification with the described profiles, using a novel conjoint experiment approach with 678 US residents. We found that profiles described as women, Asians, working as a cleaner or office clerk, and politically moderate or liberal, exhibiting private to moderate environmental behaviors and global environmental concerns, were generally perceived as more typical for environmentalists. Moreover, participants most identified with profiles depicted as women, in a cleaner occupation, and exhibiting private pro-environmental behaviors. Atypical profile descriptions, based on prior research, enhanced participants' impressions only when associated with private pro-environmental behaviors or the cleaner occupation. We introduce new avenues in impression formation research and the use of conjoint analyses in psychological research; moreover, we contribute valuable input to the environmental movement regarding message framing considering the source and content relative to the targeted audience.

Changes in Politics and Religiosity Among Students at a Protestant University

AbstractCollege is a setting and time of profound change in the lives of emerging adults. This change can include shifts in identity related to politics and religion. Given widespread attention to the alignment of religious people with conservative politics and less religious people with liberal politics (i.e., the “God Gap”), we ask: do college students who become politically liberal lose their religion in the process? Using longitudinal panel data, this study examines changes in political identity and religiosity among students at a Protestant university. Findings reveal changes in students’ politics align with changes in public and private religious behaviors, certainty in belief, agreement with core tenets of the Christian faith, faith maturity, and closeness to God. Whereas students who become more politically conservative increase their religiosity, the inverse is true for those whose politics become more liberal in college.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019: A Law with A Hollow Scheme

The fight of Muslim women in India is a crusade of rights. They have often remained a puppet in the name of “Women’s rights”. The major reason behind this is a lack of shrewdness of those women who give green signal to shallow and superfluous rights by victimizing their eternal rights. One such recent example which has been a subject of controversy is victimized Muslim women who assuredly need protection through the liberal rights discourse but are bestowed the insignificant rights through the currently enacted, The Muslim women (Protection of rights on marriage) Act, 2019. This Legislation has been highlighted as social reformation for married Muslim women which ensures Gender equality and helps promote married Muslim women’s fundamental rights and their empowerment. To the contrary, this act shows red eye towards Muslim husband by criminalizing the pronouncement of triple talaq. This paper explores the issue of criminalizing private conduct under the shade of Jurisprudence which determines State’s limit to regulate private behaviour. Furthermore, it advocates reviving the identity of Muslim women by unveiling the repercussions of the provisions of the Act. It further efforts to solve the issue of triple talaq by taking it to the plane of ‘Individual Autonomy’. The present research is descriptive in nature based on secondary data.

Opinion formation analysis for Expressed and Private Opinions (EPOs) models: Reasoning private opinions from behaviors in group decision-making systems

In group decision-making, the expressed opinion of a social individual may be inconsistent with or even opposite to his/her own private opinion or inner thought. Expressed and private opinions (EPOs) models were then developed to study decision-making mechanisms with private opinions. However, most of the existing EPOs models assumed that the individual private opinion is often fixed, or updated by his/her own private opinion and neighbors’ expressed opinions, ignoring the behavior characteristics of social individuals. In this paper, a novel EPOs model is built under a more realistic scenario where the individual private opinions are updated by reasoning the neighbors’ private opinions from their behaviors while the expressed opinions are subject to social pressure. Meanwhile, we investigate the group opinion formation under the proposed EPOs model over a Leader–Influencer–Follower hierarchical network. The evolution process under the proposed EPOs model shows that, on the one hand, when the social pressure is monotonically increasing, group expressed opinions often reach consensus, and the consensus reaching time is closely related to the pressure increase rate. On the other hand, group private opinions and behaviors of the individuals show polarization. The simulation results reveal the sociological phenomena of “the golden mean” and “inconsistent words and deeds”, respectively.

The Preference of Inter-Organizational Trust on Corporate Benefit-Seeking Behaviors: A Mechanisms-Based and Policy-Capturing Analysis

In the realm of organizational cooperation, the choice of benefit behaviors has a profound impact on the sustainability of the collaboration. The influence of trust relationships on firms’ decisions regarding private versus common benefit behaviors has been a subject of debate among researchers. To address this debate, we propose and test an analytical framework that acknowledges the presence of two fundamental dimensions in partner relationships: calculative trust and relational trust. Through the utilization of a policy-capturing approach, we rigorously examine and validate our hypotheses at a mechanistic level. Our findings indicate that both calculative trust and relational trust increase the likelihood of firms adopting both private and common benefit behaviors. Furthermore, in terms of comparative choices between private and common benefit behaviors, calculative trust exerts a stronger influence on firms’ preference for private benefit, while relational trust has a stronger impact on firms’ preference for common benefit. Lastly, we discuss the theoretical and empirical implications arising from the results of this study.

How does action competence explain young people’s sustainability action?

How to support young people’s agency is a key question of sustainability education. Action competence for sustainability is suggested covering the essential components of youth’s readiness to act both individually and collectively, but empirical tests of these associations are scarce. Therefore, this study explores the relationship between action competence and sustainability action among young people. We conducted a national survey of 15 to 29-year-old youths (N = 940) in Finland. Results of structural equation modeling show that self-perceived action competence for sustainability predicts private sphere behavior, but not sustainability action. Further analysis on the components of action competence reveals that high perceived knowledge and low outcome expectations predict low engagement in sustainability action. Knowledge and outcome expectations also affect behavior indirectly via willingness to act. We argue that actions and behaviors have different antecedents, and that the ability to recognize outcome uncertainty affects how young people’s sustainability agency is manifested.

Institutional legacies and temporary assistance for needy families spending decisions: the case of the Freedmen’s Bureau

AbstractTemporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) was born out of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in the backdrop of highly racialised and otherizing fears about the mythical “welfare queen.” However, the perception of Black exploitation of public benefits to White detriment is not exclusively a modern phenomenon. One of its original manifestations can be found in White reactions to the Freedmen’s Bureau during the post-Civil War period of Reconstruction. We therefore argue that state decisions to allocate spending towards cash assistance and coercive programmes designed to motivate work participation and regulate private behaviour are shaped by the imprint of this historic institution. Using TANF spending data from 2001 to 2019 and data on Freedmen’s Bureau field offices, we find evidence of a link between these offices’ historic prevalence and contemporary, coercive allocations. However, we find little evidence that this link extends to spending towards cash assistance.

Buddhist Values Impact on Private and Public Behaviors in Thailand: A Mixed Method Research

Purpose: Buddhist values can influence to people perform to make better world commonly, in Thailand, there was a unique development in the national Buddhist history and influences, which already impact on Thai people private or public behaviors, such as Buddhist values prompted to Thai people kept trust and authentic behaviors during covid-19 control. thus, the researcher aimed to explore and explain what and how Buddhist values to impact private and public behaviors for people in Thailand.&#x0D; Method: The research conducted mix-method analysis (expert validation by given scores and suggestions).&#x0D; Results: there were findings as the follow: (1) eight types of desired Buddhist values can practice daily in life in Thailand: share, love, friendliness, trustworthiness, peace, open mind, confidence, and inclusion; (2) five categories of private behaviors could be influenced by Buddhist values in Thailand: self-reflection, self-observation, self-regulation, self-control, self-knowledge; (3) three types of public behaviors could be influenced by Buddhist values in Thailand: participation in social and public affairs, participation in social and public decisions, participation in social and public administration; (4) four types of ways that can promote private and public behaviors based on Buddhist values in Thailand: school/ university education, family education, Buddhist organization activities and Buddhist affairs in public places.&#x0D; Conclusion: according to the findings, the researcher inferred to the eight desired Buddhist values might impact the five types of private behaviors and three types of public behaviors in the four types of ways the research found in Thailand or globally. Then, the researcher wished that the findings could contribute to the academic field and acclaim future researchers' focus on developing a suitable framework based on Buddhist values for social enhancement.

Same gratitude, different pro-environmental behaviors? Effect of the dual-path influence mechanism of gratitude on pro-environmental behavior

The existing literature notes the effects of gratitude on pro-environmental behavior. However, most studies have examined the impact of gratitude on a single pro-environmental behavior, with a lack of research investigating the divergent pathways of gratitude's effects on various pro-environmental behaviors. Based on the appraisal tendency framework and cognitive-affective personality system theory, this research constructs a dual path influence mechanism of gratitude on pro-environmental behavior. Furthermore, it examines the moderating role of social class and the mediating role of ambiguity tolerance and environmental efficacy. First, in line with previous research, pro-environmental behavior is divided into private pro-environmental behavior and public pro-environmental behavior. Second, a longitudinal survey and three experiments are implemented to test the hypothesis model. The results show that gratitude promotes both private and public pro-environmental behavior. Moreover, individuals in low social class demonstrate a stronger preference towards private pro-environmental behavior, whereas those in high social class exhibit a stronger preference towards public pro-environmental behavior. In addition, ambiguity tolerance and environmental efficacy play mediating roles. This research provides valuable insights for social marketers and policymakers on leveraging gratitude to stimulate differentiated pro-environmental behaviors among diverse social classes.

Explaining the Relationship between Religiosity and Political Participation: The Mediating Roles of Transcendent Accountability and Religiopolitical Awareness

AbstractPrior research tends to find a positive relationship between religiosity and political participation. Explanations of this relationship have focused mostly on religiosity‐generated organizational resources (e.g., civic skills), while paying less attention to psychological resources. We simultaneously examined different aspects of religiosity (belief, behavior, and belonging) and political participation (electoral and nonelectoral) in a structural equation model with two psychological resources as mediators: (1) “transcendent accountability”—seeing oneself as responsible to God or a higher power for one's impact on other people and the environment, and (2) “religiopolitical awareness”—perceiving the influence of one's religion and/or spirituality on one's political views and activities. Results from analyzing survey data from a US representative sample showed that transcendent accountability and religiopolitical awareness, whether together or awareness only, mediated positive relationships between religiosity (belief, private and public behaviors, and membership) and political participation (voting and other political activity), highlighting key psychological motivators of political participation.

La familia en el Libro de Apolonio

The Libro de Apolonio , a Castilian poem from the first half of the 13th century, makes it possible to analyze the norm of the family, both in relation to marriage, filiation and kinship ties, as well as in terms of the same domestic space shared by kings, their families and their subjects. The description of the Antioquia and Pentapolis courts leads to highlighting the importance of family relations as a measure of personal and political behavior, through the theme of incest and identity between private and public behaviors, especially in the figure of the Kings. The matrimonial problem focuses on the hero Apolonio, in principle, and then on his daughter Tarsiana in the second part of the story, and is based on the Christian ethical character of the central family conception in the poem.

A comparison of reward processing during Becker-DeGroot-Marschak and Vickrey auctions: An ERP study.

Vickrey auctions (VA) and Becker-DeGroot-Marschak auctions (BDM) are strategically equivalent demand-revealing mechanisms, differentiated only by a human opponent in the VA, and a random-number-generator opponent in the BDM. Game parameters are such that players are incentivized to reveal their private subjective values (SV) and behavior should be identical in both tasks. However, this has been repeatedly shown not to be the case. In this study, the neural correlates of outcome feedback processing during VA and BDM were directly compared using electroencephalography. Twenty-eight healthy participants bid for household products which were then divided into high- and low-SV categories. The VA included a human opponent deception to induce a social environment, while in reality a random-number-generator was used in both tasks. A P3 component peaking at 336 ms over midline parietal sites showed more positive amplitudes for high bid values, and for win outcomes in the VA but not the BDM. Both auctions also elicited a Reward Positivity potential, maximal at 275 ms along the central midline electrodes, that was not modulated by auction task or SV. Further, an exploratory N170 potential in the right occipitotemporal electrodes and a vertex positive potential component were stronger in the VA relative to the BDM. Results point to an enhanced cortical response to bid outcomes during VA task in a potential component associated with emotional control, and to the occurrence of face-sensitive potentials in VA but not in BDM auction. These findings suggest modulation of bid outcome processing by the social-competitive aspect of auction tasks. Directly comparing two prominent auction paradigms affords the opportunity to isolate the impact of social environment on competitive, risky decision-making. Findings suggest that feedback processing as early as 176 ms is facilitated by the presence of a human competitor, and later processing is modulated by social context and subjective value.

“Letters from Honest People” and “Letters from Hell”: Emergent Visceral Publics in Carrie Nation’s Smasher’s Mail

ABSTRACT Grounded in Jenell Johnson’s theory of visceral publics, this study examines 229 letters published in the Smasher’s Mail, an American temperance newspaper edited by Progressive-era reformer Carrie (or Carry) Nation 1 at the height of her 1901 saloon-smashing crusade to enforce Kansas prohibition. Because the newspaper printed letters from citizens who energetically endorsed saloon-smashing as a tactic of pro-temperance agitation and from those who vociferously opposed it, this analysis illuminates how Nation’s paper functioned as an important platform for fervid public deliberation over the perceived necessity of temperance reform and the best means of achieving it. Exploring what the smashing controversy meant to real people and the powerful feelings it elicited on both sides of the debate, this study demonstrates the emergence of two oppositional visceral publics bound by shared intense feelings over perceived boundary violations involving the borders of the human body, the home, private enterprise, law and order, and the “woman’s sphere.” Pro-smashing writers, who elevated their alcohol-free vision of the common good over the individual rights of saloonkeepers and their patrons, saw saloon-smashing as justified, even necessary, to protect society from the consequences of intemperance. In contrast, smashing opponents, rejecting prohibitionist calls to regulate private behavior for the common good, prioritized saloonkeepers’ and patrons’ individual rights of life, liberty, and property.

"NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION – A STUDY ON ENGINEERING STUDENTS "

Reading or interpreting non-verbal language is a learning skill that requires continuous practice. The present study is conducted on a sample of 100 engineering students and identifies a set of theoretical rules specific to this type of language. Observations have been analyzed in interactions with them in different situations, without knowing that they were being evaluated. Thus, the results of the study highlight elements related to how they are attentive to the surrounding environment, whether they are active observers or not, whether they can recognize and decode universal and private nonverbal behaviors. We have also analyzed clustered or successive types of behaviors, reasons of behavioral changes that can signal changes in thoughts, emotions, interests or intentions, and their way of identifying by nonverbal communication, detecting untrue or false nonverbal signals.

Contributing Factors to the Changes in Public and Private Transportation Mode Choice after the COVID-19 Outbreak in Urban Areas of China

The COVID-19 pandemic has tremendously affected the whole of human society worldwide. Travel patterns have greatly changed due to the increased risk perception and the governmental interventions regarding COVID-19. This study aimed to identify contributing factors to the changes in public and private transportation mode choice behavior in China after COVID-19 based on an online questionnaire survey. In the survey, travel behaviors in three periods were studied: before the outbreak (before 27 December 2019), the peak (from 20 January to 17 March 2020), and after the peak (from 18 March to the date of the survey). A series of random-parameter bivariate Probit models was developed to quantify the relationship between individual characteristics and the changes in travel mode choice. The key findings indicated that individual sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., gender, age, ownership, occupation, residence) have significant effects on the changes in mode choice behavior. Other key findings included (1) a higher propensity to use a taxi after the peak compared to urban public transportation (i.e., bus and subway); (2) a significant impact of age on the switch from public transit to private car and two-wheelers; (3) more obvious changes in private car and public transportation modes in more developed cities. The findings from this study are expected to be useful for establishing partial and resilient policies and ensuring sustainable mobility and travel equality in the post-pandemic era.