Rational Action Research Articles

The Shadow Economy of Effort: Unintended Consequences of Pass/Fail Grading on Medical Students' Clinical Education and Patient Care Skills.

The shift to pass/fail grading in undergraduate medical education was designed to reduce medical students' stress. However, this change has given rise to a "shadow economy of effort," as students move away from traditional didactic and clinical learning to engage in increasing numbers of research, volunteer, and work experiences to enhance their residency applications. These extracurricular efforts to secure a residency position are sub-phenomena of the hidden curriculum. Medical schools do not officially require all the activities students need to be most competitive for residency selection; therefore, students, as rational actors, participate in the activities they think will most help them succeed.Here, the authors frame residency application and selection as a complex adaptive system (CAS), which self-organizes without centralized control or hierarchical intent. Individuals in a CAS operate in environments marked by volatility, randomness, and uncertainty-all of which are abundant in the residency selection process. Outcomes in such systems, like the development of a shadow economy, are novel, emergent, and cannot always be anticipated. To address these challenges, the authors suggest the need for deep understanding of the system's elements, interrelationships, and dynamics, including feedback loops and emergent properties. Optimizing the results of a CAS requires incentivizing outcomes over activities, ensuring open information flow, and engaging in continuous monitoring and evaluation.The current pass/fail era and resultant shadow economy of effort risk creating a triple harm by devaluing clinical excellence, burning out medical students, and potentially producing superficial, or worse inauthentic, academic and community work. Medical educators must optimize residency application and selection for cooperative outcomes and design incentives to ensure the outputs of medical education align student, institutional, patient, and societal goals. Without a set of predictive "answers," the authors suggest a process of determining actions to advance this ultimate aim and reduce harm.

Relational anonymity in reducing the harms of illicit drug use: accounts of users of dark web- and street-based services in Finland

BackgroundProtecting individual anonymity is a common practice in harm reduction (HR), as it can mitigate the fears that may prevent people from accessing services. Protecting anonymity usually means applying for services with a pseudonym. However, anonymity protection practices have diversified in current HR environments, for example, on the streets or in the Tor network, which relies on technology to guarantee exceptionally strong anonymity. Despite its importance, the individual’s need for anonymity when seeking help to reduce drug-related harm has been underexplored.MethodsThe research contexts included four street- and dark web-based HR services in Finland. The data consisted of service user interviews and naturally occurring conversations in the Tor network. We focused on service users’ accounts of their need for anonymity and applied the concept of relational anonymity, acknowledging that wider contextual relations intertwine with situational needs for anonymity. We asked: What kinds of needs for anonymity do service users express when discussing seeking help to reduce drug-related harm? How do service users account for their need for anonymity when seeking such help? To which kinds of contextual relations are these accounts attached?ResultsWe identified connections between the accounts of the need for anonymity and various contextual relations: (1) excusing the need for anonymity by referring to societal relations: blaming Finnish society for stigmatising attitudes and exclusionary practices; (2) excusing the need for anonymity by referring to service system relations: blaming the service system for the risk of negative consequences from recording the use of illicit drugs; (3) justifying and excusing the need for anonymity by referring to personal relations: appealing to personal situation, feelings and experiences.ConclusionsThe need for anonymity reflects problematic societal relations, in which the stigma towards drug use is strong. The service users’ accounts were motivated by rational actions to avoid possible sanctions and the perceived abuse of power in Finnish society and services, which the service users deemed to have various negative consequences in their lives. Societies should promote cultural atmospheres and information sharing practices where anonymity is not needed, but services that protect anonymity are crucial in the current societal conditions.

What Can Economics Contribute to the Study of Terrorism? – The Power and Limitation of Economics

ABSTRACT We assess the potential of economics to contribute to the understanding of terrorism. We argue that the economic approach portraying terrorists and law enforcement agents as rational actors yoked to other disciplines is a source of precise falsifiable causal hypotheses. Theoretical economics rooted in rational choice provides precisely falsifiable hypotheses. This falsifiability makes it easier to focus on identifying causal relationships, which is essential for sound policy advice. Economists have developed a multitude of rigorous tools for causal inference ranging from instrumental variables to machine learning, which are essential in typical situations of terrorism that are beset by endogeneity problems. However, neighboring disciplines are needed to provide a rich contextual analysis that allows the assessment of the external validity of the results rigorously derived by economic analyses. Ultimately, rigorous mathematical analysis is valid only if it can capture reality wholly and simply.

Responsibility and Its Place in Ethical Judgement

Human action of ethical worth is free and voluntary one. And ethical judgement concerning human action carries with it particular inference about the nature of man: the fact that s/he is a responsible being. This derives from man’s ontological status as reasonably acting being of care and accountability to and for one’s self and others. This qualitative research critically analyses the place of responsibility in ethical life of man. It discloses that free responsible human action is in fact deliberately rational action, and that in lived experience there is a unique logical relationship between responsibility and the quality of human society and environment. It emphasizes that maturity is an index of developed existence. It then makes the submission that the inevitability of responsibility in human existence is part and parcel of what we may call the ethical cost implicational character of our moral consciousness and freedom.

A Hypergame Model of Conflict Cusp Helix for Noncooperative Boundedly Rational Multi-Polar Actors Using Deep Adversarial Reinforcement Learning and Misperception Information Strategies

Abstract In the aftermath of the Cold War era, the world shifted from a tale of two competing superpowers, to a highly complex and multi-polar narrative. In a new world order, geopolitical relations, diplomacy, power plays and conflicts among countries became so perplex that any attempt to emulate realistic scenarios, conduct robust simulations, all the more so deduct foreseeable outcomes, would be nothing short of tenuous, if not practically infeasible. Besides, unlike physical systems for which universal uniformities factually and fundamentally exist, social systems do not obey implicit and exact “natural-laws-of-physics”. And while a plethora of modeling approaches have been deployed hitherto to tackle with the intrinsic complexity of warfare dynamics, however the required interdisciplinary synthesis has not been explored in the literature. In a first attempt to attain this fusion of cutting-edge methodologies, I propose a novel hybrid approach to conflict analysis.

Racjonalność w stosunkach międzynarodowych

The aim of this article is to present how academics and esteemed scholars in international relations John J. Mearsheimer and Sebastian Rosato, present a compelling exploration of state behavior in their book, „How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy.” The authors posit that to explore the premise that states are rational actors, one must first understand what rationality is in contrast to, and what rational thought and behavior are like. The authors aim to answer two questions. First, what is rationality? Secondly, are states rational? Mearsheimer is known for his seminal contributions to the theory of offensive realism. Rosato, a rising star in the field, brings his expertise in international security and American foreign policy to this collaboration. Mearsheimer and Rosato explore the complexities of state decision-making while questioning received wisdom and providing new perspectives on the logic of foreign policy. The authors shed light on the complicated mental processes that influence the state’s behavior in the international arena through meticulous investigation and compelling arguments.

“Sticking to One's Post” or “Backing the Right Captain”?—The Impact of Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance on Employee Turnover

ABSTRACTDo employees respond to a firm's environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance? This study examines the relationship between corporate ESG performance and employee turnover, employing social identity theory and rational action theory. Using data from Chinese A‐share nonfinancial listed firms over the period from 2011 to 2020, the results reveal a positive U‐shaped relationship. Specifically, moderate levels of ESG performance are associated with reduced employee turnover. And this relationship is more pronounced in the environmental and social pillars. Further analysis shows that employees at high‐performing firms are more concerned with ESG performance, and those with high environmental awareness exhibit greater sensitivity to it. Information asymmetry may mediate the relationship between corporate ESG performance and employee turnover. These results contribute valuable insights into the broader implications of ESG performance for employee turnover, clarify the underlying mechanisms, and offer practical guidance for refining corporate ESG strategies.

A106: Motivations for Grassroots Inheritance of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Background: The protection movement for intangible cultural heritage is gradually becoming a global trend. However, the intangible heritage protection movements led by governmental organizations have been criticized for issues related to "authenticity" and "nationalism." Bottom-up inheritance and protection, or grassroots heritage preservation, refers to the process where intangible cultural heritage is continuously passed down within local communities and by the people themselves. Currently, there is limited research discussing intangible cultural heritage from the perspective of grassroots inheritance. This study selects collective action theory as the analytical framework and examined the motivations behind the formation of the Yingge team in DH village in the Chaoshan area of China, exploring the strategies they employ to achieve common goals collaboratively, providing references for grassroots involvement in the planning and protection of intangible cultural heritage preservation. Method: Data were collected through participatory observation and semi-structured interviews, with two core questions being "Why did you join the Yingge team?" and "What motivates you to continue training?" Finally, a three-step content analysis process was used to analyze the data and extract key insights. Results: The study concluded three main points: 1. Collective nostalgia motivates villagers to participate in the inheritance of the Yingge dance, strengthening collective identity by preserving traditional customs. 2. A stable living environment and superior material foundation have shifted villagers' needs towards seeking greater social recognition and attention, with participation in the Yingge team being one way to achieve this. 3. The activities of the Yingge team are not only a form of intangible cultural heritage inheritance but also a way to bring the extended family together again, driven by the belief in fighting for family honor. Conclusion/Discussion: The villagers' motivation to participate is more rooted in respect for cultural traditions and the maintenance of clan honor. This collective action driven by internal beliefs and values reflects the behavior model of the "conceptual person." This finding effectively refutes the rational actor assumption in traditional collective action theory. Therefore, understanding and utilizing this motivational mechanism based on the conceptual person assumption is crucial for promoting the grassroots inheritance and protection of intangible cultural heritage.

Interpersonal hope and loving attention

Abstract Imagine that your lover or close friend has embraced a difficult long-term goal, such as advancing environmental justice, breaking a bad habit, or striving to become a better person. Which stance should you adopt towards their prospects for success? Does supporting our significant others in the pursuit of valuable goals require ignoring part of our evidence? I argue that we have special reasons––reasons grounded in friendship––to hope that our loved ones succeed in their difficult goals. I further propose that hope is an attitude governed by distinctive norms of epistemic rationality. It has a unique impact on motivation and rational action and a special capacity to be met with uptake in hope. Owing to these features, hope is the central attitudinal dimension of truly amiable support based on ‘just vision’.

The Economic Study of Politics

Economic and political phenomena coexist in society, but are often seen as divergent spheres of human action and interaction. A theoretical manifestation of this separation is the assumption that while economic agents act in their own self-interest, political agents are motivated by the public interest. Additionally, it is commonly assumed – if only implicitly – that political agents possess all the necessary knowledge for rational action, effectively portraying political agents as omniscient beings. Drawing on public choice theory and on the economic literature on the nature of knowledge, we review arguments that challenge the two assumptions.

Socio-hydrological lock-in; an emergent phenomenon in the face of anthropogenic drought

This study investigates the drought of three major terminal lakes: Great Salt Lake, Salton Sea, and Lake Urmia, driven by socio-hydrological lock-in—a phenomenon characterized by feedback loops between human activities and environmental processes. Previous research has linked this drying to socio-hydrological lock-in, where rational actions by individuals collectively lead to suboptimal outcomes, exacerbating water scarcity and ecological degradation. Despite existing studies, a critical knowledge gap remains in understanding how these feedback mechanisms operate across different socio-economic and ecological contexts. This research seeks to address this gap through an integrative analysis of historical data and case studies, highlighting the interplay between increased water demand for agriculture, population growth, and governance challenges. The resultant shrinkage of these lakes exposes saline playas, generating salt-rich dust with severe ecological and health impacts, including soil salinization and respiratory illnesses. By comparing the socio-hydrological lock-in across diverse regions, this study provides insights into preventing and mitigating these cycles. It emphasizes the necessity for holistic water management strategies that integrate both supply and demand-side measures. The key contribution of this research lies in its systematic exploration of the feedback mechanisms driving socio-hydrological lock-ins, offering a foundation for developing sustainable water resource management policies globally. This work aims to influence policy and practice by highlighting the need for integrated, long-term strategies that balance economic pursuits with environmental sustainability, ensuring resilience in water management amidst mounting environmental challenges.

Candidate withdrawal in the French 2024 national legislative elections

AbstractIn France’s 2024 legislative elections, two-thirds of the candidates who qualified for the runoff withdrew from the competition. The media argued that this was a deliberate strategy to reduce the radical right’s chances of winning an absolute majority of seats. This kind of strategic behavior is based on rationality and collective action that hardly covers the full range of possibilities. This article seeks to identify the reasons why candidates pulled out before the second round of the national legislative elections in France. Our analysis uses semi-structured interviews with candidates who withdrew and identifies several explanations for their decision: electoral tactics driven by coercion, the long-term prospects of profile-raising benefits, voter pressure, disaffection with the campaign content, and the personal examples of other candidates. These results indicate that the decision to leave the race involved rationality, responsiveness to public preferences, emotions, and a learning process.

Community Based and Mixed Targeting on Performance of Cash Transfer Projects in Baidoa District, Somalia

Cash transfers serve as vital tools for social protection, but their effectiveness depends significantly on the precision of beneficiary targeting. The research specifically evaluates the influence of community-based, geographical, mixed, and self-targeting mechanisms on project outcomes. Employing the social capital, social interdependence, and rational action theories, the study underscores the value of social networks, mutual support, and rational decision-making in effective targeting. This study targeted 58 respondents from 18 cash transfer projects in Baidoa, including project managers, monitoring and evaluation officers, government representatives, and donor representatives. The findings reveal that community based targeting (α = 0.123, p-value > 0.05), and mixed targeting (α = 0.120, p-value > 0.05) approaches positively but non-significantly influence cash transfer projects. From the study, community based targeting and mixed targeting positively influence project performance, though not significantly. While each targeting approach contributes to project success, an integrated strategy combining multiple methods enhances accuracy and effectiveness. This approach mitigates the limitations of individual methods by leveraging their collective strengths. Future cash transfer projects should adopt a broad-based targeting mechanism that is adaptable to the specific situational and contextual dynamics of the project environment. Such a strategy is crucial for ensuring that the most vulnerable populations receive the intended benefits, thereby improving the overall impact of humanitarian interventions in fragile contexts like Somalia.

Geoestratégia Aeroespacial: O Shijian-21, Tensões Geopolíticas e a Preconização dos Conflitos Extra Kármán

The dynamics of the world's political space express changes in relation to the nuclei of power envisaged up until the beginning of the 1990s. Since humanity's conquest of the third dimension of war, the atmospheric environment has also become a space for dispute and militarization, culminating in the shaping of a new geopolitical territory. The following work seeks to present the context and geostrategic disputes based on the role of the Chinese Shijian-21 satellite in the aerospace dynamics of outer space. The methodology used is based on the analytical-synthetic method on case studies, and the method of analysis of the decision-making processes of Rational Behavior and Rational Actor for the actions of deterrence and defense employed by China. As a result, multinucleated aerospace potential is associated with the use of military force and is linked to the organizational configuration and symbology for deterrence and the ability to employ force. The application of Shinjian-21 contributes to the reduction of Chinese vulnerabilities in relation to the aerospace complex, while at the same time helping to increase geopolitical tensions in the Indo-Pacific region by shaping disputed areas of influence.

“Vacunas”: Permanence of Crime in The New Dynamics of Violence and Post-Agreement in Colombia

Objective: This study aims to explore the criminal dynamics and socioeconomic implications of extortion, specifically the "vacuna" (protection payment) phenomenon, in Colombia. It seeks to understand how this practice contributes to the persistence of crime and violence, and how victims manage and cope with this form of violence. Theoretical Frmework: The literature review is based on the theory of psychological coercion, where the threat and intimidation through force are used as a means of social control, as well as the economics of crime, which proposes that criminality is a rational act aimed at maximizing benefits for offenders. Finally, the theory of the state and security explains how the absence of the state in Colombia allows criminal groups to assume roles of "protection." Method: A qualitative approach was adopted, using semi-structured and unstructured interviews with merchants and business owners in the Department of Santander, Colombia. The study focuses on a narrative approach, allowing victims to express their experiences with extortion. This method aims to capture the diversity of perspectives and coping practices in response to the crime. Results and Discussion: The results reveal that extortion persists as a common practice due to weak state presence and the transformation of criminal actors. It was observed that victims, both individually and collectively, develop diverse strategies to confront extortion. The study also identifies the perpetrators, although in many cases, victims are unable or unwilling to directly point out their aggressors due to fear of reprisals. Research Implications: The findings suggest the need to rethink public policies focused on security and wealth distribution in Colombia. Strengthening state presence in regions most affected by violence and improving protection mechanisms for extortion victims is crucial. Originality/Value: This study provides a detailed and contextualized analysis of a criminal practice that has been underrepresented in academic literature. By focusing on the voices and experiences of the victims, it offers new insights into the dynamics of power and violence in Colombia, highlighting the importance of addressing structural inequalities to mitigate crime and violence.

A Modest Conception of Moral Right & Wrong

ABSTRACTTaking inspiration from Hume, I advance a conception of the part of morality concerned with right and wrong, rooted in the actual moral rules established and followed within our society. Elsewhere, I have argued this approach provides a way of thinking about how we are genuinely “bound in a moral way” to keep our moral obligations that it is both ethically attractive and psychologically realistic. Here, I focus on some implications for our evaluation and criticism of actions, which some may initially find peculiar. Sometimes we should judge of an action that it was (unqualifiedly) right, and the result of flawless reasoning by the agent; and yet, we may also have cause to regard that same action as, in other respects, deeply morally deficient. Using Nomy Arpaly's conception of “responsiveness to right‐making moral reasons” as a foil, I argue that this unorthodox implication leads to more subtle and helpful evaluations of actions—especially actions undertaken in the context of wicked social institutions. The conception also encourages us to take a more conflicted, less confident, attitude toward many of our own righteous and rational actions—and perhaps even toward our capacity for living together by moral rules itself.

Psychosocial disorder or rational action? Contrasting professional and pupil narratives of school exclusion

ABSTRACT Over the last five years, the Excluded Lives team has been examining the patterns and processes of school exclusions across the UK in order to identify those factors which may exacerbate or reduce exclusions. One of most the striking aspects is the contrasting accounts of the causes of exclusion provided by professionals and pupils. Drawing on interview data from 29 school-based professionals and 16 excluded pupils in Wales, the paper analyses the different discourses which underpin their respective narratives. Professional accounts draw on discourses of vulnerability – seeing their pupils’ behaviour as symptomatic of some underlying malaise, typically as victims of adverse socio-economic and familial circumstances. Pupils’ accounts, on the other hand, are not about underlying ‘causes’, but about the specific circumstances of the ‘offence’. In their accounts, they are neither vulnerable nor victims. Indeed, they present their actions as rational – sometimes even heroic – responses to their situation. In drawing out this contrast, the paper does not seek to privilege one type of narrative over another – for both contain ‘truths’. However, it concludes that the hierarchy of credibility might need to be rebalanced in favour of the pupil if pupil-professional dialogue is to progress and trust be fostered.

Determinants of Quality Jobs Among Youth: An Empirical Investigation Across Occupations in Lagos, Nigeria

Quality jobs, a multidimensional construct, have been perceived differently in labour management literature. The view that the quality of earnings is the primary determinant of job quality has been criticized. This study, therefore, investigates the characteristics and major factors determining quality jobs among the youths in Lagos, Nigeria. Leveraging on the rational actor theory, Maslow's theory of needs, and Amartya Sen’s capability approach, four hundred (400) employees, mainly youths, across occupational sectors within Lagos, Nigeria, were sampled. Using descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis, the study revealed that though wage (quality of earning) is an essential factor determining youths’ perception of a job, findings revealed other vital factors that youths consider in determining quality jobs. The work environment, dignity, and workers’ protection, among others, are identified in this study as determinants of quality jobs. Far-reaching implications, both practical and policy-oriented, emerged for all stakeholders.

Heuristic assumptions

AbstractInterpreting any decision requires making auxiliary assumptions regarding how the decision makers viewed their options and related them to their lives. Theories constrain those assumptions. The more general the theory, the fewer constraints it imposes and the more assumptions must be made in any application. Like the rational actor models that they challenged, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky’s heuristics-and-biases and prospect theory research programs were general theories, with broad application. One of the many marvels of their landmark studies is that they rarely test their auxiliary assumptions. Rather, readers were trusted to agree about how people interpret the tasks (e.g., select anchors in studies of that heuristic). Subsequent studies have often accepted those interpretations in order to examine boundary conditions (e.g., extreme anchors). Applying the theories to naturally occurring tasks requires making additional auxiliary assumptions. This article illustrates three ways to evaluate those assumptions: direct assessment, systematic manipulation, and archival analysis. It concludes with proposals for loosely coordinated evaluation of shared and contested assumptions.

Modeling the stability of air flows in inclined workings in case of fire

Purpose. Development of a mathematical model and study of the processes occurring during conveyor belt fires in inclined mines to determine the mechanism of air flow distribution under appropriate conditions. Methods. Practical measurements of the distribution of air flows in an inclined conveyor operated at the mining and processing plant of PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih were carried out. Based on the obtained data, a mathematical model was crea-ted, which was then used to perform Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling of gas flows in the mine under normal conditions and in the event of a fire with a thermal capacity of 9 MW. Findings. The study reveals the peculiarities of gas flows during the combustion of a conveyor belt in inclined workings, as well as the influence of turbulence on the flow, changes in the density of gases during heating, and the impact of gravity on the distribution of gases in the cross-section and along the length of the workings. A fire centre with a heat output of 9 MW has a significant impact on the distribution of air flows. The phenomenon of thermal expansion results in a 59.2% increase in the volume of gases behind the fire. The thermal expansion of gases and their low density have a significant impact on the formation of gas flows in inclined workings. As the jet moves away from the centre of the fire, the velocity of the jet gradually increases, reaching a value of 12.4 m/s. This results in a notable alteration in the distribution of total pressure across adjacent workings, accompanied by an increase in flow turbulence. Consequently, the mass of air exiting the right branch is observed to have a five-fold increase in comparison to the pre-fire state. The overturning of the jet from the left branch of the workings gives rise to the exclusive distribution of combustion products along the right branch. Originality. The study helps to understand the mechanism of jet overturning and the peculiarities of the distribution of combustion products in case of fire in inclined conveyor workings. Practical implications. The results of the research allow us to predict the probability of fire, identify the most dangerous areas for fire, and plan the most rational actions for firefighting in specific unique conditions.