Rational Considerations Research Articles

Sanctions, Perceived Anger, and Criminal Offending

In articulating models of offender decision-making, researchers have tended to focus on either deterrence/rational choice or situational/emotional considerations. In this paper, we merge these two lines of inquiry and examine how rational choice considerations and perceived angry reactions inter-relate in predicting assaultive violence. Using data collected on a random sample of young adults, we assess three hypotheses. First, that both rational choice and perceived anger exhibit additive effects on assault. Second, that perceived anger influences how rational choice considerations are interpreted. Third, that rational choice considerations influence assault under different levels of perceived anger, and in particular, that the effect of sanction threats fall apart under high perceived anger. Future theoretical and empirical directions are outlined.

Time in "Chevengur"

THE SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW Volume82, Number4 October 2004 Tinme in Chevengur ANGELALIVINGSTONE ONE writeron thesubjectof timerelateshowSamuilMarshak, being in London with imperfect English and no watch, went up to someone in the street and asked: 'What is time?' -to which the surprised stranger explained that he was no philosopher.' The anecdote may remindus of how AndreiPlatonov'sfictionalworkis fullof people who, lacking equipment and unskilled in language, ask a great many helplesslyprofoundand unanswerablequestions,among them 'Whatis time?' (but never'What is the time?'). The question is central to the novel Chevengur2 where, unable to endure the mysteryof time, a group of men set about puttinga stop to it. This article will look at influences upon Platonov's thinking about time, examine images and ideas of time presented in Chevengur, and seekto account forthe unusualtemporalityof the fictionalworldof this novel. First,some introductoryremarks. I Much of what Platonov wrote is based upon a conviction that the conditions of our existence are fundamentallyimperfect. Time, which Angela Livingstone is Research Professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex. This article was originally presented as a paper at the international conference, 'Russia in Time Time in Russia', organized by the Centre for Russian Studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London in July 2002. All translations from the Russian are by the author. I G. J. Whitrow, Whatis Time?2, London, 1972 (hereafter, Whitrow), p. 7. 2 Andrei Platonov, Chevengur, written 1928, first published in full in i 988. Page references in this article are to the Moscow 'Khudozhestvennaia literatura' edition of I988. The only English translation of this novel is Andrei Platonov, Chevengur, translated by Anthony Olcott, Ann Arbor, MI, 1978; three chapters from it have been published in the translation by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler (with Nadya Bourova, Angela Livingstone, David Macphail and Eric Naiman) in 7The Portable Platonov,20, Moscow, I 999. 802 TIME IN CHEVENGUR bringsdeath,accountsfor a largepartof the imperfection. Whereas Rilke considered that we are 'not [... ] at home in the interpreted world',3Platonov felt that we are not at home on earth at all, not even in the world of nature: 'there has not been real life on earth, nor will there soon be' ('Nastoiashcheizhizni na zemle ne bylo, i ne skoroona budet').4 That the whole world ought to be radically altered to accommodate human beings and fulfiltheir needs is an idea explored in some of his 1920S stories, perhaps most vividly in Potomki solntsa ('Descendants of the Sun'):5here a scientistwhose intellect has grown infinitelypowerfulre-directsrivers,knocksdown mountains, harnesses the energy of light, speeds up time and finallyinvents a machine which will in a flash annihilate the entire cosmos before replacing it with a new and infinitelybetterone. In Chevengur (I 928), Platonov looks at anotherkind of attempt at the annihilationof 'everything'andpreparationfora new universe.Eleven not very clever Bolsheviksin charge of a small provincial steppe town clearthe groundfortheirversionof Communism and believe theyhave brought it about. Communism entails, for them, the ending of time. Their attempt is narratedin the last thirdof the novel. The author did not divide the book into parts,nor even distinctlyinto chapters,but the twenty-seven sections suggested by gaps in the manuscript text could be grouped as follows: a firstpart, set in the early twentieth century, which concerns the growing up of the main hero, AleksandrDvanov, and describes a number of people who sufferand seek a better life; a second part, set in the years of revolutionand civilwar,which narrates the wanderings of Dvanov and his quixotic friend Kopenkin over the steppelands in search of that better life, now named 'Communism'; and a thirdpartabout the introductionof Communism, and with it the ending of time, in a strangelyisolatedtown, Chevengur. What, then, istime, so confidentlybroughtto an end in that town?It is strikingthat, althoughthe book continuallytouches on philosophical questions, there is no philosophical discussion in it as such, either by the author-narrator(who very rarely comes out with anything of his own) or by the characters.Similarly,while theirthoughtsand speeches repeatedly raise questions of definition ('What is Communism?' or 'Whatis Socialism?'is askedmany times),they never open them up for rational consideration...

Equating, Concordance, and Expectation

How do scores from different tests relate to each other? Three types of score linkage are discussed: equating, concordance, and prediction of expected scores. Statistical indices, in conjunction with rational considerations, are needed to determine whether the highest level of linkage attainable between scores from two “tests” is the conceptual and statistical interchangeability sought by equating, the distributional similarity of concordance links, or the minimum squared loss attained by prediction of expected scores. Relationships among the different scales of the ACT and SAT I are described in the context of the conceptual framework developed herein. These relationships are used to evaluate the appropriateness of concordances and predictions of expected scores among various scores on these two prominent tests. Sums of scores, composite scores, and individual scores are examined. The importance of score reliability in assessing linkage possibilities is discussed.

A rational consideration of space charge

Space charge formation and its increase with field under DC conditions is not a mystical phenomenon. The increase in space charge with applied field is an obvious and inevitable result of the interaction of field-dependent current density with spatially inhomogeneous resistivity. For common polymeric dielectrics, the current density makes a transition from a linear function of field to an exponential function of field at around 10 kV/mm. This causes a similar transition in the sample space charge in the same field region. However, this transition has no obvious connection with aging, and if it does prove to have a connection, the driving force is the rapidly increasing current density and not the space charge, which is a result thereof. As to the issue of the accuracy of space charge measurements, it may be more important to focus on providing a physical mechanism for 1-eV deep traps at an average separation of 3 nm within a polymeric dielectric. This would bring about the ability to engineer important dielectric properties as well as improved understanding of the physical basis of aging and other important phenomena in dielectrics.

Trust and Innovation: from Spin‐Off Idea to Stock Exchange

Trust among entrepreneurs, their co‐workers and between the entrepreneurs and their business partners plays a key role in the early stages of formation of a new company. In this piece of research, trust is defined as a belief consisting of eight trusting beliefs, emphasising the rational consideration between these beliefs and other situational factors. The concept of trust is developed through objects, mechanisms and antecedents. The present paper is an empirical exploration of these phenomena in the context of innovativeness in a high‐tech company. The goal is to describe the role, content and impact of trust at the different stages of a business evolution process.

A World of Passions: How to Think about Globalization Now

A World of Passions:How to Think About Globalization Now Jedediah Purdy, Assistant Professor of Law Recent events have been unkind to a doctrine that defined global economics and politics during the 1990s. That doctrine, often termed "neo-liberalism" or "the Washington Consensus," was defined by the belief that free markets and international economic integration would lead the world toward prosperity, liberal democracy, and peace. The failure of neo-liberal development policies in countries such as Indonesia and Argentina, and the new prominence of elite and popular nationalism and fundamentalism whose most vivid expression is terrorism, have together shown the insufficiency of the neo-liberal program. In Part I of this essay, I present the major features of neo-liberalism, as a program and as a view of development, and argue that it embodied a distinctly optimistic and rationalist theory of modernity.1 After sketching the events that led to the decline of neo-liberalism [End Page 1] in Part II, I proceed in Part III to describe a "New Consensus" among certain forward-looking economists and policy makers, which is less tendentious in its programmatic recommendations and much more open to the role of politics and public institutions in development. In Part IV, I argue that the New Consensus needs to be augmented by a view of the economic, social, and political discontents of modernization, and propose for that purpose the tradition of the passions, a line of social thought exemplified by Adam Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Edmund Burke. This tradition portrays modernity as unstable, particularly in periods of transition, with great and interwoven potential for both peaceful liberty [End Page 2] and new forms of violence. In Part V, I survey the major, superficially contradictory features of globalization—the rise of a potentially liberal middle class and of pervasive political extremism—through this lens, arguing that they represent the competing tendencies of modernity, which the theory of the passions helps to illuminate. I conclude in Part VI with some strictures for policy that arise from this account. I. What Was Neo-Liberalism? A. The Neo-Liberal Program In its most straightforward form, neo-liberalism, or "the Washington Consensus," was a list of policy measures held to produce economic stability and growth. These policies became standard recommendations for developing countries in the 1990s, and were often mandated as conditions of loans and grants from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.2 John Williamson, the political economist who coined the term, identified the elements of the Washington Consensus as: maintaining fiscal discipline, with a rule of thumb that budget deficits should not rise above 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP); cutting marginal tax rates while broadening the population of taxpayers; progressively liberalizing finance until interest rates are set by market forces; keeping exchange rates low to favor export industries; liberalizing trade by lowering tariffs on imports and exports; abolishing barriers to foreign direct investment; privatizing state-owned enterprises; reducing regulatory restraints on business; and establishing a clear regime of property rights.3 These prescriptions were widely echoed, perhaps most famously by New York Times columnist and globalism pundit Thomas Friedman, who listed them as the components of "the Golden Straitjacket," a formula for wealth that came at the price of surrendering free choice in setting national economic policies.4 Friedman's image captured [End Page 3] the mood of the time by summing up two convictions about the policies of the Washington Consensus: they worked, and there was no alternative.5 B. The Presuppositions of Neo-Liberalism Beneath the mechanical program of neo-liberalism lay a set of presuppositions about political and social life: not ideas about the metaphysics of human nature, perfectability, or original sin, but pragmatic views about what one could and could not hope to accomplish with a given set of means. Perhaps foremost among these was the belief that political life could be subordinated to economic logic, replacing irrational and sectarian motives with rational and universal considerations. The theorists of the Washington Consensus recognized politics as their enemy, the vehicle for such anti-reformist sentiments as fear of change and attachment to existing comfort and privilege. Williamson even proposed inducing economic...

The propensity for local traders in futures markets to ride losses: Evidence of irrational or rational behavior?

Behavioral studies of individual traders’ decisions indicate that the “disposition effect” – the propensity of traders to ride losses yet realize gains – is motivated by psychological rather than rational economic considerations. Consistent with previous studies by Heisler [Rev. Futures Markets 13 (1994) 793], Odean [J. Finance 53 (1998) 1775] and Locke and Mann [Do professional traders exhibit loss realization aversion? Working Paper, George Washington University, 2000], we find evidence of a disposition effect for both on-floor professional futures traders (“locals”) and a matched sample of non-local traders. After controlling for potential differences in trader characteristics, comparisons reveal a stronger disposition effect among locals than non-local traders. Given that locals must trade profitably to survive, it is improbable that they are more irrational in their loss riding than non-locals. To the contrary, evidence is provided that paper losses for local traders are more likely than for non-locals to become either realized or paper gains by the time of the next transaction. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that locals, by their presence on the trading floor, have privileged albeit short-lived information on order flow that allows them to form relatively accurate probability predictions of the direction and strength of short-term market price shifts.

How much power is enough? Against the development of an arbitrary convention for statistical power calculations

How much power is enough? Against the development of an arbitrary convention for statistical power calculations

Weak isomorphism of extensive games

Based on the Selten [Mathematical Social Sciences 5 (1983) 269] and Oh [Three Essays on Equilibrium Selection in Games, PhD Thesis, (1995) Graduate College of The University of Iowa] symmetries, we introduce weak isomorphism of extensive games that, in contrast to the Peleg et al. [The canonical extensive form of a game form: Symmetries. In: Alkan, A., Aliprantis, C., Yannelis, N. (Eds.), Current Trends in Economics: Theory and Applications, Springer, (1999) pp. 367–387] isomorphism, is compatible with the traditional extensive representation of strategic games. While being sufficiently ‘weak’ to ignore the order of moves to some extent, weak isomorphism is ‘strong’ enough not to violate sequential rationality considerations as incorporated in the concept of sequential equilibrium. In addition, there is some generic equivalence between weak isomorphism and isomorphism of the agent normal form.

Clarifying “fuzzy” hospitality-management problems with Depth interviews and qualitative analysis

Excerpt] Many successful hospitality-management programs are predicated on the manager’s ability to get to know the customer, a task that is almost always easier said than done. The depth of understanding required to answer certain customer-related questions is often difficult to reach with traditional research tools such as surveys. Consider, for example, questions related to consumer decision making. Conventional wisdom suggests that a consumer’s choice of hospitality products is based on both rational and emotional considerations. That is, there is a logical component to the decision, in which the buyer considers such attributes as price, location, and ratings of service quality. There is also an emotional component, such as feelings of happiness and excitement, which are elicited by the decision itself and by emotionally evocative aspects of the choice options. The emotional aspects are likely to be strongest when a choice is made more for hedonic reasons (e.g., pleasure travel) than for utilitarian reasons (e.g., business travel). The above discussion raises the question of what we know about how, when, and why positive emotions come into play in such a choice process. The answer is, surprisingly little, even though all manner of strategic decisions associated with the marketing of hospitality products, from product and service design to marketing promotion, involve some emotion quotient. Such limited knowledge about a topic of importance to managers and customers alike has a number of causes. Perhaps the chief cause is simply that positive emotion is an ambiguous construct that is hard to define and even harder to study. Indeed, despite centuries of theorizing about and studying emotion, there remains little consensus as to what emotion really is and how best to measure it.

The efficient public provision of commodities: Transaction cost, bounded rationality and other considerations

The efficient public provision of commodities: Transaction cost, bounded rationality and other considerations

Social Disadvantage and Students' Perceived Injustice in Socially Integrated Schools in Israel

In this study we explored “objective” and attributed explanations of perceived injustice (PI) with respect to instrumental and relational rewards among junior high school students. Despite the socially heterogeneous school and classroom setting, PI found was relatively modest and differentiated by domain. It was more effectively accounted for by cognitive ability than by socioeconomic status, while the effect of ethnic extraction was very small. PI was attributed much less to social background than to teacher and individual factors with regards to instrumental rewards, and to teacher and peer behavior concerning relational rewards. To explain these findings we have suggested the egalitarian climate of the school and its success in bringing students to comply with the meritocratic norm, the disadvantaged students' rational consideration of the positive contribution of the integrated school to their life chances, and the diminishing ethnic identification among the younger strata of the Israeli society.

Perversion and Death

When philosophers recommend an attitude to death, no less than when they recommend the correct attitude to sex, we presume such advice to be grounded in rational considerations about what is natural and proper . Two things must follow: first, that there will be room for perverted attitudes to death; second, that some objective facts about death can be found to justify such an evaluation. I explore aparallel between the duality of psychological and biological approaches to erotic desire, regarded asthe paradigm of all desire, and a similar duality in the fear of death, regarded as the paradigm ofalaversion. Each invokes an objective teleological fact about their respective objects, and a consequent norm of correctness in our attitudes towards them. The exploration of these two related ideas requires that we yield as generously as possible to the temptation to believe them. Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilych can be read as a meditation that makes the temptation vivid. None of this succeeds in vindicating a concept of perversion. Rather, it throws into relief both the attraction and absurdity ofcountenancing any notion of perversion.

Evolutionary Games without Rationality?

It is sometimes claimed that evolutionary game theory provides a basis for doing without rationality. The author defends the thesis that on any plausible construal of the assumptions underlying evolutionary game theory, it cannot provide a plausible basis for deviations from rationality. But on any plausible construal of rationality, evolutionary game theory cannot provide an alternative that coincides with the outcomes dictated by considerations of rationality, either.

Development of the Spiritual Transcendence Index

In response to calls from the scientific community for improved conceptualizations and measures of spirituality, we describe the concept of “spiritual transcendence” and the development of the Spiritual Transcendence Index (STI). Spiritual transcendence refers to a perceived experience of the sacred that affects one’sself–perception, feelings, goals, and ability to transcend one’sdifficulties. The STI is an eight–item measure of this construct developed and refined based on rational considerations, input from three focus groups of religious leaders, and a reciprocal process of empirically testing the item pool and revising it across six successive surveys. The final scale, together with measures of related constructs, was tested in 220 randomly selected community residents. Although further study of the scale is needed, the STI demonstrated high consistency and validity across several samples in these initial exploratory studies.

Carcinogenicity testing of IL-10: principles and practicalities.

IL-10 is a cytokine with actions at many levels of the immune system. In the course of development of recombinant human IL-10 (rhuIL-10) as a potential treatment for a number of chronic diseases of man, the question 'What about its carcinogenicity testing?' was repeatedly asked, based on scientific evaluation by toxicologists, beliefs about regulatory requirements, and questions considered likely to be raised by physicians, patients, and lawyers. The feasibility of various approaches to the carcinogenicity testing of rhuIL-10 is critically discussed here as a contribution to rational consideration of the general need for and value of such testing, and its particular feasibility for a recombinant human protein with profound effects on the immune system. The physiological functions of IL-10 in man and rodents are reviewed in detail, as there are notable differences between species in its normal activities, followed by detailed evaluation of the potential procedures and practical problems of its carcinogenicity testing as a heterologous, immunogenic protein in rodents. The value of information that might be obtained from transgenic mice is also evaluated, and so are the results of studies exploring its actions on human tumour cell biopsies and rodent and human cell lines. It is concluded that despite the probable popular and regulatory expectations that carcinogenicity test results would be provided, all the physiological and pathological information reveals no indication that rhuIL-10 would pose a carcinogenic risk to humans on prolonged administration, and that it would not be feasible to undertake such experimentation. It is argued that in this, as in other instances, professional and popular expectations have run beyond practical feasibility or theoretical justification. Cautious and critical evaluation should be made every time shorter or longer term toxicity studies of any candidate drug are planned or even considered, especially if it is a recombinant protein, to decide on objective grounds whether the studies are really necessary and whether they can be done in a way that will give meaningful results that will help in risk assessment.

Correlates of women’s preferences for treatment of heavy menstrual bleeding

This cross-sectional survey investigated factors associated with treatment preferences of women with menorrhagia. Women ( n=474) aged 35–54 years referred to gynaecology out-patient clinics for menorrhagia were mailed a self-administered questionnaire before their first clinic visit. The main outcome measure was treatment preference. Hysterectomy and conservative treatment (combined with no treatment) were favoured equally often. In a multivariate analysis, completed family size ( P=0.003), menstrual pain ( P=0.02), irregular periods ( P=0.03), and higher age ( P=0.04) predicted hysterectomy preference, as did lower education level ( P=0.001), gynaecologist consultations ( P=0.002), and unemployment ( P=0.03). The psychological factors assessed were not associated with treatment preference. In conclusion, rational considerations regarding stage of reproductive life and severity of symptoms were linked to women’s treatment preferences. However, education, employment status and use of specialists’ services guided women’s preferences even more powerfully than menstrual symptoms and burden caused by them. Doctors should pay more attention to motivating women for a trial of conservative treatment since only half of the women reported previous treatment for their menstrual problem.

Deciding about Prophylactic Oophorectomy: What Is Important to Women at Increased Risk of Ovarian Cancer?

Background. Little is known about the factors that women at increased risk of ovarian cancer consider to be important when deciding about prophylactic oophorectomy, surgery to remove the ovaries before they develop cancer.Methods. Women who had undergone prophylactic oophorectomy (surgical group; n = 30) were compared with women who remained on the ovarian screening program (nonsurgical group; n = 28) on their importance ratings for a number of relevant decision-making factors.Results. The most important decision-making factor across all subjects was reducing risk of ovarian cancer, but the single best predictor of group membership was the importance attributed to reducing cancer worry. Women who rated this factor as more important were more likely to be in the surgical group. No women identified the increased risk of heart disease and osteoporosis as issues for consideration.Conclusions. The desire to reduce cancer worry is likely to be the most important factor in a woman's decision to proceed to prophylactic oophorectomy. In view of the current imprecision in risk estimates given to women considering this option, cancer worry may override a more rational consideration of the costs and benefits of surgery.

Normativity and Rationality in Delusional Psychiatric Disorders

Psychiatric treatment and diagnosis rests upon a richer conception of normativity than, for example, cognitive neuropsychology. This paper explores the role that considerations of rationality can play in defining this richer conception of normativity. It distinguishes two types of rationality (procedural and epistemic)and considers how each type can break down in different ways in delusional psychiatric disorders.

Short-Run Expectational Coordination: Fixed Versus Flexible Wages

This paper considers a simple “three-goods” model and focuses attention on the expectational stability of its equilibria. The setting allows us to describe stylized general equilibrium macro interactions: firms hire workers and then sell production to buyers whose purchasing power depends on the firms' previous decisions. We assess expectational stability from an “eductive” learning procedure that reflects basic rationality considerations. From our viewpoint on coordination, we compare the merits of fixed wages versus flexible wages. Although in both cases the same factors—supply and demand elasticities, marginal propensity to save—are effective, expectational coordination is often more successful with flexible wages.