Selfish Motives Research Articles

Marketing and Its Social Implications

Companies adopt marketing practices to delight their customers, develop customer relationships, and generate revenues and profits. However, sometimes, companies focus solely on their selfish motives of growth and prosperity forgetting about customer welfare and welfare of the society. Marketers are criticized for such practices and the negative impact created on the society. The practices include high prices of products, high distribution costs, high advertising and promotion costs, excessive mark-ups, deceptive practices, high-pressure selling, questionable products, planned obsolescence, and poor service to disadvantaged customers. Marketers are criticized for creating false wants and materialism, scarcity of social goods, and cultural pollution. They are accused of harming and reducing competition. In this age of social marketing, companies should consider societal concerns of various stakeholders and maintain a balance between their own objectives of generating revenues and profits and long-term societal requirements. This will help in sustaining the society.

НАУКОВІ ПІДХОДИ ЩОДО КОНЦЕПЦІЇ ГРОМАДЯНСЬКОЇ НЕПОКОРИ У СУЧАСНІЙ ЗАХІДНІЙ ПОЛІТОЛОГІЇ

This article is devoted to the study of the concept of civil disobedience in Western political science. On the most widely accepted interpretation, civil disobedience is a public, non-violent and conscientious breach of law undertaken with the aim of bringing about a change in laws or government policies. There is a tendency to change traditional attitudes of civil disobedience in modern western political science. Of course, this reflects the changes that are taking place in developments in political life during recent decades. There are developed and democratic nations in that citizens can take part in political life without any discrimination and other restrictions. But there are still acts of civil disobedience. Methods include coordinating protests and nonviolent civil disobedience actions, including sit-ins, lock downs and banner hangings. Sometimes it involves direct action and confrontations on the streets. Modern scientists argue that civil disobedience is, in general, a more defensible act than the acts of private disobedience that are often referred to as ‘conscientious objection’. For example, “Rosa Parks” sitting in the whites-only section of a bus was a more conscientious sort of act than a civil registrar quietly refusing to register same-sex civil partnerships. In researching explores, the ways in which the law should recognize and protect civil disobedience, and related conduct. In modern political science argues that the legal justification for disobedience to the law caused by convictions must be recognized. This exculpatory defense is based on respect for personal autonomy and psychological integrity. Given the communicative nature of true conviction, which is not evaded, this legal justification applies to civil disobedience rather than personal disobedience. Recognizing protection would allow society to respect the links between autonomy, psychological integrity and honesty, without requiring us to give always priority to the law over our deep obligations, or always remain covert and selfcensored in our efforts to distance ourselves from the laws we oppose. Many modern political scientists expand the meaning of the concept of civil disobedience in their research. This allows for serious violations of the law during rallies, and selfish motives of participants, and non-recognition of the legitimacy of the political and legal system. That means, factors those in previous ages of research excluded possibilities of these kinds of direct action. Some aspects remain unchanged. So, almost all researchers are inclined to believe that participants in civil disobedience should be clearly aware of their actions and motives, and have a principled position and serious intentions.

Role of the prefrontal cortex in prosocial and self-maximization motivations: an rTMS study

More than a decade of neuroimaging and brain stimulation studies point to a crucial role for the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) in prosocial behavior. The intuitive prosociality model postulates that the rDLPFC controls intuitive prosocial behavior, whereas the reflective model assumes that the rDLPFC controls selfish impulses during prosocial behavior. The intuitive prosociality model implies that the transient disruption of the rDLPFC should increase voluntary transfers in both dictator and generosity games. In contrast, the reflective model suggests that the transient disruption of the rDLPFC should decrease transfers in the dictator game, without affecting voluntary transfers in the generosity game, in which selfish motives are minimized. The aim of this paper was to compare predictions of the intuitive and reflective models using the classic dictator game and generosity game and continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS). In this study, two groups of healthy participants (dictators) received either cTBS over the rDLPFC or right extrastriate visual areas. As shown by the results, the transient disruption of the rDLPFC significantly promoted prosocial motives in the dictator game only, particularly in the trials with the lowest dictator’s costs. These findings partially support the notion that the rDLPFC controls intuitive prosocial behavior.

On Patient Safety: How Can We Get More Nonphysicians on Medical Boards?

On Patient Safety: How Can We Get More Nonphysicians on Medical Boards?

Financial incentives to poor countries promote net emissions reductions in multilateral climate agreements

Financial incentives to poor countries promote net emissions reductions in multilateral climate agreements

The end justifies the me: Self-interest moderates the relationship between Dark Triad traits and utilitarian moral decisions

We examined the relationship between Dark Triad (DT) traits—specifically, Machiavellianism and subclinical psychopathy—and utilitarian moral decisions (i.e., promoting the greater good). Although previous studies have found relationships between DT traits and utilitarianism, past research may have confounded whether or not utilitarian choice options were self-interested. In light of the DT's association with selfish motivations, we hypothesized that whether a utilitarian choice option was self-interested would moderate the relationship between DT traits and ostensible utilitarianism. In an online experiment (N = 155), we manipulated the self-interest of utilitarian choice options in moral dilemmas. Consistent with hypotheses, Machiavellianism predicted more utilitarian choices and greater endorsement of those choices, but only for dilemmas in which utilitarianism was self-interested. These findings are consistent with past research, but also extend previous findings on utilitarian moral judgment.

Qualification of theft from a pipeline associated with bringing it into a state of disrepair

This article deals with the problem of qualification of secret theft of oil, oil products and gas when the corresponding pipeline is damaged, destroyed or rendered unusable. The purpose of the work is to study and summarize the materials of judicial and investigative practice in cases of this category, analyze the theoretical views and approaches of various authors to the qualification of such illegal actions. Special attention is paid to the methods of theft from pipelines and their impact on the criminal legal assessment of the crime. The author analyzes the mandatory signs of the subjective side of bringing pipelines into disrepair in the form of selfish and hooligan motives. Indicated their own position regarding the influence of the motives of the perpetrator when the total imputation of crimes under paragraph b part 3 Article 158 of the Criminal Code and part 3 to 5 of Article 215.3 of the Criminal Code. In conclusion, the author summarizes the results and makes a generalized conclusion about the necessary legislative changes in the disposition of the criminal law norm.

An analysis of altruistic and selfish motivations underlying hometown tax donations in Japan

An analysis of altruistic and selfish motivations underlying hometown tax donations in Japan

Adopted children who kill their adoptive parents: An examination through the lens of attachment theory.

Adoptive parricide, the killing of adoptive parents by their adoptive children, is a phenomenon that garners much media attention but remains elusive in the extant literature. Previous studies on adoptive parricide have largely consisted of clinical case studies with limited theoretical explanations. The current study uses Bowlby's attachment theory as a theoretical framework to explore adoptive parricide. A content analysis was conducted of news sources to obtain data on adoptive parricide cases. Hypotheses were generated per attachment theory in the context of Heide's (2013b) parricide offender typology. Early adoptees (n=27) were compared to late adoptees (n=29) using Fisher's exact tests. Early adoptees were more likely to kill multiple victims, kill for selfish motives, be overindulged by adoptive parents, and not have limits set and enforced by adoptive parents. Late adoptees were more likely to report having been abused by their adoptive parents. The results were not consistent with attachment theory. Implications for the adoption process and adoptive parenting practices are presented.

International differences in employee silence motives: Scale validation, prevalence, and relationships with culture characteristics across 33 countries

SummaryEmployee silence, the withholding of work‐related ideas, questions, or concerns from someone who could effect change, has been proposed to hamper individual and collective learning as well as the detection of errors and unethical behaviors in many areas of the world. To facilitate cross‐cultural research, we validated an instrument measuring four employee silence motives (i.e., silence based on fear, resignation, prosocial, and selfish motives) in 21 languages. Across 33 countries (N = 8,222) representing diverse cultural clusters, the instrument shows good psychometric properties (i.e., internal reliabilities, factor structure, and measurement invariance). Results further revealed similarities and differences in the prevalence of silence motives between countries, but did not necessarily support cultural stereotypes. To explore the role of culture for silence, we examined relationships of silence motives with the societal practices cultural dimensions from the GLOBE Program. We found relationships between silence motives and power distance, institutional collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance. Overall, the findings suggest that relationships between silence and cultural dimensions are more complex than commonly assumed. We discuss the explanatory power of nations as (cultural) units of analysis, our social scientific approach, the predictive value of cultural dimensions, and opportunities to extend silence research geographically, methodologically, and conceptually.

Институт самозащиты в публичном и частном правовом пространстве. Рецензия на монографию Е.В. Лукки, А.В. Шульги «Необходимая оборона при посягательствах на членов семьи: уголовно-правовые и криминологические аспекты» (М.: «Юрлитинформ», 2021. 176 с.)

The necessary defense is an inalienable right of every person, consisting in the protection of life and health, rights and legitimate interests belonging both to himself and to third parties. It is necessary to agree with the authors of the monograph that this form of self-defense is "one of the oldest institutions of criminal law, which since ancient times is based mainly on the instinct of self-preservation of a person living in society, and the desire to protect themselves from the surrounding dangers of domestic and social nature" (p. 7). The" merits " of the legal institution under consideration should also include the fact that it has a really effective deterrent potential against crime, since the prospect of receiving a tough rebuff from the defender has a much greater impact on the attacker than the probability of being in the hands of justice. At the same time, a qualified legal assessment of all aspects of the incident determines the distribution of the "victim" and "accused" statuses, which are sometimes repeatedly "exchanged" by participants in numerous conflicts during the judicial and investigative proceedings. An equally problematic aspect is the possibility of provoking an attack with the subsequent imitation of the state of the necessary defense from hooligan, selfish or other deviant motives. Accordingly, the correct legal assessment of the application of this form of self-defense in practice is a highly significant element of law enforcement. This is what determines the value of the institute of legal self-defense as an object of scientific research.

Computational and Neurobiological Substrates of Cost-Benefit Integration in Altruistic Helping Decision

Although altruistic behaviors, e.g., sacrificing one's own interests to alleviate others' suffering, are widely observed in human society, altruism varies greatly across individuals. Such individual differences in altruistic preference have been hypothesized to arise from both individuals' dispositional empathic concern for others' welfare and context-specific cost-benefit integration processes. However, how cost-benefit integration is implemented in the brain and how it is linked to empathy remain unclear. Here, we combine a novel paradigm with the model-based fMRI approach to examine the neurocomputational basis of altruistic behaviors. Thirty-seven adults (16 females) were tested. Modeling analyses suggest that individuals are likely to integrate their own monetary costs with nonlinearly transformed recipients' benefits. Neuroimaging results demonstrate the involvement of an extended common currency system during decision-making by showing that selfish and other-regarding motives were processed in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and right inferior parietal lobule in a domain-general manner. Importantly, a functional dissociation of adjacent but different sub-regions within anterior insular cortex (aINS) was observed for different sub-processes underlying altruistic behaviors. While dorsal aINS and inferior frontal gyrus were involved in valuation of benefactors' costs, ventral aINS and middle insular cortex (vaINS/mINS), as empathy-related regions, reflected individual variations in valuating recipients' benefits. Multivariate analyses further suggest that both vaINS/mINS and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex reflect individual variations in general altruistic preferences which account for both dispositional empathy and context-specific other-regarding tendency. Together, these findings provide valuable insights into our understanding of psychological and neurobiological basis of altruistic behaviors.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT:Altruistic behaviors play a crucial role in facilitating solidarity and development of human society, but the mechanisms of the cost-benefit integration underlying these behaviors are still unclear. Using model-based neuroimaging approaches, we clarify that people integrate personal costs and non-linearly transformed other's benefits during altruistic decision-making and the implementations of the integration processes are supported by an extended common currency neural network. Importantly, multivariate analyses reveal that both empathy- and cognitive control-related brain regions are involved in modulating individual variations of altruistic preference, which implicate complex psychological and computational processes. Our results provide a neurocomputational account of how people weigh between different attributes to make altruistic decisions and why altruistic preference varies to a great extent across individuals.

Qualification of the Surrogate Mother’s Actions in Relation to the Illegal Keeping of the Child, Born in the Surrogacy Program

Situations involving a surrogate mother keeping a newborn child born after assisted reproductive technology program and related criminal offenses have been considered. The qualification of actions of a surrogate mother has been offered. The peculiarity of the qualification lies in the inability of practitioners, especially law enforcement agencies, to determine the illegal actions of the surrogate mother in the presence of seemingly perfectly legal grounds for her to dispose of the child. The article focuses on documents that can serve as evidence of illegal behavior of a surrogate mother. The material can be useful primarily for lawyers practicing in the field of assisted reproductive technologies, including law enforcement officers. For potential SMs, the goal is to prevent them from committing such excesses by increasing their legal culture. After all, instead of doing a good deed and receiving a reward for it, she can get up to 15 years in prison with confiscation of her property, confiscation of her biological child, destruction of her family.

Culture, Status, and Hypocrisy: High-Status People Who Don’t Practice What They Preach Are Viewed as Worse in the United States Than China

Status holders across societies often take moral initiatives to navigate group practices toward collective goods; however, little is known about how different societies (e.g., the United States vs. China) evaluate high- (vs. low-) status holders’ transgressions of preached morals. Two preregistered studies (total N = 1,374) examined how status information (occupational rank in Study 1 and social prestige in Study 2) influences moral judgments of norm violations, as a function of word–deed contradiction and cultural independence/interdependence. Both studies revealed that high- (vs. low-) status targets’ word–deed contradictions (vs. noncontradictions) were condemned more harshly in the United States but not China. Mediation analyses suggested that Americans attributed more, but Chinese attributed less, selfish motives to higher status targets’ word–deed contradictions. Cultural in(ter)dependence influences not only whom to confer status as norm enforcers but also whom to (not) blame as norm violators.

Philosophical conceptualization of evil in the ethical space of Confucianism

The subject of this research is the philosophical conceptualization of evil in the Confucianism. This goal is achieved by solving the following tasks: 1) assessment of Confucianism as a synthesis of the philosophical views of Confucius and Mencius; 2) determination of good and evil as  the contrasting concepts in the ethical space, which is based on the ideal of a “person of high nature” Junzi and the real world of a “petty person"; 3) evaluation of evil as the antipode of good, which is based on the sense of duty and regard of moral rules. The novelty of this research consists in the first within the Russian historical-philosophical literature comparative analysis of the views of Confucius and Mencius upon the nature of evil, examination of the genesis of such representations, and their relevance for modern philosophy. Representations on the nature of good and evil of Confucius and Mencius are based on the contrast within the ethical space of the ideal of a “gentleman” (due) and the reality of a “petty person”. The virtue of a “gentleman” is a means of achieving good; and the virtuous life leads to prosperity of the country. Evil of a “petty person” captured by selfish motives, leads to social demise and political disintegration. Mecius applies same moral principles, which govern the individual’s everyday life, to the political sphere of social existence. The thinker underlines circumscription of the monarchs, indicating that even the monarch – if not a “gentleman”, but merely a “petty person” – can be corrupted by evil, in which case the country faced demise.

No good deed goes unpunished: the social costs of prosocial behaviour.

Performing costly helpful behaviours can allow individuals to improve their reputation. Those who gain a good reputation are often preferred as interaction partners and are consequently better able to access support through cooperative relationships with others. However, investing in prosocial displays can sometimes yield social costs: excessively generous individuals risk losing their good reputation, and even being vilified, ostracised or antisocially punished. As a consequence, people frequently try to downplay their prosocial actions or hide them from others. In this review, we explore when and why investments in prosocial behaviour are likely to yield social costs. We propose two key features of interactions that make it more likely that generous individuals will incur social costs when: (a) observers infer that helpful behaviour is motivated by strategic or selfish motives; and (b) observers infer that helpful behaviour is detrimental to them. We describe how the cognition required to consider ulterior motives emerges over development and how these tendencies vary across cultures - and discuss how the potential for helpful actions to result in social costs might place boundaries on prosocial behaviour as well as limiting the contexts in which it might occur. We end by outlining the key avenues and priorities for future research.

Експертна верифікація облікової інформації про фінансові інструменти при розкритті економічних злочинів

Accounting data on transactions with financial instruments is an important source of information when conducting economic examinations to uncover economic crimes, the share of which is steadily growing every year. The purpose of the article is to determine the methodological components of expert verification of accounting information on financial instruments for solving economic crimes. The study used internal materials of the Kiev Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise. It has been proved that the cause of an offense in the use of financial instruments can be not only selfish motives, but also insufficient professional knowledge of accounting rules, which determines the relevance of expert verification of accounting for such objects. The analysis of the dynamics of requests for expertise was performed. The structure of the circumstances was detected under which the expertise of issues related to the accounting of transactions of agricultural enterprises with financial instruments was initiated. The subject structure of the conducted examinations was revealed. The sources of obtaining information used for the examination of accounting of transactions of agricultural enterprises with financial instruments have been identified. The procedures for the examination of accounting of transactions of agricultural enterprises with financial instruments have been systematized. Typical deviations have been determined that can be identified as a result of the examination of accounting for transactions of agricultural enterprises with financial instruments. The implementation of the methodological components of the expert verification of accounting information on financial instruments indicated by the author ensures the formation of more substantiated conclusions about the legality of transactions with financial instruments, and respectively, it contributes to the disclosure of economic crimes.

PRINCIPALES MOTIVACIONES DEL CONSUMIDOR DE ALIMENTOS ECOLÓGICOS EN ITALIA. EL CASO DEL ACEITE DE OLIVA

A pesar del crecimiento generalizado de la agricultura ecológica en Europa, el comportamiento de los mercados de alimentos ecológicos es diferente entre países. Así, en algunos países como Italia hay un gran desequilibrio entre producción y consumo, y se provoca que parte de la producción se destine a mercados exteriores. Esta situación es evidente en el aceite de oliva, un producto emblemático en el sector agrícola italiano. En este contexto, el desarrollo de la demanda interna es una prioridad. Sin embargo, para diseñar estrategias de mercadotecnia efectivas que contribuyan a dicho desarrollo es necesario conocer el comportamiento del consumidor. Bajo la hipótesis de que el principal motivo de compra de los consumidores es de tipo altruista (relacionado con el medio ambiente, la ecología, el bienestar animal o el desarrollo rural y local), el objetivo de este estudio fue conocer las principales motivaciones del consumidor de aceite de oliva ecológico. La respuesta a este objetivo se basó en la Teoría Medios-Fin y para el análisis se utilizó la técnica de “hard laddering”, aplicada a una muestra de 25 sujetos. Los resultados mostraron que la salud es el fin último que motiva la compra del aceite de oliva ecológico, y que las motivaciones egoístas priman sobre las altruistas en la decisión de compra o consumo de este tipo de alimentos.

Viewpoint: Coronavirus Pandemic- The Roles of Environmental Education and Conservation Message Framing in Curbing Zoonotic Diseases

This viewpoint paper posits that it is helpful to frame environmental problems as human health problems. The most fundamental way to protect ourselves from zoonotic diseases (such as COVID-19) seems to be support healthy ecosystems that have resilience. Humans around the world are sometimes motivated by selfish motives and sometimes by altrustic motives. This viewpoint paper proposes an integrative view of environmental behaviour with dimensions of both selftranscendence (altruism) and self-enhancement (egoism), in the hope that both kinds of values could lead to an increase in pro-environmental behaviour.

Niyi Osundare : The ‘Eco Elegist’ Echoes through his Elegies

The biggest enemy we face is anthropocentricism. This is that common attitude that everything on this earth was put here for (human) use.” −Eric Pianca, Eminent Ecologist, Ecological Society of America. A poet dons many roles to ring in a change, to bring in a transformation, blows a clarion to call caution, envisages a dream and battles for a better world. Niyi Osundare, the Nigerian poet, activist fits into this bill perfectly. His heart heaves heavy as he whines over the imbalance in the ecology imbued by the brutish and selfish humans. He grieves over the loss of the green cover, wails over the woods being cleared, moans over the mountain ranges being razed to the ground and sheds tears on seeing the ‘tear’ in the sky. Osundare wears the mantle of the typical ‘eco elegist’, who earnestly laments over the degradation, deforestation and death of the ecology and human destiny thereafter. Following the lines of traditional elegies, Nyi Osundare begins his poems on a highly pessimistic note over how, man pounds and plunders the earth for his selfish motives. He imbues his lines with melancholic mood as he moans on seeing the morose, unsightly sights around him.