Shared Belief System Research Articles

How and why aversive personality is expressed in political preferences.

Political orientation reflects beliefs, opinions, and values that are, at least in part, rooted in stable interindividual differences. Whereas evidence has accumulated with regard to the relevance of basic personality dimensions, especially concerning the sociocultural dimension of political ideology, less attention has been paid to the more specific dispositional tendency to assign a higher weight to one's own utility above others' (i.e., socially aversive personality), which is likely to play a pivotal role concerning the economic dimension of political ideology in particular. In three studies with over 66,000 participants from 38 countries, we show that individuals with elevated levels in aversive personality tend to endorse more right-wing political orientations in terms of a single left-right dimension, hold relevant ideological beliefs tied to both sociocultural and economic conservatism, and report corresponding electoral voting behavior. We further provide support for the idea that this overlap between a dispositional tendency toward aversive behavior and a right-wing political orientation can be attributed to shared belief systems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Group-oriented motivations underlying conspiracy theories

By assuming that a group of nefarious actors collude to harm a perceiver’s ingroup, conspiracy theories are an intergroup phenomenon. What are the group-oriented motivations underlying belief in conspiracy theories? This contribution proposes that conspiracy theories are associated with both symbolic, identity-based motivations and realistic, harm-based motivations. As symbolic motivations, conspiracy theories help people develop, maintain, and protect a positive social identity. Conspiracy theories can unite people through a shared belief system, provide a basis for favorable intergroup comparison, and enable perceivers to attribute ingroup status threats to external forces beyond their control. As realistic motivations, conspiracy theories prepare people for conflict with other groups. Conspiracy theories transform an abstract sense of distrust into concrete allegations of misconduct. This provides a signal that an outgroup is threatening, mobilizes the ingroup, and promotes a readiness to fight. I discuss the implications of these processes for theory and practice.

Potential Problems with Having a Culture that is Too Strong in Modern Organizations

In each and every society today, culture is a very important concept for both individuals and organizations because it identifies the fundamental set of ideas, rituals, beliefs, meaning, values, norms and language, the way in which things are to be done in an organization and in the life of an individual. Therefore, organization’s culture encompasses what has been good and what has worked in the past. These practices can often be accepted within the organization by long serving members of an organization due to the fact that they have a collective interest towards building of a unified organization through shared system of beliefs, habits and traditions. In organizations there are deep-set beliefs about the way in which work should be organized, the way in which authority should be exercised and punished (Cole and Kelly, 2011). Organizational culture is not something that is written down or necessarily is easily stated. Rather, it is an intangible mixture of rules, relationships, values, custom which when taken together describe the distinctive feel of the organization. It is within this culture that individuals work and from which they learn the norms and values to which they are expected to subscribe. This is the arrangement and inter-relationship of the components parts position of an organization. Whereas culture is a hidden structure that can be seen and drawn in organization charts. Thus the organization Structure may reflect culture. This essay will describe three potential problems with having an organizational culture that is too strong.

Promoting mental well-being in Western Australia: Act Belong Commit® mental health promotion campaign partners' perspectives.

The Act Belong Commit® mental health promotion campaign aims to improve population mental well-being. Based on a social-franchising model, partnerships are sought with organizations offering 'mentally healthy activities' that foster social connectedness and mental well-being. There are four categories of partner organizations sought: Site (government agencies and health services), Associate (organizations with state-wide or national services), Community (local, grass-roots community groups) and Schools. This research explored organizational perceptions of the Act Belong Commit® Partnership Program. A purposive sample of 14 organizational representatives across all four partner categories participated in semi-structured interviews online or face-to-face between July and September 2021. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify three main themes: (a) A passion for promoting mental health; (b) Implementation, innovation, adaption and creation (e.g. the ability to adapt, create and deliver activities aligned with the campaign message; and (c) Future sustainability (e.g. recommendations for the sustainability of the programme). The use of reflexive thematic analysis enabled deeper insights into the complexity of the partnerships. Findings describe how the Act Belong Commit® Partnership Program supports mutually desirable objectives and extends the campaign reach. Embedded in a shared belief system that incorporates a passion for good mental health, the model supports the flexibility to adapt, create and deliver fit-for-purpose activities that promote mental well-being in the places where people live, work and play.

Family Resilience as an Emerging Concept in Neonatology: Evidence From a Metasummary Review.

Family resilience can be observed through specific resilience-promoting processes, namely, shared belief systems, communication, and organizational processes, but the concept remains mostly unstudied in neonatology. This metasummary aims to evaluate the frequency of family resilience processes in qualitative scientific literature to illustrate how family resilience is exhibited in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) setting. A search among 4 databases yielded 7029 results, which were reviewed for inclusion. Following Sandelowski and Barroso's qualitative metasummary method, findings from each study were independently coded and frequency effect size was calculated. Forty-six primary qualitative studies published between 2016 and 2022 conducted with parents of preterm infants who discussed their NICU hospitalization experience were included in this metasummary. All 9 of Walsh's family resilience processes were identified in the literature, and their frequency effect size ranged from 4% to 91%. Four additional themes emerged pertaining to specific family resilience behaviors exhibited by NICU families. This analysis sheds new light on the most recent qualitative evidence of parents' experiences in the NICU by analyzing it through the lens of family resilience and posits family resilience as a promising concept in relation to the predominance of the family-centered care philosophy in neonatal units.

Early Maya E Groups, the Milky Way, and creation

AbstractI propose a “Milky Way / creation hypothesis” for the elongated eastern structures in early Maya E Groups: they were modeled on the Milky Way galaxy. These architectural arrangements, beginning in the Preclassic period (c. 900 B.C.–A.D. 200) in the southern Maya Lowlands, were adopted from predecessors in the Early Preclassic neighboring Gulf Coast region. The widespread overall similarity of E Groups suggests a shared belief system centered on myths about creation, and many of the characters (e.g., Maize God) and events of creation in Maya myths are set in the Milky Way. The general north–south axial orientation of the eastern platform, frequently pivoted northeast–southwest, is proposed to be related to the rainy season position of the Milky Way overhead. E Groups were probably multifunctional ritual theaters, the eastern platforms serving as stages for nighttime performances of creation stories. Late modifications into a tripart edifice, with structures or superstructures in the center and at both ends, replicated the major asterisms of the visible galaxy and/or the creator gods.

Moderation Effect of Organizational Culture on the Relationship Between Strategic Inputs of Competitive Intelligence and Competitive Advantage among Commercial Banks, in Kenya

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine moderating effect of organizational culture on the relationship between strategic inputs of competitive intelligence and competitive advantage among commercial banks in Kenya.
 Methodology: A descriptive and explanatory research design was used in this study and primary data was collected at the head offices of each bank which are all found in Nairobi city. Primary data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Analysis was done with the assistance of SPSS computer packages.
 Findings: Strategic inputs of competitive intelligence were found to explain 46.6 % of competitive advantage. When organizational culture was introduced this variation changed to 53.7%. Therefore, organizational culture was found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between strategic inputs of competitive intelligence and competitive advantage among commercial banks in Kenya
 Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: While incorporating strategic inputs of competitive intelligence among commercial banks, attention should be paid on prevailing culture within the organization in terms of shared values, norms, assumptions and belief systems that encourage the collection, analysis, utilization and sharing of competitive intelligence to enable banks gain competitive advantage

Anti-colonial connectivity between Islamicate movements in the Middle East and South Asia: the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamati Islam

ABSTRACT With almost every part of the Muslim world having suffered from European colonisation, the roles and relations of Islamicate movements in anti-colonial history cannot be ignored. And yet, despite intellectual overlaps, mutual opposition to British colonialism, and a shared spiritual worldview, little has been written within postcolonial studies on the historical relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Jamati Islam in South Asia. I explore the link between both movements as an example of anti-colonial connectivity that transcended territory. Though disconnected by geography and language, both groups were nevertheless tied by the deep connection of a shared belief system and the common experience of British imperialism. In particular, I argue their theology was not incidental but fundamental to both their anti-colonialism and their connectivity. I consider how that connectivity and solidarity evolved through time and shifting locations, reflecting the rich inheritance not just of post-colonies, but also of diasporic communities in the imperial metropole, inhabiting liminal spaces of unbelonging who often found community via these transnational movements. The purpose of the article is a recovery of history and a recognition of (at times overlooked) anti-colonial struggles and solidarities that do not fit neatly within disciplinary postcolonial norms.

Study to assess the existing cultural beliefs and associate practices regarding newborn care among mothers in Chandu Village at Gurugram, Haryana

Introduction: Culture is defined as a shared system of beliefs, values and behavioural expectations that provide social structure for daily living. Not all customs and beliefs are harmful. Some of them have positive values while others may be of no role or positively harmful for the baby’s health in various forms like physical, psychological, social development. The objective of the study was to explore the cultural beliefs and associate practices in new born care among mothers. Statement Of The Problem:“ A study to assess the existing cultural beliefs and associate practices regarding newborn care among mothers in Chandu Village at Gurugram, Haryana”. Method: Research approach used was quantitative, a descriptive design was used. targeted population of newborn babies were’100 mothers. Purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data. The data was collected by structured knowledge questionnaire and analysed and interpretation by descriptive and interferential statics. Result: Result shows that 98%mothers follow the cultural associate practices whereas 2% do not follow. Overall mean value was13.19±1.978. Conclusion: The finding of the study concluded that the mothers with the average knowledge scores regarding cultural beliefs and associate practices of newborn babies are more as compared to the low cultural beliefs and practices.

The Impact of Deceptive Online Advertising During the Pandemic in Bangladesh: A Study of Consumer Perceptions

This paper is a mixed-method study that aims to investigate the influence of deceptive online advertising on Dhaka residents in Bangladesh, as well as the relevant approach to society and consumption culture. The fundamental assumption is how viewers respond to television and social media advertising that attempt to promote items and services by deception. The study sought to determine whether advertising affects the population's social and cultural characteristics and how society responds to the deceit found in advertisements by recording the perceptions of denizens. It also analyzes how deception in advertisements reduces the stereotypes in the mindset of consumers. The research was conducted to investigate the reinforcement of deceptive internet advertisements and how residents of Dhaka elicit reactions and appeals from viewers when exposed to these commercials. The statistical data has been derived from an anonymous survey questionnaire designed to better understand the targeted audience's shared belief system and actions. The paper attempts to provide an unbiased view regarding the presence of deception in advertising during the increased online shopping among citizens of Dhaka during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Coronavirus as a Disrupter of a Sustainable Small Early Childhood Family Business in Vietnam

Access to quality early childhood education is a sustainable development goal towards empowering people in an emerging economy. The purpose of this study is to examine how the coronavirus disease impacted a small early childhood business in Vietnam, which experienced two waves of attacks. Previous studies have examined mainly the impact of various factors under stable environments. This study differs in that COVID-19 brought sudden, lasting, and impactful changes to the business environment. The study uses a case-study research approach that invited a small business owner to write and share the biography of the business from the start to the date of the research study and analysed the content using the theory of planned behaviour. The shared belief systems of a business to succeed led the owner to invest loan funds and join the company that became successful with planned actions. Dependence on a rental property later stalled the business growth. The owners settled into a stable way of business thinking. The two waves of coronavirus pandemic in Vietnam that affected their business location dried up cash, forcing the business into voluntary liquidation. The impact of coronavirus disease on small business in an emerging nation, Vietnam, can bring out lessons of business survival and ways policymakers can assist companies in surviving considering their capital structures under destabilising business environments. The qualitative causes found for the theory of planned behaviour can become useful for a later quantitative investigation.

Calculating Coloniality in Higher Education

This keynote explores the idea that coloniality describes the emergent and future state of higher education. Coloniality refers to the ongoing systems, practices and patterns of power that echo and repeat colonial forms of engagement, in which we are all participants. Through dominant digitally-mediated extractive business models, these practices are becoming the default terms of social and educational relationships and are being internalised, normal and lived. The talk will consider the key ongoing colonial characteristics which echo historically, and which are being re-enacted and reinscribed in the present. The characteristics which will be elaborated on are : 1) central goals of profit making and market expansion, enabled by technology 2) the exploitation of natural resources and of human beings 3) the promise of improvement and progress through shared belief systems 4) premised on, amplifying and engendering inequality 5) Assimilation as a central strategy of buy-in and 6) a homogenised culture and filtered world view.
 
 To conclude, there will be some thoughts on responding to this state of coloniality given that it is the dominant reality for scholars, educators and students in higher education, even more deeply entrenched due to the pandemic.
 References
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Loss and Resilience in the Time of COVID-19: Meaning Making, Hope, and Transcendence.

This article addresses the many complex and traumatic losses wrought by the COVID‐19 pandemic. In contrast to individually based, symptom‐focused grief work, a resilience‐oriented, systemic approach with complex losses contextualizes the distress and mobilizes relational resources to support positive adaptation. Applying a family resilience framework to pandemic‐related losses, discussion focuses on the importance of shared belief systems in (1) meaning‐making processes; (2) a positive, hopeful outlook and active agency; and (3) transcendent values and spiritual moorings for inspiration, transformation, and positive growth. Practice guidelines are offered to facilitate adaptation and resilience.

Ideology and the Direction of Causation in the Acquisition and Maintenance of Shared Belief Systems

SUMMARYPreferences and beliefs are more widely and systematically shared than might be predicted by a subjective, idiosyncratic view arising out of neoclassical economics. Two works were published twenty five years ago on just this question, contesting conceptions of belief acquisition: Denzau and North (1994) and Hinich and Munger (1994). Denzau and North argued that beliefs are simplified representations of reality that provide conventional means of interpreting the world around us; Hinich and Munger agreed. But Denzau and North argued that beliefs were essentially self‐perpetuating, and not subject to optimizing revision based on feedback, while Hinich and Munger followed the orthodox Downsian notion of a heuristic that economizes (in equilibrium) on the cost of becoming informed about politics. The big difference is that the Hume‐Denzau‐North conception follows the “Folk Theorem,” making no claim about the optimality of the belief systems that a society comes to share.

Malaysian youth associations as places for empowerment and engagement

Youth organizations often face challenges in reaching their potential as places of empowerment and engagement for youth development. While evidence-based practices of how organizations foster youth engagement exist, there are few replicable models or conceptual frameworks that cross-cut these different practices. The purpose of this multi-level, mixed methods study was to gain insight into how youth associations become empowering settings for youth engagement. Grounded in the theoretical perspective of empowered community settings, we sought to explore the links between national youth policy, the creation of empowering settings and youth engagement. Our focus was on Malaysia and its national network of youth associations. In Phase 1 of the study, thematic analysis of major policy documents revealed that Malaysian youth policy creates a shared belief system for the country’s youth associations according to three core themes: empowerment is intertwined with community capacity building; safety and inclusivity are paramount; and members are expected to be both teachers and learners as ‘partners in development’. In Phase 2, in-depth interviews with youth association leaders (N = 22; M age = 28; 68% male) highlighted the importance of a relational environment that includes opportunities to build social capital with adults and peers. The associations’ opportunity role structure further allows youth leaders to exercise voice in making decisions that mold the associations’ programs and allow the leaders to pass on knowledge and skills to younger members. In Phase 3, building on the findings from the first two study phases, a survey of regular association members (N = 262) indicated that safety and opportunities for personal growth predicted organizational engagement. For community engagement, as members moved outside of the confines of the organization and participated in community work, opportunities for personal growth remained central to engagement with social capital and adult support taking on additional importance. The study provides an initial conceptualization of best practices that link national policy and organizational leadership to participant engagement in youth associations.

Raising strong, solid Koolunga: values and beliefs about early child development among Perth’s Aboriginal community

AbstractThere is a paucity of published information about conceptions of Aboriginal child rearing and development among urban dwelling Nyoongar/Aboriginal people in Australia. We detail the unique findings from an Aboriginal early child development research project with a specific focus on the Nyoongar/Aboriginal community of Perth, Western Australia. This research significantly expands the understanding of a shared system of beliefs and values among Nyoongar people that differ in important ways from those of the broader Australian (Western) society. Consistent with the findings of research with other Aboriginal groups in Australia, and internationally, our work challenges assumptions underpinning a range of early childhood development policies and highlights the implications of cultural biases and misunderstandings among non-Aboriginal professionals in child and family services, education and other settings.

The role of discourses in enacting neoliberal urbanism: Understanding the relationship between ideology and discourse in planning

Claims that neoliberalism has been shaping planning practice and the production of space abound in planning literature. In this article, neoliberalism is treated not only as a set of policies but also as an ideology that organizes a particular way of seeing and orients action accordingly. The article explores how a particular socially shared belief system (ideology) that is taken as common sense (naturalized) provides the basis for particular ways of talking (discourses) about planning and urban development that legitimize and justify certain actions while making alternative possibilities unthinkable. In this sense, the article focuses on ideology in action and provides an empirically grounded discussion that renders ideology visible. Thus, ideology emerges from the empirical case as an explanatory mechanism to make sense of the dominant discourse that legitimizes the proliferation of suburban gated communities in the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba, in Brazil. The deconstruction of the discourse reveals content and structural properties that combine environmental concerns and neoliberal principles to turn potentially controversial practices into desirable outcomes. The ideological nature of the discourse is revealed when alternative ways of seeing and acting challenge its commonsensical and taken for granted claims. While simplifying complex relationships and rendering important elements invisible, the discourse appeals to a wide range of actors who hold different individual and professional values. Ultimately, this article offers insights into the mechanisms through which ideologies are manifested, reproduced, and materialized in planning practice.

The generative properties of institutional logics as belief systems and cultural repertoires

We theorize the intrinsic generative potential of field-level institutional logics and examine the contextual conditions that shape it. We first unpack institutional logics into two core aspects: (1) repertoires of cultural elements associated with a domain and (2) a shared belief system connecting and giving meaning to cultural elements. We explain why these two aspects provide different explanations for reproduction and change in field-level logics, and how they induce changes in one other. Building on the dual perspective, we outline four ways in which institutional logics are instantiated in organizations and develop propositions linking them to the genesis of new cultural elements in the field-level logic.

Divination

This article ranges widely over the meaning and underlying methods of divination. It begins with an examination of the shared belief systems of almost all psychics and sensitives, and the process by which they access divinatory material. I also discuss my workshops in which normal people experience some of the same divinatory abilities.The article then shifts to describe a wide variety of divinatory tools used throughout the world by people other than psychics, and speculates on the methods that underlie all these tools. These methods all seem to be based on extracting order from randomness either (1) through intuition or (2) from a structured, often numeric, method.The use of dreams is examined as one of the earliest methods of extracting divinatory information through intuition. Then numeric methods are examined in more detail. Finally, the I Ching is discussed in great detail as the most developed such numeric divinatory tool.

A study on traditional beliefs and practices in newborn care among mothers in a tertiary health care centre in Vijayapura, North Karnataka

Background: Culture is defined as a shared system of beliefs, values and behavioral expectations that provide social structure for daily living. Not all customs and beliefs are harmful. Some of them have positive values while others may be of no role or positively harmful for neonate’s health in various forms like physical, psychological, social development. The objective of the study was to explore the traditional beliefs and practices in new born care.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted at post-natal ward of BLDEU’s Shri B M Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Vijayapura from June 2015 to July 2015. A total of 200 mothers were interviewed and data was collected after obtaining the consent.Results: In the present study, majority of the mothers were in age group between 19-22 years (45%). 16% of the mothers discarded the colostrum believing it is harmful. Application of kajal to the newborn’s face and eyes will be practiced among 88%. 75% of the mothers practiced pouring oil into the ears.Conclusions: Findings of our study highlights some of the good practices in the newborn care which can be motivated, at the same time the harmful practices can be avoided by educating and counselling the mother and her family members.