Simple Dilemma Research Articles

How many masks do you buy? A simple dilemma task to differentiate between individual and social rationality.

Prior measures on rationality overlook the individual differences in the weight people place on social rationality versus individual rationality. The current research develops and validates an individual-collective dilemma task (ICDT) to distinguish different rationality types. It was translated from a reality that, at the beginning of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, a global shortage of face masks occurred because of the jumping demand for masks as a precautionary measure. The ICDT asked participants to decide how many masks to buy in front of a shortfall of masks, which facilitated coping with a hypothetical epidemic outbreak. Based on the number of masks they selected, three rationality groups emerged. Individual rationalists preferred self-interest goals to goals of social interests; social rationalists prioritized social-interest goals; balancers assigned equal weight to both goals. The ICDT showed sound test–retest reliability and criterion-related, discriminant, and convergent validity. The present research contributes to the literature on rationality assessment and offers policy-makers a valid and reliable tool to understand the distribution of rationalists among the public.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03338-x.

DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK TO EVALUATE INDIVIDUAL LEARNING IN ENGINEERING DESIGN PROBLEMS – PART 2: ASSESSMENT OF INDIVIDUAL LEARNING IN TEAM ENVIRONMENTS

Engineers often model their teaching based on how they expect students to function once they graduate, and as a result they typically have a strong affinity for Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Team-Based Learning (TBL) approaches. In many cases, this works quite well and has been proven to increase student engagement and performance of design teams. At the same time, as more of the curriculum relies on group projects, there is a simple dilemma that is created: how do you ensure that the learning outcomes a team demonstrates are accurate reflections of what each individual in the team is learning? This rarely poses a challenge in engineering practice, as engineers are expected to specialize, but in an outcome-based accreditation, this can become a serious issue if there isn’t a careful consideration of this in the structure of TBL courses. This paper explores the application of an evaluative framework to a course with strong PBL and TBL components that is set up to ensure that students are not only exposed to all learning outcomes as they tackle a project, but are individually evaluated on their ability to show competence in these outcomes. The prime methodology of this framework is an evaluative tool called an "open-ended design exam" that uses a 1:1 mapping of team and individual learning, with scaffolding in the course frameworks to support this. This paper presents application of this approach to two courses developed at the University of Manitoba, outcomes and responses to the course layout, and suggestions for extensions to other courses or programs.

DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK TO EVALUATE INDIVIDUAL LEARNING IN ENGINEERING DESIGN PROBLEMS – PART 1: TEACHING THROUGH SIMULACRA OF REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS

In the context of teaching design, engineers often have a strong preference for problem-based learning because the skills they are trying to teach are intrinsic to the solving of design problems. The proliferation of problem-based learning (PBL) in capstone and now cornerstone engineering design courses is well supported by industry and faculty and the trend has been towards seeing more PBL in engineering design courses. This paper explores the basic selection of engineering design problems and presents a fairly simple dilemma: the skills that are required to solve a problem are not necessarily the skills that are taught by the problem if the problem is truly open-ended. This paper presents the idea of using engineering problems that are carefully constructed simulacra of real-world problems with built in scaffolding to create PBL experiences for students that are educationally complete and meaningful. This paper presents examples from two courses developed at the University of Manitoba based on this approach, outcomes of and responses to the course layout, and ideas for how this model can be extended to other courses or programs.

The Aggregation Problem: Implications for Ecological and Biophysical Economics

This article discusses the aggregation problem and its implications for ecological economics. The aggregation problem consists of a simple dilemma: when adding heterogeneous phenomena together, the observer must choose the unit of analysis. The dilemma is that this choice affects the resulting measurement. This means that aggregate measurements are dependent on one’s goals, and on the underlying theory. Using simple examples, this article shows how the aggregation problem complicates tasks such as calculating indexes of aggregate quantity, and how it undermines attempts to find a singular metric for complex issues such as sustainability.

Truthmaker Theory and Naturalism

AbstractThis paper argues that there is a heretofore unresolved tension between truthmaker-style metaphysics and a plausible version of Naturalism. At the turn of the century, George Molnar proposed fourprima facieplausible principles for a realist metaphysics in order to expose truthmaker theory’s incapacity to find truthmakers for negative truths. I marshal the current plethora of attempted solutions to the problem into a crisp trilemma. Those whosolveit claim that Molnar’s tetrad is consistent; those whodissolveit do away with the requirement that every truth needs a truthmaker; and those whoabsolveit embrace a negative ontology. I argue that one is forced to absolve the problem: all other avenues undermine the truthmaker principle itself. Absolving the problem, however, does not sit well with a version of Naturalism that most would accept. We are drawn to a simple dilemma:eitherembrace a negative ontology,orreject truthmaker-style metaphysics.

DISSOLUTION OF DILEMMA BY NEWLY DEFINING CRITERIA MATRIX IN ANP

In a decision-making process, one finds that there are alternatives which can be categorized into several groups, based on his or her perspectives, and/or on expected outcome, such as whether his or her choice brings about gains or losses, or that such a choice is right or wrong. Besides, there are many cases with a dilemma where it is hard to select the best choice through transitive relations. This paper presents a new method to dissolve this dilemma by using ANP (Analytic Network Process) with a newly defined criteria matrix. The case of the super-matrix of ANP is examined in an alternative matrix with a dilemma. The paper shows mathematically that the eigenvector of the super-matrix serves as a solution to this simple dilemma, describes the proposed method, and attempts to apply this method to other dilemmas. The proposed method is limited to up to three alternatives.

‘Do I, don’t I ask for help?’

Every parent of a young child has struggled with the dilemma of whether or not their child’s illness is serious enough to call the doctor when their child is ill. It is a situation they often face during the months and years as their child’s immune system matures. There are multiple concerns for parents, which are hidden in this apparently simple dilemma. Core concerns include how parents can determine whether their child’s illness is serious enough to seek help from medical staff and where can parents get information about their child’s symptoms that might help them to decide?

Globalization, Power and Survival: an Anthropological Perspective

We are accustomed to emphasizing the economic aspects of globalization and it is true that globalization corresponds to a displacement from a primarily industry-based economy to one where working on concepts plays a major role and where trade growth is tied in with financial deregulation and the new approaches this implies in terms of the circulation of capital. It is possible, though, that we have given insufficient weight to the fact that globalization is first and foremost a cultural phenomenon. We should not see the violence of globalization purely and simply as a process of domination-like some new form of colonialism. The power of its impact is all the greater for the fact that it consists of a profound change in our awareness of time and space. Globalization as a concept refers both to the compression of the world and the intensification of our consciousness of the world as a (Robertson 1992:8). For Westerners, this notion of a selfcontained world expresses itself in a strong feeling of insecurity. It only needs a sector of the economy, for example, to show signs of weakness, for the possibility of relocations to emerge. In the confrontations between staff and bosses that have always punctuated economic life, the outcome used to be that of a solution that took into account local social and economic conditions. Now, we globally-meaning that relocation appears from the outset to be a pertinent alternative. In the face of this prospect, workers are caught in a very simple dilemma: either they accept the sacrifices or the company will quite simply disappear. Beyond this recurrent blackmail, what weakens people is the sense of the extraordinary nearness of other lands-which are easily identifiable, whether it be a country in Eastern Europe or Asia. There is a sense of temporal nearness too, in that in a few weeks or even days one can create a similar company on the other side of the world. In practice, the compression of time and space can be perceived as a threat, not only because it accentuates the pressure of the invisible hand of the omnipotent market system, but also inasmuch as it makes possible a violent intrusion of alterity into our world. This was the case on September 11, 2001, when a place that represented the quintessence of the market was brutally attacked by a group that incarnated radical exteriority. We realized how easy it was for people we tended to think of as being on the other side of the world to reach the heart of the system by turning peaceful technologies into fatal weapons. The awareness of globalization, therefore, is more than just the apperception of an ever closer interdependence of economies. It is equally, if not more, a matter of the citizens of the developed countries internalizing a simple, disturbing reality: that they will never again be safe from a threatening elsewhere, hitherto considered marginal and today able to organize itself in a most modern manner and burst in. The whole modernity position, though, was based on the idea of there being an irreducible difference between all that represents civilization and fits into the scheme of progress and these Others who, while being part of humanity, were nonetheless doomed to the inertia of beings without history. We are part of the same planet, our destinies appear to us to be increasingly intertwined. There too, the evaluation can be interpreted optimistically: the fact that the compressing effect of globalization breaks down certain barriers between societies, overturns prejudices and obliges us to mix is cause for rejoicing. The concepts of cross-fertilization and hybridization have been invoked to describe the possibility finally at hand of a meeting between cultures so long separated and so long isolated by prevailing ideologies. The opposite of this ecumenical vision is an interpretation that highlights the virulence of the tensions generated by another huge present-day reality: that-the other side of world unity is that resources and riches have to be shared. …

Letter Regarding Article by Law et al, “Headaches and the Treatment of Blood Pressure: Results From a Meta-Analysis of 94 Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trials With 24 000 Participants”

To the Editor: Is headache a cause or a consequence of hypertension? This apparently simple dilemma has not been answered over the last 100 years. All previous studies addressing this issue had important limitations, which left this as a medical impasse. The same seems to occur in a recent publication by Law et al1 in Circulation . After a judicious selection of 94 randomized trials with 4 classes of blood pressure–lowering drugs at fixed doses, the authors concluded that all classes reduce the prevalence of headache by one third, suggesting that high blood pressure is a cause of headache. Despite the robust study design, important points remain to be mentioned. First, the observation that blood pressure–lowering drugs prevent migraine is a well-established characteristic of many classes of antihypertensive drugs.2 Therefore, it is very likely that people in the interventional arm of the study would have fewer headaches than those in placebo arm. Second, none of the selected studies were designed to specifically evaluate the relationship between …

The Infrastructural-Political

The Infrastructural-Political

I—Philip Percival

I aim to illuminate foundational epistemological issues by reflecting on ‘epistemic consequentialism’—the epistemic analogue of ethical consequentialism. Epistemic consequentialism employs a concept of cognitive value playing a role in epistemic norms governing belief-like states that is analogous to the role goodness plays in act-governing moral norms. A distinction between ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ versions of epistemic consequentialism is held to be as important as the familiar ethical distinction on which it is based. These versions are illustrated, respectively, by cognitive decision-theory and reliabilism. Cognitive decision-theory is defended, and various conceptual issues concerning it explored. A simple dilemma suggests that epistemic consequentialism has radical consequences.

McCockerel measuring individual punishment and reciprocity in a simple value-laden dilemma game

In our study we intend to gain insight into the behavior of individuals in conflict situations which can be interpreted as sanctions. There are hardly any models of sanctions in the literature which can be compared with our idea. An experiment is modeled to analyze the behavior of individuals in a situation similar to a sequential prisoners' dilemma. Contingent decisions give us the chance to measure punishment and sanctions using one-shot games. Our approach is similar to an extended model by Bolton et al. [measuring motivations for the reciprocal responses: Observed in a simple dilemma game, Pre-print no. 34, University Magdeburg, 1997], which analyzed reciprocity in a single framework with the help of a questionnaire. In our paper we concentrate on whether the attitude towards fairness coincides with the attitude towards the application of sanctions. We will also observe whether fairness, gender and the effect of the economic education have an influence on the degree of punishment used. Results seem to indicate that the role assigned to each participant strongly influences her/his actions towards her/his counterpart. We suppose the reason for this behavior is that less experienced individuals think more positively about the payoffs for their competitors, while individuals with a higher level of economic education behave significantly more selfishly. Our objectives are to gain more insight into behavior in dilemma situations and also seek better explanations for individual decisions. Some of the results could help to understand problems concerned with sanctions.

EXORCIST XIV: The Wrath of Maxwell’s Demon. Part II. From Szilard to Landauer and Beyond

In this second part of our two-part paper we review and analyse attempts since 1950 to use information theoretic notions to exorcise Maxwell’s Demon. We argue through a simple dilemma that these attempted exorcisms are ineffective, whether they follow Szilard in seeking a compensating entropy cost in information acquisition or Landauer in seeking that cost in memory erasure. In so far as the Demon is a thermodynamic system already governed by the Second Law, no further supposition about information and entropy is needed to save the Second Law. In so far as the Demon fails to be such a system, no supposition about the entropy cost of information acquisition and processing can save the Second Law from the Demon.

Measuring motivations for the reciprocal responses observed in a simple dilemma game

A reciprocal action is an action meant to have a similar influence on another's payoff as another's action has on one's own. One hypothesis asserts that reciprocal action is triggered by the reciprocator's belief that another's action was good or ill intended. The other hypothesis says that the reciprocator is simply acting to implement fixed preferences over payoff allocations. We report on an experiment that allows us to study both positive (reward) and negative (punishment) reciprocal action in a single framework. Knowing the preferences for payoff allocations is sufficient to account for nearly all the reciprocal action we observe in our experiment.