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Remittances, criminal violence and voter turnout
Get PDFHow do financial remittances influence electoral participation in violent democracies? Previous work has focused on the ‘substitution effect’; if recipients depend on remittances for welfare rather than the state, they become disengaged from formal political processes and less likely to vote in elections. However, while remittances can be used to substitute for state provision of welfare goods, they cannot fully substitute for public security. In this paper, we posit that the ability of governments to contain crime and violence conditions the effect of remittances on electoral participation. Specifically, we argue that high levels of crime can negate the substitution effect and make remittance recipients more likely to vote. Using municipality-level data from Mexico and individual-level data from Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, we find that both the receipt of remittances and crime exposure significantly reduce individuals’ propensity to vote and that aggregate remittances and crime rates are correlated with lower turnout. Remittances can, however, negate the turnout-suppressing effects of crime, and crime can negate the turnout-suppressing effects of remittances. Our results suggest a need to account for government provision of both substitutable and non-substitutable goods when investigating the effects of remittances on political participation
Science with Duplo: multilevel goal management in preschoolers’ toy house construction
Get PDFExecuting goal-directed action sequences is fundamental to our behavior. Planning and controlling these action sequences improves greatly over the preschool years. In this study, we examined preschoolers’ ability to plan action sequences. Sixty-nine 3- to 5-year-olds were assessed on an action sequence planning task with a hierarchical goal structure, and on several executive function tasks. Planning abilities improved with age. Improvements in inhibition were related to avoidance of actions irrelevant to the goal hierarchy. Updating skill appears to be associated with executing actions relevant to different subgoals. Using optical motion capture, we showed that children who followed the subgoals displayed less movement with their non-reaching hand within a subgoal. This effect was enhanced in children with better inhibitory skills, suggesting that such skills allow greater focus on executing the current subgoal. Thus, we provide evidence that structuring of subgoals in action sequence planning emerges in preschool years and that improvements in performance in action sequence planning are related to executive functions
The role of trait anxiety in attention and memory-related biases to threat: an event-related potential study
Get PDFThreat-related information strongly competes for attentional selection, and can subsequently be more strongly represented within visual working memory. This is particularly the case for individuals reporting high trait anxious personality. The present study examined the role of anxiety in both attention and memory-related interactions with threat. We employed a hybrid working memory / visual search task, with participants pre-selected for low and high anxious personality traits. They selected and memorized an emotional face (angry or happy) appearing together with a neutral face in encode displays. Following a delay period, they matched the identity of the memorized face to a probe display item. Event-related markers of attentional selection (N2pc components) and memory maintenance during the delay period (i.e., CDA) were measured. Selection biases towards angry faces were observed within both encode and probe displays, evidenced by earlier and larger N2pcs. A similar threat-related bias was also found during working memory maintenance, with larger CDA components when angry faces were stored. High anxious individuals showed large selection biases for angry faces at encoding. For low anxious individuals, this bias was smaller but still significant. In contrast, only high anxious individuals showed larger CDA components for angry faces. These results suggest that threat biases in attentional selection is modulated by trait anxiety, and that threat biases within working memory may only be present for high anxious individuals. These findings highlight the key role of individual differences in trait anxiety on threat-related biases in visual processing, especially at the level of working memory maintenance
Negotiating the language(s) for psychotherapy talk: a mixed methods study from the perspective of multilingual clients
Get PDFMultilingual clients can benefit from expressing themselves in more than one language in psychotherapy. Yet research suggests that language switching is typically instigated by clients, although some do not feel empowered to negotiate the language(s). This paper addresses how language options, from the main therapy language(s) to language switching, were negotiated between client and therapist, as reported by 109 multilingual clients. All participants completed a web survey and five participated in follow-on interviews. In addition, we reflect on the advantages of the mixed methods approach – particularly with regard to ethics and the explanatory sequential design. Analyses combine descriptive statistics and thematic analysis to elaborate on the trends identified in this international sample. Whereas some multilingual clients did not feel inhibited about using languages other than the main therapy language, for others the therapist played an important role in promoting multilingualism in the therapy room. Indeed, a lack of discussion surrounding language use – beyond such technical aspects as agreeing the main therapy language – was found to lead to assumptions about therapists’ proficiency or the (non-)acceptability of multilingual language practices. By contrast, metalinguistic discussions which explored process and meaning were welcomed by clients and typically opened up ways to use languages; the study itself was a catalyst for self-reflection and productive discussions for one interviewee. Thus, the research provides further evidence, from clients, that developing therapists’ metalinguistic awareness and competence and empowering multilingual clients to share their insights has therapeutic benefits
Measuring changes in residential segregation in São Paulo in the 2000s
Get PDFResidential segregation is known as one of the most prevalent problems of Latin American and Brazilian cities. This chapter looks into the changes in segregation levels in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo between 2000 and 2010. This period was marked by economic growth and decreasing social inequalities in Brazil with consequent improvement to the quality of life of lower income classes. Despite those improvements, general patterns of urban segregation in Brazilian cities showed remarkable stability, albeit with important changes in the details of segregation patterns. This chapter explores the spatial relationship between socio-occupational groups using isolation and exposure indices. The analysis confirmed a highly segregated distribution of social groups in the Metropolitan Region and revealed increased levels of segregation, with global indices figures for 2010 higher than for 2000. Analysis demonstrated that peripheral areas of the Metropolitan Region became more fragmented and heterogeneous in that period, and revealed that their increased heterogeneity is mainly composed by classes with close social proximity, rather than polarized ones. Results showed that while middle classes became more integrated amongst themselves and with lower classes, the separation between lower and upper classes was not only maintained but also increased during the period. All these findings suggest a reconfiguration of the concentric pattern of segregation that maintained a spatial structure of strong social isolation during the period, although with greater complexity
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Social dominance, hyper-masculinity and career barriers in Nigeria
Get PDFDrawing on social dominance theory as a theoretical lens and based on a qualitative study of female managers and supervisors at different levels of the organization, we investigate the barriers women in Nigeria face in their careers. In their accounts of discrimination, corruption, familial/domestic responsibilities, cultural perceptions of gender, and ingrained religious beliefs, participants draw attention to the intense difficulties they face in their careers. We highlight the significance of context and argue that Nigeria is notable for an extreme attitude of male preference at work involving an intensification of career barriers that reflects the entrenched and systemic nature of male dominance in Nigerian organizations. We capture this in the concept of the “hypermasculine organization,” which is characterized by exaggerated male advantage, a tendency towards gender‐based exploitation and abuse together with a justificatory logic based on rigidly enforced gender roles. These debilitating factors affecting women in organizations have potential implications for other countries in the global south
A stochastic differential equation approach to the analysis of the UK 2017 and 2019 general election polls
Get PDFHuman dynamics and sociophysics build on statistical models that can shed light on and add
to our understanding of social phenomena. We propose a generative model based on a stochastic
differential equation that enables us to model the opinion polls leading up to the UK 2017 and
2019 general elections, and to make predictions relating to the actual result of the elections.
After a brief analysis of the time series of the poll results, we provide empirical evidence that the
gamma distribution, which is often used in financial modelling, fits the marginal distribution of
this time series. We demonstrate that the proposed poll-based forecasting model may improve
upon predictions based solely on polls. The method uses the Euler-Maruyama method to
simulate the time series, measuring the prediction error with the mean absolute error and the
root mean square error, and as such could be used as part of a toolkit for forecasting elections
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