1,720,969 research outputs found
Odi et amo: a nudge to reduce the consumption of single-use carrier bags
No full textIn this article we show that it is possible to reduce carrier bags consumption without imposing additional
costs on supermarket customers. To this end, we exploit the fact that people shopping in a certain area
are likely to have homogeneous preferences on certain dimensions (e.g., sport teams). We implement a
simple treatment in a supermarket in Naples, Italy: whenever a customer of the supermarket buys a
single-use carrier bag we donate a small sum to an institution that is likely to be perceived negatively
by the customers of the supermarket (an ‘‘anti-charity‘‘). Vice versa, whenever a customer does not purchase a bag, we donate the same amount to an association that is likely to be perceived positively by the
customers of the supermarket (a ‘‘charity”). We measure the impact of the treatment with respect to the
previous weeks, the corresponding weeks of the previous year and we look at the persistence of the
effect. Our results show that this treatment causes a significant reduction in bags consumption without
imposing monetary costs on supermarket customers. Moreover, we show that our nudge can easily be
used by regulators at virtually no cost by creating multi-city tournaments. We explain how these tournaments could be arranged
People can understand IPCC visuals and are not influenced by colors
Full text linkWe carry out two online experiments with large representative samples of the US population to study key climate visuals included in the Sixth Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In the first study (N = 977), we test whether people can understand such visuals, and we investigate whether color consistency within and across visuals influences respondents' understanding, their attitudes toward climate change and their policy preferences. Our findings reveal that respondents exhibit a remarkably good understanding of the IPCC visuals. Given that IPCC visuals convey complex multi-layered information, our results suggest that the clarity of the visuals is extremely high. Moreover, we observe that altering color consistency has limited impact on the full sample of respondents, but affects the understanding and the policy preferences of respondents who identify as Republicans. In the second study (n = 1169), we analyze the role played by colors' semantic discriminability, that is the degree to which observers can infer a unique mapping between the color and a concept (for instance red and warmth have high semantic discriminability). We observe that semantic discriminability does not affect attitudes toward climate change or policy preferences and that increasing semantic discriminability does not improve understanding of the climate visual
Interactions between concerns for the environment and other sources of concern in 31 European countries
Full text linkUnderstanding how different sources of concern interact in people's mind is a question that has entertained generations of scholars. The finite-pool-of-worry (FPW) hypothesis states that humans have limited resources to worry, thus when they are worried about one issue they become less worried about other issues. Instead, the affect-generalization theory (AGT) posits that an increased level of worry about one threat increases concerns about related threats. Understanding how concerns for the environment interact with concerns for other sources of worry is extremely useful in the fight against global warming. To this end, we adopt a Lotka-Volterra model to detect instances of AGT and FPW among worries for the environment, economy, safety, social issues and immigration in 31 European countries between 2012--2019 (Eurobarometer data). Our findings suggest that, consistently with AGT, an increase in the concerns for the environment often favors the growth of concerns for the economy. Meanwhile, consistently with FPW, an increase in the concerns for the economy, but also for the other sources of concern, often pushes down concerns for the environment. Moreover, we find that an increase in concerns for immigration and social issues generally pushes down concerns for the environment. Furthermore, we find that AGT and FPW can coexist not only over time and across countries, but also as a result of an asymmetric interaction. Building on our results, we hypothesize the existence of a pyramid of worries. At the bottom of the pyramid lie worries like concerns for the economy, which generally predate other worries. Concerns for the environment lie at the very top of the pyramid as they are generally predated by other worries.Building on our results, we hypothesize the existence of a pyramid of worries. At the bottom of the pyramid lie worries like concerns for the economy, which generally predate other worries
A Quantitative Study of the Interactions between Oil Price and Renewable Energy Sources Stock Prices
Full text linkIn this article, we apply an integrable nonautonomous Lotka−Volterra model to study the relationship between oil and renewable energy stock prices between 2006 and 2016. The advantage of this innovative approach is that it allows us to study the simultaneous interaction among n stock indices at any point in time. In line with previous studies, we find that the relationship between oil and renewables is characterized by major structural breaks taking place in 2008 and around 2013. The first structural break might be caused by the financial crisis, whereas more studies are required to advance a hypothesis on the causes behind the second structural break. Our main finding is that oil is always in a predator−prey relationship with wind, whereas it proceeds in mutualism with solar after 2012. Moreover, we find that solar and wind proceed in mutualism between 2008 and 2013 but have a rivalrous interaction before (competition) and after (predator−prey) that period. We explore the possible reasons behind these patterns and their policy implications
The scale of COVID‐19 graphs affects understanding, attitudes, and policy preferences
Full text linkMass media routinely present data on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19)
diffusion with graphs that use either a log scale or a linear scale. We show that
the choice of the scale adopted on these graphs has important consequences
on how people understand and react to the information conveyed. In partic-
ular, we find that when we show the number of COVID‐19 related deaths on a
logarithmic scale, people have a less accurate understanding of how the
pandemic has developed, make less accurate predictions on its evolution, and
have different policy preferences than when they are exposed to a linear scale.
Consequently, merely changing the scale the data is presented on can alter
public policy preferences and the level of worry about the pandemic, despite
the fact that people are routinely exposed to COVID‐19 related information.
Providing the public with information in ways they understand better can help
improving the response to COVID‐19, thus, mass media and policymakers
communicating to the general public should always describe the evolution of
the pandemic using a graph on a linear scale, at least as a default option. Our
results suggest that framing matters when communicating to the public
COVID-19 Vaccine Passport and International Traveling: The Combined Effect of Two Nudges on Americans’ Support for the Pass
Full text linkImmunity passports have the potential to allow large-scale international traveling to resume. However, they can only become an effective tool if they are widely supported by the general public. We carry out a double blind randomized online experiment with a sample of N=4000 Americans to study (i) whether two nudges can increase the level of support for a COVID pass for international traveling, (ii) the relationship between the effects of the nudges, and (iii) if these nudges have a negative spillover on the intention to get vaccinated. We find that both nudges increase the support for the COVID pass and that their impact is stronger when they are used together. Moreover, we find that the two nudges do not negatively affect intentions to get vaccinated. Our findings have important implications for policymakers and for the nascent literature on the interaction between multiple nudges
Le sanzioni interdittive nel sistema 231 tra indeterminatezza legale e frazionabilità giudiziale
Full text linkIl lavoro analizzi il sistema sanzionatorio previsto nel d.lgs. n. 231/2001 con particolare attenzione alle sanzioni interdittive, mettendo in evidenza le criticità che lo ipotecano a causa della ampiezza delle cornici edittali e degli amplissimi spazi di discrezionalità del giudice
Riprovevolezza
No full textViene evidenziata la base psicologica della stessa colpevolezza in senso normativo, individuando quale punto di riferimento normativo l'art. 42 c.p
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