Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Preferences'

Background & Aim The PhD aimed to quantify preferences for depression treatments using Discrete Choice Experiments (DCEs). A secondary aim was to investigate the relationship between demographic variables, psychological variables and preferences. Methods & Analysis Two DCEs were designed and administered, investigating preferences for treatment of depression by: (1) a drug and (2) a physical activity intervention. The DCE designs were informed by focus groups and qualitative interviews. A best-worst scaling DCE was used for both studies. The physical activity intervention DCE was included in the baseline questionnaire of an RCT at the University of Bristol. Demographic information and psychological measures (including BDI scores) were analysed alongside the DCE. The drug treatment DCE was distributed as a postal questionnaire to a general population sample of 5000. Psychological measures of illness and medicine beliefs as well as the BDI were included in the questionnaire. Demographic data were also collected. Quantitative data were analysed primarily using conditional logistic regression. Results Results from the Physical activity DCE (for 152 patients) indicated that on average, patients particularly valued key aspects of the intervention, such as small goals, fitting activity into daily routine and having support over the intervention itself (being one giving choice of activity rather than exercise on prescription). Results from Drug study DCE (for 425 respondents) revealed a particular desire for no side-effects: large improvements in likely effectiveness are required to compensate respondents for non-zero risks of these. Heterogeneity analysis for both studies revealed effects of a number of demographic and psychological variables on preferences for attributes of depression treatment. Discussion Results of both studies are discussed in terms of their policy relevance and also from a methodological angle. The implications the results have on the use of DCEs in health care is considered.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2009.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 212-220).
This dissertation examines the psychological factors that influence travel behavior such as people's personality traits, environmental attitudes, car pride and perceptions of convenience and comfort. Despite the recognition of the importance of these psychological factors in better understanding travel behavior, transportation agencies have failed to integrate them into planning practice and policy debate in the quantitative way. This dissertation reflects on this failure, identifies the barriers that have contributed to it, and reviews innovations in travel behavior research which may help overcome these barriers. This dissertation proposes a structure for analyzing traveler preferences that incorporates these psychological factors into travel behavior analysis. A set of eight factors are presented as the latent elements of travel preferences to illustrate the structure, including two personality traits; three environmental attitude factors and car pride; and two perceptual factors of convenience and comfort. A MIMIC model quantifies the eight factors and examines the relationships among these factors as well as between them and socioeconomic variables. Despite the significant correlations with socioeconomic variables, personality, attitudes and perceptions prove to be characteristics of individuals that are distinct from the socioeconomics. The dissertation presents three applications that incorporate these latent factors into travel demand analysis of three critical aspects of travel behavior: car use, mode choice and car ownership. Incorporating the latent variables significantly improves the overall exploratory power of the transportation models.
(cont.) The results suggest that plausible changes in traveler preferences can have an effect on behavior in magnitude similar to the impacts that result from rising household income or increased population density. Unobserved heterogeneities exist not only for preferences with respect to observed variables such as travel time, but also for latent factors such as car pride and perception of convenience. Preference Accommodating and Preference Shaping in Transportation Planning 3 Mutual dependencies between travel preferences and behavior are identified and the direction and strength of the causal connections are modeled explicitly. Depending on the specific latent factors and aspect of travel behavior, the causal relationships could be from preferences to behavior, from behavior to preferences, or be significant in both directions concurrently These three applications also demonstrate in terms of methodology that 1) hierarchical relationships among latent factors can be simultaneously estimated with discrete choice models; 2) latent variable and latent class modeling techniques can be combined to test unobserved heterogeneities in travelers' sensitivity to latent variables; 3) causal relationships between behavior and preferences can be examined in the SEM or hybrid SEM and discrete choice model. This dissertation proposes two complementary perspectives to examine how to embed traveler preferences in the planning practice: planning as preference accommodating and planning as preference shaping.
(cont.) Combining both perspectives, this dissertation argues that by ignoring the importance of traveler preferences, not only may we make serious mistakes in the planning, modeling and appraisal processes, but we may also fail to recognize significant opportunities to mitigate or solve transportation problems by influencing and exploiting changes in people's preferences.
by Jinhua Zhao.
Ph.D.

This thesis deals with the differences in time preferences, individual discount rates, among non-Romany (Czechs) and Romany ethnic group in the Czech Republic. Subjects of almost homogenous ethnic groups -- low income, low education, currently unemployed -- were subjected to experiments based on an in-depth questionnaire (Romany N = 35, N = 25 non-Romany). In addition to time preferences, their relationship with the socio-economic and demographic characteristics was inspected. The sub-tests showed a difference across ethnic groups in regard to the discounting models. Romany ethnic group is better characterized by an inconsistent model compared to the non-Romany using an more consistent model. Participants from both groups, however, appear to be very impatient, with discount rates closer to the values of individuals dependent on addictive substances. Probably because of insufficient sample size, no statistically significant correlation was found between the discount rates and socio-economic and demographic factors. Financial (il)literacy among Romany proved to be an important factor affecting the formation of savings. Finally, the recorded signal effect of expenditures on signal goods among the Romany ethnic group is briefly analyzed.

Chapter 1 of the thesis is divided into 5 sections. Section A begins by defining a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE), and outlines the key stages involved in conducting a DCE. Sections B and C outline theories underpinning DCE analysis. Section B outlines the characteristics theory of demand, whilst section C, explains random utility theory (RUT), compensating variation (CV), marginal willingness to pay (MWTP), and willingness to pay (WTP) analysis. Section D of the thesis provides a review of the DCE literature. Section E outlines the research questions addressed in the thesis including calculating WTP and hypothetical bias; the description of the cost attribute; preference heterogeneity; and altruism. Chapter 2 shows how DCEs can be used to calculate WTP, using a DCE relating to Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). Chapter 3 uses data from a DCE applied to Menstrual disorder and Gynaecology patients. It evaluates an experimental method I developed to establish whether respondents might fail to factor in the monetary attribute into their DCE decision making, leading to hypothetical bias. Chapter 4 applies essentially the same DCE design but only analyses data from Gynaecology patients. Chapters 4-8 all use data obtained from a DCE relating to preferences for different allocation criteria for allocating kidneys for transplantation. Chapters 5 and 6 look at preference heterogeneity which is observable using interaction dummy variables (the issue of unobserved preference heterogeneity is considered in chapter 7). Chapter 5 establishes how marginal rates of substitution (MRS) differ between different respondent groups including renal patients, healthcare professionals, live donors / relatives of deceased donors, carers, and ethnic minority versus non-ethnic minority patients. Chapter 6 establishes how MRS differs between non-white ethnic minority patients versus other patients; South Asian patients versus other patients; and according to respondent gender. Chapter 7 of the thesis compares results from models which do not cater for unobserved preference heterogeneity, with results from models which do. Initially 2 basic models which do not cater for preference heterogeneity at all (because they do not include dummy variables) are applied including random effects logit and conditional logit. Then models catering for unobserved preference heterogeneity including Mixed Logit and a Latent Class Model (LCM) are used. Finally there is an analysis involving the application of conditional logit with interaction dummy variables. Chapter 8 of the thesis explores how preferences might differ according to how altruistic respondents are. It establishes how respondent preferences differ according to respondent self-disclosed perspective when answering DCEs. In other words whether they claimed to answer the DCE in terms of what would be best for me; what would be best for me and others; or what is best for others. Finally chapter 9 involves a discussion of the findings emerging from the thesis, and draws conclusions about the merits of material contained in it.

Chapter 1: Evolution of reciprocator preferences when agents can pay for information. A benchmark result in the evolutionary games literature is that a preference for reciprocity will evolve if preferences are observable (at zero cost), since reciprocators can cooperate with each other rather than with materialists, thereby achieving a fitness advantage. I investigate how a preference for reciprocity evolves if individuals can observe an opponent's preferences only by bearing a fitness cost. My main result applies when observing an opponent's type is cheap, but cooperating only gives a modest fitness advantage or the preference for reciprocity is intense. In this case, a preference for reciprocity cannot evolve from a small starting share in the mix of preferences, even if discovering an opponent's preferences is arbitrarily cheap. This is in sharp contrast to the benchmark result. Chapter 2: A theory of conditional cooperation on networks (with Julien Gagnon) Chapter 2 is a study of reciprocity on social networks. We model a group of connected agents who play a one-shot public good game. Some players are materialists and others are reciprocators. We characterise the maximal Nash equilibrium (ME) of this game for any network and a broad class of reciprocal preferences. At the ME, a novel concept, the q-linked set, fully determines the set of players who contribute. We show that influential players are those connected to players who are sufficiently interconnected, but not too much. Finally, we study the decision of a planner faced with an uncertain type profile who designs the network to maximise expected contributions. The ex ante optimal network comprises isolated cliques of degree k*, with k* decreasing with the incidence of materialists. We discuss an important application of our results: the workplace. Chapter 3: Ideological games Chapter 3 is a theory of ideology. I define a preference type to be a set of first-order preferences over the outcomes of a `game of life', together with a set of (`meta-') preferences over all players' first-order preferences. Players can influence each other's preferences via costly investment: if player A invests and B does not, B's preferences becomes those of A. Players may invest for instrumental reasons (i.e. to achieve better outcomes in the game of life) or `ideological' reasons (i.e. they want their opponents to have the same preferences they do). I characterise `strongly ideological', `weakly ideological' and `pragmatic' types. Weakly ideological types wish to preserve their own type, as do strongly ideological types, who also seek to convert others. A pragmatic player, in contrast, is willing to have her type changed if her new type would prefer the resulting equilibrium of the game of life to the status quo. I show that if two players of different ideological types meet, there is an equilibrium investment profile with lower aggregate welfare than the no-invest profile. If at least one type is strongly ideological, there is a unique such equilibrium. Finally, a `perfectly ideological' type is a strongly ideological type which, if held by all players, results in the best outcome of the game of life as judged by that type. If a perfectly ideological player plays a pragmatic player, aggregate welfare is always greater than in the no-invest profile.

This chapter uses stated tourist preferences as a proxy of visitor yield measures, in order to analyse and understand the yield potential of different markets’ preferences. A literature review revealed that there is much progress to be made in terms of discussion, consensus and stability of methodology for the measurement of visitor yield. The aim of the visitor yield analysis, in the current chapter, is also to bring another dimension into yield analysis and discussion, contributing with a new form of measuring yield potential. Since the objective is to identify yield patterns based on tourist preferences over a period of time, dynamics may be captured from the fluctuation patterns, or expressed as volatility of visitor yield and length of stay throughout the years. Destination management organisations and tourist companies may potentially adopt this visitor yield matrix in order to support future strategic decisions.

I test canonical theories in the preference literature - evolutionary psychology, social role theory, and social exchange theory - using group mean comparisons to replicate basic sex differences in spouse preferences. I find that, consistent with past studies, males prefer attractiveness and females prefer resources in potential partners, and in general, we prefer partners who are similar, rather than different, to us. I also find that males who anticipate enacting the "traditional" male role of "provider" within their marriage tend to prefer spouses who would fulfill the caregiver role, compared to males who do not anticipate such "traditional" gender divisions within the family. Interestingly, females who anticipate the "traditional" caregiving role do not in turn prefer spouses who fulfill the "provider" role; they instead prefer a spouse who is family-oriented, as they themselves are. I further test four new theoretical derivations and methodological assessment techniques. First, I expand the test of social exchange theory to include a wide array of personality characteristics and find similarity between how respondents see themselves and the types of characteristics they prefer in a spouse. Second, I include an assessment of gender endorsement - how respondents see themselves in terms of characteristics we commonly associate with masculinity and femininity. Interestingly, I don't find the predicted complimentarity - that highly masculine individuals prefer highly feminine spouses and vice versa. I find instead strong homogamy effects, such that respondents with masculine self-perceptions prefer spouses who also embody those masculine traits, and respondents with feminine self-perceptions prefer spouses who also identify with feminine traits. Third, my data includes a wider age range of unmarried respondents than nearly all other preference studies, so I am able to test preference differences by age. I find that older unmarried adults are generally less "particular" in their preferences, compared to those unmarried adults still in college. Despite my predictions that age would be positively related to the desire for spouse characteristics associated with "growing up," essentially, age appears to be negatively related or unrelated to most spouse preferences. Fourth, I include factor analysis techniques that both replicate a past research study (which was pioneering for the field), and broach the possibility for latent variable assessment using a wider array of preference dimensions than have been previously considered. I find evidence of several underlying preference constructs which could, and should, be taken into account when conducting future preference studies.

Most governments in the world provide some publicly funded healthcare to their citizens, but given the scarcity of resources relative to potential demand, some form of rationing or priority setting is required, and some patients must be denied effective treatment. The thesis took the position that an explicit approach based on maximising the value that society derives from healthcare is the preferred way to address this rationing problem. Conventional health economic practice proposes that value should be equated with quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), leading to a policy of QALY maximisation, but, it is argued, not necessarily value maximisation. A more inclusive approach to defining value, based on societal preferences, may maximise overall well-being and be associated with greater trust and legitimacy in the priority setting process. The thesis identified patient and program characteristics that appeared to have empirical evidence of public support as well as a defensible ethical justification in determining the strength of a patient’s claim to societal healthcare resources. The relative strength of preferences for these characteristics, or the equity-efficiency trade-off, was estimated using stated preference methods. Two different methods, discrete choice experiments and constant-sum paired comparisons, were used and the response behaviours of the two elicitations were compared to identify a preferred method for eliciting societal preferences in the context of healthcare. Both methods found a statistically significant equity-efficiency trade-off in an age and sex representative sample of the Canadian public as well as a convenience sample of decision-making agents. This suggested that society would be willing to sacrifice some degree of efficiency in maximising individual life year gains in order to prioritise other characteristics consistent with the promotion of equity or distributive justice in the allocation of healthcare resources. However, differences between the results of the two elicitation methods suggested some systematic procedural variance.

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 79).
Our goal is to construct a system that can determine a drivers preferences and goals and perform appropriate actions to aid the driver achieving his goals and improve the quality of his road behavior. Because the recommendation problem could be achieved effectively once we know the driver's intention, in this thesis, we are going to solve the problem to determine the driver's preferences. A supervised learning approach has already been applied to this problem. However, because the approach locally classify a small interval at a time and is memoryless, the supervised learning does not perform well on our goal. Instead, we need to introduce new approach which has following characteristics. First, it should consider the entire stream of measurements. Second, it should be tolerant to the environment. Third, it should be able to distinguish various intentions. In this thesis, two different approaches, Bayesian hypothesis testing and inverse reinforcement learning, will be used to classify and estimate the user's preferences. Bayesian hypothesis testing classifies the driver as one of several driving types. Assuming that the probability distributions of the features (i.e. average, standard deviation) for a short period of measurement are different among the driving types, Bayesian hypothesis testing classifies the driver as one of driving types by maintaining a belief distribution for each driving type and updating it online as more measurements are available. On the other hand, inverse reinforcement learning estimates the users' preferences as a linear combination of driving types. The inverse reinforcement learning approach assumes that the driver maximizes a reward function while driving, and his reward function is a linear combination of raw / expert features. Based on the observed trajectories of representative drivers, apprenticeship learning first calculates the reward function of each driving type with raw features, and these reward functions serve as expert features. After, with observed trajectories of a new driver, the same algorithm calculates the reward function of him, not with raw features, but with expert features, and estimates the preferences of any driver in a space of driving types.
by Jongu Shin.
M.Eng.

The theory of choice receives formal treatment in decision theory, game theory and substantial parts of economics. However there is cause for concern that the formal treatment of the subject has advanced beyond the substantive grounds on which it relies. For, the formal theories fundamentally rely on a concept of preference, which is itself lacking a viable substantive interpretation. Indeed the challenges to the substantive interpretation of ‘preference’ threaten to undermine the standard arguments used to justify the completeness and transitivity conditions on which Preference Theories rely. This discussion will explore whether a conception of rationality, anchored in a larger conception of practical reasoning, can justify the completeness and transitivity conditions. Specifically, this dissertation will draw on recent developments in philosophy of law, action theory and ethics to enumerate a conception of practical reasoning that takes reasons to be the basic normative concept. It will then seek to offer an account of rationality that is distinct from, but complementary to, the role of reasons. And from this foundation develop an account of preferences that includes many of the characteristics of standard accounts, yet is situated within this broader context. From this vantage point, the discussion will explore possible justifications for the completeness and transitivity conditions. Ultimately, it will be argued that both can be justified – though with different force – in specified domains. While the discussion will primarily focus on the justification of the completeness and transitivity conditions, it is in part motivated by the goal of exploring the connections between the treatment of choice in the distinct fields associated with Preference Theories and action theory broadly defined. In so doing, the hope is to suggest that there is promise in drawing together formal and substantive treatments of choice which is deserving of greater attention.

This thesis considers the economics of preferences in two different contexts. First it examines damages from climate change. I argue that our ignorance of the welfare implications of higher levels of warming, as well as scientific uncertainty in precisely what might trigger these scenarios, imply that our tastes and beliefs are incomplete (in the sense of Galaabaatar and Karni, 2013). That is, there are many 'plausible' ways to evaluate a given scenario. In Chapter 1, then, I develop this theory, and use it to formally separate climate impacts into three sorts: those understood well, those understood badly, and those representing the worst possible scenario. I provide a generalisation of the 'dismal theorem' of Weitzman (2009a), and address the question of policy choice: prices versus quantities (cf. Weitzman, 1974). Chapter 2 is an example of the analysis propounded in Chapter 1. I explore the sensitivity of the social cost of carbon to assumed damages from 4C warming, to the assumed extent of CO2 emissions, and to the modelling of the climate and carbon cycles. The analysis shows that differing prior assumptions can alter our evaluation of policy by orders of magnitude. The second part of this thesis regards preferences for indivisible goods. In Chapter 3, which is joint work with Paul Klemperer, I introduce to this field the 'tropical hypersurface', being those prices at which an agent's demand changes. Simple geometric features of this set tell us the precise trade-offs that interest the agent. Thus we develop a new taxonomy of valuations, `demand types'; familiar notions such as substitutes and complements are examples. Finally, we provide a necessary and sufficient condition on these `demand types' for existence of competitive equilibrium, which implies several existing results, as well as new and quite different examples.

Les préférences révélées lient choix, préférences et bien-être lorsque les choix apparaissent cohérents. Le premier chapitre s’intéresse à la force des hypothèses nécessaire pour obtenir des indications précises sur le bien-être quand les choix sont incohérents. Il utilise les données d’expériences en laboratoire et sur le terrain pour évaluer le pouvoir prédictif de deux approches utilisant peu d’hypothèses. Ces approches ont un pouvoir prédictif élevé pour une majorité d’individus, elles fournissent donc des indications précises sur le bien-être. Le pouvoir prédictif de ces approches est fortement corrélé à deux propriétés des préférences révélées. Le deuxième chapitre introduit une méthode pour obtenir l’ensemble des meilleures alternatives d’un individu, en cohérence avec théorie des préférences révélées, mais en contradiction avec les pratiques expérimentales. Les individus sont incités à choisir plusieurs alternatives à l’aide d’un petit paiement additionnel, mais sont rémunérés à la in par une seule, tirée au hasard. Les conditions pour que les meilleures alternatives soient partiellement ou complètement identifiées sont données. Le troisième chapitre applique cette méthode dans une expérience. Les meilleures alternatives sont complètement identifiées pour 18% des sujets et partiellement pour 40%. Les préférences complètes, réflexives et transitives rationalisent 40% des choix observés dans l’expérience. Permettre que les choix dépendant de l’ensemble de choix, tout en conservant les préférences classiques, rationalise 96% des choix observés. Enfin, on observe une quantité significative d’indifférence, bien supérieure à ce qui est obtenu traditionnellement
Revealed preferences link choices, preferences, and welfare when choices appear consistent. The first chapter assesses how much structure is necessary to impose on a model to provide precise welfare guidance based on inconsistent choices. We use data sets from the lab and field to evaluate the predictive power of two conservative “model-free” approaches of behavioral welfare analysis. We find that for most individuals, these approaches have high predictive power, which means there is little ambiguity about what should be selected from each choice set. We show that the predictive power of these approaches correlates highly with two properties of revealed preferences. The second chapter introduces a method for eliciting the set of best alternatives of decision makers, in line with the theory on revealed preferences, but at odds with the current practice. We allow decision makers to choose several alternatives, provide an incentive for each alternative chosen, and then randomly select one for payment. We derive the conditions under which we partially or fully identify the set of best alternatives. The third chapter applies the method in an experiment. We fully identify the set of best alternatives for 18% of subjects and partially identify it for another 40%. We show that complete, reflexive, and transitive preferences rationalize 40% of observed choices in the experiment. Going beyond, we show that allowing for menu-dependent choices while keeping classical preferences rationalize 96% of observed choices. Besides, eliciting sets allows us to conclude that indifference is significant in the experiment, and underestimate by the classical method

Defence date: 28 January 2022
Examining Board: Professor Arnout van de Rijt, (European University Institute); Professor Elias Dinas, (European University Institute); Professor Luis Miller, (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)); Professor Jen Heerwig, (SUNY-Stony Brook)
This dissertation delves into the question of when and why people come to oppose large income disparities. While social scientists have shown that self-interest matters in some cases, much remains to be understood about why sometimes values and beliefs take precedence while some other times they do not. In three independent empirical chapters, I explore this by looking at how different types of misfortune shape inequality attitudes differently. In chapters 2 and 3 I study natural disasters and find that they do not always increase redistributive demands. Chapter 2 takes a cross-country approach and studies risk and incidence of different types of disasters. Results show that it is unpredictable and surprising disasters such as earthquakes that trigger an increase demands that incomes should be made more equal whereas predictable disasters such as tropical storms do not. Chapter 3 zooms into the case of one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded, the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan, to investigate in detail how a shared experience of bad luck that cuts across socio-economic fault lines impacts redistributive demands. Exploiting a natural experiment and unique panel data on the same individuals before and after the event, I show that even though the disaster does increase demands to redistribute to the poor it leaves demands to redistribute from the rich (higher taxes on the rich) unaffected. I argue demands to redistribute increase because the disaster forces close experiences with socio-economic others and increase social affinity to the poor. At the same time, even though natural disasters do disproportionately impact the poor, demands to ‘soak the rich’ do not increase because the rich are unlikely to become antagonists as the public often perceives these catastrophes as a force of nature and due to bad luck. Results stand in contrast with findings that financial crises increase demands for progressive taxation and highlight how different types of shocks may have different consequences. My findings thus highlight an important caveat to the ability of natural disasters to bring about a reckoning with inequality. Finally, Chapter 4 shifts focus away from natural disasters and considers a more mundane type of misfortune: living in precarious material circumstances. The chapter explores how income interacts with belief in meritocracy in shaping attitudes toward inequality. Contrary to previous work, our results from three cross-country surveys and an original experiment on a nationally representative sample show that the poor’s redistributive demands are not shaped by the extent to which they perceive inequality to stem out of effort or luck whereas such perception is decisive for the rich. Results are consistent with two explanations. The first one is based on the idea that poverty reduces the importance of other-regarding concerns in redistributive preferences and the second one is based on an overlooked observation by sociologist Michael Young: losing out due to effort may be just as if not more painful than losing out due to luck. Results from the original experiment are consistent with this explanation, as negative emotional reactions are just as if not more intense when losing out in a contest where the winner is declared based on performance than when it is based on luck. Findings from this last chapter stand in contrast with the increasingly common view in the literature that individuals tend to accept as fair inequality stemming out of effort and oppose inequality stemming out of luck. Taken together, findings in this dissertation have important implications for the politics of redistribution in the 21st century.

Using data from the 2000 American National Election Study and the Uniform Crime Reports, this research studies the impact of core values and contextual effects on gun control policy preferences. The research seeks to produce a contextually sensitive model of gun control policy preferences that accounts for the nature of the elite message war regarding the issue of gun control and for both long and short-term contextual factors that might sway individual opinions at the point of stimulus (e.g., the survey question). While the analysis does find conditioning effects, the effects do not conform to the theoretical expectations, and they are generally weaker than expected. In contrast, the research demonstrates the strong connections that formed in the public’s mind between ideological, partisan and gender-based core values and gun control policy preferences. These results are consistent with research that found the effects of political messages often vary in counterintuitive ways due to variance in the strength of the message and political awareness (Zaller 1992). Replicating this research across various time periods permits the investigation of the decay rate of impacts on individual policy preferences created by substantial, one-time contextual effects. It may be that contextual effects have a substantial impact in the short-term, but these short-term impacts are mitigated over the longterm by continual reinforcement of the basic themes employed by elites in the message war surrounding the issue.

Intelligent systems that assist users in fulfilling complex tasks need a concise and processable representation of incomplete and uncertain information. In order to be able to choose among different options, these systems also need a compact and processable representation of the concept of preference. Preferences can provide an effective way to choose the best solutions to a given problem. These solutions can represent the most plausible states of the world when we model incomplete information, the most satisfactory states of the world when we express user preferences, or optimal decisions when we make decisions under uncertainty. Several domains, such as, reasoning under incomplete and uncertain information, user preference modeling, and qualitative decision making under uncertainty, have benefited from advances on preference representation. In the literature, several symbolic approaches of nonclassical reasoning have been proposed. Among them, logic programming under answer set semantics offers a good compromise between symbolic representation and computation of knowledge and several extensions for handling preferences. Nevertheless, there are still some open issues to be considered in logic programming. In nonmonotonic reasoning, first, most approaches assume that exceptions to logic program rules are already specified. However, sometimes, it is possible to consider implicit preferences based on the specificity of the rules to handle incomplete information. Secondly, the joint handling of exceptions and uncertainty has received little attention: when information is uncertain, the selection of default rules can be a matter of explicit preferences and uncertainty. In user preference modeling, although existing logic programming specifications allow to express user preferences which depend both on incomplete and contextual information, in some applications, some preferences in some context may be more important than others. Furthermore, more complex preference expressions need to be supported. In qualitative decision making under uncertainty, existing logic programming-based methodologies for making decisions seem to lack a satisfactory handling of preferences and uncertainty. The aim of this dissertation is twofold: 1) to tackle the role played by preferences in logic programming from different perspectives, and 2) to contribute to this novel field by proposing several frameworks and methods able to address the above issues. To this end, we will first show how preferences can be used to select default rules in logic programs in an implicit and explicit way. In particular, we propose (i) a method for selecting logic program rules based on specificity, and (ii) a framework for selecting uncertain default rules based on explicit preferences and the certainty of the rules. Then, we will see how user preferences can be modeled and processed in terms of a logic program (iii) in order to manage user profiles in a context-aware system and (iv) in order to propose a framework for the specification of nested (non-flat) preference expressions. Finally, in the attempt to bridge the gap between logic programming and qualitative decision under uncertainty, (v) we propose a classical- and a possibilistic-based logic programming methodology to compute an optimal decision when uncertainty and preferences are matters of degrees.
Els sistemes intel.ligents que assisteixen a usuaris en la realització de tasques complexes necessiten una representació concisa i formal de la informació que permeti un raonament nomonòton en condicions d’incertesa. Per a poder escollir entre les diferents opcions, aquests sistemes solen necessitar una representació del concepte de preferència. Les preferències poden proporcionar una manera efectiva de triar entre les millors solucions a un problema. Aquestes solucions poden representar els estats del món més plausibles quan es tracta de modelar informació incompleta, els estats del món més satisfactori quan expressem preferències de l’usuari, o decisions òptimes quan estem parlant de presa de decisió incorporant incertesa. L’ús de les preferències ha beneficiat diferents dominis, com, el raonament en presència d’informació incompleta i incerta, el modelat de preferències d’usuari, i la presa de decisió sota incertesa. En la literatura, s’hi troben diferents aproximacions al raonament no clàssic basades en una representació simbòlica de la informació. Entre elles, l’enfocament de programació lògica, utilitzant la semàntica de answer set, ofereix una bona aproximació entre representació i processament simbòlic del coneixement, i diferents extensions per gestionar les preferències. No obstant això, en programació lògica es poden identificar diferents problemes pel que fa a la gestió de les preferències. Per exemple, en la majoria d’enfocaments de raonament no-monòton s’assumeix que les excepcions a default rules d’un programa lògic ja estan expressades. Però de vegades es poden considerar preferències implícites basades en l’especificitat de les regles per gestionar la informació incompleta. A més, quan la informació és també incerta, la selecció de default rules pot dependre de preferències explícites i de la incertesa. En el modelatge de preferències del usuari, encara que els formalismes existents basats en programació lògica permetin expressar preferències que depenen d’informació contextual i incompleta, en algunes aplicacions, donat un context, algunes preferències poden ser més importants que unes altres. Per tant, resulta d’interès un llenguatge que permeti capturar preferències més complexes. En la presa de decisions sota incertesa, les metodologies basades en programació lògica creades fins ara no ofereixen una solució del tot satisfactòria pel que fa a la gestió de les preferències i la incertesa. L’objectiu d’aquesta tesi és doble: 1) estudiar el paper de les preferències en la programació lògica des de diferents perspectives, i 2) contribuir a aquesta jove àrea d’investigació proposant diferents marcs teòrics i mètodes per abordar els problemes anteriorment citats. Per a aquest propòsit veurem com les preferències es poden utilitzar de manera implícita i explícita per a la selecció de default rules proposant: (i) un mètode basat en l’especificitat de les regles, que permeti seleccionar regles en un programa lògic; (ii) un marc teòric per a la selecció de default rules incertes basat en preferències explícites i la incertesa de les regles. També veurem com les preferències de l’usuari poden ser modelades i processades usant un enfocament de programació lògica (iii) que suporti la creació d’un mecanisme de gestió dels perfils dels usuaris en un sistema amb reconeixement del context; (iv) que permeti proposar un marc teòric capaç d’expressar preferències amb fòrmules imbricades. Per últim, amb l’objectiu de disminuir la distància entre programació lògica i la presa de decisió amb incertesa proposem (v) una metodologia basada en programació lògica clàssica i en una extensió de la programació lògica que incorpora lògica possibilística per modelar un problema de presa de decisions i per inferir una decisió òptima.
Los sistemas inteligentes que asisten a usuarios en tareas complejas necesitan una representación concisa y procesable de la información que permita un razonamiento nomonótono e incierto. Para poder escoger entre las diferentes opciones, estos sistemas suelen necesitar una representación del concepto de preferencia. Las preferencias pueden proporcionar una manera efectiva para elegir entre las mejores soluciones a un problema. Dichas soluciones pueden representar los estados del mundo más plausibles cuando hablamos de representación de información incompleta, los estados del mundo más satisfactorios cuando hablamos de preferencias del usuario, o decisiones óptimas cuando estamos hablando de toma de decisión con incertidumbre. El uso de las preferencias ha beneficiado diferentes dominios, como, razonamiento en presencia de información incompleta e incierta, modelado de preferencias de usuario, y toma de decisión con incertidumbre. En la literatura, distintos enfoques simbólicos de razonamiento no clásico han sido creados. Entre ellos, la programación lógica con la semántica de answer set ofrece un buen acercamiento entre representación y procesamiento simbólico del conocimiento, y diferentes extensiones para manejar las preferencias. Sin embargo, en programación lógica se pueden identificar diferentes problemas con respecto al manejo de las preferencias. Por ejemplo, en la mayoría de enfoques de razonamiento no-monótono se asume que las excepciones a default rules de un programa lógico ya están expresadas. Pero, a veces se pueden considerar preferencias implícitas basadas en la especificidad de las reglas para manejar la información incompleta. Además, cuando la información es también incierta, la selección de default rules pueden depender de preferencias explícitas y de la incertidumbre. En el modelado de preferencias, aunque los formalismos existentes basados en programación lógica permitan expresar preferencias que dependen de información contextual e incompleta, in algunas aplicaciones, algunas preferencias en un contexto puede ser más importantes que otras. Por lo tanto, un lenguaje que permita capturar preferencias más complejas es deseable. En la toma de decisiones con incertidumbre, las metodologías basadas en programación lógica creadas hasta ahora no ofrecen una solución del todo satisfactoria al manejo de las preferencias y la incertidumbre. El objectivo de esta tesis es doble: 1) estudiar el rol de las preferencias en programación lógica desde diferentes perspectivas, y 2) contribuir a esta joven área de investigación proponiendo diferentes marcos teóricos y métodos para abordar los problemas anteriormente citados. Para este propósito veremos como las preferencias pueden ser usadas de manera implícita y explícita para la selección de default rules proponiendo: (i) un método para seleccionar reglas en un programa basado en la especificad de las reglas; (ii) un marco teórico para la selección de default rules basado en preferencias explícitas y incertidumbre. También veremos como las preferencias del usuario pueden ser modeladas y procesadas usando un enfoque de programación lógica (iii) para crear un mecanismo de manejo de los perfiles de los usuarios en un sistema con reconocimiento del contexto; (iv) para crear un marco teórico capaz de expresar preferencias con formulas anidadas. Por último, con el objetivo de disminuir la distancia entre programación lógica y la toma de decisión con incertidumbre proponemos (v) una metodología para modelar un problema de toma de decisiones y para inferir una decisión óptima usando un enfoque de programación lógica clásica y uno de programación lógica extendida con lógica posibilística.
Sistemi intelligenti, destinati a fornire supporto agli utenti in processi decisionali complessi, richiedono una rappresentazione dell’informazione concisa, formale e che permetta di ragionare in maniera non monotona e incerta. Per poter scegliere tra le diverse opzioni, tali sistemi hanno bisogno di disporre di una rappresentazione del concetto di preferenza altrettanto concisa e formale. Le preferenze offrono una maniera efficace per scegliere le miglior soluzioni di un problema. Tali soluzioni possono rappresentare gli stati del mondo più credibili quando si tratta di ragionamento non monotono, gli stati del mondo più soddisfacenti quando si tratta delle preferenze degli utenti, o le decisioni migliori quando prendiamo una decisione in condizioni di incertezza. Diversi domini come ad esempio il ragionamento non monotono e incerto, la strutturazione del profilo utente, e i modelli di decisione in condizioni d’incertezza hanno tratto beneficio dalla rappresentazione delle preferenze. Nella bibliografia disponibile si possono incontrare diversi approcci simbolici al ragionamento non classico. Tra questi, la programmazione logica con answer set semantics offre un buon compromesso tra rappresentazione simbolica e processamento dell’informazione, e diversi estensioni per la gestione delle preferenze sono state proposti in tal senso. Nonostante ció, nella programmazione logica esistono ancora delle problematiche aperte. Prima di tutto, nella maggior parte degli approcci al ragionamento non monotono, si suppone che nel programma le eccezioni alle regole siano già specificate. Tuttavia, a volte per trattare l’informazione incompleta è possibile prendere in considerazione preferenze implicite basate sulla specificità delle regole. In secondo luogo, la gestione congiunta di eccezioni e incertezza ha avuto scarsa attenzione: quando l’informazione è incerta, la scelta di default rule può essere una questione di preferenze esplicite e d’incertezza allo stesso tempo. Nella creazione di preferenze dell’utente, anche se le specifiche di programmazione logica esistenti permettono di esprimere preferenze che dipendono sia da un’informazione incompleta che da una contestuale, in alcune applicazioni talune preferenze possono essere più importanti di altre, o espressioni più complesse devono essere supportate. In un processo decisionale con incertezza, le metodologie basate sulla programmazione logica viste sinora, non offrono una gestione soddisfacente delle preferenze e dell’incertezza. Lo scopo di questa dissertazione è doppio: 1) chiarire il ruolo che le preferenze giocano nella programmazione logica da diverse prospettive e 2) contribuire proponendo in questo nuovo settore di ricerca, diversi framework e metodi in grado di affrontare le citate problematiche. Per prima cosa, dimostreremo come le preferenze possono essere usate per selezionare default rule in un programma in maniera implicita ed esplicita. In particolare proporremo: (i) un metodo per la selezione delle regole di un programma logico basato sulla specificità dell’informazione; (ii) un framework per la selezione di default rule basato sulle preferenze esplicite e sull’incertezza associata alle regole del programma. Poi, vedremo come le preferenze degli utenti possono essere modellate attraverso un programma logico, (iii) per creare il profilo dell’utente in un sistema context-aware, e (iv) per proporre un framework che supporti la definizione di preferenze complesse. Infine, per colmare le lacune in programmazione logica applicata a un processo di decisione con incertezza (v) proporremo una metodologia basata sulla programmazione logica classica e una metodologia basata su un’estensione della programmazione logica con logica possibilistica.

Smoking is a leading cause of death worldwide, and thus the behavioural components need to be understood to mitigate the damage caused by the practice. The relationship between smoking and factors such as risk preferences and time preferences has been the subject of a growing body of literature. This paper evaluates experimental data from smokers and nonsmokers at the University of Cape Town collected in 2016 and 2017. Maximum likelihood estimation is used to estimate models of risk preferences and time preferences. The results highlight that smokers are less risk averse than non-smokers; that smokers discount more heavily than non-smokers; that greater smoking intensity is correlated with lower risk aversion; and that greater smoking intensity is not related to discounting behaviour. In some specifications the relationship between smoking intensity and risk aversion is parabolic, and as such moderate smokers are less risk averse than heavy smokers and light smokers. In conclusion, smokers tend to discount more heavily than non-smokers, and lower smoking intensity is associated with greater risk aversion than higher smoking intensity.

The three chapters of this thesis investigate the external validity of social preference games. Chapter 1 reveals the context-dependent nature of human social behavior and shows that it is possible to make lab games much more predictive of field behavior by bringing the right contextual elements from the field into the lab. Chapter 2 shows that social preference games reach moderate correlations with a collection of daily pro-social behaviors when these behaviors are observed and averaged over a longer time period. This suggests that context-free games capture some fundamental aspects of pro-sociality in daily life and that future research on the external validity of these games should pay more attention to social behavior over extended time periods. Chapter 3 presents a systematic investigation of the external validity of social preference games at the workplace by comparing game behavior with organizational behaviors in a group of hotels. The results show that social preference games have a low predictive power in relation to organizational behavior.
Los tres capítulos de esta tesis investigan la validez externa de los juegos de preferencias sociales. El Capítulo 1 revela la naturaleza dependiente del contexto del comportamiento social humano y muestra que es posible hacer que los juegos de laboratorio sean mucho más predictivos del comportamiento de campo si se traen los elementos contextuales correctos del campo al laboratorio. El capítulo 2 muestra que los juegos de preferencias sociales alcanzan correlaciones moderadas con una colección de comportamientos pro-sociales diarios cuando estos comportamientos son observados y agregados a lo largo de un período de tiempo más largo. Esto sugiere que los juegos libres de contexto capturan ciertos aspectos fundamentales de la pro-socialidad en la vida diaria y que la investigación futura sobre la validez externa de estos juegos debería prestar más atención al comportamiento social durante períodos más prolongados. El Capítulo 3 presenta una investigación sistemática de la validez externa de los juegos de preferencias sociales en el lugar de trabajo, comparando el comportamiento en los juegos con comportamientos organizacionales en un grupo de hoteles. Los resultados muestran que los juegos de preferencia social tienen un bajo poder predictivo en relación al comportamiento organizacional.

The dissertation explores individuals' attitudes towards redistribution. Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 present two dynamic theoretical models that are used to analyze the interrelation between education decisions and preferences for redistribution. Chapter 3 uses an empirical approach to study the relationship between segregation, which is measured by assortative mating, and the demand for redistribution
La tesis explora las actitudes de los individuos hacia la redistribución. Los capítulos 1 y 2 presentan dos modelos teóricos dinámicos que se utilizan para analizar la interrelación entre las decisiones educativas y las preferencias de redistribución. El Capítulo 3 utiliza un enfoque empírico para estudiar la relación entre la segregación, que se mide mediante el apareamiento selectivo, y la demanda de redistribución

The aims of this study were to describe the childbirth preferences of nulliparous women in early pregnancy and to develop a model of the predictors of those preferences. Participants were recruited with Facebook advertisements and data were collected from 344 women via online survey. Predictors were measured using the Utah Test for the Childbearing Year. Predictors of childbirth preferences (type of birth care provider, birth setting, mode of delivery, and use/avoidance of pain medication) were tested using structural equation modeling. Conventional content analysis was employed to analyze women’s reasons for selecting the type of provider and setting they expected for their delivery. Although the majority of respondents preferred physicians and hospital birth, the proportions of women who preferred midwifery care and planned home birth were higher than currently access those types of care in the U.S. More respondents preferred to use pain medication than to avoid it. Over 95% of respondents preferred vaginal delivery. Women who had an internal locus of control and perceived their childbearing role to be one of active participation were more likely than women who saw their role as a passive one to prefer midwifery care, home birth, vaginal delivery, and to avoid pain medication. Women who saw the provider’s role as dominant to their own were more likely to prefer physicians and hospital birth than those who viewed the provider’s role as a collaborative one. The more fearful/painful women expected birth to be, the more likely they were to prefer cesarean delivery.

The research presented in this PhD dissertation examines the phenomenon of semantic implicit learning, using semantic preferences of novel verbs as a test case. Implicit learning refers to the phenomenon of learning without intending to learn or awareness that one is learning at all. Semantic preference (or selectional preference – as preferred in computational linguistics) is the tendency of a word to co-occur with words sharing similar semantic features. For example, ‘drink’ is typically followed by nouns denoting LIQUID, and the verb ‘chase’ is typically followed by ANIMATE nouns. The material presented here spans across disciplines. It examines a well-documented psychological phenomenon - implicit learning – and applies it in the context of language acquisition, thereby providing insights into both fields. The organisation of this dissertation groups its experiments by their methodology. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the current psychological and linguistic literature. Chapter 2 includes a pen-and-paper study carried out in a classroom environment on Polish learners of English, where awareness is assessed by subjective measures taken at each test question as well as a post-experiment questionnaire. Chapter 3 includes a collection of 5 computer-based experiments based on a false-memory paradigm. After exposure to sentential contexts containing novel verbs, participants are shown to endorse more previously unseen verb-noun pairings that follow the correct semantic preference patterns to the pairings that violate it. The result holds even when participants do not reveal any explicit knowledge of the patterns in the final debriefing. Awareness is additionally assessed using indirect measures examining correlations of confidence judgements with performance. Chapter 4 examines whether implicit learning of novel verb semantic preference patterns is automatic. To this end, a reaction time procedure is developed based on two consecutive decisions (“double decision priming”). The method reveals that semantic implicit learning, at least in the described cases, exerts its influence with a delay, in post-processing. Chapter 5 comprises research done in collaboration with Dr Nitin Williams, University of Reading. It documents an attempt at finding neural indices of implicit learning using a novel single-trial analysis of an electroencephalographic (EEG) signal, based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) denoising. Chapter 6 presents a final discussion and indications for future research. The main contribution of this dissertation to the general field of implicit learning research consists in its challenging the predominant view that implicit learning mainly relies on similarity of forms presented in training and test. The experiments presented here require participants to make generalisations at a higher, semantic level, which is largely independent of perceptual form. The contribution of this work to the field of Second Language Acquisition consists of empirical support for the currently popular but seldom tested assumptions held by advocates of communicative approaches to language teaching, namely that certain aspects of linguistic knowledge can develop without explicit instruction and explanation. At the same time, it challenges any view assuming that vocabulary learning necessarily relies on explicit mediation. The experiments collected here demonstrate that at least word usage in context can be learnt implicitly. A further contribution of this dissertation is its demonstration that the native language may play a key role in determining what is learnt in such situations. A deeper understanding of the phenomenon of semantic implicit learning promises to shed light on the nature of word and grammar learning in general, which is crucial for an account of the processes involved in the development of a second language mental lexicon.

Understanding consumers' preferences is central in marketing. Their tendency to prefer products of domestic rather than foreign origin, and the impact their emotional and affective state has on their purchasing decisions are well-documented in the literature. This thesis connects these two research themes by examining the impact feelings of nostalgia have on ethnocentric product preferences. The focus on nostalgia is not accidental. Advertising and marketing campaigns of several multinational companies have recently attempted to trigger such feelings amongst consumers in order to promote their products. The thesis begins by offering a more robust investigation for the presence of country of origin effects and the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on it, using a multi- cultural sample and measuring individuals' actual preferences. Using separate inducements for nostalgia - at the 'personal' level, referring to past events the consumers experienced alone, and at the 'collective' level, referring to past events the consumers experienced in the company of others - it proceeds by providing evidence suggesting that feelings of nostalgia significantly increase preferences for domestic products, as well as ratings of their perceived quality. Both inducements have similar effects on preferences and ratings. Subsequently investigating the underlying psychological mechanism responsible for the effect of nostalgia on ethnocentric product preferences, the thesis provides evidence that self-reported 'meaning of life' - a composite measure previously linked to nostalgia - is a significant mediator of this effect; having a significantly positive indirect effect on both preferences for and ratings of domestic products. The thesis concludes by discussing the implications these findings have for man- agerial practice and outlining future directions for marketing research in this field.

The Internet has become an important medium for disseminating information about archaeology to the public. Research by archaeologists on how they can use the Internet is in its infancy. This thesis examines an Indigenous group's perspectives on the delivery of archaeological content through websites. The Spirit Camp archaeological site is located in Stó:lo Territory in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia. The Spirit Camp website project was created to explore the Stó:lo people's preference regarding graphic design and interactivity in two otherwise identical websites. Understanding Indigenous perspectives is essential for collaborative projects and is beneficial to both archaeology and Indigenous communities if done with respect and trust, as this can lead to a better understanding of history. This thesis discusses and analyzes feedback obtained from the Stó:lo about the two Spirit Camp websites and the dissemination of knowledge about their ancestors via the Internet. The more graphical website guides the viewer with a storybook-like interface while the other website allows readers to view material in plain text with a standard menu and scrollbar. Feedback from 24 participants was collected through an individual survey questionnaire, and three age-based focus groups: youths, adults, and Elders. This research shows that enhanced graphic design and increased levels of interactivity in websites do influence website preference. Elders telling stories, colour, photos, games, music and moving objects are examples cited by Stó:lo members as additions to future websites which enhance their experience. All the male participants preferred the more graphic website, while women's preferences were 53% in favour of the more graphical website. Data from the focus groups demonstrates that viewers' opinions vary by gender and age. This research informs us how to effectively work with and respect Indigenous peoples. It does so by suggesting the use of culturally sensitive methods, such as interviews and focus groups, to acquire Indigenous perspectives on the presentation and dissemination of archaeological information.
Arts, Faculty of
Anthropology, Department of
Graduate

Little is known about how liking for different foods develops from birth to adulthood. Although there are both cultural and sensory aspects to the development of food preferences, the focus of this study is on the sensory aspects of food preference development, in particular, preferences for meat. Two main aims are addressed : 1/. To develop a robust methodology that can be used to determine pre-literate and recently literate children's liking for different foods and the determinants of that liking. 2/. To investigate the effects of early experience with foods on later food preferences.Several tests were conducted and results noted. Overall the results of this thesis show that it is possible to gather reliable hedonic data from young, even pre-school children, and that it is possible that very early feeding experience has some influence on adults' food preferences.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, 2007.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-09, Section: A, page: 3999. Advisers: Charles Trzcinka; Andrey Ukhov. Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 5, 2008).

This dissertation comprises three essays. The theme that unifies them is "experiments on corruption and preferences." The first essay (chapter 2) reports theory-testing experiments on the effect of yardstick competition (a form of government competition) on corruption. The second essay (chapter 3) reports theory-testing experiments on the effect of efficiency and transparency on corruption. Furthermore, this essay revisits the yardstick competition question by implementing an alternative experimental design and protocol. Finally, the third essay (chapter 4) reports a theory-testing randomized field experiment that identifies the causes and consequences of corruption. The first essay finds the following. Theoretically, the paper derives a main proposition which suggests that institutions with more noise give rise to an increase in corrupt behavior and a decrease in voter welfare. Empirically, the paper finds a few key results. First, there are an initial nontrivial proportion of good incumbents in the population. This proportion goes down as the experiment session progresses. Secondly, a large proportion of bad incumbents make theoretically inconsistent choices given the assumptions of the model. Third, overall evidence of yardstick competition is mild. Yardstick competition has little effect as a corruption-taming mechanism when the proportion of good incumbents is low. Namely, an institution that is characterized by a small number of good incumbents has little room for yardstick competition, since bad incumbents are likely to be replaced by equally bad incumbents. Thus, incumbents have less of an incentive to build a reputation. This is also the case in which (1) yardstick competition leads to non-increasing voter welfare and (2) voters are more likely to re-elect bad domestic incumbents. Finally, a partitioning of the data by gender suggests that males and females exhibit different degrees of learning depending on the payoffs they face. Furthermore, male voter behavior exhibits mild evidence of yardstick competition when voters face the pooling equilibrium payoff. The second essay finds the following. First, efficiency is an important determinant of corruption. A decrease in efficiency makes it more costly for incumbents to "do the right thing." This drives them to divert maximum rents. While voters retaliate slightly, voters tend to be worse off. Secondly, increased lack of a particular form of transparency (as defined in terms of an increase in risk in the distribution of the unit cost) leaves corrupt incumbent behavior unchanged. In particular, if the draw of the unit cost is unfavorable, incumbents tend to be less corrupt. Third, there is strong evidence of yardstick competition. On the incumbent's side, yardstick competition acts as a corruption-taming mechanism if the incumbent is female. On the voter's side, voters are less likely to re-elect the incumbent in the presence of yardstick competition. Specifically, voters pay attention to the difference between the tax signal in their own jurisdiction and that in another. As this difference increases, voters re-elect less. This gives true meaning to the concept of "benchmarking." Finally, the analysis sheds light on the role of history and beliefs on behavior. Beliefs are an important determinant of incumbents' choices. If an incumbent perceives a tax signal to be associated with a higher likelihood of re-election, he is more likely to choose it. On the voter's side, history tends to be important. In particular, voters are more likely to vote out incumbents as time progresses. This suggests that incumbents care about tax signals because they provide access to re-elections while voters use the history of taxes and re-elections in addition to current taxes to formulate their re-election decisions. Finally, the third essay finds the following. First, 19.08% of mail is lost. Secondly, money mail is more likely to be lost at a rate of 20.90% and this finding is significant at the 10% level. This finding suggests that loss of mail is systematic (non-random), which implies that this type of corruption is due to strategic behavior as opposed to plain shirking on the part of mail handlers. Third, we find that loss of mail is non-random across other observables. In particular, middle-income neighborhoods are more likely to experience lost (money) mail. Also, female heads of household in low-income neighborhoods are more likely to experience lost mail while female heads of household in high-income neighborhoods are much less likely to experience lost (money) mail. Finally, this form of corruption is costly to different stakeholders. The sender of mail bears a direct and an indirect cost. The direct cost is the value of the mail. The indirect cost is the cost of having to switch carriers once mail has been lost. Corruption is also costly to the intended mail recipient as discussed above. Finally, corruption is costly the mail company (SERPOST) in terms of lost revenue and to society in terms of loss of trust. Overall, the findings suggest that public-private partnerships need not increase efficiency by reducing corruption; particularly, when the institution remains a monopoly. Increased efficiency in mail delivery is likely to require (1) privatization and (2) competition; otherwise, the monopolist has no incentive to provide better service and loss of mail is likely to persist.

Emissions of carbon dioxide, dioxins, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter as well as use of non-renewable resources and energy are some important sustainability challenges for the Swedish steel industry. Much effort has been made, mainly by technical solutions, which to a high degree have decreased the emissions during the last 30 years. Technical solutions however will not be sufficient to reach sustainable development, stakeholder involvement is also necessary. Stakeholder theory states that stake­holder involvement must include a dialog between the stakeholders involved and the operation. The first step in this process is to identify which key issues the stakeholders find most important and then the organisation needs to start interact with its stakeholders. This thesis deals with such issues. Stakeholder preferences for environmental issues were assessed with conjoint analysis, Q-methodology and focus group discussions. The theory of planned behaviour was used to assess how attitudes were connected to background factors and a potential pro-environmental behaviour. Five studies have been carried out in the framework of this thesis. The studies include: a literature review, method evaluation, evaluation of environ­mental objectives in stakeholder groups, screening of relevant factors, evaluation of steel environmental characteristics, identification of barriers to the introduction of new materials and the im­pact of worry and risk perception on strategic environmental decisions. It can be concluded that the methods applied in the studies work well in eliciting preferences. It has been possible to show how different stakeholder groups as well as individuals prioritise environmental objectives and sustaina­bility issues. Since individuals within a stakeholder group vary considerably in preferences, the results from this thesis show the importance of illustrating results on an individual level instead of the traditional group level. Also, a method has been tested where the results were brought back to the respondents in order to stimulate discussions between different stakeholder groups.

Chapter 1 introduces the thesis providing an overview of the common themes and methods underlying this research. Chapter 2 reports an experiment that examines the characteristics of effective leaders in a leader-follower voluntary contributions game. We focus on two factors: leaders’ cooperativeness and their beliefs about followers’cooperativeness. We find that groups perform best when led by cooperatively inclined leaders, partly because they are intrinsically motivated to contribute more than non-cooperative leaders, partly because they are more optimistic about followers’ cooperativeness. Chapter 3 reports an experiment comparing sequential and simultaneous contributions to a public good in a quasi-linear two-person setting. As predicted, we find that overall provision may be lower under sequential than simultaneous contributions. However, we also find that the distribution of contributions is more equitable than predicted when the first-mover is predicted to free-ride, but not when the second-mover is predicted to free-ride. These results can be explained by second-movers’ willingness to punish free-riders, and unwillingness to reward first-movers who contribute. Chapter 4 investigates the impact of social comparisons on reciprocal relationships. Using a three-person gift- exchange game we study how employees’ reciprocity towards an employer is affected by pay comparison information (information about what co-workers earn) and effort comparison information (information about how co-workers perform). We find that pay comparison information does not affect reciprocity, while effort comparison information can influence reciprocal relationships in important ways. Chapter 5 also examines the impact of pay comparisons on effort behaviour. We compare effort in a treatment where co-workers’ wages are secret with effort in two ‘public wages’ treatments differing in whether co-workers’ wages are chosen by an employer, or are fixed exogenously by the experimenter. We find that pay comparisons are detrimental for effort, particularly when coworkers’ wages are exogenous. Chapter 6 summarises the findings of this research and concludes.

Despite continued polarization along political party lines, it remains unclear how differences in political ideology impact the choices consumers make. The results of seven studies indicate that political ideology profoundly influences the way consumers think and behave. Liberals and conservatives are systematically drawn to distinct choice preferences where liberals prefer hedonic, novel, and desirable options, while conservatives prefer utilitarian, status quo, and feasible options. These findings are robust for multiple measures of political ideology across multiple choice sets. Differences in behavior are explained by the amount of deliberation used for a given decision. Liberals deliberate more than conservatives as they are more open to information while conservatives have a lower tolerance for ambiguous information. Implications for consumers, marketers, and policy makers are provided.

This study involved a survey of 164 undergraduate students and sought to determine whether relationships exist between 1) religiosity and preferences for a counselor's use of religious interventions in counseling, and 2) gender and preferences for a counselor's use of religious intelentions in counseling. It was hypothesized that high religiosity in students would be related to a strong preferences for a counselor's use of religious interventions. It was also hypothesized that females would show stronger preferences for religious interventions in counseling. Results supported both hypotheses, indicating that a significant relationship exists between religiosity and preferences for religious interventions, and between gender and preferences for religious interventions. These results have important implications for counselors working with religious clients.
Department of Secondary, Higher, and Foundations of Education

This thesis describes a series of studies that investigated sources of individual differences in face preferences. Chapter 1 summarises previous work identifying the visual parameters that influence the attractiveness of faces (e.g., sexual dimorphism, symmetry, averageness, apparent health) and discusses sources of individual differences in face preferences (e.g., menstrual cycle phase, own attractiveness, visual adaptation). Chapter 2 and 3 report a series of 3 studies that investigated the role that changes in testosterone level might play in cyclic (Chapter 2) and diurnal (Chapter 3) variation in women’s preferences for masculinity in men’s faces.  Chapter 4 and 5 examined the relationship between reported general (i.e., trait) sex drive and women’s masculinity preferences (Chapter 4) and current (i.e., state) sexual motivation and women’s masculinity preferences (Chapter 5).  Chapter 6 describes a study that tested for positive association between inter-individual variation in testosterone levels and women’s masculinity preferences.  The final experiment chapter (Chapter 7) investigated whether aversions to facial cues of illness (e.g., pallor) reflect contagion avoidance behaviour by testing for an association between individual differences in perceived vulnerability to disease and aversions to facial cues of illness.  The findings described in this thesis are evidence that testosterone level, sex drive/sexual motivation and perceived vulnerability to disease are sources of potentially adaptive variation in face preferences.

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2018.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
Schools in New York City are deeply segregated by both race and class. The confluent forces of residential segregation and family school preference have led to increasingly segregated schools since the 1980s. The New York City Department of Education (DOE) has taken steps to desegregate schools since a 2014 report by the UCLA Civil Rights Project named New York State the state with the most segregated schools. Though the DOE is doing more to address segregation than most districts, their efforts are still cautious, careful not to alienate the high status families it sees as necessary for racial and economic integration. Additionally, the Department of Education is working towards school 'diversity' but their policy fails to adequately address the closely linked issue of ongoing education inequality. This project explores how parent choice impacts school segregation, provides recommendations for how the DOE should address parent choice in its diversity policy and develops a framework for moving beyond desegregation to build deep and stable integration in city schools.
by Megan Hess-Homeier.
M.C.P.

Thesis: M.B.A., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2016.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 69-73).
Flowers are often gifted for major holidays and personal holidays, for both personal and corporate purposes. Today's solutions in the market are abundant but scattered, with many players offering products of varying quality at a range of price points. To command higher prices and stay relevant in the market, florists need to distinguish themselves through high quality and/or niche product and ease of service. The goal for this project is to map the current competitive landscape and supply chain of the flower industry, and to determine whether predictive modeling in the floral industry is feasible as a point of difference for new gifting company Clovette. Data collection through distribution of a survey called "Discovering Floral Preference" assessed the potential for prediction. Furthermore, the project explores Clovette's brand identity and potential "good" business development through sustainability initiatives and supply chain optimization. Keywords: random forest, predictive modeling, flowers, gifting, sustainability.
by Jeeyun Jennifer Lee.
M.B.A.

This Ph.D. thesis contains four independent essays. The essays are summarized as follows. Essay I: Status quos and the prosociality of intuitive decision making This study investigates how the prosociality of intuitive choices depends on the presence of a status quo. I present the results of a dictator game experiment with a non-student sample. The dictator game is a choice between a selfish option and a fair and efficient option, and has either no status quo, a selfish status quo or a fair status quo. Intuitive choices are elicited in two ways, by an exogenous variation in time pressure and by measuring response times. I find that time pressure decreases the share of fair choices in decisions without a status quo, but has no effect in the presence of a status quo. Fair and selfish choices have equal response times in a decision without a status quo, whereas the status quo option is always chosen faster, i.e. fast choices are fair under a fair status quo and selfish under a selfish status quo. This suggests that the decision context critically affects whether intuitive choices are prosocial or selfish. Essay II: Risk preferences and the demand for redistribution If individuals view redistributive policy as an insurance against future negative economic shocks, then the demand for redistribution increases in individual risk aversion. We provide a direct test of the correlation between the demand for redistribution and individual risk aversion in a customized survey and find that they are strongly and robustly positively correlated: more risk averse people demand more redistribution. We also replicate the results from previous literature and, on the one hand, find that the demand for redistribution is positively correlated with altruism, the belief that individual economic success is the result of luck rather than effort, a working-class parental background and downward mobility experience and expectations. On the other hand, preferences for redistribution are negatively correlated with income, a conservative political ideology and upward mobility experience and expectations. The magnitude of the correlation between risk aversion and the demand for redistribution is comparable to the magnitude of these previously identified, and here replicated, correlates.  Essay III: Omission effects in trolley problems with economic outcomes This paper tests how ethical views and hypothetical choices in a trolley problem with economic outcomes depend on whether an outcome is the result of an action or an omission. In a vignette experiment, subjects read about a spectator that harms one person in order to save five others from harm either by taking an action or by omission, whereas the outcomes are either death or loss of property. The results show that the distinction between harmful actions and harmful omissions is significantly smaller in the economic domain, suggesting that omission effects in trolley problems are domain-specific. A comparison of moral views about harmful actions across outcome domains shows that this difference is driven by subjects being more outcome-focused when property rather than lives are at stake.  Essay IV: Is there an omission effect in prosocial behavior? We investigate whether individuals are more prone to act selfishly if they can passively allow for an outcome to be implemented (omission) rather than having to make an active choice (commission). In most settings, active and passive choice alternatives differ in terms of factors such as the presence of a suggested option, costs of taking an action, and awareness. We isolate the omission effect from confounding factors in two experiments, and find no evidence that the distinction between active and passive choices has an independent effect on the propensity to implement selfish outcomes. This suggests that increased selfishness through omission, as observed in various economic choice situations, is driven by other factors than a preference for selfish omissions.