Primates of several species respond negatively to receiving less preferred rewards than a partner for completing the same task (inequity responses), either rejecting rewards or refusing to ...participate in the task when disadvantaged. This has been linked to cooperation, with species that cooperate frequently refusing to participate in inequity tasks (the ‘cooperation hypothesis’). However, inequity is a social response, and previous research has involved dyads, precluding studying the effects of additional social partners. While dyads allow for tighter control in experimental settings, dyadic interactions in nature do not take place in a social vacuum, so understanding the role of the social context is needed to verify that the pattern of results supports the cooperation hypothesis. Here we focus on Bolivian squirrel monkeys, Saimiri boliviensis, a highly social species that does not generally cooperate and has not responded to inequity in previous dyadic research, although they do respond to receiving a lower reward than they expected. In the current study, we provide a more nuanced test by studying female Bolivian squirrel monkeys, the demographic most likely to cooperate in both field and laboratory contexts, in a more socially relevant group setting. For some reward values, females responded in both the inequity condition, rejecting less preferred rewards when they were disadvantaged relative to their social group, and a contrast condition, wherein all animals received a lower reward than they expected, making it difficult to disentangle contrast from inequity. As in capuchin monkeys, refusals increased when monkeys were to receive low-value rewards compared to medium-value rewards. These results suggest that the relationship between cooperation and inequity responses may be more nuanced than previously suggested, with demographic, social context and reward value potentially influencing outcomes even within species.
•We tested female squirrel monkeys' responses to inequitable payoffs in a group setting.•Females responded to contrast, a response previously documented only in males.•Low-value rewards were rejected more with contrast and inequity than with equity.•Reward value and social context may both influence study outcomes.
We study a game in which players negotiate the allocation of costs resulting from a negative externality, such as pollution-induced economic costs. Our goal is to explore the feasibility of ...preventing externalities through ex-post negotiations to share the associated burden. We demonstrate that the unanimity rule results in complete pollution due to the veto power of players, allowing them to avoid paying more than their proportional share. Conversely, under the majority rule, multiple equilibria emerge. Pollution can be avoided if players are expected to form a coalition to penalize the largest polluter, thus establishing a credible threat of liability. However, experimental findings indicate the inefficacy of both rules in reducing pollution. Although a significant proportion of high polluters are held accountable, pollution persists due to instances where high polluters use their agenda-setting power to avoid paying. Our study underscores the muted influence of equity considerations in obtaining efficient outcomes when bargaining over costs, which has important implications for ongoing climate change loss and damage negotiations.
Commentary – Structural Racism Gee, Gilbert C.; Hicken, Margaret T.
Ethnicity & disease,
05/2021, Letnik:
31
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Why do racial inequalities endure despite numerous attempts to expand civil rights in certain sectors? A major reason for this endurance is due to lack of attention to structural racism. Although ...structural and institutional racism are often conflated, they are not the same. Herein, we provide an analogy of a “bucky ball” (Buckminsterfullerene) to distinguish the two concepts. Structural racism is a system of interconnected institutions that operates with a set of racialized rules that maintain White supremacy. These connections and rules allow racism to reinvent itself into new forms and persist, despite civil rights interventions directed at specific institutions. To illustrate these ideas, we provide examples from the fields of environmental justice, criminal justice, and medicine. Racial inequities in power and health will persist until we redirect our gaze away from specific institutions (and specific individuals), and instead focus on the resilient connections among institutions and their racialized rules.
•We validated the causal role of the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) associated with prosocial behavior in inequity.•1.5-mA 20-min tDCS could change the subjects’ inequity aversion in ...disadvantageous inequity.•tDCS over the dmPFC decreased the aversion to disadvantageous inequity, but not advantageous inequity.•The costs of establishing equal outcomes modulated the tDCS effects.
Human beings have a strong preference for the fair distribution of resources in situations of both advantageous and disadvantageous inequity. Neuroimaging studies have shown that the process of advantageous and disadvantageous inequity aversion involves distinct brain regions. However, little is known about the causal roles of the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) in these two types of inequity aversion. To clarify the roles of the dmPFC in both types of inequity aversion, 70 subjects were recruited and randomly assigned to two anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) groups: tDCS over the dmPFC and tDCS over the primary visual cortex. Participants then completed a dictator game, which was used to measure the aversion to inequity. This study found that tDCS over the dmPFC decreased the aversion to disadvantageous inequity, but not that to advantageous inequity, and the treatment effect was modulated by equity cost. These results show that the dmPFC plays different roles in these two types of inequity aversion.
Background: Assessment of communicable diseases surveillance officers is one of the important aspects of the detection of obstacles that prevent the development of surveillance system, which would ...certainly affect their control programs. Objectives: To assess the Competencies of communicable diseases' surveillance officers in all Iraqi provinces Subjects and Methods: A cross sectional study from the15th March to 30th September 2019 in which all the communicable diseases' surveillance officers (136) that are employed by Ministry of Health all over Iraq were included. A structured questionnaire developed by the researcher and filled by them. The questionnaire form gathered demographic data, service characteristics and status of competencies including basic epidemiology, biostatistics, surveillance, outbreak investigation, rapid response to health incidence and developing scientific reports. Results: The response rate was 85.3%, about half of surveillance officers was responsible for less than 10 Primary Health Care Centre. More than half of them (55.3%) were responsible for 1-2 hospitals. Their age ranged between 21 and 62 years and the males constituted more than three quarters (78.4%) of the study sample, Diploma was the highest educational certificate. 15.6% of the sample did not attend any training activity. Cholera has been the most frequently reported incident (53.8%). Conclusions: The surveillance system in Iraq at district level was operated mainly by low qualified and under-trained health personnel. There is inequity in distribution of workload and training sessions between surveillance officers in health offices, therefore redistribution is recommended. Supporting continuous training programs with increase incentives.
Children are notoriously inequity averse: they tend to respond negatively when someone else receives more than them for the same work. Here we suggest that children's inequity aversion is more ...nuanced than it might appear at first glance. Specifically, we argue that children's negative reaction to inequity is powerfully shaped by a simple factor: whether or not they have a sense of agency in creating the outcomes in question. We hypothesize that a sense of agency, or control over the resource allocation, reduces children's inequity aversion and increases their satisfaction with another child receiving more than them. In two experiments (N = 417) utilizing a within-subject design, children aged 4 to 10 years old were asked to rate their satisfaction with an allocation in which another child received more than them. In one condition they were the ones choosing the allocation (“agency condition”), whereas in another condition they could not affect the allocation (“no-agency condition”). In line with our hypothesis, children reported being more satisfied with disadvantageous inequity when they had agency than when they did not (Experiment 1). They were also more satisfied with a disadvantageous allocation when they had agency than when the same allocation was created using an impartial lottery (Experiment 2). The agency effect did not depend on age. Taken together, our findings suggest a degree of sophistication in children's reactions to inequity and provide a practical allocation tool that can be used by parents and educators.
•Agency increased 4–10-year-olds' satisfaction with disadvantageous inequity.•Agency increased satisfaction even within participants.•An agency procedure outperformed an impartial procedure (lottery).•Agency procedures can serve as a useful tool for resource allocation among children.
In Pursuit of Health Equity in Pediatrics Montoya-Williams, Diana; Peña, Michelle-Marie; Fuentes-Afflick, Elena
The Journal of pediatrics. X,
01/2020, Letnik:
5
Journal Article
Scientific names that refer to people are called eponyms and are chosen by species authors as honorific, meaningful, or symbolic. Herein, female and male personal eponyms were analyzed from a dataset ...of 4,915 molluscan species within eight regions worldwide. Eponyms were 12.5% of all species names, within which 10.6% (n = 65) were female and 89.4% (n = 550) were male. Among gastropods, female eponyms accounted for 3.4–18.9% of eponymous species names; male eponyms were 81.1–96.6%. Among bivalves, species names within five of eight regions included no female eponyms. Cephalopod and chiton species included 22 male eponyms and no female eponyms. Scientists and naturalists were honored as the source of 29.2% of female eponyms and 64.6% of male eponyms. First names were the source of 63.1% of female eponyms and 4.6% of male eponyms. Last names were the source of 93.8% of male eponyms and 35.4% of female eponyms. The most eponyms for a woman (n = 4) honor 20th century American malacologist, A. Myra Keen; the most eponyms for a man (n = 6) honor two 19th century English naturalists, Thomas Nuttall and Robert Swinhoe. Gender asymmetry in molluscan eponyms likely reflects barriers to women's participation in malacology, taxonomy, and systematics until the late 20th century. Recognition of this inequity should inform discussions about female representation in scientific names and provide context for understanding the history of eponyms and the people they honor.
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