Virtually any inferential statistical analysis relies on distributional assumptions of some kind. The violation of distributional assumptions can result in consequences ranging from small changes to ...error rates through to substantially biased estimates and parameters fundamentally losing their intended interpretations. Conventionally, researchers have conducted assumption checks after collecting data, and then changed the primary analysis technique if violations of distributional assumptions are observed. An approach to dealing with distributional assumptions that requires decisions to be made contingent on observed data is problematic, however, in preregisteredresearch, where researchers attempt to specify all important analysis decisions prior to collecting data. Limited methodological advice is currently available regarding how to deal with the prospect of distributional assumption violations in preregistered research. In this article, we examine several strategies that researchers could use in preregistrations to reduce the potential impact of distributional assumption violations. We suggest that pre-emptively selecting analysis methods that are as robust as possible to assumption violations, performing planned robustness analyses, and/or supplementing preregistered confirmatory analyses with exploratory checks of distributional assumptions may all be useful strategies. On the other hand, we suggest that prespecifying “decision trees” for selecting data analysis methods based on the distributional characteristics of the data may not be practical in most situations.
Infants look longer and explore more following violations-of-expectation, but the reasons for these surprise-induced behaviors are unclear. One possibility is that expectancy violations heighten ...arousal generally, thereby increasing infants’ post-surprise activity. Another possibility is that infants’ exploration reflects the search for an explanation for the surprising event. We tested these alternatives in three experiments. First in Experiment 1 we confirmed that seeing an object violate expectations (by passing through a solid wall) increased infants’ exploration of the surprising object, relative to when no expectancy violation was seen. Then in Experiment 2 we measured infants’ exploration after they had seen the same violation event, but then an explanation for the event was provided (the wall was revealed to have a large hole in it). We found that providing this explanation abolished infants’ surprise-induced exploration. In Experiment 3 we replicated this effect. Furthermore, we found that the longer infants looked at the explanation, the greater their reversal in exploratory preference (i.e., the more they ignored the surprising object). These findings demonstrate that preverbal infants both seek and recognize explanations for surprising events.
•Infants preferentially explore objects that violated their expectations.•We asked whether this surprise-induced exploration reflects explanation-seeking.•Infants showed heightened object exploration following a solidity violation.•This exploration stopped if infants were provided a plausible explanation of the event.•Individual differences in processing the explanation predicted exploratory behavior.
•In most previous studies on the vertical impact of supervisors on individual workers’ safety behaviours, scholars focused primarily on supervisors’ positive leadership styles and managerial ...skills.•However, there has been limited research on the impact of supervisors’ negative aspects, especially the social contagion effect of their safety violations during task implementation.•Despite arguments that the formation of an unsafe behavioural norm within a construction crew is at least partly due to supervisors’ influence (Conchie et al., 2013; Vicki Kaskutas et al., 2013), this is the first study to provide empirical evidence of the social contagion effect of supervisors’ safety violations on individuals.•Therefore, this research can provide some meaningful insights into how to further prevent safety violations in the construction industry.
Safety violations are prevalent on a construction site; thus, it is necessary to understand the supervisory practices that facilitate the propagation of these behaviours. This research explores this phenomenon by investigating an integrative model regarding the social contagion effect of supervisors’ safety violations within a construction crew. The findings indicate that individuals are more likely to break safety rules when perceiving their supervisors’ safety violations. This research distinguishes between situational and routine safety violations. Specifically, supervisors’ situational safety violations are more socially contagious than their routine safety violations. Furthermore, supervisors’ situational safety violations have indirect effects on individuals, mainly through leader–member exchange and workers’ safety involvement. By contrast, supervisors’ routine safety violations have indirect effects on individuals, mainly through management safety commitment and enforcement of safety rules and procedures. In addition, workers with a low education level are more likely to perform situational safety violations, whereas workers lacking work experience are more inclined to perform routine safety violations. Theoretical and practical implications and associated research limitations are also discussed in this paper.
We examine the effect of corporate violations on bank loan contracting and document that borrowers with higher corporate violation penalties have higher loan costs. Higher corporate violations are ...also associated with more restrictive covenants and a higher likelihood of a collateral requirement. The increasing effect of corporate violations on loan costs is concentrated in opaque firms or those subject to more competitive markets or ineffective monitoring. Firms with higher violation penalties have lower future performance and a higher number of future violations. Overall, our results demonstrate that banks factor corporate violations into their lending decisions, thus shedding new light on the economic consequences of corporate violations through the creditors’ lens.
Chatbots have become common in digital customer service contexts across many industries. While many companies choose to humanize their customer service chatbots (e.g., giving them names and avatars), ...little is known about how anthropomorphism influences customer responses to chatbots in service settings. Across five studies, including an analysis of a large real-world data set from an international telecommunications company and four experiments, the authors find that when customers enter a chatbot-led service interaction in an angry emotional state, chatbot anthropomorphism has a negative effect on customer satisfaction, overall firm evaluation, and subsequent purchase intentions. However, this is not the case for customers in nonangry emotional states. The authors uncover the underlying mechanism driving this negative effect (expectancy violations caused by inflated pre-encounter expectations of chatbot efficacy) and offer practical implications for managers. These findings suggest that it is important to both carefully design chatbots and consider the emotional context in which they are used, particularly in customer service interactions that involve resolving problems or handling complaints.
Firms are increasingly looking to eradicate social and environmental non‐compliances at their suppliers in response to increasing regulations, consumer demand, potential for supply chain disruptions, ...and to improve their social, environmental, and economic supply chain performance. This study develops a model of the relationship between the buyer's supplier incentives and penalties for the supplier's social and environmental compliance, and the outcomes in terms of reduction in supplier social and environmental violations as well as the buyer's own operating costs. This model is tested empirically through analysis of a dataset of opinion‐based survey responses from practitioners at 334 companies across 17 industries. The analysis finds specific penalties and incentives that are positively associated with reduced supplier violations and reduced buyer operating costs. In particular, offering suppliers incentives of increased business and training for improving social and environmental performance is strongly associated with a reduction in both violations and operating costs.
Abstract
We examine spatial patterns of three types of Environmental Protection Agency violation, hazardous waste, water, and air quality, at the facility level. Since facilities operate ...independently, our null hypothesis is that their violations should be spatially randomly distributed. That is, we do not expect to observe spatial clusters of violations. In addition, systemic factors such as socio-demographic characteristics as well as environmental justice indices should not correlate with violations. Empirically, we find both hypotheses are refuted. Our findings confirm that environmental inequalities have been exacerbated by underlying social vulnerabilities, particularly in the case of Native Indian territories, which consistently show a disproportionately high number of environmental violations. We identify ‘hot spots’, spatial clusters where the number of violations is higher than expected in such a way that cannot be explained by socio-demographic or environmental factors. These hot spots call for local case studies to further investigate causes of spatial clustering of violations.
We experimentally investigated psychological responses of bystanders to violations of moral codes to find out why divinity violations may be more effective for gaining victimhood status than autonomy ...violations in real-world intergroup conflicts. In particular, we considered how anger versus disgust responses are differentially invoked by violations of autonomy versus divinity ethics. Two experiments compared autonomy versus divinity violations in interaction with two other parameters known to produce different effects: level of harm (Experiment 1) and differential intergroup power (Experiment 2). Overall, we found support for the proposed dissociation in anger versus disgust responses to autonomy versus divinity violations in a way that the anger responses to autonomy violations were amplified but disgust responses to divinity violations were not affected when the moral violation was more harmful and the perpetrator was more powerful than the victim. We discuss the implications of the cognitive processes involved in considering autonomy versus divinity violations, and the functionality for parties to intergroup conflict of accusing the opponent of divinity violations.
Rule violation, perpetrators, and enforcement of environmental crime. Empirical insights from two recent studiesLittle empirical evidence exists about (rule violations of) perpetrators of ...environmental crime in the Netherlands and the effectiveness of government interventions through administrative and criminal law enforcement. The present article brings together insights from two recent empirical studies and describes the common threads that can be distilled from these two complementary studies regarding perpetrators, sanctions and recidivism. The results show that, among both companies and individuals, a small group of perpetrators is responsible for a majority of violations and offenses and that the criminal sanctions imposed differ between companies and individuals. The article discusses the findings on recidivism and effectiveness, draws conclusions and discusses future research.
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