Download or read book Social Psychology of Consumer Behavior written by Michaela Wanke and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2008-12-16 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides coverage of the latest social-psychological research into consumer behavior, including cognitive and affective processes, media influences, and self-regulation.

Download or read book How Change Happens written by Cass R. Sunstein and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “illuminating” study that reveals the different ways social change occurs—for readers of Freakonomics and Thinking, Fast and Slow (The New York Times) How does social change happen? When do social movements take off? Sexual harassment was once something that women had to endure; now a movement has risen up against it. White nationalist sentiments, on the other hand, were largely kept out of mainstream discourse; now there is no shortage of media outlets for them. In this book, with the help of behavioral economics, psychology, and other fields, Cass Sunstein casts a bright new light on how change happens. Sunstein focuses on the crucial role of social norms—and on their frequent collapse. When norms lead people to silence themselves, even an unpopular status quo can persist. Then one day, someone challenges the norm—a child who exclaims that the emperor has no clothes; a woman who says “me too.” Sometimes suppressed outrage is unleashed, and long-standing practices fall. Sometimes change is more gradual, as “nudges” help produce new and different decisions—apps that count calories; texted reminders of deadlines; automatic enrollment in green energy or pension plans. Sunstein explores what kinds of nudges are effective and shows why nudges sometimes give way to bans and mandates. Finally, he considers social divisions, social cascades, and “partyism,” when identification with a political party creates a strong bias against all members of an opposing party—which can both fuel and block social change.

Download or read book Behavioral Science Policy Volume 1 Issue 1 written by Craig Fox and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2015-06-23 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The success of nearly all public- and private- sector policies hinges on the behavior of individuals, groups, and organizations. Today, such behaviors are better understood than ever, thanks to a growing body of practical behavioral science research. However, policymakers often are unaware of behavioral science findings that may help them craft and execute more effective and efficient policies. The pages of this new journal will become a meeting ground: a place where scientists and non-scientists can encounter clearly described behavioral research that can be put into action. By design, the scope of BSP is broad, with topics spanning health care, financial decisionmaking, energy and the environment, education and culture, justice and ethics, and work place practices. Contributions will be made by researchers with expertise in psychology, sociology, law, behavioral economics, organization science, decision science, and marketing. The first issue includes articles that challenge assumptions that many people have about behavioral policy interventions. This includes the assumption that intuitions are a valid indication of policy effectiveness, the assumption that large effects require large interventions, the assumption that pre-selecting defaults is more coercive than forcing citizens to make a choice, and the assumption that the effectiveness of behavioral “nudges” requires that people not be informed about them. The journal is a key offering of the Behavioral Science & Policy Association in partnership with the Brookings Institution. The mission of BSPA is to foster dialog between social scientists, policymakers, and other practitioners in order to promote the application of rigorous empirical behavioral science in ways that serve the public interest. BSPA does not advance a particular agenda or political perspective. The first issue’s contents follow.

Download or read book The Theory That Would Not Die written by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-17 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This account of how a once reviled theory, Baye’s rule, came to underpin modern life is both approachable and engrossing" (Sunday Times). A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Bayes' rule appears to be a straightforward, one-line theorem: by updating our initial beliefs with objective new information, we get a new and improved belief. To its adherents, it is an elegant statement about learning from experience. To its opponents, it is subjectivity run amok. In the first-ever account of Bayes' rule for general readers, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne explores this controversial theorem and the generations-long human drama surrounding it. McGrayne traces the rule’s discovery by an 18th century amateur mathematician through its development by French scientist Pierre Simon Laplace. She reveals why respected statisticians rendered it professionally taboo for 150 years—while practitioners relied on it to solve crises involving great uncertainty and scanty information, such as Alan Turing's work breaking Germany's Enigma code during World War II. McGrayne also explains how the advent of computer technology in the 1980s proved to be a game-changer. Today, Bayes' rule is used everywhere from DNA de-coding to Homeland Security. Drawing on primary source material and interviews with statisticians and other scientists, The Theory That Would Not Die is the riveting account of how a seemingly simple theorem ignited one of the greatest controversies of all time.

Download or read book Paradox Lost written by Michael Huemer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-06-28 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paradox Lost covers ten of philosophy’s most fascinating paradoxes, in which seemingly compelling reasoning leads to absurd conclusions. The following paradoxes are included: The Liar Paradox, in which a sentence says of itself that it is false. Is the sentence true or false? The Sorites Paradox, in which we imagine removing grains of sand one at a time from a heap of sand. Is there a particular grain whose removal converts the heap to a non-heap? The Puzzle of the Self-Torturer, in which a series of seemingly rational choices has us accepting a life of excruciating pain, in exchange for millions of dollars. Newcomb’s Problem, in which we seemingly maximize our expected profit by taking an unknown sum of money, rather than taking the same sum plus $1000. The Surprise Quiz Paradox, in which a professor finds that it is impossible to give a surprise quiz on any particular day of the week . . . but also that if this is so, then a surprise quiz can be given on any day. The Two Envelope Paradox, in which we are asked to choose between two indistinguishable envelopes, and it is seemingly shown that each envelope is preferable to the other. The Ravens Paradox, in which observing a purple shoe provides evidence that all ravens are black. The Shooting Room Paradox, in which a deadly game kills 90% of all who play, yet each individual’s survival turns on the flip of a fair coin. Each paradox is clearly described, common mistakes are explored, and a clear, logical solution offered. Paradox Lost will appeal to professional philosophers, students of philosophy, and all who love intellectual puzzles.

Download or read book Valuation Approaches and Metrics written by Aswath Damodaran and published by Now Publishers Inc. This book was released on 2005 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Valuation lies at the heart of much of what we do in finance, whether it is the study of market efficiency and questions about corporate governance or the comparison of different investment decision rules in capital budgeting. In this paper, we consider the theory and evidence on valuation approaches. We begin by surveying the literature on discounted cash flow valuation models, ranging from the first mentions of the dividend discount model to value stocks to the use of excess return models in more recent years. In the second part of the paper, we examine relative valuation models and, in particular, the use of multiples and comparables in valuation and evaluate whether relative valuation models yield more or less precise estimates of value than discounted cash flow models. In the final part of the paper, we set the stage for further research in valuation by noting the estimation challenges we face as companies globalize and become exposed to risk in multiple countries.

Download or read book Choosing Not to Choose written by Cass R. Sunstein and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-13 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our ability to make choices is fundamental to our sense of ourselves as human beings, and essential to the political values of freedom-protecting nations. Whom we love; where we work; how we spend our time; what we buy; such choices define us in the eyes of ourselves and others, and much blood and ink has been spilt to establish and protect our rights to make them freely. Choice can also be a burden. Our cognitive capacity to research and make the best decisions is limited, so every active choice comes at a cost. In modern life the requirement to make active choices can often be overwhelming. So, across broad areas of our lives, from health plans to energy suppliers, many of us choose not to choose. By following our default options, we save ourselves the costs of making active choices. By setting those options, governments and corporations dictate the outcomes for when we decide by default. This is among the most significant ways in which they effect social change, yet we are just beginning to understand the power and impact of default rules. Many central questions remain unanswered: When should governments set such defaults, and when should they insist on active choices? How should such defaults be made? What makes some defaults successful while others fail? Cass R. Sunstein has long been at the forefront of developing public policy and regulation to use government power to encourage people to make better decisions. In this major new book, Choosing Not to Choose, he presents his most complete argument yet for how we should understand the value of choice, and when and how we should enable people to choose not to choose. The onset of big data gives corporations and governments the power to make ever more sophisticated decisions on our behalf, defaulting us to buy the goods we predictably want, or vote for the parties and policies we predictably support. As consumers we are starting to embrace the benefits this can bring. But should we? What will be the long-term effects of limiting our active choices on our agency? And can such personalized defaults be imported from the marketplace to politics and the law? Confronting the challenging future of data-driven decision-making, Sunstein presents a manifesto for how personalized defaults should be used to enhance, rather than restrict, our freedom and well-being.

Download or read book Flipping a Coin Theory and Evidence written by Nadja Dwenger and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Cosmological Clues written by Carolyn Devereux and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-12-24 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did the Universe have a beginning? Will it have an end? Or has it always been the same, never changing? This is the subject of cosmology; the study of the Universe, and this book provides a perfect introduction to the subject for anyone that is interested in the wonders of our Universe This book provides an accessible overview of the Standard Model of Cosmology, which is explained in six Cosmological Clues, including evidence for the Big Bang and dark matter and dark energy - the keystones of modern cosmology. It takes readers through some of the most exciting questions in cosmology, such as what evidence do we have that the Universe started from the Big Bang? Has dark matter been observed? Will we ever know what dark energy is? Are the multiverses real? And could the Universe be a hologram? This book is an ideal guide for anyone interested in finding out more about our Universe. It will be of interest to those studying cosmology for the first time, including readers without a scientific background, who have an interest in looking up at the stars and wondering where they all came from! Key features: Contains the latest evidence for the Big Bang, dark matter, and dark energy and explores exciting scientific ideas, such as inflation and multiverses Provides a clear explanation of the main theories of how the Universe evolved based on key observations - the Cosmological Clues Gives the reader a concise introduction to the scientific process, using cosmology as the example, and explores why it has been so successful in creating the technologies we have today

Download or read book An Invitation to Mathematics written by Dierk Schleicher and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-05-19 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Invitation to Mathematics consists of 14 contributions, many from the world's leading mathematicians, which introduce the readers to exciting aspects of current mathematical research. The contributions are as varied as the personalities of active mathematicians, but together they show mathematics as a rich and lively field of research. The contributions are written for interested students at the age of transition between high school and university who know high school mathematics and perhaps competition mathematics and who want to find out what current research mathematics is about. We hope that it will also be of interest to teachers or more advanced mathematicians who would like to learn about exciting aspects of mathematics outside of their own work or specialization. Together with a team of young ``test readers'', editors and authors have taken great care, through a substantial ``active editing'' process, to make the contributions understandable by the intended readership.

Download or read book More Than a Theory Reasons to Believe written by Hugh Ross and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2009-03-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The year 2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Alongside that event, there are many Darwin Day celebrations planned to acknowledge his 200th birthday. Add to these the virulent attacks of the New Atheists, led by Richard Dawkins. Bible-believing Christians will be left increasingly challenged with the theory of evolution as the only model to explain the origins and age of the universe. In More Than a Theory, Hugh Ross, founder and president of Reasons To Believe, offers discerning readers a comprehensive, testable creation model to consider as an alternative. This fascinating resource will educate readers with a direct response to the recent and well-publicized challenges from aggressive atheists. In doing so, it also reminds the scientific community of what constitutes good science. Furthermore, it will supply Christians with the scientific information they need to defend their convictions that the God of the Bible is the Creator. Complete with several appendices that put common documents and stories to the same test, More Than a Theory is a bold, brave, and unapologetic work of apologetics that will stir much discussion in both the scientific and religious realms.

Download or read book Reliabilism and Contemporary Epistemology written by Alvin I. Goldman and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2012-03-13 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a collection of essays by an advocate of process reliabilism and features essays on the internalism/externalism debate, epistemic value, the intuitional methodology of philosophy, and social epistemology.

Download or read book Theoretical Aspects of Reasoning About Knowledge written by Ronald Fagin and published by Morgan Kaufmann. This book was released on 2014-05-12 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theoretical Aspects of Reasoning About Knowledge contains the proceedings of the Fifth Conference on Theoretical Aspects of Reasoning About Knowledge (TARK 1994) held in Pacific Grove, California, on March 13-16, 1994. The conference provided a forum for discussing the theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge and tackled topics ranging from the logic of iterated belief revision and backwards forward induction to information acquisition from multi-agent resources, infinitely epistemic logic, and coherent belief revision in games. Comprised of 23 chapters, this book begins with a review of situation calculus and a solution to the frame problem, along with the use of a regression method for reasoning about the effect of actions. A novel programming language for high-level robotic control is described, along with a knowledge-based framework for belief change. Subsequent chapters deal with consistent belief reasoning in the presence of inconsistency; an epistemic logic of situations; an axiomatic approach to the logical omniscience problem; and an epistemic proof system for parallel processes. Inductive learning, knowledge asymmetries, and convention are also examined. This monograph will be of interest to both students and practitioners in the fields of artificial intelligence and computer science.

Download or read book Democracy for Realists written by Christopher H. Achen and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why our belief in government by the people is unrealistic—and what we can do about it Democracy for Realists assails the romantic folk-theory at the heart of contemporary thinking about democratic politics and government, and offers a provocative alternative view grounded in the actual human nature of democratic citizens. Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels deploy a wealth of social-scientific evidence, including ingenious original analyses of topics ranging from abortion politics and budget deficits to the Great Depression and shark attacks, to show that the familiar ideal of thoughtful citizens steering the ship of state from the voting booth is fundamentally misguided. They demonstrate that voters—even those who are well informed and politically engaged—mostly choose parties and candidates on the basis of social identities and partisan loyalties, not political issues. They also show that voters adjust their policy views and even their perceptions of basic matters of fact to match those loyalties. When parties are roughly evenly matched, elections often turn on irrelevant or misleading considerations such as economic spurts or downturns beyond the incumbents' control; the outcomes are essentially random. Thus, voters do not control the course of public policy, even indirectly. Achen and Bartels argue that democratic theory needs to be founded on identity groups and political parties, not on the preferences of individual voters. Now with new analysis of the 2016 elections, Democracy for Realists provides a powerful challenge to conventional thinking, pointing the way toward a fundamentally different understanding of the realities and potential of democratic government.

Download or read book Truth and its Deformities written by Peter A. French and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Truth and Its Deformities is the 32nd volume in the Midwest Studies in Philosophy series. It contains major new contributions on a range of topics related to the general theme of the volume by some of the most important philosophers writing on truth in recent years.

Download or read book Bayes Rule written by James V. Stone and published by Sebtel Press. This book was released on 2013-06-01 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this richly illustrated book, the tutorial style of writing, combined with a comprehensive glossary, makes this an ideal primer for the novice who wishes to become familiar with the basic principles of Bayesian analysis.

Download or read book Clinical Trials written by Steven Piantadosi and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-10-09 with total page 918 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents elements of clinical trial methods that are essential in planning, designing, conducting, analyzing, and interpreting clinical trials with the goal of improving the evidence derived from these important studies This Third Edition builds on the text’s reputation as a straightforward, detailed, and authoritative presentation of quantitative methods for clinical trials. Readers will encounter the principles of design for various types of clinical trials, and are then skillfully guided through the complete process of planning the experiment, assembling a study cohort, assessing data, and reporting results. Throughout the process, the author alerts readers to problems that may arise during the course of the trial and provides common sense solutions. All stages of therapeutic development are discussed in detail, and the methods are not restricted to a single clinical application area. The authors bases current revisions and updates on his own experience, classroom instruction, and feedback from teachers and medical and statistical professionals involved in clinical trials. The Third Edition greatly expands its coverage, ranging from statistical principles to new and provocative topics, including alternative medicine and ethics, middle development, comparative studies, and adaptive designs. At the same time, it offers more pragmatic advice for issues such as selecting outcomes, sample size, analysis, reporting, and handling allegations of misconduct. Readers familiar with the First and Second Editions will discover revamped exercise sets; an updated and extensive reference section; new material on endpoints and the developmental pipeline, among others; and revisions of numerous sections. In addition, this book: • Features accessible and broad coverage of statistical design methods—the crucial building blocks of clinical trials and medical research -- now complete with new chapters on overall development, middle development, comparative studies, and adaptive designs • Teaches readers to design clinical trials that produce valid qualitative results backed by rigorous statistical methods • Contains an introduction and summary in each chapter to reinforce key points • Includes discussion questions to stimulate critical thinking and help readers understand how they can apply their newfound knowledge • Provides extensive references to direct readers to the most recent literature, and there are numerous new or revised exercises throughout the book Clinical Trials: A Methodologic Perspective, Third Edition is a textbook accessible to advanced undergraduate students in the quantitative sciences, graduate students in public health and the life sciences, physicians training in clinical research methods, and biostatisticians and epidemiologists. This book is accompanied by downloadable files available below under the DOWNLOADS tab. These files include: MATHEMATICA program – A set of downloadable files that tracks the chapters, containing code pertaining to each. SAS PROGRAMS and DATA FILES used in the book. The following software programs, included in the downloadables, were developed by the author, Steven Piantadosi, M.D., Ph.D: RANDOMIZATION – This program generates treatment assignments for a clinical trial using blocked stratified randomization. CRM – Implements the continual reassessment methods for dose finding clinical trials. OPTIMAL – Calculates two-stage optimal phase II designs using the Simon method. POWER – This is a power and sample size program for clinical trials. Executables for installing these programs can also be found at https://risccweb.csmc.edu/biostats/. Steven Piantadosi, MD, PhD, is the Phase One Foundation Distinguished Chair and Director of the Samuel Oschin Cancer Institute, and Professor of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Piantadosi is one of the world’s leading experts in the design and analysis of clinical trials for cancer research. He has taught clinical trials methods extensively in formal courses and short venues. He has advised numerous academic programs and collaborations nationally regarding clinical trial design and conduct, and has served on external advisory boards for the National Institutes of Health and other prominent cancer programs and centers. The author of more than 260 peer-reviewed scientific articles, Dr. Piantadosi has published extensively on research results, clinical applications, and trial methodology. While his papers have contributed to many areas of oncology, he has also collaborated on diverse studies outside oncology including lung disease and degenerative neurological disease.