Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
1,338
result(s) for
"Bewusstsein."
Sort by:
What is consciousness, and could machines have it?
The controversial question of whether machines may ever be conscious must be based on a careful consideration of how consciousness arises in the only physical system that undoubtedly possesses it: the human brain. We suggest that the word “consciousness” conflates two different types of information-processing computations in the brain: the selection of information for global broadcasting, thus making it flexibly available for computation and report (C1, consciousness in the first sense), and the self-monitoring of those computations, leading to a subjective sense of certainty or error (C2, consciousness in the second sense). We argue that despite their recent successes, current machines are still mostly implementing computations that reflect unconscious processing (C0) in the human brain. We review the psychological and neural science of unconscious (C0) and conscious computations (C1 and C2) and outline how they may inspire novel machine architectures.
Journal Article
RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR
We find using laboratory experiments that primes that make religion salient cause subjects to identify more with their religion and affect their economic choices. The effect on choices varies by religion. For example, priming causes Protestants to increase contributions to public goods, whereas Catholics decrease contributions to public goods, expect others to contribute less to public goods, and become less risk averse. A simple model implies that priming effects reveal the sign of the marginal impact of religious norms on preferences. We find no evidence of religious priming effects on disutility of work effort, discount rates, or dictator game generosity.
Journal Article
Emotional priming for sustainable consumption? The effects of social media content on the valuation of chocolate
Abstract
Current consumption patterns in the Global North are unsustainable across environmental, social, and economic dimensions. To promote more sustainable consumer behavior, emotional priming on social media has become an increasingly popular tool. In this paper, we mimic social media content to test the effectiveness of emotional priming in incentivizing sustainable consumption. Specifically, we examine whether emotionally primed information about sustainability aspects in cocoa production increases consumers’ valuation for sustainably produced products in the short and medium term. To achieve this, we conducted an online panel survey of 2,161 German consumers with random assignment to one of four different treatments (unprimed information or information with emotional prime) designed as social media posts (videos). We differentiate between environmental sustainability and social responsibility, and separate the products into sustainability certification, uncertified claims, and conventional chocolate. We find statistically significant positive effects of the emotional primes on consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for products with sustainability certifications and noncertified sustainability claims in the short term. These effects can be attributed to negative emotions triggered by the primes. Two weeks after the treatments, the WTP decreases for all groups. The difference in WTP between the primed and unprimed groups diminishes in the medium term. Primed participants value sustainability certifications and claims less than those who received unprimed information.
Journal Article
Queer women and religious individualism
Melissa M. Wilcox explores the complex spiritual lives of queer women in
the Los Angeles area. She takes the reader on a tour of a colorful array of
religious and secular groups that serve as spiritual resources for these women --
from the well-known Metropolitan Community Churches to Wiccan covens, from the Gay
and Lesbian Sierrans to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Arguing that these
women's stories are exemplary cases of postmodern patterns of religious identity,
belief, and practice, Wilcox offers a nuanced analysis of contemporary Western
spirituality and selfhood, and a detailed exploration of the history of queer
religious organizing in Los Angeles. Queer Women and Religious Individualism is
important reading for scholars in religious studies, sociology, women's studies, and
LGBT studies.
eBook
IDEOLOGICAL SEGREGATION ONLINE AND OFFLINE
We use individual and aggregate data to ask how the Internet is changing the ideological segregation of the American electorate. Focusing on online news consumption, offline news consumption, and face-to-face social interactions, we define ideological segregation in each domain using standard indices from the literature on racial segregation. We find that ideological segregation of online news consumption is low in absolute terms, higher than the segregation of most offline news consumption, and significantly lower than the segregation of face-to-face interactions with neighbors, co-workers, or family members. We find no evidence that the Internet is becoming more segregated over time.
Journal Article
Awareness Reduces Racial Bias
Can raising awareness of racial bias subsequently reduce that bias? We address this question by exploiting the widespread media attention highlighting racial bias among professional basketball referees that occurred in May 2007 following the release of an academic study. Using new data, we confirm that racial bias persisted in the years after the study's original sample but prior to the media coverage. Subsequent to the media coverage, though, the bias disappeared. Several potential mechanisms may have produced this result, including voluntary behavior changes by individual referees, adjustments by players to new information, and changes in referee behavior due to institutional pressure. These results suggest a new kind of Hawthorne effect in which greater scrutiny of even subtle forms of bias can bring about meaningful change.
Journal Article
LAST-PLACE AVERSION
We present evidence from laboratory experiments showing that individuals are “last-place averse.” Participants choose gambles with the potential to move them out of last place that they reject when randomly placed in other parts of the distribution. In modified dictator games, participants randomly placed in second-to-last place are the most likely to give money to the person one rank above them instead of the person one rank below. Last-place aversion suggests that low-income individuals might oppose redistribution because it could differentially help the group just beneath them. Using survey data, we show that individuals making just above the minimum wage are the most likely to oppose its increase. Similarly, in the General Social Survey, those above poverty but below median income support redistribution significantly less than their background characteristics would predict.
Journal Article
