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Many firms engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, which aim to serve a broader set of stakeholders (e.g., workforce, communities, environment). These companies often encourage management to consider these stakeholders when making operational and financial decisions. One such decision that managers face involves managing earnings. We conduct an experiment in which experienced managers are placed in the role of a division manager facing an accrual decision. We find that a company's demonstrated commitment to CSR moderates both upward and downward earnings management attempts. We propose, and find support for, a moderated-mediation model in which the firm's commitment to CSR influences managers' consideration of constituents. Managers' consideration of these stakeholders differentially affects the level of accruals, depending on the direction of the earnings management incentive. Our results provide insight into how CSR may influence individuals' decisions within the organization, minimizing the impact that incentives have on maximizing one's self-interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research examining the antecedents of recalls, instead of their consequences, is relatively sparse and has not considered whether firms' likelihood to recall products is influenced by legal changes that could induce managerial opportunism, such as those reducing shareholder litigation risk. To examine this question, the authors exploit the staggered adoption of universal demand (UD) laws across several U.S. states as a quasi-natural experiment. UD laws aim to prevent frivolous litigation from disrupting a firm's normal business operations by making it more difficult for shareholders to sue managers for neglecting their fiduciary duties and hold them personally liable. Although UD laws are well-intended, the reduced threat of shareholder litigation disciplining a firm's managers could have unintended negative consequences. Indeed, using a difference-in-differences analysis, the authors find that following the adoption of UD laws, affected firms become less likely to recall products. This effect is weaker in the presence of organizational mechanisms constraining managers' self-interest-seeking behavior, such as a corporate culture focused on customer needs and interests or the exercise of normative control through monitoring by institutional investors. The authors do not find support for a potential alternative explanation of operational improvement and therefore higher product quality driving their findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To advance the discussion on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, we analyze the management literature and examples of advocacy practices inspired by the three DEI logics of moral justice, business case, and power activism. By identifying litigation, self-interest, and coercion as the mechanisms driving change within these logics, we show how the concept of diversity is approached differently in the three logics. Based on this discussion, we explain why diversity has taken precedence over equity and inclusion in both research and practice. We further show how the tensions between DEI logics inform diversity initiatives and exacerbate rather than mitigate bias and inequality. To rejuvenate scholarly and managerial debates around DEI initiatives and address managerial biases to focus on the wrong things, we discuss what could be learned from the rationales of such initiatives, including how one can be fooled into focusing on diversity at the expense of equity and inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The data envelopment analysis (DEA) models have been widely recognized and applied in various fields. However, these models have limitations, such as their inability to globally rank DMUs, the efficiency values are definite numerical values, they are unable to reflect potential efficiency changes, and they fail to adequately reflect the degree of the decision maker's preference. In order to address these shortcomings, this paper combines possibility theory with self-interest and non-self-interest principles to improve the DEA model to provide a more detailed reflection of the differences between DMUs. First, the self-interest and non-self-interest principles are employed to establish the DEA evaluation model, and the determined numerical efficiency is transformed into efficiency intervals. Second, an attitude function is added to the common possible-degree formula to reflect the decision maker's preference, and a more reasonable method for solving the attitude function is presented. Finally, the improved possible-degree formula proposed in this paper is used to rank and compare the interval efficiencies. This improved method not only provides more comprehensive ranking information but also better captures the decision maker's preferences. This model takes preference issues into account and has improved stability and accuracy compared with existing models. The application of the improved model in airlines shows that the model proposed in this paper effectively achieved a full ranking. From a developmental perspective, the efficiency levels of Chinese airlines were generally comparable. Joyair and One Two Three performed poorly, exhibiting significant gaps compared with other airlines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Federated learning facilitates collaborative computation among multiple participants while safeguarding user privacy. However, current federated learning algorithms operate under the assumption that all participants are trustworthy and their systems are secure. Nonetheless, real-world scenarios present several challenges: (1) Malicious clients disrupt federated learning through model poisoning and data poisoning attacks. Although some research has proposed secure aggregation methods to address this issue, many methods have inherent limitations. (2) Clients may refuse or passively participate in the training process due to considerations of self-interest, and may even interfere with the training process due to competitive relationships. To overcome these obstacles, we have devised a reliable federated framework aimed at ensuring secure computing throughout the entirety of federated task processes. Initially, we propose a method for detecting malicious models to safeguard the integrity of model aggregation. Furthermore, we have proposed a fair contribution assessment method and awarded the right to write blocks to the creator of the optimal model, ensuring the active participation of participants in both local training and model aggregation. Finally, we establish a computational framework grounded in blockchain and smart contracts to uphold the integrity and fairness of federated tasks. To assess the efficacy of our framework, we conduct simulations involving various types of client attacks and contribution assessment scenarios using multiple open-source datasets. Results from these experiments demonstrate that our framework effectively ensures the credibility of federated tasks while achieving impartial evaluation of client contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Michael Huemer argues that cross-cultural convergence toward liberal moral values is evidence of objective moral progress, and by extension, evidence for moral realism. Nathan Cofnas claims to debunk Huemer's argument by contending that convergence toward liberal moral values can be better explained by 'two related non-truth-tracking processes': self-interest and its long-term tendency to result in social conditions conducive to greater empathy. This article argues that although Cofnas successfully debunks Huemer's convergence argument for one influential form of moral realism – Robust Moral Realism, which holds that moral facts are non-natural, stance-independent normative facts – Cofnas's debunking argument broadly supports a second type of moral realism: Enlightened Self-Interest Realism, the view that moral facts are reducible to stance-dependent requirements of instrumental ('means-end') rationality. Finally, this article argues that insofar as different Enlightened Self-Interest Realist theories make specific predictions about the intra- and inter-personal mechanisms behind moral convergence toward liberalism, empirical observations of cross-cultural convergence can provide independent support for Enlightened Self-Interest Realism. I conclude that this is an important mark in favor of Enlightened Self-Interest Realism over Robust Moral Realism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article elucidates a central but underexplored theme in Wollstonecraft's later writing: the distinction between the imagination and commerce. After the French Terror, Wollstonecraft begins to write of the imagination, rather than reason, as the defining feature of human nature. It is the imagination, she argues, that will enable the continuation of civilisational progress in the face of the retrogressive forces of commerce. This article argues that Wollstonecraft distinguishes between the two in accordance with three areas of concern: the distinction between humans and animals; the difference between higher and lower pleasures; the distinction between self-interest and social being. It also argues that Wollstonecraft's perspective in these three areas is shaped by her particular intellectual background, that is, by her reading of Rousseau, her civic humanism, and by her Socratic ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financialization of development and the outsourcing of aid work to contracted businesses are strengthening the role of alternative drivers among practitioners engaged in international development work. These relate to but also transcend the dichotomy between altruism and personal self-interest, which often frames scholarly research on aid worker motivations. Focusing on consultants and development finance experts, this article highlights three institutional impetuses that guide practitioners' work. They are concerned with the international competitiveness of donor operations, the stakes of one's employer in cross-sectoral partnerships and the reputation and position of one's professional sub-field. Consultants and development finance experts also highlight considerable staff movements across non- and for-profit institutions. In the increasingly complex architecture of aid interventions, such boundary-crossers operate in a new space of development brokerage, as mediators between public and private sector actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greed combines dissatisfaction with one's current state of affairs with an unsatisfiable desire for more. It motivates people to acquire more and has many societal implications. Various scholars have argued that greed is associated with, or even equated to the motive of self-interest. And hence, they have also argued that greed is associated negatively with other-interest (some definitions even suggest that greed produces negative externalities and harm-to-others). To date, however, these ideas have not been scrutinized empirically. In this article we report three survey studies (N1 = 145, N2 = 302, and N3 = 346) that adopted an individual differences perspective to investigate how dispositional greed, self-interest, and other-interest are related to each other. The results from correlational analyses and confirmatory factor analyses indicate that greed is distinct from self-interest, and from other-interest. The results also reveal that greed and self-interest are differentially related to various distinct behavioral inclinations. The current findings corroborate recent research on greed and adds to the understanding of this motivational construct and the potential harm it can inflict on others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both pre-Qin Confucianism and Mohism aimed to find a universalist consensus of belief in order to deal with social chaos and disunity, but they diverged at a basic level on what is the fundamental universality of humankind and how to achieve it. In the debate between Mencius and Mohists, Mohists believed that the fundamental "similarity" of humankind lies in the field of "self-interest", so they emphasized the acquisition of Heaven's favor through external achievements and sacrificial offerings. On the contrary, Mencius took the fundamental similarity of humans to the level of the inner heart-mind and believed that the fundamental "sameness" of humans lies in their "heart-mind" rather than in being "self-interested", so he advocated the connection with the heavenly part within us when we follow the guidance of the heart-mind. Their differing interpretations of the fundamental question of "the similarity of humankind" ultimately resulted in the divergences and discrepancies between two religious ethical forms and their outcomes in early China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounts of police complainants and their experiences of oversight largely reflect North American data. This article examines how complainants fare in Ireland, where police crisis and reform have repeatedly occurred since 2005. Quantitative analysis of the independent police oversight agency's complaint processing highlights patterns in allegations submitted, complaint-handling mechanism applied, and outcomes realised. In doing so, this article draws attention to the experiences of Irish Travellers, the homeless and prisoners. Findings show that socially marginal complainants submitted more serious allegations, secured higher investigation designations but were less likely to have complaints substantiated. Overall, substantiation was below international levels and police investigations were more likely to substantiate complaints than was the oversight agency. Consequently, the article then considers the frequent theoretical characterisation of police oversight in term of 'justice' or 'agency', arguing for inclusion of 'agency self-interest' by the oversight body in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the moderating effects of public deliberation on policy support determinants: self-interests, symbolic attitudes and sociotropic perceptions. It explores how individual attitudes and policy preferences evolve during deliberation, focusing on Gyeonggi Province's basic income policy held in 2020 in South Korea. The paper reveals that while public deliberation, through information and group discussions, reduces the influence of material self-interests on policy preferences, it has a relatively limited effect on symbolic attitudes and sociotropic perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the growing literature on youth transitions, comparatively little attention has been paid to the role that young people play as providers, particularly support for people outside of a nuclear family unit. Based on 92 interviews with 44 young adults living in rural Ghana, this research investigates the multiple reasons why they provide financial and in-kind support to a range of immediate, extended and non-family members. We create a typology of motivations, identifying eight reasons youth identified for supporting people across four generations. These drivers of support relate to the past, present and future and do not fall neatly into dichotomies of self-interest or altruism. Some are situational, dependent on the need of the recipient, the ability of the young person to provide support at that point in time and/or circumstances of other people in their broader family and social networks. Youth identified multiple reasons for supporting the same person and articulated different motivations depending on their relationship to the recipient and their gender. Together, these nuanced explanations offer insights into an often-overlooked aspect of youth transitions and a departure point for further research into the important role young people play in supporting others in their families and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The factors contributing to corruption within the construction sector have yet to be associated with the phenomenon of greed—the pursuit of self-interest and a widely recognized and extensively studied primary catalyst for corrupt practices. The mechanisms by which self-centeredness culminates in corruption within the construction industry, the prevalence of greed among the various stakeholders involved in the construction industry, and the potential impact of greed and its diverse manifestations on corruption within the construction industry remain elusive. Thus, this study analyses the diverse impacts of different manifestations of greed and self-interest on the various forms of corruption observed among construction stakeholders. The individuals involved in this study are contractors who are actively involved in the execution of building and construction projects within the geographical boundaries of Nigeria. A factor structure validity, construct validity, convergent validity, and hypothesis test using structural equation modeling were performed on the items assessed in the questionnaire. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between greed and self-interest in five specific pathways. The study found that the manifestations of corruption among contractors are subject to varying degrees of strength, contingent upon the influence of greed and self-interest. It was evident in the findings that the coexistence of biological, psychological, and social disorders contributes to an increased susceptibility to partake in corruption. The study contributes to knowledge by revealing that corruption is a sequential phenomenon initiated by greed, intensified by insatiable desires, and ultimately manifested through self-interested associations. These associations create an intricate web of influences and a complex network that enable corrupt practices within the construction industry. Practical Applications: Practical applications of this study's findings are in terms of understanding the multifaceted nature of corruption and designing effective interventions aimed at addressing greed and self-interest-related issues within the construction sector. The study enables an understanding of the drivers behind insatiable needs by explaining that the types and severity of corruption are inherent in the different levels of greed and the different ways in which self-interest drives individuals to engage in corrupt activities. The study's practical application in developing corruption interventions or prevention strategies is the need to promote transparency, accountability, and integrity in both the public and private sectors by exploring the relationship between socioeconomic disparities, cultural norms, political systems, international cooperation, technology, and economic consequences. The interventions should focus on education, raising awareness about the negative consequences of greed, and promoting empathy and altruism as a means to counter excessive self-interest, and laying emphasis on the benefits of cooperation and collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article seeks to delineate the often misunderstood idea of speculation that has conceptually been converted from an epitome of pure thought into an economic category of profitability and self-interest. But to define speculation already means to pose a problem. In Augustine speculation designates the mutual relationship between reflection and the mirrored appearance of God's gaze. This dictates an unattainable task of catching God's gaze, which is more inward than my innermost self and which models our thoughts accordingly. Such extimate activity as defined by Lacan is the formal condition for the construction of visibility and is inscribed into contemplation. The article postulates that this fundamental discrepancy was also the foundation upon which Hegel carved a positive determination of thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does partisanship reduce the importance of self-interest in local political decision-making? I examined the case of homeowners and their preferences for lower property taxes, as well as their evaluations of zoning and development policy, to answer this question. Relying on data from a conjoint survey experiment (n = 2036), I found that homeowners were more likely to select a candidate who supported lower property taxes than non-homeowners, on average. However, homeowners did not express stronger preferences for lower property taxes when evaluating candidates from the opposing party, or making decisions in elections that featured two-party competition. I supplemented my experimental data with survey data from the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), which asked respondents to evaluate zoning and development in their area, as well as their mayor. I found that homeowners were more likely than non-homeowners to credit their mayor for favorable evaluations of zoning and development regardless of their mayor's partisanship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does migration pose a threat to welfare state legitimacy? We address this prominent question with a multilevel analysis of novel survey data, the 'Inequality Barometer', which includes individual and local-level context data in Germany (6208 individuals, up to 401 local districts). Our results suggest that the public is more reluctant to support welfare where the proportion of migrants at the local level is larger. This effect even persists when welfare is directed at groups that are perceived as more deserving of welfare support (like children, sick or older individuals) and when we examine the levels of employed migrants (that pay into the welfare state). We also find that these effects are moderated by economic risk. Particularly, we find that individuals facing higher economic risk support welfare less than their counterparts when exposed to migration. Future research should expand the local-level approach and investigate the causal mechanisms that the welfare-migration nexus is based on in more detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study examines the dynamics of public support for international development policies in the United States and South Korea, focusing on the distinctions between normative and substantial support. Normative support is based on agreement with the policy's importance due to shared values or beliefs, while substantial support involves a willingness to allocate resources for implementation. Utilizing surveys and logit analysis, the research highlights the complex interplay between universal factors like political ideology and self-interest and specific factors such as global citizenship. The study finds that a higher sense of global community significantly boosts normative and substantial support. This nuanced analysis offers valuable insights for enhancing public support for international policies, providing critical implications for policy-making and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The equitable allocation of resources has long been a central concern for humanity, prompting extensive research into various motivations that drive the pursuit of distributive justice. In contrast to one of the most fundamental motives, inequality aversion, a conflicting motive has been proposed: rank-reversal aversion. However, it remains unclear whether this rank-reversal aversion persists in the presence of self-rank. Here we provide evidence of rank-reversal aversion in the first-party context and explore diverse moral strategies for distribution. In a modified version of the redistribution game involving 55 online-recruited participants, we observed rank-reversal aversion only when one's rank was maintained. When participants' self-rank was altered, they tended to base their behavior on their new ranks. This behavioral tendency varied among individuals, revealing three distinct moral strategies, all incorporating considerations of rank-reversal. Our findings suggest that rank-reversal aversion can indeed influence one's distribution behavior, although the extent of its impact may vary among individuals, especially when self-rank is a factor. These insights can be extended to political and economic domains, contributing to a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms of distributive justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-interest bias describes an observer’s tendency to judge moral transgression leniently when they benefit from it. However, what factors moderate the self-interest bias is an open empirical question. Here, we investigated to what extent hypocrisy moderates the self-interest bias. Preregistered Study 1a (N = 194) and replication in Study 1b (N = 193) demonstrated that observers’ interest impacts moral character judgments of hypocritical transgressors. This effect was explained by observers’ goal attainment due to transgression (Study 2, N = 713) and agreement to aid observers’ or ingroup interests (Study 3, N = 634). Importantly, transgressors’ hypocrisy moderated the impact of observers’ interests in moral character judgments (Studies 2 & 3). In summary, when judging hypocritical transgressors, peoples’ moral character judgments tend to be biased by their or their group’s interests. However, in comparison to non-hypocritical transgressors, this impact is less pronounced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fragility continues to present major challenges to achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). International aid, particularly the Official Development Assistance (ODA), is a critical source of finance to deliver humanitarian assistance, development projects, and peace operations in fragile contexts. This study analyses if and how donors are motivated by fragility in their aid allocation across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. Employing the random-effect Tobit method, the role of fragility as a donors' motive is analysed alongside three conventional categories of motives: self-interest, recipients' needs, and merit. The empirical analysis demonstrates an association between aid allocation across the nexus and fragility, but also a great degree of heterogeneity depending on the donor and the pillar of the nexus. It also detects a significant difference between how the state of fragility correlates with aid allocation and how the degree of fragility does so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workers have often advocated for regulation to protect themselves from labor market threats. Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to transform many jobs in the coming years, especially those of white collar professionals. Yet we know little about the attitudes these and other workers hold or may develop toward the regulation of such technology. We argue that both self-interested and sociotropic concerns likely shape AI regulatory attitudes, and examine these arguments using a survey experiment exposing individuals to information about how technology will affect the work of people engaged in either routine, repetitive tasks or white collar, cognitive tasks. We anticipate that compared to a placebo group, individuals exposed to news about the impact of technology on jobs will favor regulation, and even more strongly when it is their own job type highlighted in the treatment. We find only modest responsiveness to the treatments on average, but observe that individuals with more knowledge of technology are strongly responsive to the AI treatments in the hypothesized manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethical consumerism describes market transactions where consumers' preferences stretch beyond immediate self-interest to prosocial objectives. How such activities relate to more traditional forms of civic engagement (such as giving or activism) remains unclear; as a market-situated activity, ethical consumerism is often omitted from accounts of civic engagement or predicted to erode commitment to civic action. This paper reports findings from an empirical study of the civic identity of the ethical consumer. Using an online survey instrument, the study explores statistical relationships between individuals' actual participation in ethical consumerism at three sites (Fairtrade, TOMS Shoes and (RED)) and the extent of individuals' wider civic engagement—both philanthropic (giving, volunteering) and activist (campaigning). It finds evidence of a consistent civic identity that stretches across traditional civic engagement activities and ethical consumerism: the greater an individual's civic engagement, the more likely they are to engage in ethical consumerism. The current analytic separation of ethical consumerism and civic engagement, therefore, does not capture the experience of individuals who are expanding their prosocial repertoire from the civic sphere to the market sphere; civic engagement cuts across sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quiet ego is a relatively novel, increasingly studied, multi-dimensional concept characterized by a compassionate, interdependent worldview and an adaptive balance between self-interest and concern for others. Quiet ego has been associated with a range of characteristics that can promote relationship quality, responding effectively in the face of challenges, and greater well-being. However, it is currently unknown to what extent quiet ego translates across cultures and settings. The present research leverages cultural and organizational theories to evaluate the conceptual and structural validity of quiet ego for Latinx/Hispanic individuals in the U.S. and to examine relationships among quiet ego, work supervisor relationship quality, and goals in the workplace. Employed college student participants (n = 831; nLatinx/Hispanic = 305) completed an online survey, and collected data were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis. Findings confirmed the overall structural model of quiet ego with four primary dimensions (perspective taking, inclusive identity, detached awareness, and growth-mindedness) and indicated that this structure did not differ between Latinx/Hispanic and non-Latinx/Hispanic subsamples. Further, results cohered with the proposed model suggesting that quiet ego might facilitate relationship quality with a workplace supervisor, which, in turn could foster balanced, intrinsically motivating perceptions that one's work goals benefit both oneself and others (mutual gain motivation). The study suggests that quiet ego may be a construct with meaning and utility in Latinx/Hispanic populations and in employment settings. However, further research is needed, and specific suggestions for future study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on research on chefs and aspiring chefs in commercial kitchens, this article typologises workers' strategic responses to violence and illustrates how these responses are shaped by occupational status and work experience, as well as industry structures. While previous scholarship indicates that workers actively avoid or resist violence in the workplace, this literature largely neglects ways in which workers endure violence in strategic ways. Based on ethnographic data and in-depth interviews, this article explores three key responses to violence – avoidance, resistance and endurance – and argues that while these reactions may complement workers' occupational self-interest, they ultimately serve to reinforce, normalise and even exacerbate violence within commercial kitchens and other similar workplaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological well-being is a system of optimal psychological qualities and states manifested as life strategy and a system of personal attitude to the world and oneself. Self-attitude is an intrapersonal phenomenon of individual projections in the field of self-awareness. In assessing psychological well-being, it acts as a guiding vector for self-development and self-actualization. In case of people with disabilities, psychological well-being largely depends on self-attitude as a predictor. This study featured the effect of self-attitude on psychological well-being in university students with limited health capacities. The study involved 60 students aged 18–25. The list of methodological tools involved Sentence Completion (J. M. Sacks, S. Levy), Subjective Well-Being Scale (adapted by M. V. Sokolova), and Personal Self-Attitude (V. V. Stolin, S. R. Pantileev). The study established differences in the assessment of psychological well-being by students with and without disabilities. Physically challenged students tended to demonstrate low self-esteem, associated with negative emotional and health experience. They also had specific parameters of self-attitude with a vector of positivity and trends towards personal growth. These parameters are a motivating component of social behavior that determines the general perception of psychological well-being by students with disabilities.

Abstract Greed combines dissatisfaction with one’s current state of affairs with an unsatisfiable desire for more. It motivates people to acquire more and has many societal implications. Various scholars have argued that greed is associated with, or even equated to the motive of self-interest. And hence, they have also argued that greed is associated negatively with other-interest (some definitions even suggest that greed produces negative externalities and harm-to-others). To date, however, these ideas have not been scrutinized empirically. In this article we report three survey studies (N 1 = 145, N 2 = 302, and N 3 = 346) that adopted an individual differences perspective to investigate how dispositional greed, self-interest, and other-interest are related to each other. The results from correlational analyses and confirmatory factor analyses indicate that greed is distinct from self-interest, and from other-interest. The results also reveal that greed and self-interest are differentially related to various distinct behavioral inclinations. The current findings corroborate recent research on greed and adds to the understanding of this motivational construct and the potential harm it can inflict on others.

Abstract The equitable allocation of resources has long been a central concern for humanity, prompting extensive research into various motivations that drive the pursuit of distributive justice. In contrast to one of the most fundamental motives, inequality aversion, a conflicting motive has been proposed: rank-reversal aversion. However, it remains unclear whether this rank-reversal aversion persists in the presence of self-rank. Here we provide evidence of rank-reversal aversion in the first-party context and explore diverse moral strategies for distribution. In a modified version of the redistribution game involving 55 online-recruited participants, we observed rank-reversal aversion only when one’s rank was maintained. When participants’ self-rank was altered, they tended to base their behavior on their new ranks. This behavioral tendency varied among individuals, revealing three distinct moral strategies, all incorporating considerations of rank-reversal. Our findings suggest that rank-reversal aversion can indeed influence one’s distribution behavior, although the extent of its impact may vary among individuals, especially when self-rank is a factor. These insights can be extended to political and economic domains, contributing to a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms of distributive justice.

Purpose: Based on the approach/inhibition theory of power, this study explores the relationship between sense of power and exploitative leadership. We particularly examine the role of self-interest as a mediator and the role of ambition at work as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected from 189 supervisors and 702 employees. We analyzed the data using path analysis to test the research model. Findings: The results show the following: (1) sense of power positively affects exploitative leadership; (2) the effects of sense of power on exploitative leadership are mediated by self-interest; (3) the effects of self-interest on exploitative leadership are moderated by ambition at work. Originality/value: The current study identifies self-interest as a key mediator that links sense of power to exploitative leadership and demonstrates that ambition at work moderates the process of self-interest to exploitative leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines public attitudes towards two types of ALMPs: enabling activation, which prioritises training, skill formation, and human capital improvement; and demanding activation, which involves leading people towards employment through sanctions and benefit cuts. While previous research has predominantly focused on demanding activation, this study is the first to compare public support for the two distinct faces of activation. Analysing data from the 2020 Belgian National Elections Study, we examine the role of self‐interest, political ideology, social justice preferences, and stereotypical images towards the unemployed in explaining both types of activation attitudes. We find that attitudes towards enabling and demanding activation policies are clearly distinct in their measurement and driving forces. While the enabling type appeals especially to the principle of equality and positive attitudes towards the unemployed, support for demanding ALMPs is based on the principle of equity and stereotypical views about the jobless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars argue that gender affects welfare attitudes: women support welfare policies more than men in most welfare societies. However, in South Korea, women tend to oppose welfare policies or show no gender gap in welfare attitudes. As welfare programs in South Korea are expanding, I investigate whether women's attitudes towards welfare policies have changed and if they differ based on self‐interest. I analysed welfare attitude data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study (KoWePS) for 2013 and 2022 using ordered logistic regression models, finding that women in South Korea supported almost all welfare policies less than men. However, in terms of income redistribution and free preschool and childcare service provision, there were no gender differences observed. Furthermore, cleavages among women were found regarding attitudes towards support for the unemployed and free preschool and childcare service provision based on self‐interest. Additionally, progressive women exhibited more supportive attitudes across all domains of welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thomas Sutpen's descent from the mountains in William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (1936), a fall from the mountain paradise to the evils of slaveholding society, has long been considered comparable to the biblical Fall of Man. Surprisingly, however, the social, moral, and political overtones of Sutpen's Fall have been critically overlooked to a certain extent. This article explores Sutpen's descent from the mountains as well as the innocence that informs his design in order to showcase the full extent of Faulkner's metaphor of the Fall. I contend that the examination of Sutpen's Fall from a moral and sociological standpoint establishes an ideologically profound context in which the ethical and socioeconomic implications of Thomas Sutpen's story can be thoroughly investigated. Specifically, the article identifies Sutpen's commitment to his self-interest at the expense of others as his major transgression. For this reason, it maintains that the implications of Sutpen's story transcend the literary boundaries of the novel's nineteenth century timeframe and also comment insightfully on the moral and socioeconomic situation of the Great Depression, the devastating period within which Absalom, Absalom! was authored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robert de Ferrers III, the sixth earl of Derby, is generally considered an outlier in the events of the civil war in England between 1264 and 1266. His involvement in the rebellion centred on Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, has been widely interpreted as driven by self-interest and aggrandisement, defined by unorthodox levels of violence and lawlessness. This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of Robert's involvement in the rebellion across the Midlands in 1264, and places the surviving evidence within its wider contexts. In doing so, it shows that Ferrers' activities during 1264 were much more aligned with the baronial faction's strategic interests than is generally understood, and his behaviour was far from unorthodox. Through this analysis, the paper also illuminates how the chronicler William Rishanger's influence among modern historians is due a correction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosocial behaviors are central to individual and societal well‐being. Although the relationship between effort and prosocial behavior is increasingly studied, the impact of effort‐based self‐interested motivation on prosocial behavior has received less attention. In the current study, we carried out two experiments to examine the effect of motivation to obtain a reward for oneself on donation behavior and brain response. We observed that individuals who accumulated more money in the effort‐expenditure rewards task (EEfRT) donated a lower proportion of their earnings. The sigmoid model fitted participants' choices in the EEfRT task, and the effort‐reward bias and sigma parameters negatively correlated with the amount of money donated in the donation task. Additionally, the effort‐reward bias and sigma parameters negatively predicted N2 amplitude during processing of charitable donation‐related information. We propose that individuals who exhibit a lower level of effort‐based self‐interest motivation may allocate more cognitive control or attentional resources when processing information related to charitable donations. Our work adds weight to understanding the relationship between effort‐based self‐interest motivation and prosocial behavior and provides electrophysiological evidence. The current study found that effort‐based self‐interest motivation can influence donation behavior. Furthermore, motivation can predict N2 in processing donation information. Lower motivation levels may lead to increased cognitive control or attentional resources allocation when processing charitable donation information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is ongoing debate about whether airlines should charge passengers based on their weight. This study examines the ethics of three policies by surveying 1012 US air travelers: A Standard policy with a uniform price irrespective of the weight. A Threshold policy with a penalty if the body weight exceeds 160 pounds (72.6 kg). And a Unit‐of‐Body‐Weight policy with an individual price based on body and baggage weight. The study demonstrates levels of acceptance of these policies by different segments of passengers across various normative ethical theories. Younger generations were more accepting of alternatives to the current standard policy. Self‐interest was evident as a major influence of respondents' views. The core of the theoretical contribution highlights the importance of a differentiated view on, and separation of ethical and environmental issues in tourism research, as it shows, that the more environmentally sustainable choice may not be the more ethical one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hierarchy conflict, a dispute among members over the rank order of influence in the team, often impairs team processes and outcomes. The current literature often operates from the assumption that self-interest must be high when team members engage in hierarchy conflict. Building on interdependence theory, we propose that hierarchy conflict may also occur when members have a more prosocial motivation, leading to a more constructive expression of the hierarchy conflict and more positive effects on team performance than hierarchy conflict instigated by members with a more proself motivation. Specifically, we argue that the extent to which a team member is more driven by prosocial (versus proself) motivation heightens the threshold and lowers the frequency for engaging in a hierarchy conflict and that more prosocially motivated team members express their challenge of the hierarchy more directly and with less intensity than more proself-motivated members. This sets in motion a hierarchy conflict exchange that is more constructive and helps teams perform better compared with hierarchy conflict instigated by proself motivation. Our theory complements and extends the current study of the causes, expressions, and consequences of hierarchy conflict in teams across multiple levels of analysis and helps redirect the focus of how hierarchy conflict is viewed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Nigeria, the democratic governance relies on elections for selecting leaders, but the integrity of this process is vital for sustaining democracy. Developing democracies, like Nigeria, face challenges such as the potential for electoral violence and manipulation. The current paper-based voting system in Nigeria is susceptible to data manipulation and lacks transparency. This study proposes a Semi-Decentralized electoral system utilizing the Ethereum blockchain to enhance the security, auditability, and efficiency of the electoral process. The system aims to resist malpractices, reduce costs, and expedite the vote counting process while minimizing human intervention. The blockchain's tamper-proof nature and decentralized structure provide a secure and reliable platform for electoral data. To understand the root causes of electoral malpractice, qualitative research was conducted in Sapele Ward IV, Delta state, revealing self-interest, poverty, and a lack of trust in the government as primary motivators. The implementation of the blockchain-based electoral system demonstrated improved efficiency in collecting, collating, securing, and publishing election results. This innovative approach enhances the perceived integrity of the electoral process, addressing key challenges in the current voting system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Class‐based perspectives on the persistent social gradients in health within modern welfare states largely focus on the adverse consequences of unfettered neoliberalism and entrenched meritocratic socioeconomic selection. Namely, neoliberal‐driven economic inequality has fuelled resentment and stress among lower‐status groups, while these groups have become more homogeneous with regard to health behaviours and outcomes. We synthesise several sociological and historical literatures to argue that, in addition to these class‐based explanations, socioeconomic inequality may contribute to persistent social gradients in health due to elite class self‐interest—in particular elites’ preferences for overdiagnosis, overprescription and costly high‐technology medical treatments over disease prevention, and for increased tolerance for regulatory capture. We demonstrate that this self‐interest provides parsimonious explanations for several contemporary trends in U.S. health inequality including (A) supply‐side factors in drug‐related deaths, (B) longitudinal trends in the social gradients of obesity and chronic disease mortality and (C) the immigrant health advantage. We conclude that sociological theories of elite class self‐interest usefully complement theories of the psychosocial effects of neoliberalism and of meritocratic social selection while answering recent calls for research on the role advantaged groups play in generating inequalities in health, and for research that moves beyond technological determinism in health sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labor market competition theory has traditionally analyzed the threat perceived by lower and middle class' natives on competition over jobs with immigrants. However, in this article we focus on the fiscal burden and competition for social benefits generated by unemployed immigrants and its impact on the vote for Populist Radical Right Parties (PRRPs). Combining individual-level data and aggregate unemployment indicators for over 60 regions from 10 EU countries, we show that, on the one hand, upper class natives seem to support PRRPs when migrant unemployment rates are higher, irrespective of migrants' origin, which is consistent with the fiscal burden model. On the other hand, lower and middle class natives are more likely to support PRRPs only in contexts of higher unemployment rates among non-EU migrants (but not among migrants from other EU member states), pointing towards an interaction between cultural and economic explanations. These findings underscore the need to account for migrant populations' characteristics and to consider not only labor competition, but also the fiscal burden to better understand how unemployment may impact PRRP voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ideology and self-interest are often in tension. If positive political theorists assume broad self-interest as the standard of human behaviour, they can accommodate people's ideological motivation to act for the common good. Yet, their theories may become tautological and empirically untestable. Conversely, if these theorists assume narrow self-interest, they increase testability. But because ideology seems incompatible with narrow self-interest, they often rule ideology out as a motivational driver. Positive political theorists can, however, combine ideology with narrow self-interest by assuming broad egoism. And in so doing, they should assume that ideology motivates political agents until it becomes too costly for these agents' material interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Hume, Justice, and Modern Political Thought" by Maria Isabel Limongi is a work that analyzes Hume's politics. The author argues that Hume is closer to Machiavelli and Hobbes than to economic liberalism, defending the idea of a political and democratic society. The text discusses the relationship between self-interest, civil society, and politics, using the theories of Foucault, Deleuze, Machiavelli, Hume, and Limongi. The author questions Limongi's generalization of politics and argues that civil society is a self-regulated moral and economic organism, but there are limits to this self-regulation that require state intervention. The text also addresses the relationship between Hume and Machiavelli and highlights the importance of the debate on the genesis of society and the relationship between politics and metaphysics in Hume's work. [Extracted from the article]

Are highly specialized hikers really more likely to behave in a pro-environmental manner? By discussing a negative linkage between recreation specialization and pro-environmental behavior, this study tackles a narrowly optimistic view that specialized hikers are always likely to behave pro-environmentally. We examined survey data from South Korean hikers and found that while recreation specialization does not significantly affect attitudes, it negatively affects perceived behavioral control. Further, all types of pro-environmental behavior were significantly impacted by their attitude, but only one pro-environmental behavior (i.e., following designated trails) was strongly impacted by perceived behavioral control. By synthesizing our findings with current literature, we suggest comprehensively evaluating all three motivational factors—self-interest, prosocial, and affective motivations—to predict pro-environmental behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite Adam Smith's seemingly firm entrenchment within the liberal tradition, in Theory of Moral Sentiments, he forwards several positions that fundamentally challenge this understanding. Chief among them is his argument that society is necessarily prior to the individual and that our socio-political context therefore shapes our perception of future possibilities. Thus, rational deliberation is not an ahistorical and universal phenomenon, but one that is structured by the context in which it occurs. Moreover, in Wealth of Nations, Smith brings this understanding to bear on socioeconomic relationships, demonstrating how they shape a person's temporal imagination, and consequently, their perception of self-interest. Far from adhering to a belief in the supremacy of rational self-interest, Smith actually helps us understand how different social contexts can engender profoundly irrational behavior. Using the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis as its primary case study, this article demonstrates that Smith's analysis offers a novel and penetrating approach to analyzing fiscal crises, while offering a generative approach for developing mitigating interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article charts the different modalities of political transgression that marked an act of religious conversion and inter-faith marriage performed by a Muslim female subject in contemporary India, and the subsequent misreading of this transgression; a misreading made possible by liberal political thought's delineations of the conceptual category of "interest". Existing legal, political, academic, and popular discourses have read the prominent 2016 event of the conversion of a Hindu woman named Akhila into Islam, as either the "false consciousness" of a "vulnerable" individual whose self-interests were unintelligible to herself, or, as an unambiguous case of a "mature" woman in a "modernising" Kerala "choosing" to opt for an inter-faith marriage and to convert; a liberal idiom of choice that thereby needs to be safeguarded via Constitutional provisions. The article, even while acknowledging the political need to adhere to the latter reading/constitution of the female (Islamic) subject's sovereign desire to convert, shows some of the limitations of both these ideologically antithetical positions. It argues that the desire of Hadiya (Akhila's new name after converting to Islam) to convert remains unreadable by both the right-wing Indian judiciary, backed up by Hindutva forces, as well as the "left-liberal" feminist intelligentsia that sought to support her autonomy. In fact, both these ideologically opposed stances often legitimised each other. By examining the legal debates that took place in the Indian courts, the article shows how construing Hadiya's act of conversion solely through the legal-juridical prisms of "religious freedom" and "choice", pegged to the concept of self-interest, is vigorously insufficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to contribute to anthropological understandings of intersubjectivity by foregrounding the role of the environment. I begin by reviewing three key approaches that have emerged out of broader debates in the humanities and social sciences. The first mobilizes intersubjectivity as a way of explaining how a coherent social order is (re-)produced, given that the rational choice, for individuals, is to act in their own self-interest. Intersubjectivity in this view is the shared understanding that is achieved when actors adhere to normative constraints on interaction in order to fulfill an unconscious desire to be loved and accepted by others. The second approach to intersubjectivity challenges this idea, arguing that the motivations and expectations that individuals bring to interaction vary across ethnographic contexts, and for some, shared understanding is a false promise that masks the harmful intentions others are likely to have. Intersubjectivity, in this view, is organized by a desire to minimize exposure to others. The third approach treats intersubjectivity not as a possible outcome of interaction but as an existential condition that makes meaningful interaction possible. In this article, I put these debates in dialogue with "protactile theory," which has grown out of a social movement in DeafBlind communities in the United States. Reading protactile theory through the lens of biosemiotics, ecological psychology, and existential phenomenology, I argue that the medium or "the thing we're in when we're together" is the basis of intelligibility for all intersubjective behaviors and capacities; it can define a way of being, is ethnographically graspable, and is central to how humans interact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The research investigates the influence of family environment and entrepreneurship education on interest in entrepreneurship with self-efficacy as a mediating variable from a Sharia business perspective. This research uses a quantitative approach with a sample size of 129 respondents. The research results show that all independent variables have a significant effect on interest in entrepreneurship. The self-efficacy variable can mediate the influence of business capital on interest in entrepreneurship among FEBI UIN Raden Intan Lampung students and entrepreneurship education on interest in entrepreneurship among FEBI UIN Raden Intan Lampung students. It can be concluded that the application of business capital, entrepreneurship education, Self-efficacy, and interest in entrepreneurship from a Sharia business perspective is very good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus and other prevailing viruses continue to remain a health threat and challenge the efforts of institutions to promote vaccination acceptance. The current study's aim is to propose a conceptual framework explaining the role of individual motivators (such as self-interest and collective interest) in shaping attitudes toward vaccination while emphasizing the pivotal role of institutional trust as a mediator and gender as a moderator. Data were collected via an online panel survey among Israelis (N = 464), and SEM statistics were used to test the model empirically. The path analysis model supports the positive direct effect of collective interest and the negative effect of self-interest. Additionally, it shows an indirect effect through the mediation effect of institutional trust and gender moderation. Therefore, institutional trust may significantly influence self-interest people's attitudes toward vaccines. Furthermore, since females process information more comprehensively, their developed trustworthiness in institutions has an increased impact on vaccine acceptance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The self-centrality principle holds that contemplative practices activate self-salience, encouraging moral self-enhancement, rather than the expected effect of acceptance hypothesized by the ego-quieting principle (Gebauer et al., 2018). However, meditation may favor ego-quieting by inhibiting the disposition to judge and/or react to defend more equanimously a self that feels threatened (Brown et al., 2007). In this study, we propose that meditation helps to reduce behaviors based on self-interest by limiting the defensive sense of the ego when the self is salient. We carry out three experimental studies to test this proposal. The first one tests the effect of meditation on a salient self with a proximal threat to their physical survival (N = 400). The second study tests the effect of meditation in the case of distal defensiveness in a salient self whose physical survival is threatened (N = 200). The third study evaluates the effect of proximal defensiveness when the integrity of the self-concept of the salient self is threatened (N = 200). Our results provide evidence that practicing meditation quiets the ego, or tends to do so, when attention is focused on a self-threatened by a context based on a thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]