[Truncated abstract] Attentional and interpretive biases are important dimensions of individual difference that have been implicated in the etiology and maintenance of a range of clinical problems. Yet there has been no systematic investigation into the relationship between these dimensions of individual difference. The current research program tested predictions derived from two competing theoretical accounts of the relationship between attentional and interpretive biases. The Common Mechanism Account proposes that cognitive biases represent concurrent manifestations of a single underlying selective processing mechanism. The Independent Mechanism account proposes that independent mechanisms underlie each bias. . . An apparent contradiction is that the manipulation of one bias served to also modify the other bias, despite the observation that the magnitude of the resulting change in both biases was uncorrelated. Neither the Common Mechanism nor the Independent Pathways accounts can adequately explain this pattern of results. A new account is proposed, in which attentional and interpretive biases are viewed as representing mechanisms that are related but that are not the same. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed, including the possibility that the two biases each may best predict emotional reactions to quite different stressful events and that training programs designed to attenuate allocation of attentional resources to threat may serve to reduce both attentional and interpretive selectivity in emotionally vulnerable individuals.

Moral licensing is a cognitive bias, which enables individuals to behave immorally without threatening their self-image of being a moral person. We investigate this phenomenon in a cross-cultural marketing context. More specifically, this paper addresses the questions (i) how big moral licensing effects typically are and (ii) which factors systematically influence the size of this effect. We approach these questions by conducting a meta-analysis and a meta-regression. Based on a random effects model, the point estimate for the generalized effect size Cohen's d is 0.319 (SE = 0.046; N = 106). Results of a meta-regression advance theory, by showing for the first time that both cultural background and type of comparison explain a substantial amount of the total variation of the effect size of moral licensing. Marketing practitioners wishing to capitalize on moral licensing effects should therefore consider cross-cultural difference, since marketing measures building on this effect may lead to different revenues in different countries.

L'objet de la thèse est l'étude des dynamiques industrielles, en particulier des biais cognitifs qui conduisent au blocage de ces dynamiques. Si les processus d'innovation dépassant le cadre de l'entreprise ont fait l'objet de diverses recherches, les dynamiques industrielles sont restées peu étudiées sous l'angle du blocage cognitif dans les activités de conception. Pour approfondir cette question, la thèse se focalise sur l'étude d'une phénoménologie nouvelle, l'innovation orpheline, définie comme une innovation très attendue par la société, mais qu'aucun acteur ou consortium d'acteurs n'est capable de générer, alors que les conditions traditionnelles pour favoriser son émergence sont réunies. L'enjeu de la thèse est de répondre à trois questions: Quelle modélisation pour cerner les facteurs causaux de l'innovation orpheline ? ; Quel outil pour diagnostiquer les biais cognitifs dans une situation empirique ? ; Quelles modalités organisationnelles pour sortir de l'innovation orpheline ?Cette démarche a permis de dégager trois résultats principaux :1) un modèle de la fixation cognitive collective, soulignant l'impact fort que peut avoir l'interaction entre les imaginaires singuliers au sein d'un collectif.2) un outil, le référentiel C-K pour identifier la fixation collective et pour diagnostiquer l'innovation orpheline.3) un modèle d'action pour un nouvel acteur, baptisé l'architecte de l'inconnu, en charge de stimuler les capacités de conception innovante de l'écosystème d'acteurs. / The purpose of the thesis is the study of industrial dynamics, in particular cognitive biases that lead to the lock-in of these dynamics. If innovation processes beyond the scope of the firm have been the subject of various studies, little has been done on the study of industrial dynamics from the perspective of cognitive lock in design activities. To explore this question, the thesis focuses on the study of a new phenomenology, orphan innovation, which is defined as orphan innovation as an innovation highly expected by society, but one which no actor or consortium of actors can manage to process with their current innovation capabilities, although all of the institutional conditions to foster it are gathered. The aim of the thesis is to answer three questions: How to model industrial dynamics and to identify causal factors of orphan innovation? How to build a tool to diagnose cognitive biases and orphan innovation in empirical situations? What are the organizational levers to overcome orphan innovation situations?The thesis then is based on three main results:1) a model of collective cognitive fixation, underlying the impact of imaginaries and their interactions among a collective action.2) a methodology to identify collective fixation and therefore to diagnose orphan innovation.3) a model of action for a new actor, called the architect of the unknown, in charge of stimulating innovative design capacities of the actors among the industry.

Attributional style is hypothesised to causally contribute to depression vulnerability through influencing both emotional response and rumination following life events. Consistent with this hypothesis, Peters et al. (2011) found that training individuals towards a pessimistic attributional style, characterised by internal-stable attributions for negative events and external-unstable attributions for positive events, resulted in greater negative mood and emotional reactivity to perceived failure, relative to training a resilient attributional style characterized by the reverse pattern of attributions. To date, however, the relative contribution of the internal-external and stable-unstable dimensions, their interaction, and their application to positive or negative events upon influencing emotional response and, by theoretical extension, risk for depression, remains unresolved. To resolve this question, 80 participants received training manipulating attributional style along four dimensions (i.e., internal versus external attributions for negative events; internal versus external attributions for positive events; stable versus unstable attributions for negative events; stable versus unstable attributions for positive events) in a 24 orthogonal factorial design. Participants then completed a perceived failure induction task. Measures of emotion and state rumination were completed pre-manipulation, post- manipulation, and post-induction. The internality dimension for positive and, separately, negative events influenced both immediate emotional response and emotional reactivity. Stable attributions for negative events increased negative emotional response and moderated the effect of internal attributions for negative events: internal attributions to negative resulted in greater emotional reactivity relative to external attributions, but only in the context of stable attributions for negative events. Both internal and stable dimensions also had independent effects. These findings identifying the active components driving the effect of attributional style upon emotional reactivity suggest slight revisions and refinements to attribution models of depression vulnerability. Furthermore, it provides further evidence that attributional style can be modified and furthers understanding of how CBM-attribution training could be developed as a potential intervention for the treatment of depression.

The decisions made by Mental Health Professionals (MHPs) are of utmost significance for providing the highest quality care to service users. The assessment of risk is one of the pivotal processes that MHPs undertake frequently, as per government policy guidelines, and in order to safeguard patients and the public. Although Risk Assessment Proformas (RAPs) consume a proportion of MHP time and resources, very little research has been undertaken to address factors that might affect their most optimal utilisation in practice. Previous literature suggests that medical decisions, like decision making of other kinds, is fraught with difficulty including being susceptible to the influence of cognitive biases, pre-decisional affect, overconfidence, and subjectively held attitudes towards organisational policies and regulations. Specifically, the presentation of risk information can influence decisions. It has also been suggested that anxiety has the capacity to elicit risk aversive responses, and that overconfidence and negative attitude may lead to complacency in undertaking policy-led responsibilities and produce non-compliance for the same. However, much of what is known about medical decision making has been gleaned from outside of context of mental health. As such, the current programme of research aimed to explore decision making in mental health settings and with a view to raise awareness of the complexity of decision making amongst MHPs. The implementation of quantitative and qualitative techniques (studies 1 and 2) revealed negative attitudes from psychiatrists towards Risk Assessment Proformas (RAPs), which are essentially structured decision making aids. Psychiatrist, compared to other MHPs, spent less time completing RAPs, which may reflect their differing attitudes towards their usefulness, something that was consistently emphasised during in-depth qualitative exploration. It was also found that experience was an additional differentiating factor between MHPs. Relationships between experience and other factors such as anxiety, confidence and complacency were found via conversations with MPHs, experience members of staff being less inclined to provide comprehensive and detailed accounts of service user risk in RAPs. This is problematic since although there is, in the UK, a policy led requirement that RAPs are completed for each service user, it is clear that there are inter-professional variations in how RAPs are being used and this acts to inhibit the best information sharing between all those involved in patient care. Following previous work in the area of cognitive bias and its influence upon general and medical decisions, a clinical vignette was also developed (study 3) to establish whether the presentation of risk information influences psychiatric admission decisions. The current findings supported previous work in that decisions were susceptible to the framing effect. The findings here, and previously in the literature, reveal a necessity for MHPs to be informed of bias in decision making in an attempt to improve objectivity in risk assessment practices. The unearthing of the framing effect also further signals the need for proper use of RAPs, where many MHPs may not be using them to their full potential - i.e. an aid to the systematic consideration of a range of information about a service user. The final part of the thesis (study 4) turned to the piloting of an educational module incorporating content around the factors affecting decision making in an attempt to raise awareness amongst MHPs. The rationale being better awareness of the complexity of decision making may act to enhance decision making processes. Pre and post intervention analyses revealed an improvement of baseline to follow-up knowledge of decision making bias and statistical concepts and this knowledge was maintained to a moderate level at four weeks follow-up. Although individuals maintained their susceptibility to the framing effect, the bias was less prevalent in those who knew of its presence before taking part in the study. Overall the findings give some support to the use of education as an approach to raising awareness about decision making processes in MHPs, although what remains to be seen is whether such education acts to bring about changes in behaviour - for example, different use of RAPs. The PhD programme suggests that MHPs are just as susceptible to cognitive biases, such as the framing effect, as has been demonstrated in both general population and other groups of health practitioners. At the same time, attitudes to RAPs differ depending on exact job role, which psychiatrist being least likely to spend time on their completion and reporting them as a tool for noting decisions reached as opposed to an aid to the process. This acts reduce the quality and quantity of reported information shared with colleagues about a service user. It is possible that MHP behaviour aligns with general attitude-behaviour models, such as the Theory of Planned Behaviour. As such, whilst the current work has demonstrated that educational interventions may act to improve awareness of decision making processes and their influences, further research would benefit from considering if these types of approach affect actual behaviour. For example, improved used of RAPs as decision-aids, reduced susceptibility to framing effects, consciousness around how information is represented in RAPs given knowledge of how the information may be used by others.

Animal welfare has long been a subject under debate. Since animals are unable to voice concerns about their living standards it is of interest to find other ways to secure their wellbeing. A new measurement has been introduced where animals’ own judgement can act as an indicator for their emotional state and welfare. This study summarizes key elements from previous literature and research in order to explain the connection between welfare and judgement bias. Emotions have been defined as either an observable reaction to a stimulus or a subjective conscious experience of the stimulus. The second has been difficult to assess in animals since they cannot vocalise their own interpretations, hence emotions in animals are assessed based on the first definition. The study of animal welfare is in short the study of animal’s judgement of the world, which in turn indicate how animals feel. Cognitive judgement bias has been defined as whether an animal assess an ambiguous stimulus as negative or positive, a common method used to demonstrate this concept is the go no-go method. Animals learn to discriminate between two stimuli and is then presented with an ambiguous stimulus. The response to the ambiguous stimulus is recorded and determine if the animal is optimistic or pessimistic in its judgement. Research has been rather successful in determining factors which can affect animal welfare, opening up for deeper discussions concerning animal cognition, awareness and their effect on welfare, but further refinements are required to assess the influence of judgement bias.

The problems of judicial expertise in criminal proceedings Abstract Judicial Expertise is a substantial and irreplaceable part of criminal proceedings. It's legal regulation is required to fulfil high demands. Firstly, it must provide an effective platform for usage of expert evidence in criminal proceedings. Secondly, it ought to ensure that experts provide quality outcomes in compliance with lege artis. Thirdly, it should offer satisfying conditions for expert's activities. This thesis selects a few of the current issues originating from aforementioned requirements. It analyses their origin and evaluates how the Czech legal regulation solves them. At first, the thesis defines fundamental institutes which create a base for an expert's function in criminal proceedings. Subsequently, it offers an overview of statutory regulation of judicial expertise in criminal proceedings. It deals with both special regulation in criminal law and general regulation of Act No. 254/2019 Sb., on judicial experts, expert offices and expert institutes, together with relevant ordinances. Chapter three deals with legislative changes in the field of judicial experts effective from 1st January 2021. It focuses on new experts appointing, remuneration and supervision of experts' activities. It analyses and compares how these issues...

No description available.

Cognitive bias can be used when determining emotional states in animals by assessing the animal’s perception of an ambiguous stimulus. In the concept of animal welfare, both physical health as well as mental health of animals are involved. Therefore, cognitive bias can be a valuable tool in order to measure the mental health of an animal. The aim of this paper is to summarize and discuss how cognitive bias tests have been used to assess emotional states in dogs. Cognitive bias tests in dogs have been used to evaluate the emotional state of a dog with behavioural problems. It has also been shown to be useful when studying the effect of enrichment in the form of natural behaviour, such as being allowed to use its olfactory sense to a greater extent. Additionally, the connection between personality and cognitive bias is discussed. Hence, assessing the emotional state of dogs can be valuable in a welfare perspective.

Aim: When service failures occur, companies must use service recovery actions to recover customer satisfaction. The service recovery paradox refers to the paradox which occurs when a customer is more satisfied after successful service recovery, than they would have been if no failure had occurred. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the effectiveness of using the anchoring effect to lower the threshold value for service recovery paradox occurrence in a specific service failure scenario in the hotel industry. I.e., using the anchoring effect, this thesis aims to reduce monetary compensation required for the service recovery paradox to occur in the specific scenario. Method: 225 respondents were given a survey based on a scenario of a service failure in the hotel industry. The method used was a between-subject experimental design survey, manipulating anchor size, with 5 conditions; SEK 200, SEK 450, SEK 700, SEK 950, and no anchor, to see if the different conditions affected requested compensation whilst customer satisfaction remained constant. Gender and age of the participants was also measured to see if the requested compensation rates depended on these variables. Results: Results showed that it was possible to reduce monetary compensationrequired to reach the SRP by using anchoring values. The control group, which was given the scenario without any anchors, rendered a higher requested compensation than all groups which were given anchors. Furthermore, results showed that the mean compensation required to reach the SRP for the scenario decreased as the anchor values decreased, which indicates that the lower the anchor is set the lower the claim for requested monetary compensation becomes. Finally, the results indicated that age was a relevant variable whilst gender was not a relevant variable regarding compensation requirements. Contribution: Reaching the SRP can sometimes be expensive, especially when it comes to major service failures such as double-booked hotel rooms as is analysed in this thesis. The main contribution of this thesis is to provide an instrument for managers with which they might reach the SRP at lower costs. The results from this research can be directly implemented by managers in similar situations in the hotel industry and may also be used as a foundation for reaching the SRP in other industries as well as other scenarios. Suggestions for future research: As this survey only analyses Swedish participants, results may not be directly applicable to hotels in other cultures. Future research should, thus, focus on examining whether results vary depending on geographic and cultural factors. Other aspects that should be further investigated are what causes the differences in answers between different age groups and if gender displays any differences in other cultures, as it does not seem relevant with Swedish participants. Furthermore, the same surveys, with adjustments, could be used to conduct similar research on other scenarios and in other industries. Finally, researching whether anchoring levels below the lowest anchor used in this thesis, SEK 200, could further lower the required compensation would provide a more complete framework for this research.