The study was based on cognitive biases with the aim of investigating the extent to which the individual's physical appearance affects the hiring process, and whether individuals who are perceived as more attractive are ascribed more positive characteristics. The study was conducted with a quantitative method, where the data collection was done via an online survey with 62 respondents, the majority of whom had previous experience of decision- making in a recruitment context. The respondents were asked to rate perceived attractiveness, characteristics and employability in four different individuals by looking at different facial images. All questions and rating scales on the questionnaire were based on the validated instruments Competence and warmth scale (CWS) and Job Suitability Scale (JSS). The results showed that more attractive people have a higher mean value than less attractive people in CWS and JSS. It was concluded that the individual's appearance has a significant impact in the hiring process, and that there is a tendency to attribute more positive characteristics to people who are considered more attractive compared to those who are judged to be less attractive. / Studien utgick från kognitiva fördomar med syftet att undersöka i vilken grad individens fysiska utseende påverkar anställningsprocessen, samt om individer som uppfattas som mer attraktiva tillskrivs mer positiva egenskaper. Studien genomfördes med en kvantitativ metod, där datainsamlingen skedde via en online-enkät med 62 respondenter, varav majoriteten hade tidigare erfarenhet av beslutsfattande inom rekryteringssammanhang. Respondenterna fick skatta upplevd attraktivitet, egenskaper och anställningsbarhet hos fyra olika individer genom att titta på olika ansiktsbilder. Samtliga frågor och skattningsskalor på enkäten utgick utifrån de validerade instrumenten Competence and warmth scale (CWS) och Job Suitability Scale (JSS). Resultatet visade att mer attraktiva personer har högre medelvärde än mindre attraktiva personer i CWS och JSS. Sammanfattningsvis drogs slutsatsen att individens utseende har en betydande inverkan i anställningsprocessen, samt att det finns en tendens att attribuera mer positiva egenskaper till personer som anses vara mer attraktiva jämfört med de som bedöms som mindre attraktiva.

Ein bedeutender Effekt der numerischen Kognition, der Operational Momentum Effekt, beschreibt die Beobachtung, dass Proband*innen das Ergebnis von Additionen überschätzen und das Ergebnis von Subtraktionen unterschätzen. Diverse theoretische Modelle wurden vorgebracht, um diesen Effekt zu erklären. Diese Modelle unterscheiden sich in Bezug darauf, ob sie räumliche Prozesse während des Kopfrechnens annehmen. Einige Studien haben seitdem Belege für eine Verknüpfung zwischen räumlicher Verarbeitung und Kopfrechnen liefern können. Die vorliegende Dissertation zielt darauf ab, räumliche Aufmerksamkeitsverschiebungen beim Kopfrechnen in drei Studien (Studie 1, Studie 3, Studie 4) und einer Kontrollstudie (Studie 2) vertieft zu untersuchen. Studie 1 zeigt, dass zwei-stellige Additionen mit Aufmerksamkeitsverschiebungen nach rechts assoziiert sind, während zwei-stellige Subtraktionen nicht mit Verschiebungen nach links einhergehen. Studie 3 liefert Hinweise für Aufmerksamkeitsverschiebungen in der Antwortphase von approximativen Rechenprozessen. Jedoch wurden ich dieser Studie keine Verschiebungen im Zeitfenster zwischen der Aufgabenpräsentation und der Antwortselektion gefunden. In Studie 4 wurden mittels steady-state visuell evozierten Potenzialen keinerlei räumliche Verschiebungen, sowohl im arithmetischen Kontext als auch in der Kontrollaufgabe gefunden. Die Kontrollstudie (Studie 2) untersuchte den Einfluss von kognitiver Belastung auf räumliche Aufmerksamkeit, wobei jedoch kein solcher Einfluss nachweisbar war. Zusammen unterstützen die Ergebnisse der vorliegenden Dissertation die Hypothese, dass räumliche und arithmetische Verarbeitung funktionell assoziiert sind (Studie 1, Studie 3). Andere Ergebnisse sind jedoch nicht so einfach mit den bestehenden Theorien vereinbar. Die Nulleffekte von Studie 2 und 4 betonen die Rolle methodischer Aspekte bei der Untersuchung räumlicher Aufmerksamkeitsverschiebungen, wie zum Beispiel die Wahl geeigneter Baseline-Aufgaben. / A hallmark effect of numerical cognition, the operational momentum effect, describes the finding that participants tend to overestimate the result of addition problems and underestimate the result of subtraction problems. Several theoretical accounts proposed to explain that effect differ with regard to whether they assume spatial contributions to mental arithmetic. Several studies have since then provided evidence for an association between spatial processing and mental arithmetic. The present dissertation aimed at further enlarging upon this knowledge by investigating spatial biases in mental arithmetic via several behavioural and neurophysiological experimental paradigms. This thesis comprises three studies (Study 1, Study 3, Study 4) and a control study (Study 2). Study 1 demonstrated that spatial biases to the right can be observed in the context of two-digit addition processing, while no biases to the left were observed for two-digit subtraction processing. Study 3 provided evidence for spatial biases during the response stage of approximate arithmetic processing. Yet, no biases were observed in the time window between the task presentation and response selection. In Study 4, no biases could be measured via steady-state visually evoked potentials, neither in an arithmetic context nor in a control task. The control study (Study 2) investigated the impact of cognitive load on spatial biases. Still, no such impact could be shown in Study 2. Together, the results of the present dissertation provide support for the notion of a functional association between spatial and arithmetic processing (Study 1, Study 3). Nevertheless, several other findings are difficult to reconcile with the existing theoretical accounts. This implies that other mechanisms might be involved. Finally, the null effects of Study 2 and 4 highlighted the role of methodological aspects, like the choice of appropriate baseline tasks, when investigating attentional biases.

Sociala medier har utvecklats till kraftfulla plattformar för informationsutbyte som många människor förlitar sig på för att hitta information för potentiella investeringar. Sociala medier är relativt okontrollerade och innehåller en stor del falsk information. Syftet med studien är att beskriva och analysera sambandet mellan information från sociala medier och privata investerares beslut på den finansiella marknaden och att analysera fem beteendeekonomiska fördomar, flockbeteende, överdriven självsäkerhet, förankring, rädslan att missa något och ekokammare, och analysera vilken roll de spelar i beslutsprocessen från sociala medier till investeringsbeslut. Den teoretiska referensramen och det empiriska underlaget utgår från det beteendeekonomiska paradigmet och studier om information från sociala medier och investeringsbeslut för att skapa en övergripande bild över sambandet mellan sociala medier och investeringsbeslut. En kvantitativ forskningsmetod tillämpades och data samlades in genom en enkätundersökning som distribuerades på sociala medier och via Mittuniversitetets egna kanaler. Sammantaget svarade 163 respondenter och efter att datauppsättningen rensades från felaktig och ofullständig data kvarstod 125 respondenter. Datan analyserades sedan i frekvenstabeller och regressions- och moderationsanalyser. Studiens resultat tyder på att investerare som i högre utsträckning förlitar sig på information från sociala medier som informationskälla tenderar att fatta mindre framgångsrika investeringsbeslut. Dessutom indikerar resultaten att detta negativa samband förstärks av förankring och rädslan att missa något. / Social media has evolved into powerful information sharing platforms that many people rely on to find information for potential investments. Social media is relatively uncontrolled and contains a large amount of false information. The purpose of the study is to describe and analyze the relationship between information from social media and private investors' decisions in the financial market and to analyze five behavioral economic biases, herd behavior, overconfidence, anchoring, the fear of missing out and echo chambers, and analyze the role they play in the decision-making process from social media to investment decisions. The theoretical frame of reference and the empirical basis are based on the behavioral economic paradigm and studies on information from social media and investment decisions to create an overall picture of the connection between social media and investment decisions. A quantitative research method was applied and data was collected through a survey that was distributed on social media and via Mid Sweden University's channels. Overall, 163 respondents responded and after the data set was cleaned of incorrect and incomplete data, 125 respondents remained. The data were then analyzed in frequency tables and regression and moderation analyses. The study's findings suggest that investors who rely more heavily on information from social media as a source of information tend to make less successful investment decisions. Furthermore, the results indicate that this negative relationship is reinforced by anchoring and the fear of missing out.

Climate change poses the most significant threat to sustainable tourism in the 21st century, impacting destinations globally with abnormal weather phenomena. Climate change not only affects the environment but also our mental health. Extreme weather events linked to climate change increase the risk of anxiety, depressive disorders, and other mental health issues, particularly among young people such as Gen-Z. Nevertheless, climate change anxiety has shown potential to motivate eco-friendly actions, including travel choices. The current research gap exists concerning how climate change anxiety influences travel decision-making. Understanding this relationship is crucial for comprehending the psychological factors driving environmentally responsible decisions. In the present study, the protection motivation theory offers the theoretical lenses for understanding responses to fear stimuli and the motivation for protective actions. This study utilized a nonequivalent quasi-experimental design with focus groups to investigate the impact of climate change anxiety on travel choices among Gen-Z university students. Two groups, a treatment group and a comparison group, were exposed to different climate change videos designed to evoke higher or lower levels of anxiety. While the video shown to the treatment group successfully heightened climate change anxiety, the study found that increased anxiety did not necessarily result in sustainable travel choices. Instead, it often led to feelings of apathy and desensitization. The research identified lack of self-efficacy, cost and time as the main barriers for university students to consider more environmentally travels. It highlights the need for better climate change communication to inspire positive action, emphasizing a vision of a better future. The study’s results offer a baseline for future research aimed at understanding effective climate change communication strategies that prompt pro- environmental actions. Interventions aimed at reshaping travel decision-making, which take into account climate change anxiety and evolutionary biases influencing travel choices, can offer valuable insights for public campaigns promoting sustainable consumption among Gen Z. By nudging tourists and making sustainability the default choice, these interventions could effectively encourage more eco-friendly travel decisions.

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The aim of this study is to examine Swedish social work students’ norms and values towards homosexuality and intimate partner violence in homosexual relationships, in order to establish an increased understanding for whether social work students contribute to or challenge the heteronormative beliefs that can occur in social work. Previous studies have shown that professional social workers tend to perceive individuals who are homosexual and exposed to intimate partner violence as less serious than individuals who are in a heterosexual relationship, and therefore individuals who are homosexual are more likely to receive a lesser support and treatment. Furthermore, studies show that heteronormativity is prevalent within social work education. In addition, studies show that social work education further needs to implement different sexualities and intimate partner violence, regardless the individual’s sexual orientation in the syllabus.The chosen method for this study was focus group interviews with a vignette about intimate partner violence, which was executed with social work students from two different universities in Sweden. The empirical material has been analyzed using previous studies and theoretical perspectives such as queer theory, heteronormativity and gender. The empirical material shows that social work students in Sweden do not show any heteronormative beliefs, however they tend to show and maintain biases about gender. Furthermore, the empirical material indicate that social work students have a general knowledge about intimate partner violence, however they disclose that they do not possess knowledge about the differences in intimate partner violence regarding homosexual relationships. Lastly the empirical material shows that social work students depicts that heteronormativity is prevalent within social work education, furthermore social work students claims the necessity of that the syllabus further implement a content regarding intimate partner violence and how the faculty refer to individuals who do not identify themselves as heterosexuals.

Le début du XXI siècle a été marqué par deux épisodes de flambées des prix des produits alimentaires au niveau mondial, respectivement en 2007-08 et 2010-11. Ces hausses de prix ont aggravé le niveau d’insécurité alimentaire dans de nombreux pays en développement et ont engendré des manifestations et troubles sociaux dans certains pays. Déterminer les facteurs qui contribuent à accroitre le risque d’insécurité alimentaire et comprendre les mécanismes qui sous-tendent l’éclatement d’une crise alimentaire pourraient permettre d’améliorer l’efficacité des politiques de prévention. Cette thèse contribue à cet objectif. Le chapitre 2 estime les différentes composantes de la variabilité de la disponibilité alimentaire en utilisant les données désagrégées des bilans alimentaires. Nos résultats suggèrent que plus de la moitié de la variabilité de la disponibilité alimentaire d’un pays dépend de chocs propres au pays. Les chocs globaux représentent environ 1% de la variabilité totale.Le chapitre 3 montre que l’impact du commerce international sur la variabilité de la disponibilité alimentaire dépend du portefeuille d’accords commerciaux détenu par le pays. Le chapitre 4 utilise le cadre théorique des paniques bancaires et s’appuie sur des travaux portant sur le risque perçu et sur les biais cognitifs pour modéliser le comportement d’achat alimentaire du consommateur. Nous montrons comment l’amplification sociale du risque peut conduire au stockage de précaution et à une crise alimentaire auto-réalisatrice. Nous mettons aussi en évidence l’utilité sociale d’une information publique / The beginning of the 21st century is marked by two episodes of global food price spikes in 2007-08 and 2010-11, respectively. These price increases have worsened the level of food insecurity in many developing countries and have led to social unrest in some countries. Identifying the factors that contribute to increase the risk of food insecurity and understand the mechanisms that underpin the outbreak of a food crisis could help to improve food policy management.This thesis contributes to this objective. Chapter 2 estimates the different components of food supply variability by using disaggregated data of food balance sheets. Our results suggest that more than half of food supply variability is caused by country-specific shocks. Global shocks account for about 1% of the total variability.Chapter 3 shows that the impact of international trade on food supply variability depends on the country's portfolio of trade agreements. Chapter 4 uses the theoretical framework of bank panics and builds on work on perceived risk and cognitive biases to model consumer food purchasing behavior under uncertainty. We show how social amplification of risk can lead to precautionary storage and in fine self-fulfilling food crisis. We also highlight the social utility of reliable public information. Finally, Chapter 5 examines the impact of dietary composition on the probability of occurrence of social unrest in case of soaring world food prices. Our results suggest that the cereal concentration of the diet increases significantly the probability of social unrest.

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L’objectif de ce travail a été de cerner les différents acteurs et mécanismes qui pourraient avoir la capacité de fixer la rémunération des dirigeants ainsi que la logique avec laquelle les décisions sont prises. Pour répondre à cette problématique, nous avons retenu une démarche en trois articles dans lesquels nous définissons une question de recherche pour chacun. Tout d’abord, nous nous intéressons au lien entre rémunération et performance dans le contexte français. Ensuite, nous mettons l’accent sur le rôle des mécanismes de gouvernance dans la détermination de la rémunération des dirigeants français. Enfin nous étudions les différents acteurs et mécanismes qui interviennent dans la fixation de la politique de rémunération des dirigeants. Pour chaque article, nous développons un cadre conceptuel sur la base de deux perspectives théoriques complémentaires. Les deux premiers articles se positionnent dans la perspective disciplinaire actionnariale, alors que le troisième article se place dans une perspective élargie de la gouvernance. Les cadres théoriques présentés ont été confrontés à l’épreuve de la réalité. Cette mise à l’épreuve a été réalisée par l’intermédiaire de méthodes quantitatives pour les articles 1 et 2 (méthodes statistiques de régression linéaire), et qualitatives pour l’article 3 (étude du cas Vinci). Nos résultats montrent tout d’abord, que la rémunération des dirigeants des sociétés cotées françaises est positivement liée à la richesse des actionnaires. En outre, et contrairement à l’hypothèse politique de Roe (2001), la rémunération globale des dirigeants français a un effet incitatif plus important que dans les entreprises américaines. Ensuite, aucun des mécanismes étudiés (conseil d’administration, comité des rémunérations et structure de propriété) n’a un impact significatif sur la sensibilité de la rémunération à la performance. Enfin, le processus décisionnel concernant la rémunération du dirigeant peut être fortement influencée par le dirigeant lui-même (en raison des réseaux relationnels ou bien des biais comportementaux) ainsi que d’autres mécanismes de gouvernance partenariale (médias et recours judiciaire). / The objective of this research was to identify the different processes and key actors involved in defining executive's income but also the logic with which decisions are made. To address this issue, a three-step approach was used in which a research question was raised in each one. First of all, the link between performance and income in the French context will be assessed. Then, the role of governance mechanisms on executives ‘salary will be established. Finally, the different actors and mechanisms in determining salary’s policy will be analyzed. For each article, a conceptual framework was developed based on two complementary theoretical perspectives. The first two items are positioned in the disciplinary perspective shareholder, while the third item is placed in wider governance. Theoretical frameworks presented were faced with the test of reality. This Analysis was conducted through quantitative method for items 1 and 2 (linear regression) and qualitative method in the third article (Vinci case study). The first results show that CEO’s incomes from listed French companies are positively related to shareholder wealth. In addition, and contrary to Roe’s hypothesis (2001), the total compensation of French leaders have an incentive base greater than in U.S. companies. Secondly, none of the mechanisms studied (board of directors, compensation committee and ownership structure) has a significant impact on the sensitivity of Salary - performance. Finally, the decision-making process concerning executive’s compensation may be strongly influenced by the leader himself (due to relational networks or behavioral biases) and other stakeholder governance mechanisms (media and judicial remedy).