Estimates suggest that 40% of the food grown in the United States ends up in landfills. Household losses are the highest contributor to volume of waste overall, and individual households are estimated to discard around 15% of their total acquired food inventory. Consumers are generally waste averse and a vast majority have been shown to object to wasting food in particular, yet almost all consumers discard a substantial volume of potentially edible food each year. This exploratory qualitative study sought to uncover underlying psychological mechanisms behind this discrepancy between attitude and behavior by exploring the decision-making processes that consumers engage in as they acquire, prepare, consume and discard food. By exploring the patterns of thinking that shape household provisioning practices through an initial in-depth interview, a two-week long household food diary and a follow-up interview with 17 diverse consumers, a grounded theory emerged to explain this counter-intuitive behavior pattern. Extending research from behavioral economics and decision making literature, data from this study suggests the following: 1) people evaluate cost of goods based on incomplete value estimations that fail to account for the costs associated with discarding potentially edible foods; 2) costs associated with the act of shopping are salient and encourage less frequent provisioning trips; 3) people do not adequately account for costs associated with overbuying and storing food; and 4) consumer strategies aimed at maximize efficiency in food acquisition through less frequent shopping trips may actually result in increased inefficiency in the form of greater waste and higher overall cost of goods. Based on emergent findings, a strategy for waste avoidance is presented along with managerial implications.

Šiuolaikinės organizacijos gyvena intensyvių pokyčių sąlygomis, kai reikia keisti nusistovėjusius darbo būdus. Vis didesnį pagreitį įgauna komandinio darbo tempas (Lipinskienė, Stokaitė, 2005). Tačiau ribotas sprendimų racionalumas pastebimas net ir kai sprendimai priimami komandoje (Vathanophas, Suensilpong, Pacharapha, 2008; Chugh, Bazerman, 2005; Fleming, 2003). Iš vadovaujančio personalo darbuotojų, paprastai, yra laukiama kokybiškų ir objektyvių sprendimų Taigi tikėtina, kad kognityviniai poslinkiai dažniau pasireikš tarp nevadovaujančio personalo darbuotojų, kuriems sprendimus, bent jau kuriančius pridėtinę vertę, tenka priimti rečiau. Tačiau šios prielaidos vis dar verčia abejoti tyrėjus (Certo, Connelly ir Tihanyi, 2008; Puškorius 2006). Keliamas šio darbo tikslas - nustatyti kognityvinių poslinkių pasireiškimą vadovaujančiam ir nevadovaujančiam personalui, priimant sprendimus grupėse ir individualiai. Tyrime dalyvavo 246 mažmeninės prekybos įmonės UAB „Eiginta“ darbuotojai, iš jų 18,7 % vyrų (n=46) ir 81,3 % moterų (n=200), nuo 24 iki 58 metų amžiaus (amžiaus vidurkis – 37,52 ± 6,06 metų). Kad įvertintume kognityvių poslinkių pasireiškimą, asmenims priimant sprendimus tiek individualiai, tiek grupėse, vieni tyrimo dalyviai turėjo užpildyti užduočių lapą A forma, kiti- B Forma. A ir B formas sudarė dešimt užduočių (5 skirtingos, 5 vienodos), nagrinėjančių įvairių euristikų panaudojimą. Tyrimo rezultatai leidžia teigti, kad kognityviniai poslinkiai pasireiškia tiek... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Contemporary organizations are existing under conditions of intense changes when established ways of work are to be altered and the speed of the teamwork is regularly increasing; nevertheless, limited rationality in solution taking is also observed when decisions are made in a team. There is no doubt that high-quality objective decisions are expected from the management personnel; it is also plausible that thinking biases will manifest more frequently among non-management employees who also have to make decisions less frequently. However, these assumptions still raise doubts among researchers (Certo, Connelly and Tihanyi, 2008; Puškorius 2006). The aim of this work is to discover the manifestation of thinking biases in management and non-management personnel when making decisions in groups and individually. 246 employees of Eiginta Ltd., an enterprise specializing in retail trade, took part in the analysis including 18.7 % males (n=46) and 81.3 % females (n=200), aged from 24 to 58 (age average 37.52 ± 6.06 years). In order to assess the manifestation of thinking biases when making decisions, participants of the research individually and in groups had to fill in an assignment sheet: Form A and Form B. Both sheets of assignments, i.e. Forms A and B consisted of ten tasks dealing with the manifestation of various types of heuristics among employees. The results of the research allow to claim that thinking biases are manifested both among the management personnel and... [to full text]

This study profiled the mental health needs of youth incarcerated in southern Ontario. The objectives were three-fold. 1) To demonstrate that incarcerated youth endorsed more externalizing than internalizing difficulties on a self-report measure of psychopathology. 2) To demonstrate that incarcerated youth had cognitive vulnerabilities consistent with anxiety and depression, despite their general lack of overt endorsement of internalizing symptoms. 3) To demonstrate that socialization practices in the home and community predicted the endorsement of psychopathology, and to provide a possible explanation for this relationship by considering alexithymia as a mediating variable. The Adolescent Psychopathology Scale – Short Form, Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Family Expressiveness Questionnaire, Street Codes Questionnaire, Cultural Mistrust Inventory, and a Dot Probe task were administered to 91 adolescents incarcerated in Southern Ontario. Results indicated that incarcerated youth endorsed significantly greater externalizing than internalizing symptoms. Youth demonstrated significant attentional biases toward threatening, but not depressive faces. Negative dominant socialization practices in the home predicted the endorsement of both externalizing and internalizing symptoms, and there was partial support for alexithymia mediating these relationships. Youth who embraced community practices that socialized violence endorsed externalizing but not internalizing difficulties. These results challenge clinicians to consider the internalizing difficulties of incarcerated youth more carefully during assessment.

Background: The traditional approach of strategy emphasizes the role of planning as a main driver for success. Thus, in an environment with a low propensity for change, managers are able to predict the market evolution and therefore allocate wisely their resources in order to optimize the company's actions. However, markets are substantially more dynamic and managers are faced with higher and more complex level of uncertainty. In such climates, anticipating and understanding change is becoming increasingly relevant and top companies are not just competing in the present, but also into the future. Purpose: To uncover and discuss how companies can enhance their strategies through procedures for anticipating and more appropriately preparing for change. This will consist of understanding how companies gain foresight and relevant types of information about potential future changes, how companies understand what these changes mean in terms of their context and their future, and, finally, how they respond once they have gained an understanding. Methodology: The research has a qualitative approach and is based four case studies. Both secondary and primary data were used. The primary data collection was conducted with through structured interviews. Conclusions: Managers need not resort to costly or time consuming tools for enhancing their foresight insight and their strategies. Instead, they should constantly be aware of inherent biases, use counterfactual thinking and challenge their own mental models as well as the resulting views and understandings. Without doubting the mental models first and foremost, companies can innovate only incrementally. Furthermore, managers need to understand the potential of open foresight and the power within the company’s networks. In this way, they can distance themselves from the trend-impact-reaction cycle. Finally, companies should adopt a more anticipatory approach, rather than one which sustains the industry on order to better shield their strategies from disruptive change.

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Magistro baigiamajame analizuoti ir įvertinti pasirinkimai elgsenos finansų kontekste bei požiūris į perteklinio pasirinkimo situacijas. Pirmojoje darbo dalyje pateikiama racionalios ekonominės elgsenos kritika, apžvelgiama elgsenos finansų disciplina kaip alternatyva vyraujančiai paradigmai, apžvelgiamos dažniausiai pasireiškiančios euristikos bei polinkiai. Pristatoma per didelio pasirinkimo problema bei pateikiami susisteminti šios srities tyrimai. Pagrindžiant empirinio tyrimo metodiką, antrojoje darbo dalyje, remiantis užsienio autorių tyrimais, parenkami tikrinami polinkiai bei euristikos, sudaromas klausimynas, atliekamas pilotinis tyrimas, sudaroma tyrimo anketa, vertinamas patikimumas. Trečiojoje dalyje lyginami ir taikant statistinius metodus analizuojami empirinio tyrimo rezultatai, ieškoma reikšmingų sąsajų, pateikiamos įžvalgos, apibendrinami rezultatai ir apžvelgiamos galimos tolimesnių tyrimų kryptys. Galiausiai pateikiamos išvados ir siūlomos būsimų tyrimų kryptys. / Master‘s thesis aims to analyze and evaluate choices in the context of behavioral finance and attitude towards overchoice. In the first part of the thesis, criticism of rational choice theory is provided, behavioral finance is portrayed as an alternative to mainstream finance and the most common heuristics and biases are reviewed. The problem of overchoice is discussed and research in this field is reviewed. In the second part of the thesis, methodology for studying choice in the context of behavioral finance and approach to overchoice is formed: the most probable heuristics and biases are chosen, a pilot questionnaire is composed, a pilot survey is carried our, the pilot questionnaire is updated to obtain the final version, validity of the survey is evaluated. In the third part of the thesis, survey results are analyzed, statistically significant relations are sought, insights are provided, results are summarized and possible directions for future research are outlined.

La majorité des recherches en sciences cognitives suppose que la fonction du raisonnement humain est d'aider l'individu à avoir de meilleures croyances et à prendre de meilleures décisions, en particulier grâce à des mécanismes mentaux d'inférences logiques. En 2011, Dan Sperber et Hugo Mercier ont proposé une vision alternative du raisonnement humain. La fonction du raisonnement serait argumentative : le raisonnement serait ce qui permet aux individus de produire et d'évaluer des arguments en contextes dialogiques. Cette thèse a d'une part pour objectif de proposer une comparaison théorique entre les théories standards du raisonnement et la théorie argumentative du raisonnement. D'autre part, elle apporte un soutien empirique a la théorie argumentative à travers différents paradigmes expérimentaux (i.e., résolution de problème individuelle, production et évaluation d'arguments individuelles, résolution de problème et échange d'arguments en groupe). Cette thèse défend non seulement la valeur explicative de la théorie argumentative du raisonnement, mais caractérise également les mécanismes cognitifs du raisonnement humain, de part leurs fonctions, leurs biais, et les contextes qui les déclenchent / Most research in cognitive science assumes that the function of human reasoning is to help individual to improve their beliefs and make better decisions, in particular through mental mechanisms of logical inference. In 2011, Dan Sperber and Hugo Mercier put forward an alternative view of human reasoning. The function of reasoning would be argumentative: reasoning would be what enables individuals to produce and evaluate arguments in dialogical contexts. This PhD thesis aims at proposing a theoretical comparison between standard theories of reasoning and the argumentative theory of reasoning. Furthermore, it provides empirical support for the latter by using different experimental paradigms (i.e., individual problem solving, production and evaluation of arguments in solitary contexts, problem solving and arguments exchange in group). This thesis not only defends the explanatory value of the argumentative theory but also characterizes the cognitive mechanisms of human reasoning by their functions, their biases, and their triggering contexts

Submitted by Estagiário SPT BMHS (spt@fgv.br) on 2011-11-18T11:40:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 1418400.pdf: 4816691 bytes, checksum: b9ba7b48d63b9b3c2759556585249b50 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Estagiário SPT BMHS (spt@fgv.br) on 2011-11-18T11:41:05Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 1418400.pdf: 4816691 bytes, checksum: b9ba7b48d63b9b3c2759556585249b50 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Estagiário SPT BMHS (spt@fgv.br) on 2011-11-18T11:41:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 1418400.pdf: 4816691 bytes, checksum: b9ba7b48d63b9b3c2759556585249b50 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-11-18T11:41:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 1418400.pdf: 4816691 bytes, checksum: b9ba7b48d63b9b3c2759556585249b50 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / A pesquisa aqui representada teve por objetivo identificar quais vieses podem influenciar os tomadores de decisões estratégicas de organizações brasileiras localizadas no estado do Rio de Janeiro. O trabalho realizado apoiou-se em questionário adaptado de Bazerman (2004). A partir de estudos sobre o cognitivo, este autor apresenta as heurísticas e respectivos vieses, objetos desta dissertação. Os tipos de pesquisas utilizados foram a bibliográfica e a de campo. Esta pesquisa de campo foi realizada com presidentes e diretores executivos do ambiente corporativo. Em suas funções, são eles os responsáveis por decisões estratégicas de empresas brasileiras localizadas no Brasil. A pesquisa revelou que os vieses apresentados por Bazerman (2004) foram identificados nos executivos entrevistados. / The objective of this investigation was to identify the biases that can influence strategic decision makers in Brazilian organizations located in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The investigation was based on a questionnaire adapted from Bazerman (2004). Based on studies on cognition, this author presents the heuristics and respective biases, which are the object of this dissertation. Chairmen and CEOs who are responsible for the strategic decisions of Brazilian corporations in Brazil were the objects of the field research. The investigation revealed that the biases pointed out by Bazerman (2004) were identified in the executives that were interviewed.