Featured Summaries
From AcaWiki
[edit] Featured Summary: Why Do People Donate to Charity?
Paper Title: A Signaling Explanation for Charity
Many people feel that donating to charity is purely an altruistic action. However, the authors of this paper suggest otherwise. Instead, they suggest that donating to charity in many cases is a way for people to conspicuously signal their wealth. As evidence, the authors looked at donations to a charity and found that the majority of donations came in at the minimum amount to make it to the next tier. For example, if the categories were between $0-$99, $100-$199, $200-$299 donations would be clustered at the $100 level and the $200 level. Economic theory suggests that donations should be more evenly distributed - that people should donate what they can pay. However, donations were clustered at the bottom of the next tier suggesting that people are making donations as a way of signaling.
In addition, the authors argue that donations are a better signal of wealth than things like luxury products. In many cases excessive conspicuous consumption is banned by social norms. One who is too gluttonous or showy is considered overly ostentatious. Second, luxury products are not always reliable signals because they can be faked. Donating to charity may actually be a more stable signal of wealth. Read more...
[edit] Featured Summary: Arts and Crafts for Computer Interface Designers!
Paper Title: Prototyping for Tiny Fingers
This paper advocates for lo-fi prototyping and describes the process of creating, testing, and improving upon a prototype.
"Lo-fi prototyping works because it effectively educates developers to have a concern for usability and formative evaluation, and because it maximizes the number of times you get to refine your design before you must commit to code."
[edit] Advice for building a lo-fi prototype
- Have arts&crafts supplies
- Set a deadline
- Make models with 'moving parts' to simulate interactivity
[edit] Advice for preparing for a test
- Find test users--make them realistic
- Prepare test scenarios
- Practice: try testing on your own group first
[edit] Featured Summary: Age and the Sociology of Fertility: How Old is Too Old?
Paper Title: Age and the Sociology of Fertility: How Old is Too Old?</span> In this article Rindfuss and Bumpass argue that while age has a strong biological effect on fertility, biology is not the only way in which age affects fertility. There is also a sociological component. Age is an important consideration in a couple's decision with respect to the termination of fertility. Age also effects the choice of contraceptive method and the vigilance with which contraception is practiced. Read more...
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Featured Summary: Counting the Rational Numbers
Paper Title: Recounting the Rationals: Twice!
This paper shows the derivation of an algorithm that enables the positive rationals to be enumerated in two different ways. One way is known; the second is new and corresponds to a flattening of the Stern-Brocot tree of rationals. Read more...
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Featured Summary: Pro and Con lists aren't always a good move!
Paper Title: On Making the Right Choice: The Deliberation-Without-Attention Effect
Remember the old wisdom of making a list with positives and negatives, consciously weighing them against each other, and then making a decision? It turns out this might not be such a great strategy in all types of decisions. The counter strategy of "just sleep on it" might actually be better under certain circumstances.
This paper highlights the value of unconscious decision making. The authors suggest that in simple decisions tasks with few attributes (such as deciding about a new pair of gloves), conscious decision-making is actually pretty good. However, in complex decisions-making tasks with many attributes, such as deciding between two houses, unconscious decision making works better. Read more...
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Featured Summary: For Conflicts of Interest, Disclosure isn't a Cure
Paper Title: The Dirt on Coming Clean: Perverse Effects of Disclosing Conflicts of Interest
Common sense suggests recipients of advice will benefit if conflicts of interests are disclosed. In fact, many laws have been created in the fields of law, medicine, and finance to protect consumers from conflicts of interest.
If your doctor was on the payroll of a major pharmaceutical company, and then prescribed for you to take a drug made by this company, would you want her to disclose the conflict of interest? Common sense suggests that you’d be more protected if you were aware of it. In this paper, researchers ran experiments that might suggest otherwise. They found that if an adviser had a conflict of interest and told you, she would actually be able to influence you even more in her direction than if she hadn’t. In the case of the doctor, if she disclosed to you that she was on the payroll of the pharmaceutical, and then prescribed you their drug, you would more likely trust the doctor and take it. Read more...
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Featured Summary: Do Points Make Us Do Random Things?
Paper Title: Medium Maximization
This paper shows how strategically adding "points" to a situation can dramatically change motivation and outcome. One group of students were given the choice between working for six minutes in exchange for a gallon of Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream, or working for seven minutes in exchange for a gallon of pistachio Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Given that six minutes of work is more attractive than seven, and vanilla ice cream is generally more desirable than pistachio, about three quarters of students chose the six minute task with vanilla ice cream. Read more...
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Featured Summary: Identity and Political Affiliation
Paper Title: When Beliefs Yield to Evidence: Reducing Biased Evaluation by Affirming the Self
Our political affiliation doesn't just indicate what we believe - it affirms "who we are" - our identity. One reason people may cling to their political beliefs is because they are protecting their identity. Thus, it follows that if you make people feel better about who they are by affirming their identity - say having them reflect on their sense of humor - they would be more open to diverse political beliefs, and we may end up in less of a red state vs. blue state deadlock. Read more...
