Lesser possession of financial resources greatly impacts livelihood and well-being. This state of scarcity manifests itself in individuals through alterations in cognitive functioning and decision...Show moreLesser possession of financial resources greatly impacts livelihood and well-being. This state of scarcity manifests itself in individuals through alterations in cognitive functioning and decision-making. This situation affects individual on different levels, depending on available resources and contextual means. This research is concerned about the role of personality traits, particularly impulsivity, on decision-making under situations of scarcity. Prior research has found that impulsivity affects decision-making, manifesting itself in rash action and impulsive behavior. Here, we apply these findings and discuss the degree of impulsivity and its moderating role in the relationship of financial scarcity and risk preference. This effect was investigated through a multiple-scaled questionnaire. One task, the lottery choice task, and two scales, the Psychological Inventory of Financial Scarcity (PIFS) and a shortened version of the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-15), were administered and utilized for the analysis. A total of 100 participants based in United Kingdom were involved in the questionnaire. The results yield no significance between impulsivity and the relationship of financial scarcity and risk preference. Future research may look deeper into cultural differences and biases that may be involved in the decision-making process, as well as looking into different instruments that measures the trait impulsivity itself.Show less
Decision-making regarding out-of-home placement can be regarded as a high-stake decision with negative consequences for the child when erroneous decision-making occurs, and in some cases even when...Show moreDecision-making regarding out-of-home placement can be regarded as a high-stake decision with negative consequences for the child when erroneous decision-making occurs, and in some cases even when the non-erroneous decision is taken. Paradoxically, scant research is available on what contributes to decisions regarding out-of-home placement. The aim of the present study was to gain insight into the main factors that contribute to decision-making, specifically focusing on case characteristics. In doing so, the paper draws on two important theories within decision-making, namely the Decision-Making Ecology, and the capacity-to-change model. The sample consisted of maltreating families in Dutch family residential clinics awaiting either a placement decision or a reunification decision (N = 56). Three different case characteristics in the form of overarching factors were investigated. Firstly, the parent factor (psychopathology and parenting stress), which was measured through self-report questionnaires. Secondly, the child factor consisting of active externalizing behavior and disobedient behavior, which was measured through observations. Lastly, the parenting capacity factor (the change in sensitivity, intrusiveness, and disciplining behavior during the residency in the family residential clinic), also measured through observations. Moreover, the role of a previous out-of-home placement measure within the family was researched. Multiple logistic regression models showed that solely the parent factor (psychopathology and parenting stress) marked a statistically significant contribution to the advice regarding the decision of out-of-home placement. The child factor and parenting capacity factor did not make a significant contribution to the advice regarding this decision and neither did previous out-of-home placement moderate the relationship between the case characteristics investigated and this decision. Future research should focus on all factors of the Decision-Making Ecology and their interplay, preferably in a wider sample of families entering the youth protection system.Show less
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are a salient characteristic observed across democratic systems. Perceived to strengthen citizen representation and improve policy outcomes, as such member...Show moreCivil Society Organizations (CSOs) are a salient characteristic observed across democratic systems. Perceived to strengthen citizen representation and improve policy outcomes, as such member involvement and organisational capacity are key attributes. In order to achieve this role, CSOs must possess the capability to influence decision-making processes. This thesis investigates the realisation of these attributes at the national level of European Union member states through quantitative analysis. The outcomes highlight noteworthy variations across EU member states. In Eastern countries, member involvement emerges as a catalyst for achieving heightened access to decision-making. Conversely, for CSOs in Western and Scandinavian nations, neither member involvement nor organisational capacity significantly corresponds to access within the decision-making realm.Show less
Executive master thesis | International Relations and Diplomacy (MSc)
open access
Consensus is an increasingly selected decision-making procedure in negotiations and institutions. As a more informal mode of negotiating and decision-making without voting, We propose a method of...Show moreConsensus is an increasingly selected decision-making procedure in negotiations and institutions. As a more informal mode of negotiating and decision-making without voting, We propose a method of coding and tracking consensus in The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), the foremost global organisation tasked with managing and improving states relations in space, by using its annual reports. By building a dataset of all COPUOS reports from 1990 to 2022, we model the presence and extent of consensus over time in against other quantitative data coded within the reports. We find an increasing number of views expressed over time, with the attainment of consensus mostly attributable to the substantive topic discussed. We also notice that factors related to less frequent attainment of consensus are often also associated with a higher strength of consensus. Non-state actors and developing countries are in some cases associated with increased attainment and strength of consensus.Show less
Empirical and theoretical work suggests that unpredictability during childhood shapes how decisions under uncertainty are made, as childhood unpredictability can make people more sensitive to...Show moreEmpirical and theoretical work suggests that unpredictability during childhood shapes how decisions under uncertainty are made, as childhood unpredictability can make people more sensitive to uncertainty about the future. Research on this subject so far has focused on decisions leading to reward gain, but no literature is available when such decisions concern avoiding harm or loss. This study looked into the relationship between perceived childhood unpredictability (PCU) and how people make decisions under uncertainty when the goal is to avoid loss. It was hypothesized that individuals who reported higher PCU would rely on more certain cues in the environment than uncertain cues that needed to be estimated based on experience. Secondly, it was hypothesized that individuals with higher PCU would feel more uncertain while making decisions during the task than people with lower PCU. These hypotheses were tested in a healthy sample (N = 214) consisting of 104 males and 110 females between the age of 18-35. All participants filled in several questionnaires, under which a questionnaire measuring PCU, and performed an online decision-making task. This task consisted of a social and a non-social (gambling) game. The results did not provide support for the hypotheses, but exploratory analyses found a relationship between PCU and the way that decisions were made in the social versus the non-social game. Specifically, those with higher PCU tend to rely more on learned contingencies than on the magnitude of the points at stake in the social game than in the non-social game. This relationship could be investigated more in future studies.Show less
"We have a chance to ride out this Omicron wave without shutting down our country once again," (Johnson, 2022). This quote was made by the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on January 4th, 2022....Show more"We have a chance to ride out this Omicron wave without shutting down our country once again," (Johnson, 2022). This quote was made by the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on January 4th, 2022. It shows the desire not to shut down the country by implementing another lockdown despite the highly infectious Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus. This quote shows his perception on the virus, whilst on the other side of the world, Prime Minister Ardern had closed the national borders of New Zealand back in 2020 which have remained closed until further notice. This difference in policy adoption and decision-making processes between two countries which are seemingly very similar in terms of the economic stability, political stability, territory size, and collaborative international partners is very puzzling. This research will therefore concern the identification of the core cause of this difference in policy adoption. The research has been conducted through the use of official governmental legislative documents as well as reliable secondary sources in order to conduct a comparative small-N design-based research. The method of this small-N design is the Most Similar Systems Design II method which aims to uncover the key cause of the difference in outcome of a specific case. For this research, the theories by Kingdon (Kingdon, 1984) ; (Béland & Howlett, 2016) and Dai et al. (Dai, et al., 2021) are used.Show less
The increasing reliance on ICT within the public sector has changed the working ways of governmental bureaucracies from a paper reality to a digital one, and governments are eager to use new...Show moreThe increasing reliance on ICT within the public sector has changed the working ways of governmental bureaucracies from a paper reality to a digital one, and governments are eager to use new technologies for their business operations and reap its benefits just as the private sector does. Since technological advancement is driven by the private sector, and humans are increasingly accustomed to the speed and efficiency that technology brings, citizens are expecting governments to adapt and digitize as well. As such, an important trend that is being experimented with is the usage of self-learning algorithms, particularly Artificial Intelligence or AI. Since AI runs on data, it is only logical that an organization such as the government which holds an abundance of data would like to put this to use. Data that is collected might hold certain patterns, if you can find such patterns and assume that the near future will not be much different from when the data was collected, predictions can be made. However, AI systems are often deemed opaque and inscrutable, and this can collide with the judicial accountability that governments have towards their citizens in the form of transparency. Based on the assumption that the information that is used by AI i.e. data and algorithms, is not similar to documentary information that governments are accustomed to, there are added obstacles for governments to overcome in order to achieve the desired effects of transparency. The goal of this research is to explore the barriers to transparency in governmental usage of AI in decision-making by analyzing governmental motivation towards (non-) transparency and how the complex nature of AI relates to this. The question that stems from this is: What are the obstacles related to being transparent in AI-assisted governmental decision-making? In the study, a comparison is made between the obstacles to transparency for documentary information and the obstacles that experts encounter in practice related to AI, a contribution follows. Based on the literature, it is hypothesized that governments are limited by privacy and safety issues, lack of expertise, cooperation and inadequate disclosure. The results show that the obstacles are more nuanced and an addition to the theory is appropriate. The most important findings being: that data and algorithms should not be treated as documentary information; the importance of the policy domain in determinant for the degree of transparency; that lack of cooperation causes multiple obstacles to transparency such as self-censoring, accountability issues, superficial debate, false promises, inability to explain and ill-suited systems; that more information disclosure isn’t always better; and that the public sector should rethink their overreliance on private sector business models. All these obstacles can be associated to losing sight of the fundamental function of government, serving citizens.Show less
The current COVID-19 pandemic has grown to be one of the worst pandemics ever faced. In order to fight this virus, measures have been adopted that restrict personal freedom. It is therefore of...Show moreThe current COVID-19 pandemic has grown to be one of the worst pandemics ever faced. In order to fight this virus, measures have been adopted that restrict personal freedom. It is therefore of great importance to acknowledge the human rights costs of all the measures imposed to tackle COVID-19. The purpose of this study is to examine to what extent human rights were violated, with specific attention to freedom from discrimination, freedom of information, freedom of movement and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention during the current pandemic. To fulfill the aim, a qualitative content analysis was applied, which analyzed five speeches by Western countries and five speeches by Asian countries. Differences and similarities were examined and subsequently the impact on human rights was analyzed. Six main themes emerged: mitigation, collaborative behavior, support, speech, treatment and justification. The key findings of this study are that human rights were evidently violated during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, none of the analyzed speeches attempts to justify its measures in relation with human rights. Additionally, only a few speeches openly state from where their information originates. This is problematic and simultaneously open for improvement.Show less
The present study explores the effect of externalities awareness and Social Value Orientation (SVO) in anticommons dilemmas. Making participants of an anticommons game aware of externalities was...Show moreThe present study explores the effect of externalities awareness and Social Value Orientation (SVO) in anticommons dilemmas. Making participants of an anticommons game aware of externalities was expected to increase cooperation, by decreasing their willingnessto-accept (WTA) values, i.e. the amount they would be willing to accept in order to allow other individuals to make use of the resource. The results of the computer-based anticommons game (N = 167) did not support this hypothesis. However, the results did show, as predicted, that the more prosocial participants were, the more easily they allowed access to the resource by setting lower willingness-to-accept (WTA) values. Additionally, the hypothesized interaction effect between externalities awareness and Social Value Orientation (SVO) was not confirmed. Proselfs’ behavior did not change significantly more than prosocials’, after they got aware of the externalities. Finally, the negative effects of uncertainty in cooperation are discussed.Show less
