Conspicuous consumption, the act of purchasing goods or services to display wealth, plays a significant role in consumer behavior to enhance perceived social status. While the relationship between...Show moreConspicuous consumption, the act of purchasing goods or services to display wealth, plays a significant role in consumer behavior to enhance perceived social status. While the relationship between income and consumption patterns has been previously explored, the specific effects of inequality of outcomes and inequality of opportunity on conspicuous consumption, particularly among college students, remain underexplored. investigates the impact of priming inequality on conspicuous consumption among American college students and examines how this relationship is moderated by the disposable monthly income (objective income) and perceived socioeconomic status (subjective income) of the students. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three priming conditions: inequality of outcomes, inequality of opportunity, or a control group. They subsequently completed a self-report questionnaire assessing their conspicuous consumption. The study made use of 297 American college students. The findings revealed no significant relationship of priming with either inequality of outcomes or inequality of opportunity compared to the control group on conspicuous consumption. However, a significant main effect was found for disposable monthly income, indicating that low-income students are significantly less likely to engage in conspicuous consumption than middle- and high-income students. No significant effects were found for perceived socioeconomic status or the interaction effects between the conditions and the different income types. These results contribute to understanding the conspicuous consumption tendencies among students, suggesting that priming inequality does not influence these behaviors, while income level does. Future research could further explore the dynamics between socioeconomic status, income, and perceptions of inequality to develop effective policies aimed at reducing student debt and addressing economic disparities.Show less
The present study experimentally investigated how perceptions of educational inequality impact students' aspirations and the moderating role of locus of control in the relationship between the two....Show moreThe present study experimentally investigated how perceptions of educational inequality impact students' aspirations and the moderating role of locus of control in the relationship between the two. Drawing on prior research, we hypothesised that educational aspirations would be negatively affected by educational inequality of both outcomes and opportunities, whereas it would be positively influenced by internal locus of control. Moreover, we expected locus of control to play a moderating role in the relationship between perceived inequality and aspirations, mitigating the adverse impact of inequality on the latter. Finally, based on previous findings, we expected the impact of perceived inequality of opportunities on aspirations to be comparatively weaker for students with internal academic locus of control when contrasted with perceived inequality of outcomes. A sample of 190 U.S. college students were randomly assigned to watch one of three educational inequality manipulation videos (i.e. opportunities, outcomes, and control). They were then given a questionnaire which assessed their perceptions of inequality, their academic locus of control and their educational aspirations. Only one of our hypotheses was supported by our results. While our findings align with existing evidence that internal locus of control positively affects educational aspirations, there was no main effect of perceived inequality on students’ goals. Notably, our study suggests that higher perceptions of inequality may have motivating effects, which, however, appear exclusive to students with an external locus of control. Given these unexpected findings, further research is warranted for a deeper understanding of the psychological dynamics behind students’ goal-setting processes.Show less
In dit onderzoek wordt onderzocht wat het effect van out-of-pocket kosten zijn op de zorgmijding van ouderen. De uitkomst is dat het verband tussen out-of-pocket uitgaven en het mijden van zorg...Show moreIn dit onderzoek wordt onderzocht wat het effect van out-of-pocket kosten zijn op de zorgmijding van ouderen. De uitkomst is dat het verband tussen out-of-pocket uitgaven en het mijden van zorg vanwege financiële redenen door 65-plussers wél positief, maar niet statistisch significant is.Show less
The increasing inequality as a consequence of globalisation requires more attention to the role of education. The aim of the present study is to contribute to the understanding of the micro...Show moreThe increasing inequality as a consequence of globalisation requires more attention to the role of education. The aim of the present study is to contribute to the understanding of the micro-implications of the compensation hypothesis by researching the effect of increasing globalisation on the perceived job quality of workers with different skill levels. A sample of six advanced economies (Germany, Hungary, Norway, Israel, United Kingdom, and United States) is used to test the theoretical assumption that globalisation tends to deteriorate the perceived job quality of relatively low-educated workers but tends to strengthen the perceived job quality of relatively high-educated workers. Data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) Work Orientations survey is used to compute the weighted average of job values and job outcomes to determine the subjective job quality of individual respondents. Using regression analysis, the findings indicate significant support for globalisation having asymmetric effects on the subjective job quality of workers with different skill levels. However, the small coefficients suggest that the effects are presumably trivial. Suggestions for future research are discussed based on the limitations and strengths of the study.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Humans regularly face collective problems calling for cooperation. To solve such problems, people can establish public goods that require contributions from individual members and benefit the whole...Show moreHumans regularly face collective problems calling for cooperation. To solve such problems, people can establish public goods that require contributions from individual members and benefit the whole group, e.g. public health care and infrastructure. It has been suggested that in modern society people have become less dependent on the creation of public goods and more able to solve problems individually (Santos, Varnum, & Grossmann, 2017). Nevertheless, solving shared problems individually is tied to resources that are often unequally distributed between people. Inequality (Zelmer, 2003) and individualism (Gross & De Dreu, 2019) can complicate cooperation, however, their interplay is largely unknown. We confronted 50 groups (N = 200) with a public goods game with the additional option to solve a shared problem individually through a private solution. Across groups, group members had either an equal or an unequal resource distribution. The private solution allowed wealthier group members to leave the group and avoid contributing to the public good. This resulted in increased inequality. Specifically, the easier it was to opt for a private solution, the higher the inequality was. We further investigated voting preferences and fairness perceptions by having sixty-one impartial raters complete the task from a third-party perspective. The third-party players preferred a more equitable solution that would result in lower inequality. While group members dependent on the public solution voted for delegating allocation decisions to the third party, the wealthier, and thus, more independent members voted against it revealing self-serving motives. Our findings highlight unique problems emerging with self-reliance in the face of global issues, such as a pandemic and global warming, that require cooperation. Especially, when self-reliance is only affordable for some, collective action can fail and further increase wealth gaps.Show less
Piketty claims the inequality of wealth is increasing and that this will cause problems of justice. Even though he might be right in his first claim, he has been criticized that he lacks the proper...Show morePiketty claims the inequality of wealth is increasing and that this will cause problems of justice. Even though he might be right in his first claim, he has been criticized that he lacks the proper moral arguments to defend his second claim. Yet, that does not mean he is wrong. To demonstrate why inequality of wealth is unjust, I will first need to determine what justice requires. To do so, I will examine Dworkin’s and Anderson’s theory of justice. I will argue that following either Dworkin or Anderson, Piketty is right and the current level of wealth inequality is unjust. Therefore, justice requires us to do something to reduce inequality. I will assert that a direct taxation of wealth is the best tool to do so. To examine how this would work out in practice, I will analyse the situation in the Netherlands. I will show that current wealth tax rates are strikingly low, but that merely increasing these rates would not work as a solution as people are poorly informed and use fallacious moral arguments. For that reason, I will follow Prabkahar in my conclusion that as a first step, it is essential to make people aware of the workings of taxation.Show less
Throughout the 20th century, the discussion on abortion in Latin America has spurred multiple controversies which persist today primarily due to the significant role the Catholic Church plays in...Show moreThroughout the 20th century, the discussion on abortion in Latin America has spurred multiple controversies which persist today primarily due to the significant role the Catholic Church plays in the area. Despite the recent advances achieved through decriminalization, the region’s percentage of unsafe abortions is the highest in the world. Chile’s case appears particularly insightful in analyzing the discrepancy between the law and the practice of abortion reforms due to the recent evolvement of the legislative debate in September 2017. During Michelle Bachelet’s second presidency, the long-awaited Law 21.030 reversed a 28-year ban in place since Pinochet’s regime. Despite the de jure significance of the law, which formally decriminalized abortion in three specific circumstances, many legal, cultural, political and economic impediments persist to undermine the effectiveness of the law, severely affecting Chilean women’s access to safe abortion services. In this manner, women are continuously led to risk their lives by undergoing abortions in clandestine and unsafe conditions. This thesis attempts to gain a nuanced understanding of such trends. By adopting a multidisciplinary approach, this thesis presents a legal and cultural analysis of three of the main obstacles to women’s access to safe and legal abortions in Chile: the right of health providers to claim conscientious objection, the legacy of traditional gender roles and abortion stigma, and the impact of socio-economic inequality.Show less
This thesis sets itself within this broader theoretical debate of discussing the relationship between capitalism and democracy. It investigates how capitalism has been able to gain unrivaled power...Show moreThis thesis sets itself within this broader theoretical debate of discussing the relationship between capitalism and democracy. It investigates how capitalism has been able to gain unrivaled power within the global political economy, particularly over democracy, through further developing the separation between what is determined as the 'political' and the 'economic'. Furthermore, it concentrates on the implications of the significant structural changes caused by capitalism and its role in shaping the digitalization of our societies. In the process, the paper analyzes Shoshanna Zuboff's understanding of surveillance capitalism because it is the needed contemporary analytical assessment of how big tech and its surveillance operations produce various adverse outcomes in the global political economy. It primarily focuses on how surveillance capitalists utilize the ideology and mechanisms of capitalism while undermining democracy and increasing epistemological and material inequalities. In its many forms, surveillance capitalism undermines democracy and human rights and creates unequal power structures within our societies. These adverse developments are possible because of the specific historical conditions that allowed surveillance capitalism to thrive and become normative behavior. Existing political and economic structures enabled surveillance capitalists like Google, Facebook, and Amazon to become dominant hegemonic forces in the global political economy. These corporations undemocratically extract data from individuals' lives by coercing users to accept their terms and conditions, which can take days to fully understand the implications on their human rights, privacy, and freedoms (Zuboff, 2019). Surveillance capitalists then capitalize on their data by selling it for profit, using it to improve their services, or utilizing it to predict and manipulate future behavior in collaboration with other market actors (Zuboff, 2019). This represents the commodification of human behavior, personal information and digital social interactions. How actors like Google have been able to extract, commodify (or profit from) and manipulate individuals' behavior has severe implications for the individual human rights and foundational principles and values of democracy. All of this depicts a pattern of subordinating human behavior to the logic of capitalist markets for profit while putting at risk the freedom, autonomy, and self-determination of citizens in the market, politics, and everyday life. Democratic countries have enabled and undermined Google and other corporations that create unequal power structures and succeed in exploiting citizens. This thesis identifies and analyses how the United States and Germany have attempted to address Google's intrusive big data operations. Particularly, it focuses on how they have both undermined and protected democracy by addressing surveillance capitalism and its adverse outcomes.Show less
Southeast Asia is a region at high risk of various natural disasters, with flooding being one of them. Often thought of as a purely natural hazard, in reality it is amplified by social, political...Show moreSoutheast Asia is a region at high risk of various natural disasters, with flooding being one of them. Often thought of as a purely natural hazard, in reality it is amplified by social, political and economic factors. Urban flooding in particular is a problem heavily influenced by these factors. Nevertheless, the problem is still frequently treated as a natural one that can be solved by technological measures. I argue that this approach is not efficient and forms the reason why urban flooding has not been solved yet. Instead, a deeper understanding of society is necessary in order to find sustainable solutions that benefit everyone. In the current situation, the urban poor are more at risk than the wealthy and mitigation efforts should consider these inequalities. Only by actively fighting inequality as underlying cause of urban flooding is it possible to ease the impacts of urban flooding and to create a resilient society. This thesis looks at the cases of Metro Manila and Bangkok to obtain a clearer picture of the complexity of the problem.Show less
The analysis of the trends for industrial concentration, GDP growth per capita, and income inequality – based on data from IPUMS International, Maddison Project, Clio-Infra, and World Bank Open...Show moreThe analysis of the trends for industrial concentration, GDP growth per capita, and income inequality – based on data from IPUMS International, Maddison Project, Clio-Infra, and World Bank Open Data – in the context of the US, Canada and other selected countries from Europe, South America, and East Asia, has led to the following results: a) after a comparison between the Krugman Index values and the GINI coefficients for the historical series of US, UK, and Spain, I argue in the first place, that the 1970-2000 series for the group of East-Asian countries subject to the research is coherent with the presence of “displaced” Kuznets’ waves – where the latter is a theoretical tool (introduced by Milanovic) that revises the original Kuznets’ hypothesis by shifting the focus from the long-run to more limited period of times. Secondly, for the group of South American countries analysed, I confirm the results of Deinenger and Squire on the unidirectionality of the trends for economic growth and income inequality between the 1960s and the 2000s. Namely, that both trends are raising, instead of diverging at a certain point, as it would have been expected, according to the original Kuznets’ hypothesis. Nevertheless, the inversion of the income inequality levels for Brazil, and the extreme oscillatory nature of the trends for Argentina, seem to prospect a potential displacement of a Kuznets’s wave for the two countries in a subsequent period. Limitations in the available datasets for the years after 2000s hindered, though, a consistent verification of this hypothesis. b) I argue on the one hand, that, for the Western countries analysed, the series for industrial concentration and income inequality between 1860 and 1970 are fully compatible with a Kuznets’ wave. On the other, that the series after the 1970s are instead in contrast with Milanovic’s thesis of a second Kuznets’ wave starting during these years. Nevertheless, the value for industrial concentration that I found for the US in 2015 can have some relationship with the rising income inequality levels analysed by Milanovic. Further research should be 75 devoted to the analysis of this issue when the census datasets for the 2020s decade will be made available. c) I argue that a further theoretical insight, derived from my analysis, can be considered as a corollary of Krugman’s theory on industrial specialisation dynamics. Namely, that being equal the transportation costs and the level of technology/productivity, lighter economic shocks trigger increasing levels of industrial concentration, whereas highly disruptive shocks for the industrial tissue, such as wars and structural economic crises, produce instead decreasing levels of industrial concentration. Further research is necessary, though, in order to corroborate this theory.Show less
This thesis analyses the legacy of "tierras malhabidas" from the military dictatorship in Paraguay (1954-1989), and its implications on the country's process towards achieving a consolidated...Show moreThis thesis analyses the legacy of "tierras malhabidas" from the military dictatorship in Paraguay (1954-1989), and its implications on the country's process towards achieving a consolidated democracy, through the case study of "La masacre de Curuguaty".Show less
Introduction Money used to be simple. Everybody liked the shiny yellow metal we now call gold. However, at a certain point, some so-called ‘states’ made the whole practice of exchanging gold rather...Show moreIntroduction Money used to be simple. Everybody liked the shiny yellow metal we now call gold. However, at a certain point, some so-called ‘states’ made the whole practice of exchanging gold rather more complicated, as they issued vouchers that were said to ‘represent’ an amount of gold. Even more farfetched was their later decision to cut any links between our metal of desire and the vouchers we got accustomed to. In the present day, our vouchers often lack any physical qualities, and seem to be nothing more than digits projected on a computer screen. It is perhaps remarkable that the proverbial man or woman in the street does not at all seem to be concerned with how abstract our money really is. Its omnipresence and utility have made almost every inhabitant on earth comfortable using it. We hardly reflect on its nature anymore. And so, now that an entirely novel type of money – cryptomoney – is coming to the forefront, we are quick to accept it as just another incarnation of a phenomenon that we have been familiar with ever since we started appreciating a certain shiny yellow metal. But I believe this to be a mistake. Cryptomoney has the potential to transform our financial system just as radically as the move from gold and silver to fiat money, or the abandonment of the gold standard once did. This is because there are certain qualities to cryptomoney that are fundamentally different from the money as we know it. It seems, however, that although some people are interested in comparing different types of money from an economic standpoint, not many care about the philosophical implications of choosing one system over another. I believe this to be a second mistake. The economist Leonidas Zelmanovitz is right when he says that ‘the value of any monetary policy is contingent on its adherence to a coherent set of philosophical assumptions’. But this works both ways, and we should also not neglect how our philosophical assumptions are challenged by the sort of money we use. If cryptomoney would make it harder for us to adhere to our ideas about justice, equality, fairness etc. that underlie our financial system, we should try to prevent it from gaining too much prominence. The question that lies at the origin of this investigation is the following: should we want to replace ‘traditional’ money with cryptomoney? The answer to this question will be negative: in this paper I will argue that it is impossible to replace traditional currencies with any form of cryptomoney and not as a direct result undermine national sovereignty and increase inequality within countries, and between them. The former is under threat because of the decentralized market-based nature of cryptomoney that leaves powerless governmental tools to execute monetary policy. The latter is the result of the disproportionate advantage more affluent people and countries will gain over their poorer equivalents as a consequence of the way cryptomoney works. If we see the consequences of these two effects through, we arrive at the conclusion that any form of replacement of traditional money by cryptomoney means a redistribution of power from (democratic) states to the market, from people to algorithms, from economically less developed countries to economically more developed countries, and from the poor to the rich. Such a redistribution, I will argue, is unjust and undermines the legitimacy of states. To support this conclusion, I have divided this thesis in four chapters. In chapter one, I will answer the questions what money is and how cryptomoney is a separate subset of the money family. A definition of cryptomoney will also be provided, as there are many virtual phenomena called cryptomoney that are really something else. Through this definition we will come to see that cryptomoney functions quite differently from the money we use today. And because cryptomoney’s ability to change our society stems in part from its technicalities, I will then give a concise explanation of how cryptomoney works. One of the really novel aspects of cryptomoney is the way it is safeguarded against fraud. The technology that does this, the ‘blockchain’, is the reason why cryptomoney could be the first serious competitor to national currencies since gold. Important as this all is, we will not discuss the mathematical or programmers’ side of cryptomoney in detail; it has been done elsewhere. Rather, we move on to the second chapter and discuss the consequences that a financial regime based on cryptomoney would have for states and individual users. We refrain from giving too strong a normative judgment here, and merely list and explain some of the most important practical advantages and disadvantages that the introduction of cryptomoney could have, in order to better understand why cryptomoney is so attractive to some of its proponents. In chapters three and four we shift our attention to the main question of the thesis: is cryptomoney a good idea? Now there might be many arguments that could be given either for or against using cryptomoney, and some of these will be discussed in chapter two. Many of these arguments, however, are mostly pragmatic in nature, and therefore not very interesting for a philosophical inquiry. Others do merit more thorough examination, but are contingent on the type of cryptocurrency used. However, there are two arguments against cryptomoney that are rather more substantial. In chapter three, we will explain why cryptomoney necessarily undermines national sovereignty, and why that would be bad. Chapter four does the same for equality. These arguments hold for any form of cryptomoney as defined in chapter one, as they are the direct result of the way cryptomoney functions. Furthermore, they transcend all pragmatic arguments, because of the strong commitment many of us have to sovereignty and equality. Naturally, not everyone believes in these values. And although I will give some arguments in favour of sovereignty and equality, this thesis does not have the explicit aim to convince those that a priori disagree with me that these two principles are desirable. There are many libertarians and anarchists who are outright opposed to the basic idea of statehood, and do not think that national sovereignty is worthwhile at all. Likewise, there are some who claim that (some sort of) inequality has utility, usually because it yields a desired effect. For some niche thinkers it could even be good in itself. This paper might not be for them. Of course, many of cryptomoney’s (dis)advantages will only become apparent in a future where cryptomoney sheds its volatile state and blossoms into a type of money on par with the money we have now. That it could come that far is an underlying assumption for this research. It is made plausible throughout, and in chapter one especially. Interest in cryptomoney surges and it has already proven to be a very popular type of artificially created money. At the same time, it would be folly to claim that we are on the brink of a true cryptomoney revolution. The trade volume of all cryptocurrencies combined is still quite small, and no single currency, not even the (in)famous bitcoin, is anywhere near a position where it could start replacing even the weakest of national currencies. So uncertain is the future in fact, that it is even possible that we are already past the peak of cryptomoney. And that would then actually be a good thing, as an ascension of cryptomoney will lead to an increase of the problems noted in chapter three and four. In a way, you could say that this inquiry aims to make itself obsolete, because in the end it argues that cryptomoney would be bad for us. Still, if we manage to keep the use of cryptomoney at bay, and all the different cryptocurrencies lose their value, that would not mean that the phenomenon could not still be valuable as a hypothetical alternative to traditional money, capable of shedding light on our current monetary institutions and the normative foundations on which these are based.Show less
Looking at South Africa in a contemporary context, one is forced to take a closer look especially at its economic and political struggles. Trying to grow out of its subaltern position and legacy of...Show moreLooking at South Africa in a contemporary context, one is forced to take a closer look especially at its economic and political struggles. Trying to grow out of its subaltern position and legacy of its past, South Africa yet remains to struggle with corruption and inequality in many dimensions. The heritage of land inequality has been formalized through the Native Land Acts in 1913 and 1936, which strangulated commercial farming activities of the black majority and thus, later gave incentives to change the hereditary constraint to South Africa’s economy. The Land Reform Act of 1994 was formulated to overcome the inherently unequal distribution of land in South Africa. As Ward Anseeuw states in his paper on the effectiveness of South Africa’s land reform, the African National Congress (ANC) during its ascension to power in 1994 promised a restructure of the economy through the redistribution of land; the growth, employment and redistribution program (GEAR). Its objective was to redistribute the land prior given to the white minority and fix the legacy of the past by making land available to the black population. However, taking a closer look at the “success story” of the countries’ ambitious program and recent heated debates and developments in South Africa, one comes to ask, if the country is heading the same way as Zimbabwe? Zimbabwe, a country in which land reform remains at the heart of its political and economic challenges, demonstrates that wrong and flawed implementations lead to a national hunger crisis, violence and the distortion of the country. South Africa, having a better political and policy framework should be heading towards a positive future of land distribution and agriculture. But, the complexity of the problem offers a difficult accomplishment of this task, especially when one observes recent violence against white-owned farms and escalating racial rhetoric in South Africa. Especially, Zimbabwe’s land occupations may have fueled fears of commercial farmers and breathed new lives in the demand for land reform elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa’s land reform addressed and implemented as a process to redress the apartheid colonialism and the Native Land Acts of 1913 and 1936, to fuel South Africa’s economy and to reduce its stigma of racial and economic inequality. The question of the success of land reforms therefore identifies a wider and older issue South Africa is fighting with for decades. If it will follow Zimbabwe’s footsteps there remains speculation, but the succession of its land reform wont set sail towards a brighter horizon, if South Africa does not change its course in the debate on land restitution, land tenure and land redistribution and sets clear policies on the acquisition of land. The government, since 1994 has relied on its 1996 Constitution and on the 1997 White paper on Land Reform, but the land reform in its essence has failed and will continue to be unsuccessful in its implementation, if it doesn’t revise its land reform and if there are no actions taken to change its fate. This paper will therefore aim to identify, what after twenty-two years after the transition to democracy and the commencement of land, in South Africa is going wrong and if or how its land reform can possibly be saved.Show less
This thesis analyses how prolific musicians of the time Gilberto Gil and Criolo have provided social and political commentary on behalf of traditionally marginalised communities in Brazil, and in...Show moreThis thesis analyses how prolific musicians of the time Gilberto Gil and Criolo have provided social and political commentary on behalf of traditionally marginalised communities in Brazil, and in what way they have been able to provide such commentaries.Show less
This thesis explores why populist parties in Europe, and within the Netherlands in particular, have grown significantly in the last decades. This thesis will argue that key to this populist trend...Show moreThis thesis explores why populist parties in Europe, and within the Netherlands in particular, have grown significantly in the last decades. This thesis will argue that key to this populist trend has been the development of the capital/labour ratio.Show less
