Health and Culture: The Association between Healthcare Preferences for Non-Acute Conditions, Human Values and Social Norms.

Preference for professional vs. non-professional or informal healthcare for non-acute medical situations influences healthcare use and varies strongly across countries. Important individual and country-level drivers of these preferences may be human values (the fundamental values that individuals hold and guide their behavior) and country-level characteristics such as social tightness (societal pressure for "acceptable" behavior). The aim of this study was to examine the relation of these individual and country-level characteristics with healthcare preferences. We examined European Social Survey data from 23,312 individuals in 16 European countries, using a multi-level, random effect approach, including individual and country-level factors. Healthcare preferences were explained by both human values (i.e., Schwartz values) and societal tightness (i.e., tightness-looseness scores by Gelfand). Stronger conservation increased, whereas self-transcendence and openness to change decreased preference for professional healthcare. In socially tight countries, we found a higher preference for professional healthcare. Furthermore, we found interactions between social tightness and human values. These results suggest that professional healthcare preference is related to both people's values and societal tightness. This improved understanding is useful for both predicting and channeling healthcare seeking behavior across and within nations.

Cross-cultural differences in pedestrian behaviors in relation to values: A comparison of five countries.

This study compared pedestrian behaviors in five countries (Estonia, Greece, Kosovo, Russia, and Turkey) and investigated the relationships between these behaviors and values in each country. The study participants were 131 pedestrians for Estonia, 249 for Greece, 112 for Kosovo, 176 for Russia, and 145 for Turkey. The principal component analyses revealed that the four-factor structure of the Pedestrian Behavior Scale (PBS) was highly consistent across the five countries. ANCOVA results revealed significant differences between countries on the PBS items and scale scores. Specifically, Greek and Turkish participants reported transgressive pedestrian behaviors more frequently than Estonian, Kosovar, and Russian pedestrians while Kosovar participants reported transgressive pedestrian behaviors less frequently than Estonian pedestrians. In addition, Turkish and Russian pedestrians reported lapses and aggressive behaviors more frequently than Estonian, Greek, and Kosovar pedestrians. Finally, Turkish and Estonian pedestrians reported positive behaviors more frequently than Kosovar pedestrians. Unexpectedly, the regression analyses showed that values have varying effects on pedestrian behavior in the five countries. That is, context or country may determine the effect of values on pedestrian behaviors. The results are discussed in relation to the previous literature.

Are Value Preferences and Social Cohesion Interconnected? The Case of Mexico / ¿Están Conectadas las Preferencias de Valores y la Cohesión Social? El Caso de México

Abstract Social cohesion, the modern version of the fraternité motto of the French revolution, has become a hot social science topic. The paper addresses it from a social-psychological perspective, asking whether individually and societally prevailing value preferences are interconnected with the level of cohesion in society. Mexico serves as the case to examine whether findings for European countries, obtained in the Bertelsmann Social Cohesion Radar, can be generalized to Latin America. Is it true also in Mexico that strong self-transcendence values (Universalism) foster social cohesion, whereas strong self-enhancement values (Power) impede it? A large random probability quota sample (N = 2,003) was gathered to answer the research question. Results showed that, largely, findings from Europe could be generalized to the Mexican context. However, the role of Security values emerged as different. Whereas in Europe such value preferences covaried with low levels of cohesion, in Mexico they were generally associated with higher levels. The authors interpret this as evidence for negative consequences of neoliberal economic policies for social cohesion. Unlike in Europe, strong support for Security values seems to serve as a safeguard against capitalist economic pressures more so than being a sign for an egoistic preservation of one's own lot.

Resumen La cohesión social, versión moderna del lema fraternité de la revolución francesa, se ha vuelto un tópico relevante en la ciencia social. Este trabajo aborda el tema desde una perspectiva socio-psicológica, preguntándose si preferencias en valores individuales o sociales están relacionadas con el nivel de cohesión en la sociedad. México funciona como punto de comparación para ver si los hallazgos en países europeos, obtenidos del Radar de Cohesión Social Bertelsmann, pueden ser generalizados a América Latina. ¿Será también verdad que en México fuertes valores de auto-trascendencia (universalismo) fomentan la cohesión social, mientras que fuertes valores de auto-promoción (poder) la impiden? Una muestra aleatoria probabilística por cuotas (N=2003) se utilizó para contestar la pregunta de investigación. Los resultados muestran que, en su mayoría, los resultados de Europa podrían ser generalizados al contexto mexicano. Sin embargo, el rol de los valores de conservación resultó ser diferente. Mientras que en Europa dichas preferencias en valores covarían con bajos niveles de cohesión, en México están asociadas con altos niveles. Los autores interpretan esto como evidencia de las consecuencias ne-gativas de las políticas neoliberales económicas para la cohesión social. A diferencia de Europa, un fuerte apoyo a los valores de conservación parece servir como factor de protección ante las presiones capitalistas económicas más allá de ser una señal de tendencias egoístas de preservación hacia lo que uno tiene.

How Cross-Linguistic Differences in the Grammaticalization of Future Time Reference Influence Intertemporal Choices.

According to Chen's (2013) Linguistic Savings Hypothesis (LSH), our native language affects our economic behavior. We present three studies investigating how cross-linguistic differences in the grammaticalization of future-time reference (FTR) affect intertemporal choices. In a series of decision scenarios about finance and health issues, we let speakers of altogether five languages that represent FTR with increasing strength, that is, Chinese, German, Danish, Spanish, and English, choose between hypothetical sooner-smaller and later-larger reward options. While the LSH predicts a present-bias that increases with FTR-strength, our decision makers preferred later-larger options and this future-bias increased with FTR-strength. In multiple regressions, the FTR-strength effect persisted when controlled for socioeconomic and cultural differences. We discuss why our findings deviate from the LSH and ask in how far the FTR-strength effect represents a habitual constitution of linguistic relativity or an instance of online decision framing.

Healthcare practitioners' personal and professional values.

Personal and professional values of healthcare practitioners influence their clinical decisions. Understanding these values for individuals and across healthcare professions can help improve patient-centred decision-making by individual practitioners and interprofessional teams, respectively. We aimed to identify these values and integrate them into a single framework using Schwartz's values model. We searched Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL and ERIC databases for articles on personal and professional values of healthcare practitioners and students. We extracted values from included papers and synthesized them into a single framework using Schwartz's values model. We summarised the framework within the context of healthcare practice. We identified 128 values from 50 included articles from doctors, nurses and allied health professionals. A new framework for the identified values established the following broad healthcare practitioner values, corresponding to Schwartz values (in parentheses): authority (power); capability (achievement); pleasure (hedonism); intellectual stimulation (stimulation); critical-thinking (self-direction); equality (universalism); altruism (benevolence); morality (tradition); professionalism (conformity); safety (security) and spirituality (spirituality). The most prominent values identified were altruism, equality and capability. This review identified a comprehensive set of personal and professional values of healthcare practitioners. We integrated these into a single framework derived from Schwartz's values model. This framework can be used to assess personal and professional values of healthcare practitioners across professional groups, and can help improve practitioners' awareness of their values so they can negotiate more patient-centred decisions. A common values framework across professional groups can support shared education strategies on values and help improve interprofessional teamwork and decision-making.

Motivation, values, and work design as drivers of participation in the R open source project for statistical computing.

One of the cornerstones of the R system for statistical computing is the multitude of packages contributed by numerous package authors. This amount of packages makes an extremely broad range of statistical techniques and other quantitative methods freely available. Thus far, no empirical study has investigated psychological factors that drive authors to participate in the R project. This article presents a study of R package authors, collecting data on different types of participation (number of packages, participation in mailing lists, participation in conferences), three psychological scales (types of motivation, psychological values, and work design characteristics), and various socio-demographic factors. The data are analyzed using item response models and subsequent generalized linear models, showing that the most important determinants for participation are a hybrid form of motivation and the social characteristics of the work design. Other factors are found to have less impact or influence only specific aspects of participation.