First Evidence for "The Backup Plan Paradox"

First Evidence for "The Backup Plan Paradox". Christopher Napolitano & Alexandra Freund. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28627908

Abstract: This research is a first test of the backup plan paradox. We hypothesized that investing in a backup plan may facilitate the conditions that it was developed to address: Plan A's insufficiency. Five studies provide initial, primarily correlative support for the undermining effect of investing in a backup plan. Study 1 (n= 160) demonstrated that the more participants perceived they had invested in developing a backup plan (preparing a "crib sheet"), the more likely they were to use it, although greater investments were unrelated to backup plan utility. Studies 2-4 used a simulated negotiation task. Study 2 (n = 247) demonstrated that when goal-relevant resources are limited, investing in developing backup plans and perceiving them as highly instrumental can decrease goal performance through the indirect effect of increased means replacing. Study 3 (n = 248) replicated this effect when goal-relevant resources were plentiful. Study 4 (n = 204) used an experimental variant of the simulated negotiation task and demonstrated that simply having a backup plan is not detrimental, but perceiving backup plans to be highly instrumental decreased goal performance, again through the indirect effect of increased means replacing. Study 5 (n = 160) replicated findings from Studies 1-4 using a lab-based motor task (throwing a ball). Together, these results provide first evidence that backup plans can introduce costs that may jeopardize goal performance.

Wolves in sheep’s clothing: Is non-profit status used to signal quality?

Wolves in sheep’s clothing: Is non-profit status used to signal quality? Daniel Jones, Carol Propper & Sarah Smith. Journal of Health Economics, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.06.011

Abstract: Why do many firms in the healthcare sector adopt non-profit status? One argument is that non-profit status serves as a signal of quality when consumers are not well informed. A testable implication is that an increase in consumer information may lead to a reduction in the number of non-profits in a market. We test this idea empirically by exploiting an exogenous increase in consumer information in the US nursing home industry. We find that the information shock led to a reduction in the share of non-profit homes, driven by a combination of home closure and sector switching. The lowest quality non-profits were the most likely to exit. Our results have important implications for the effects of reforms to increase consumer provision in a number of public services.

JEL classification: L31, L38, I18, I11

Keywords: Non-profit, Quality disclosure, Nursing homes

Do Government Subsidies to Low-income Individuals Affect Interstate Migration? Evidence from the Massachusetts Health Care Reform.

Do Government Subsidies to Low-income Individuals Affect Interstate Migration? Evidence from the Massachusetts Health Care Reform. James Alm & Ali Enami. Regional Science and Urban Economics, September 2017, Pages 119-131, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166046216303799

Highlights
•    Will low-income individuals move to a state with better health subsidies?
•    This paper estimates the migration impact of the 2006 Massachusetts health care reform.
•    We use difference-in-differences and triple-differences models, with tax return data.
•    We find that the reform had no global effect on the overall movement into the state.
•    We also find that the reform had a border effect on cities closest to the state's borders.

Abstract: Following the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, many – but not all – states decided to expand their Medicaid program in line with provisions of the new law. Will low-income individuals respond to the incentives of living in a state with better health subsidies by relocating to the state? This paper addresses this question by examining the population growth rate of low-income individuals in Massachusetts following the Massachusetts Health Care Reform (MHCR) of 2006. Like the ACA, the MHCR expanded the Medicaid program, and also provided subsidized health insurance for low-income individuals. Using difference-in-differences and triple-differences models and Internal Revenue Service tax return data, we show that the reform did not have a global effect on the movement of low-income individuals across all cities in Massachusetts. However, we also show that the reform did have a local (or border) effect on the movement into border cities of the state, an effect that is relatively large for cities very close to the border but disappears quickly once the distance to border goes beyond 15 miles.

JEL classification: H24, I13, J11

Keywords: Massachusetts health care reform, Interstate migration, Medicaid expansion, Subsidized health insurance, Border analysis

Engendering Empathy, Begetting Backlash: American Attitudes toward Syrian Refugees

Engendering Empathy, Begetting Backlash: American Attitudes toward Syrian Refugees. Claire Adida, Adeline Lo & Melina Platas. University of California Working Paper, May 2017, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2978183

Abstract: Existing research has shown how easily individuals are moved to harbor exclusionary attitudes toward out-group members. Can we foster inclusion instead? This paper leverages the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis – one of the most significant humanitarian crises of our time – to test whether and under what conditions American citizens adopt more inclusionary attitudes and behaviors toward Syrian refugees. We conduct a nationally representative survey of American citizens in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election and experimentally test two mechanisms hypothesized to promote inclusion: information and empathy. We examine attitudinal measures of acceptance of refugees, as well as a substantively important behavioral measure – writing a letter to the 45th president of the United States in support of refugees. Our results unveil significant effects on attitudes and behavior of both empathy and information treatments that are mediated by partisanship. The empathy treatment resulted in an increase in the likelihood of writing a letter in support of refugees. An examination of heterogeneous effects by party reveals that the empathy treatment engendered inclusionary attitudes among Independents, and the increase in letter writing was driven primarily by Democrats, whose underlying attitudes did not change, but also by Republicans. The information treatment, on the other hand, did not robustly improve attitudes or behavior of Democrats or Independents, and may have induced a backlash among Republicans. We discuss implications for understanding what kinds of interventions increase inclusion and which create backlash.

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Remember too: Napier, J. L., Huang, J., Vonasch, A. J., and Bargh, J. A. (2017) Superheroes for Change: Physical Safety Promotes Socially (but Not Economically) Progressive Attitudes among Conservatives. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol., doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2315

Acculturational Homophily

Acculturational Homophily. Dafeng Xu. Economics of Education Review, August 2017, Pages 29-42, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027277571730119X

Abstract: Economists have long recognized the influence of friends on various outcomes among immigrants, and also observed the benefit of acculturation. This paper lies at the intersection of the above two topics: by focusing on a typical behavior of acculturation, namely English-name usage, I examine the extent of acculturational homophily among Chinese students. Specifically, I investigate the relationship between self English-name usage and English-name usage of close friends using online social networking data on students who receive undergraduate education in China and graduate education in the U.S. The empirical analysis relies on an instrumental variable strategy: I use the indicator of the difficulty of pronouncing the Chinese name in English to instrument for English-name usage. Results suggest the presence of acculturational homophily: students with English-name usage have more close friends who are also English-name users, and the relationship is not based on the number of close friends overall.

Keywords: Acculturation,  Homophily, Migration, International students, Language, Name
JEL Classification: I2 J1 Z1

Hispanic Population Growth Engenders Conservative Shift Among Non-Hispanic Racial Minorities

Hispanic Population Growth Engenders Conservative Shift Among Non-Hispanic Racial Minorities. Maureen Craig & Jennifer Richeson. Social Psychological and Personality Science, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550617712029

Abstract: The racial/ethnic diversity of the United States is increasing, yet recent social psychological research has focused primarily on White Americans’ reactions to this demographic trend. The present research experimentally examines how members of different racial minority groups perceive increasing diversity, driven by Hispanic population growth, focusing on downstream consequences for political ideology and policy preferences. Four studies reveal that making Hispanic population growth salient leads non-Hispanic racial minorities to identify as more conservative and support more conservative policy positions, compared with control information. The policy preferences of Hispanics, however, were not affected by exposure to information about their in-group’s growth. Considered in tandem with previous research, the present studies suggest that Hispanic population growth may motivate greater support for conservative ideology among members of both racial majority and minority groups.

Immigration, Employment Opportunities, and Criminal Behavior

Immigration, Employment Opportunities, and Criminal Behavior. Matthew Freedman, Emily Owens & Sarah Bohn. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, https://crim.sas.upenn.edu/working-papers/immigration-employment-opportunities-and-criminal-behavior

Abstract: We take advantage of provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), which granted legal resident status to long-time unauthorized residents but created new obstacles to employment for more recent immigrants, to explore how employment opportunities affect criminal behavior. Exploiting administrative data on the criminal justice involvement of individuals in San Antonio, Texas and using a triple-differences strategy, we find evidence of an increase in felony charges filed against residents most likely to be negatively affected by IRCA’s employment regulations. Our results suggest a strong relationship between access to legal jobs and criminal behavior.

Treating Objects like Women: The Impact of Terror Management and Objectification on the Perception of Women’s Faces

Treating Objects like Women: The Impact of Terror Management and Objectification on the Perception of Women’s Faces. Christina Roylance, Clay Routledge & Benjamin Balas
Sex Roles, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-017-0747-x

Abstract: There is a modern trend whereby women’s beauty and attractiveness tends towards the artificial, which appears to be an extreme manifestation of objectification culture. Research suggests that sexual objectification has the ability to alter the way we perceive women. Objectification occurs, in part, because women’s bodies pose a unique existential threat, and objectifying women is believed to mitigate concerns about mortality because it transforms women into something inanimate and thus less mortal. We therefore hypothesized that priming death concerns should impact object-person recognition of women. In the present study we recruited 177 undergraduate students from a U.S. Midwestern university to participate in exchange for course credit. We utilized face-morphing techniques to create a series of images representing a continuum of artificial-to-real faces, and after being exposed to a death reminder (as opposed to a pain reminder comparison condition), we asked participants to rate the extent to which the image appeared artificial. Results suggested that death awareness biases people towards reporting artificial female (but not male) faces as real. Existential concerns about death have an impact on perceptual assessments of women, specifically women who have been turned into literal objects. Future research directions, limitations of the current study, and implications for improving women’s health and well-being with this added knowledge about objectification are discussed.

Keywords: Objectification, Terror management, Perception, Health, Sexism, Social psychology,  Women and gender studies, Implicit attitudes, Gender equality

Effects of Exposure to Alcohol-related Cues on Racial Discrimination

Effects of Exposure to Alcohol-related Cues on Racial Discrimination. Elena Stepanova et al.
European Journal of Social Psychology, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.2325/full

Abstract: Prior research has shown that exposure to alcohol-related images exacerbates expression of implicit racial biases, and that brief exposure to alcohol-related words increases aggressive responses. However, the potential for alcohol cue exposure to elicit differential aggression against a Black (outgroup) relative to a White (ingroup) target — that is, racial discrimination — has never been investigated. Here, we found that White participants (N = 92) exposed to alcohol-related words made harsher judgments of a Black experimenter who had frustrated them than participants who were exposed to nonalcohol words. These findings suggest that exposure to alcohol cues increases discriminatory behaviors toward Blacks.