In this paper, we explore the diffusion of beliefs pertaining to the causes of childhood diarrhea in rural Guatemala. The analysis focuses on the importance of interpersonal and impersonal contacts as conduits for information and norms related to hygiene and contamination. Estimates from multivariate models reveal that there is evidence of a diffusion process through social contacts, primarily ...

Kohlberg's (1966) hypothesis that the attainment of gender constancy motivates children to attend to gender norms was reevaluated by examining these links in relation to age. Ninety-four 3- to 7-year-old children were interviewed to assess whether and how constancy mediates age-related changes in gender-related beliefs. As expected, results indicated a general pattern of an increase in stereoty...

4. Philosophical studies of knowledge. These are often not so much concerned with finding out facts as with establishing norms or standards. So philosophers try to find criteria for deciding whether certain beliefs are rational, or whether inferences from evidence to conclusions are valid. A closely related topic is the study of the systems of concepts required for formulating beliefs of differ...

Research on the role of identity in choice varies widely across fields like psychology, philosophy, consumer behavior, and economics, in both the key questions addressed and the methods of investigation. Although a large literature has established how salient aspects of identity affect attitudes and norms, less is known about how beliefs concerning identity are shaped and how these beliefs affe...

Driven by intergroup competition, social norms, beliefs, and practices can evolve in ways that more effectively tap into a wide variety of evolved psychological mechanisms to foster group-beneficial behavior. The more powerful such evolved mechanisms are, the more effectively culture can potentially harness and manipulate them to generate greater phenotypic variation across groups, thereby fuel...

OBJECTIVE Guided by the Theory of Reasoned Action, this study examined the association of behavioral beliefs, attitudes, normative beliefs, and subjective norms with waterpipe tobacco smoking intention in college students. DESIGN AND SAMPLE A cross-sectional design was used. A Web-based survey was sent to a random sample of 1,000 undergraduate students from a public institution in the southea...

What is considered to be fair depends on context. Using a modified version of the Ultimatum Game, we demonstrate that both fair behavior and perceptions of fairness depend upon beliefs about what one ought to do in a situation – that is, upon normative expectations. We manipulate such expectations by creating informational asymmetries about the offer choices available to the Proposer, and find ...

The question whether parents’ reports on their children’s development provide reliable information is a subject of controversial debate. While parental rating scales and parental interviews are widely used in clinical practice, empirical findings have shown that parents cannot assess their children well. Previous research has illustrated that most parents tend to overestimate the developmental ...

People who self-categorize as bisexual pose a challenge to a simplistic notion of linear separability/discreteness, as indicated by beliefs that “bisexuality does not exist.” The authors thus examined whether by blurring intergroup boundaries that challenge monosexuality, bisexual women would evince higher levels of selfassessed creativity. Bisexual women’s self-assessed creativity was higher t...