Sometimes academic books must not be evaluated only according to their conclusions or arguments, but also for the meanings they carry in themselves. That is, to paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, sometimes the book is the message. I am specifically thinking about studies regarding the lifeworlds and actions of people who suffer from and struggle against the consequences of social inequality, such as ...

Past studies of strategic thinking have shown that the encoding of the message information becomes more complex under distrust. Receivers process the information as if they are trying to protect themselves from being misled by testing alternative potential interpretations. The present study investigates the possibility that when people are mistrustful they spontaneously activate associations th...

In this study we investigate the recommendation problem with trust and distrust relationships to overcome the sparsity of users’ preferences, accounting for the fact that users trust the recommendations of their friends, and they do not accept the recommendations of their foes. In addition, not only users’ preferences are sparse, but also users’ social relationships. So, we first propose an inf...

Recent developments in information and communication technology (ICT) have facilitated integration along supply chains. Besides technological advancement and governmental support, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) still face significant challenges when integrating into global supply chains. In a study of SMEs operating in the Macedonian and American wine industries, we investigate the i...

Trust is an essential component of transactions that occur over time. The amount of trust accorded to others is typically conditioned on multiple factors, including knowledge of the other party, the history of interactions, and the context of exchange. Determining who to trust and who to distrust is especially important in modern societies with largely impersonal exchange (Vernon L. Smith, 2003...

Trust is a vital lubricant that increases the sense of security in social interactions. In this study, we investigated the intergroup trust between the Uyghur and the Han, the two largest ethnic groups in Xinjiang, China, with a Go/No-Go Association Task. Specifically, we instructed Uyghur and Han participants to respond to ethnic faces (Uyghur vs. Han) and trust/distrust words and measured the...

The present study aims to examine the indirect effects of social media on political distrust among Lebanese citizens using data based Arab Barometer Wave V. V was obtained in 2018-2019 via which 2,400 were surveyed. Using Preacher and Hayes Bootstrapping method, results test hypotheses indicate that, firstly, has a positive effect citizens’ causes increase their level institutions with mediator...

Mandating plays a role in the retirement income system of nearly every country in the world. In this essay, mandatory pensions refers to employer-provided occupational pensions in the second tier. Mandated second-tier pensions appear to substitute for a portion, or all, of the earnings-related part of social security. Both Australia and Switzerland mandate private pension coverage, and the Neth...

Trust has become an important aspect of evaluating the relationship between lay public and technology implementation. Experiences have shown that a focus on trust provides a richer understanding of reasons for backlashes of technology in society than a mere focus of public understanding of risks and science communication. Therefore, trust is also widely used as a key concept for understanding a...