Journal Article•
Obama’s way
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss U.S. President Barack Obama's foreign policy, including his decision making, policy towards international crises, policy toward Russia and the role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) intervention in Libya.
Abstract: The article discusses U.S. President Barack Obama's foreign policy, including his decision making, policy towards international crises, policy toward Russia and the U.S.'s role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) intervention in Libya. An overview of Obama's policy towards American involvement in the Syrian Civil War, including the U.S.'s anti-ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a terrorist organization) operations and providing rebels fighting the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with weapons and arms, is provided.
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TL;DR: It is concluded that despite several hundred published studies, the available evidence is inconclusive and both additional empirical and theoretical works are needed to make a compelling case for either side of the debate.
Abstract: An influential line of research suggests that initial bouts of self-control increase the susceptibility to self-control failure (ego depletion effect). Despite seemingly abundant evidence, some researchers have suggested that evidence for ego depletion was the sole result of publication bias and p-hacking, with the true effect being indistinguishable from zero. Here, we examine (a) whether the evidence brought forward against ego depletion will convince a proponent that ego depletion does not exist and (b) whether arguments that could be brought forward in defense of ego depletion will convince a skeptic that ego depletion does exist. We conclude that despite several hundred published studies, the available evidence is inconclusive. Both additional empirical and theoretical works are needed to make a compelling case for either side of the debate. We discuss necessary steps for future work toward this aim.
212 citations
Cites background from "Obama’s way"
...…such good shape, in fact, that it inspired research across the psychological disciplines and became one of the most famously discussed recent psychological discoveries in the public media, with even former President Obama claiming to have changed his behavior to not fall prey to it (Lewis, 2012)....
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...It was in such good shape, in fact, that it inspired research across the psychological disciplines and became one of the most famously discussed recent psychological discoveries in the public media, with even former President Obama claiming to have changed his behavior to not fall prey to it (Lewis, 2012)....
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TL;DR: Behavioral data is presented demonstrating that, in this case, an iconic photo of a single child had more impact than statistical reports of hundreds of thousands of deaths in Syria.
Abstract: The power of visual imagery is well known, enshrined in such familiar sayings as "seeing is believing" and "a picture is worth a thousand words." Iconic photos stir our emotions and transform our perspectives about life and the world in which we live. On September 2, 2015, photographs of a young Syrian child, Aylan Kurdi, lying face-down on a Turkish beach, filled the front pages of newspapers worldwide. These images brought much-needed attention to the Syrian war that had resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and created millions of refugees. Here we present behavioral data demonstrating that, in this case, an iconic photo of a single child had more impact than statistical reports of hundreds of thousands of deaths. People who had been unmoved by the relentlessly rising death toll in Syria suddenly appeared to care much more after having seen Aylan's photograph; however, this newly created empathy waned rather quickly. We briefly examine the psychological processes underlying these findings, discuss some of their policy implications, and reflect on the lessons they provide about the challenges to effective intervention in the face of mass threats to human well-being.
111 citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that blood glucose has domain-specific effects, influencing decision making differently depending on the relevance of the situation to acquiring food.
Abstract: The academic and public interest in blood glucose and its relationship to decision making has been increasing over the last decade. To investigate and evaluate competing theories about this relationship, we conducted a psychometric meta-analysis on the effect of blood glucose on decision making. We identified 42 studies relating to 4 dimensions of decision making: willingness to pay, willingness to work, time discounting, and decision style. We did not find a uniform influence of blood glucose on decision making. Instead, we found that low levels of blood glucose increase the willingness to pay and willingness to work when a situation is food related, but decrease willingness to pay and work in all other situations. Low levels of blood glucose increase the future discount rate for food; that is, decision makers become more impatient, and to a lesser extent increase the future discount rate for money. Low levels of blood glucose also increase the tendency to make more intuitive rather than deliberate decisions. However, this effect was only observed in situations unrelated to food. We conclude that blood glucose has domain-specific effects, influencing decision making differently depending on the relevance of the situation to acquiring food. (PsycINFO Database Record
102 citations
TL;DR: This article found that the more forecasts an analyst issues, the higher the likelihood the analyst resorts to more heuristic decisions by herding more closely with the consensus forecast, self-herding (i.e., reissuing their own previous outstanding forecasts), and issuing a rounded forecast.
98 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the mutual frustration between presidents and their military advisors over decisions to use force and finds that the output of the military's planning process fails to deliver the type of nuanced advice in the form of creative options that the president needs.
Abstract: This article examines the perennial mutual frustration between presidents and their military advisors over decisions to use force. What often appears to be a personality-driven or political debate between the commander in chief and his strong-minded military advisors actually has deeper institutional and cultural roots. The “professional” military officer has certain expectations about how to craft “best military advice” for the president that are deeply embedded into the organizational culture and in fact hard-wired into the institutionalized and incredibly detailed military planning processes. This planning process is designed with expectations about the roles civilian leadership will play in providing guidance, which are in many ways out of synch with the expectations of the president and his civilian advisors. Ultimately, the output of the military's planning process fails to deliver the type of nuanced advice in the form of creative options that the president needs.
26 citations