Showing papers on "Surprise published in 2009"

Reference-Dependent Consumption Plans

Abstract: We develop a rational dynamic model in which people are loss averse over changes in beliefs about present and future consumption. Because changes in wealth are news about future consumption, preferences over money are reference-dependent. If news resonates more when about imminent consump - tion than when about future consumption, a decision maker might (to generate pleasant surprises ) overconsume early relative to the optimal committed plan, increase immediate consumption following surprise wealth increases, and delay decreasing consumption following surprise losses. Since higher wealth mitigates the effect of bad news, people exhibit an unambiguous first-order precautionary-savings motive. (

Consumer Responses to Mattel Product Recalls Posted on Online Bulletin Boards: Exploring Two Types of Emotion

Abstract: Drawn from attribution theory, this article introduces two types of emotion (i.e., attribution independent and attribution dependent emotion) and explores their role in the situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) model. A content analysis of consumer responses to the Mattel product recalls posted on online bulletin boards revealed that consumers experience a range of emotions from a crisis. A regression analysis suggests that crisis responsibility is a significant predictor of anger, fear, surprise, worry, contempt, and relief, and indicates that these are attribution dependent emotions. Alert and confusion were the most frequently expressed attribution independent emotions identified in this study. In testing a revised SCCT model, a significant negative relationship was found between alert, anger, and organizational reputation. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

The Normative Insignificance of Neuroscience

Abstract: reasoning, it should come as no surprise if we have innate responses to personal violence that are powerful but rather primitive. That is, we might expect humans to have negative emotional responses to certain basic forms of interpersonal violence. ... In contrast, when a harm is impersonal, it should fail to trigger this alarmlike emotional response, allowing people to respond in a more "cognitive" way, perhaps employing a cost-benefit analysis.60 Similarly, Singer writes, For most of our evolutionary history, human beings have lived in

Talking about others: Emotionality and the dissemination of social information.

Abstract: There is evidence that we may he more likely to share stories about other people to the extent that they arouse emotion. If so, this emotional social talk may have important social consequences, providing the basis for many of our social beliefs and mobilising people to engage or disengage with the targets of the talk. Across three studies, we tested the situated communicability of emotional social information by examining if the ability of emotionality to increase communicability would depend on the emotion that was aroused and the identity of the audience. Study J showed that participants were more willing to share social anecdotes that aroused interest, surprise, disgust and happiness with an unspecified audience. Study 2 provided a behavioural replication of these findings. Study 3 showed that the communicability of emotional social talk did vary with audience identity (friend or stranger). Together, these findings suggest that emotional social events (particularly those that arouse disgust and happiness) are likely to become part of a society's social beliefs, with important consequences for the structure of social relationships.

The six mistakes executives make in risk management

Abstract: We don’t live in the world for which conventional risk-management textbooks prepare us. No forecasting model predicted the impact of the current economic crisis, and its consequences continue to take establishment economists and business academics by surprise. Moreover, as we all know, the crisis has been compounded by the banks’ socalled risk-management models, which increased their exposure to risk instead of limiting it and rendered the global economic system more fragile than ever.

Anatomy of a failure: how we knew when our design went wrong, and what we learned from it

Abstract: In this paper, we describe the failure of a novel sensor-based system intended to evoke user interpretation and appropriation in domestic settings. We contrast participants' interactions in this case study with those observed during more successful deployments to identify 'symptoms of failure' under four themes: engagement, reference, accommodation, and surprise and insight. These themes provide a set of sensitivities or orientations that may complement traditional task-based approaches to evaluation as well as the more open-ended ones we describe here. Our system showed symptoms of failure under each of these themes. We examine the reasons for this at three levels: problems particular to the specific design hypothesis; problems relevant for input-output mapping more generally; and problems in the design process we used. We conclude by noting that, although interpretive systems such as the one we describe here may succeed in a myriad of different ways, it is reassuring to know that they can also fail, and fail incontrovertibly, yet instructively.

The Truth about Tracing

Abstract: If Kevin’s kleptomania is so severe that it produces in him a literally irresistible desire to steal, then there is a straightforward sense in which he couldn’t help himself (at the time he steals). This sort of severe kleptomania is plausibly thought to excuse Kevin’s behavior on the grounds that his behavior was not sufficiently under his control. So, it looks like some sort of “control condition” will be a necessary component of any plausible theory of moral responsibility. Similarly, if Kevin’s friends are planning a surprise party for him but they neglect to tell Dan that it’s a surprise and Dan subsequently talks openly with Kevin about the party, Dan’s ignorance plausibly excuses his behavior. Since he didn’t know (and, we suppose, could not have been expected to

Visual–Tactual Incongruities in Products as Sources of Surprise

Abstract: The perception of a product through vision creates expectations of what will be perceived through touch. However, the tactual information perceived may disconfirm the expectations formed, resulting...

Avoiding surprise effects on Surprise Island: alien species control in a multitrophic level perspective

Abstract: Eradications of invasive alien species have generally benefited biodiversity However, without sufficient planning, successful eradications can have unexpected and unwanted consequences for native species and ecosystems In particular, the “surprise effect” is the rapid increase of hitherto unnoticed species following the sudden removal of an invasive alien that was exerting an ecological force on those species (predation, competition or herbivory, for example) The only way to prevent these undesired outcomes is to adapt the control programme following the characterization of the trophic relationships between the invasive alien species and the invaded communities, that is, to view the control with a holistic perspective Here, we illustrate this point with the study of the role of the ship rat (Rattus rattus), which invaded a tropical pacific atoll, Surprise Island, New Caledonia We assessed the risk of surprise effects during a pre-eradication phase of several years, and then adapted our eradication strategy accordingly

An Introduction to Qualitative Research

Abstract: Qualitative research — when you first heard the term, your initial thought might have been, ‘What do qualitative researchers actually do?’ It may come as a surprise to you that you are already familiar with many of their activities, and you actually do them yourself — every day — as you watch and listen to what happens around you, and ask questions about what you have seen and heard.

Humorous Garden-Paths: A Pragmatic-Cognitive Study

Abstract: Surprising as it may seem, sometimes humans like being led up the garden path, which is thanks to the pleasurable feeling of surprise entwined with a humorous effect deception tends to afford. The central issue under investigation is the nature of short humorous texts in the form of one-liners and witticisms based on the "garden-path mechanism". The monograph provides a survey of relevant linguistic research, recapitulating and assessing other authors' theses in the context of their applicability in the analysis of garden-path humour. Discussions are conducted in the light of not only humour studies but also cognitive and pragmatic literature on human communication in general, with a view to presenting a meticulous description of short garden-path texts. The book should be of interest to anybody who finds humour research appealing, whether or not already familiar with this field. No background knowledge is necessary on the reader's part, given that all relevant postulates and theories are revisited. Also, the author steers a clear course through many terminological and conceptual obstacles that can be encountered in the study of humour (e.g. verbal/non-verbal humour, ambiguity types, punning, etc. ).

Bayesian surprise and landmark detection

Abstract: Automatic detection of landmarks, usually special places in the environment such as gateways, for topological mapping has proven to be a difficult task. We present the use of Bayesian surprise, introduced in computer vision, for landmark detection. Further, we provide a novel hierarchical, graphical model for the appearance of a place and use this model to perform surprise-based landmark detection. Our scheme is agnostic to the sensor type, and we demonstrate this by implementing a simple laser model for computing surprise. We evaluate our landmark detector using appearance and laser measurements in the context of a topological mapping algorithm, thus demonstrating the practical applicability of the detector.

The Crisis of Islamic Civilization

Abstract: Ali A. Allawi-a respected Iraqi statesman and thinker who has served the postwar government in several posts-offers a bold analysis of today's crisis in the Islamic world. He offers proposals that will surprise some and anger others, but they cannot be ignored by anyone concerned about the future of Islamic civilization.

Simple Algorithmic Theory of Subjective Beauty, Novelty, Surprise, Interestingness, Attention, Curiosity, Creativity, Art, Science, Music, Jokes

Abstract: In this summary of previous work, I argue that data becomes temporarily interesting by itself to some selfimproving, but computationally limited, subjective observer once he learns to predict or compress the data in a better way, thus making it subjectively more “beautiful.” Curiosity is the desire to create or discover more non-random, non-arbitrary, “truly novel,” regular data that allows for compression progress because its regularity was not yet known. This drive maximizes “interestingness,” the first derivative of subjective beauty or compressibility, that is, the steepness of the learning curve. It motivates exploring infants, pure mathematicians, composers, artists, dancers, comedians, yourself, and recent artificial systems.

'The performative surprise': parody, documentary and critique

Abstract: Can parody help us to ‘re‐imagine’ the organizations and institutions we live with (Du Gay 2007, 13)? Or, like many forms of critique, does parody risk being incorporated: becoming part of the power it aims to make fun of? In this paper, drawing on Judith Butler’s work, I argue that certain circumstances enable parody to destabilize hegemonic, taken‐for‐granted institutions (Butler 1990). I explore these ideas through a reading of the Yes Men documentary (Tartan Video 2005). This film features a series of humorous representations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). I show how these act to denaturalize and effectively critique this dominant force in global trade. This paper discusses the value of parody for helping us to re‐think and re‐make particular institutions and organizations. In doing so, I point to the importance of creating a spectacle in which parody can travel beyond its immediate location, so that it can reach ever newer audiences with its ‘performative surprise’ (Butler 1990, xxvi). I sugg...

Editorial Introduction: Towards a More Humanistic Management

Abstract: In one of his books, Peter Drucker, considered by many as the father of modern management, presented these rhetorical questions: "What is management? Is it a bag of techniques and tricks? A bundle of analytical tools like those taught in business schools? (1990, pp. 220-221). His answer was unequivocal: "Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant. This is what organization is about, and it is the reason that management is the critical, determining factor" (1990, p. 221). However, then and now, in many business schools, with respectable exceptions including that of my own school, analytical tools are still central, and a certain reductionism in the consideration of the human is still dominant (Ghoshal, 2005). Underlying such tools, there are theories, such as Agency Theory and Transaction Cost Economics, strongly anchored in the economic paradigm. A New Manifesto for Management was presented at the turn of the millennium. Its authors wrote: "between the sound logic of efficiency and the harsh reality of human frailties and pathologies, it is no wonder that the dominant doctrine focuses managers' attention almost exclusively on concerns of appropriation and control. The resulting pathological economic role for companies and individuals should also be no surprise. It follows naturally from the premise that 'markets rule' that any and all failures to heed the market's corrective discipline are likely to be futile for firms and individuals and inefficient for society" (Ghoshal et al, 1999, p. 12). The current financial crisis confirms these words and makes a revision of the limits of the "market rule" urgent and also compels us to re-think the role of management and its dominant economic paradigm. In the economic paradigm, the human being is considered under the narrow view of the homo oeconomicus ("economic man") model. This model gives to the individual a fictional character describg him/her as a rational being, with self-interest in maximizing his or her utilities, generally lead by d sire for wealth, personal satisfaction, and to avoid unnecessary labor. Rational is understood as capacity for inst umental rationality, that is, for judging the comparative efficacy of a means to obtain an end. Other views enrich the narrow view of homo

The role of importance/consequentiality appraisal in flashbulb memory formation: the case of the death of Pope John Paul II

Abstract: This study investigates how flashbulb memories (FBMs) relative to the death of Pope John Paul II vary according to the persons' evaluation of the event's importance and consequences. In particular, FBMs were investigated in persons who were expected to attribute different degrees of importance/consequentiality to the event as a function of two factors: (1) religious involvement, (2) nationality (Polish, Italian, Swiss). The comparison was made with respect to the following hypothesized determinants of FBMs: surprise, emotional reaction, rehearsal, event memory and especially the attitudes towards the Pope and the appraisal of the importance and the consequences of his death. Structural equation modelling indicates that importance/consequentiality is a fundamental determinant of FBM and is influenced by antecedent personal and social characteristics reflected in the person's attitudes. Moreover, memory consistency seems to be both directly influenced by emotional intensity and indirectly through rehearsal, whereas surprise seems not a critical determinant of FBM.

Hurricane Katrina, the Crisis of Leadership, and Chaos Management: Time for Trying the ‘Surprise Management Theory in Action’

Abstract: Four years have gone by since the historic Hurricane Katrina hit and drowned the city of New Orleans and caused a massive crisis of, and a global case of grand failure in, governance, leadership, and public management. Advancing on an earlier work published in Public Administration Review (Farazmand 2007), in which a global case of grand failure was established with several lessons drawn for future crisis management, this article argues further for developing and applying a theory of ‘surprise management’ to manage future crises and chaotic situations. Crises are borne out of natural and human made disasters, catastrophes, revolutions, and rapidly changing emergencies. Surprise management is the best approach to managing or coping with crises and crisis driven emergencies.

The nature of hurt feelings: Emotional experience and cognitive appraisals.

Abstract: A prevailing question in the study of emotion has involved the number and identity of human emotions. Theorists have sliced the emotional pie in a variety of ways, but most fall into one of two camps. Advocates of categorical approaches have identified a relatively small number of “basic” emotions – such as anger, fear, joy, sadness, disgust, and surprise – that cannot be reduced to other, more fundamental states (e.g., Ekman, 1992; Izard, 1991; Plutchik, 1980; Tomkins, 1962). These theorists suggest that all emotional experiences can be defined as mixes, blends, or hybrids of these basic emotions. In contrast, proponents of dimensional models have argued that emotions are not divisible into discrete units. Rather, they suggest that much of the variance in emotional experience can be captured by a small number of primary dimensions. Some theorists endorse two-dimensional models characterized by the valence of the emotion (pleasant vs. unpleasant) and the degree of arousal or activation involved (aroused vs. tranquil; see Larsen & Diener, 1992; Russell, 1980; Watson & Tellegen, 1985). Others suggest that the data are better explained by a three-dimensional model defined by dimensions of valence, potency, and activity (Shaver, Schwartz, Kirson, & O'Conner, 1987).

The "man-cession" of 2008-2009: it's big, but it's not great

Abstract: That men are losing jobs at a much faster rate than women during this recession shouldn't be a surprise. The pattern is typical. And it's not just the men in the hard hats who are out of a job - men in almost all categories of work are being affected disproportionately.

The element of surprise: appreciating the unexpected in (and through) actor networks

Abstract: Purpose – This paper seeks to reflect on the importance of surprise in qualitative research on information‐technology initiatives. It also aims to consider how the use of social theory in the context of surprise can help to shape and guide field methods, data transformation, and substantive findings.Design/methodology/approach – The discussion is personal and reflective. The paper considers the significance of surprise surrounding events within two of the authors' own research projects. It also reports on a perusal of the literature for explicit treatments of surprise.Findings – Surprise in qualitative research is twofold. First, the research subjects experience surprise; indeed, surprise appears to be quite prevalent in IT‐related projects. Second, researchers too can be surprised in the course of their own work. Where these two kinds of surprise come together, one can find especially fruitful occasions for insight. In the authors' own projects, the element of surprise helped establish their respective c...

Cultural Specific Effects on the Recognition of Basic Emotions: A Study on Italian Subjects

Abstract: The present work reports the results of perceptual experiments aimed to investigate if some of the basic emotions are perceptually privileged and if the cultural environment and the perceptual mode play a role in this preference. To this aim, Italian subjects were requested to assess emotional stimuli extracted from Italian and American English movies in the single (either video or audio alone) and the combined audio/video mode. Results showed that anger, fear, and sadness are better perceived than surprise, happiness in both the cultural environments (irony instead strongly depend on the language), that emotional information is affected by the communication mode and that language plays a role in assessing emotional information. Implications for the implementation of emotionally colored interactive systems are discussed.

Beyond Gender Development: Internal Resources Recognized

Abstract: Carl Jung’s theory of contrasexuality is fundamental to this dissertation. This study’s Research Problem posed the question: What new images, experiences, and insights arise when women and men imagine and practice contrasexual gender performances and expressions that are outside of traditional gender roles? The research hypothesis stated that: Imagining and practicing contrasexual performances will encourage a beginning awareness of contrasexual aspects, gender projections, and a re-imagining of gender for the future. The literature reviewed addresses psychological, cultural, and sociological perspectives along with imaginal approaches to contrasexual resources and projection. It was found that the literature seems to inadequately address how gender imagery affects individuals. Evoking experience, expressing, interpreting, and integrating it, constitute the Four Phases in Imaginal Inquiry, the research methodology used for this study. Guided visualization, Authentic Movement, journal writing, and role-plays were imaginal approaches employed for recognizing internalized images. The primary experiences v evoked for participants consisted of gender imagery and contrasexuality, and the transcending or seeing beyond gender. The Cumulative Learning reveals that early, good-enough family support for developing both feminine and masculine capacities allows an individual to explore contrasexuality throughout their lifetime without severe and restrictive gatekeeping dynamics, and enables the individual to digest discrepancies between social expectations related to gender performance and the individual’s core identity. Embodying and visualizing cross-gender experience enhances empathy both toward others and the internal other and supports the withdrawal of projections and the increase in capacities. Four learnings emerged: First, childhood gender identity develops through selective identification with positive aspects of both genders and disidentification from limiting aspects, in an atmosphere of sufficient parental support, despite cultural expectations and stereotypes. Second, the expression and amplification of stereotypical gender roles evokes disgust, anger, sadness, and surprise for both genders and assists in disidentification, and withdrawal of projections. Third, the contrasexual performance and experience brings to awareness the limiting aspects of gender roles, leading either to further personal insight or increased rigidity resulting from defensive processes. Fourth, through gatekeeping dynamics, unfamiliar movement and stances are restricted as they threaten to dislodge familiar and gender adaptive patterns. In reflecting on these learnings, the mythical characters of Narcissus, Persephone, and Demeter are drawn on to portray challenges and rewards inherent in the individuation process

Capacity building in teacher education research

Abstract: In these times of accountability and audit, it should come as no surprise that there has been a great concern – some might say obsession – with ‘capacity building’. This is a term that crops up in ...

Emotion and Persuasion: A Social Cognitive Perspective

Abstract: In our current intellectual climate, it should come as no surprise to find a chapter revolving around emotion in a volume highlighting social cognition. Indeed, the connection between thought and feeling is currently well-accepted, with evidence originating from multiple domains of psychology, including neurobiology, memory, information processing, personality, and others (see Forgas, 2001, for a range of related perspectives). However, at the time Roloff and Berger’s (1982) volume was published, the study of emotion and persuasion was primarily confined to the study of fear appeals, which had taken on a decidedly cognitively based orientation, replacing the motivational perspective that had dominated from midcentury into the 1970s (e.g., Leventhal, 1970; Rogers, 1975, 1983). Since then, growing interest in emotion throughout psychology has led to increased theorizing, not only about the persuasive effects of fear (e.g., Witte, 1992) but also an array of other emotions (e.g., Nabi, 1999). Further, dominant paradigms of persuasion have recently begun to incorporate affect-based constructs to better understand the role emotions may play in the processes of attitude and behavior change.

"Only" as a Mirative Particle

Abstract: It is argued that the semantics of only can be reduced to only being a particle that expresses surprise at the small size of a quantity It follows from the expression of this surprise that the host sentence must define a quantity, ie have an exhaustive interpretation and that the complete sentence weakly presupposes that the quantity would be larger The paper argues that the expression of surprise is the key to the pragmatic properties of only-sentences, suffices for explaining the status of the host (a non-cancellable presupposition) and can be the basis of an account of only if

NATO and the UN

Abstract: When the secretaries-general of NATO and the United Nations, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Ban Ki Moon, signed a joint declaration in September 2008, it came as a surprise to many observers. After almo...

Self-Deception and the Limits of Folk Psychology

Abstract: It would be nice if theorists interested in self-deception could start with an agreed-upon understanding of the phenomenon-—what it even means to be self-deceived and what are some of its paradigm examples—and then proceed from that starting point to address the various theoretical problems that it appears to pose. But, it should come as no surprise to any philosopher with any experience that there is no such shared under standing of what it means to be self-deceived. After examining many of the theories of self-deception and resolutions to particular problems that have been offered, it is clear that we are not all offering accounts of the same phenomenon. This point holds for many other philosophically in teresting concepts as well, such as knowledge, free will, belief, rational ity, and so on. What we take to be problems and solutions in these areas, as well as convincing theories, depends on our initial understanding of the phenomenon. Problems, solutions, and theories are sometimes dis missed simply because they are judged to miss the target phenomenon. As we can imagine one saying: "What you say is fine as far as it goes, I suppose. But that's simply not what is meant by free will (or knowledge, or self-deception, and so on). You've given us a theory of something else."