AHFE Open AccessAdvances in Cross-Cultural Decision Making
Editors: Sae Schatz, Joseph Cohn, Denise Nicholson
Topics: Cross-Cultural Decision Making
Publication Date: 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4951-2095-4
DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100182
Articles
Soldier Narrative Analysis as Part of a Rapid Fielding Program
The Warfighter Technology Tradespace Methodology (WTTM) employs technology acceptance and decision analysis theories, applying them to systems for developers to garner accurate understanding of end user expectations and concerns. WTTM applies a tradespace construct that is reliant upon three primary components as input – technical performance, logistic supportability, and human factors. The intent of this tradespace approach is two-fold: (1) to understand and assess the current state of systems as solutions to combat outpost challenges; and (2) to provide information to system developers participating in the activity as to how to tailor implemented design elements to better align with warfighter expectations, thereby maximizing the likelihood of technology acceptance upon fielding. To inform that process via a feedback mechanism, we gathered and analyzed narratives from soldier end users. We collected and tagged soldier sense-making items regarding newly fielded equipment, creating metadata for quantitative research and analysis. Here, we present the collection process as well as the results of sense-making analyses of narratives obtained from soldiers who worked with several pieces of newly fielded equipment. The intent is to highlight user dispositions as well as those factors influencing acceptance or rejection of the newly fielded equipment.
Michael Jaye, Patrick J. Driscoll*, Donnie Choe, Victor Diaz, Anthony Keller
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Basic Study on Prevention of Human Error-Anchoring Bias in Relationship between Objective and Subjective Probability-
This study empirically identified the relationship between the objective and the subjective probabilities, and confirmed whether the relationship corresponded with the hypothesized weighting function proposed in prospect theory. As a result, it was found that the experimentally identified relationship between the objective and the subjective probabilities corresponded with the hypothetical weighting function above. In other words, the estimated number of deaths was underestimated for moderate and high number of deaths, while the estimated number of deaths was overestimated for the small or rare number of deaths. Moreover, in order to examine how cognitive bias occurred in the estimation of number of deaths for a variety of deaths and accidents, it was discussed whether the different anchor biased the relationship above. The estimated numbers of deaths were remarkably affected by the anchor, and the estimated numbers of deaths for the group given the anchor A (large number of deaths) was larger than that for the group given the anchor B (small number of deaths). Some implications for risk management were given from the perspective of cognitive biases.
Atsuo MURATA, Makoto MORIWAKA
Open Access
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Conference Proceedings
Assessing Fluid Rationality and Its Relations to Cognitive Styles
A new tri-partite model of rational thinking (Stanovich, 2011) allows for assessing various aspects of rational decision making. Because of assumed multi-faceted nature of rationality, it is necessary to establish which measuring paradigms are best suited to assess it. 531 participants (31% men,), with mean age of 27.61 (SD=7.8) took part in the present study. We examined relationships between several testing paradigms from JDM literature, such as the jelly bean task (Kirkpatrik, Epstein, 1992), cognitive reflection test (Frederick, 2005) and Wason´s selection task. Higher scores in these testing paradigms are hypothesized to constitute a resistance to miserly processing. We also examined two other dimensions of fluid rationality: temporal discounting of the reward and acceptance of risk (Frederick, 2005), and several measures of cognitive style containing a preference for intuition or deliberation (PID, REI, CoSi, MBTI). The lack of strong mutual relationships between these measures, together with low internal consistency for a composite score of resistance to miserly processing, rather undermined the construct of miserly processing. There were also very weak relationships with other constructs hypothesized to be other dimensions of fluid rationality besides resistance to miserly processing. Such results seem to support Stanovich's (2011) hypothesis about multifactorial fluid rationality.
Vladimíra Čavojová, Robert Hanák
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Analytical Capability to Better Understand and Anticipate Extremist Shifts Within Populations in Failing States
The difficulty in adequately assessing geopolitical and sociocultural dynamics of extremist groups has led to failures in understanding, anticipating, and effectively responding to shifts in their movements and allegiances. Recent attacks in Africa highlight the need to more precisely understand and anticipate changes in societal attitudes and behaviors due to radicalization. This is particularly important as new extremist cells and affiliates have sprung up in parts of Southeast Europe, Asia, and Africa. A significant concern is their stated intent to plan and conduct attacks against populations within these regions. This paper describes an effort to build upon existing capabilities to assess the phenomena that gives rise to the support for extremism, shifts in allegiances, and active engagement in violent acts against indigenous populations. The focus of this effort is to assess how the dynamics of allegiance formation between various groups and society are impacted by conflict and by third-party interventions. We also seek to help determine how and why extremist allegiances co-evolve over time due to changing geopolitical, sociocultural, and military conditions. The aim of this paper is to discuss our initial effort to assess the dynamic interactions between an extremist group and an indigenous population over time.
Michael L. Bernard, Asmeret B. Bier
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Are Deliberative People More Consistent in Decision Making?
The preference for intuition and deliberation scale (PID) as a cognitive style measure was used to investigate whether more deliberative participants (identified by self-report PID inventory) would also show higher motivation to properly and normatively solve a task designed to measure their inconsistency and discrimination to details (CWS Index). 161 (103 women) managers and administrative workers were asked to evaluate 21 fictional job candidates. The decision task was designed so that participants could work according to their preferences – everyone had enough time to analyse the logic behind the task. Significant differences were found among all four groups (deliberative, intuitive, both below median, both above median) in levels of inconsistency. Totally consistent respondents were significantly more likely to be from the deliberative and mixed (high in deliberation and in intuition) groups.
Róbert Hanák
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Measuring the Effects of Cultures on Website Use
Under the context of globalization, it is essential to understand the cultural requirements and preferences of a target culture if a company wants to develop a website which can appropriately map that target culture. Based on the author’s previous study, the culturally preferred characteristics between Taiwan and the UK have been found (Hsieh and Hong, 2013). The previous finding of the culturally preferred characteristics between Taiwan and the UK formulates the further questions: “Since different cultural preferences for web design attributes exist, how can the culturally preferred design characteristics be applied to increase usability?” Therefore, the aim of this paper is to measure the effect of cultural preferences on the use of web design. The methodologies are introduced as following. First, two cultures are selected. Taiwan and the UK are selected. Second, experimental webs are constructed. The cultural preferences for websites of Taiwan and the UK would be embedded into websites prototype, which have the same content. Finally, applying SPSS to analyze the data of the usability testing. Based on the results of the analyasis and discussion, it reveals that culturally preferred design elements of the target-culture can improve the effectiveness of web communication for the users from the target-culture. This research can help web developers and designers to develop a web interface design that is culturally appropriate.
Hsiu Ching, Laura Hsieh
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Meaning Making Regarding Threat Narrative Based on Discourse Analysis
Often after an act of violence, a forensic analysis of what the responsible individual(s) or group(s) said or wrote would reveal “signals” that would have foreshadowed the event. Although these signals frequently occur well in advance; they are often nuanced, requiring a different lens to find and interpret discursive patterns and practices related to social identity, affect, integrative cognitive complexity, trustworthiness, and worldview. Threat narrative is the behavioral (actions/words) manifestation of subjective reality regarding threat. These lenses help an analyst reason about how an individual or group sees themselves and others, their perception of threat and propensity to negotiate, cooperate or engage in violence. The result is a tomographic view, albeit imperfect one, of the threat narrative.The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has been engaged in research aimed at enabling meaning making from discourse regarding threat narratives for several years. Previous research developed multi-lingual methodologies (Arabic and Pashto), documented in primers transitioned to operational customers, including the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIIC), which enable the detection and interpretation of discourse related to social identity (in-group/out-group) (Fenstermacher et. al. 2012). This paper will focus on two projects designed to enable meaning making from the analysis of discourse, one employing a systematic approach to creating codebooks for automated analysis, and another employing taxonomies for automated analysis of identity and intent.A grounded theory approach, using human coders, was used to identify relevant discursive practices and patterns (themes and rhetorical devices), including intensifiers used to express trust, trustworthiness or distrust in Farsi. Key themes were identified such as Islam, positive virtues, and advanced age and/or experience. Association with a trusted individual, expert citation, language related to intimacy and poetry were typically associated with trust. Conversely, distrust was conveyed in themes related to negative virtues and government agendas and by use of figurative language such as metaphors and allusions.An automated approach focused on understanding the link between affect and behaviors using quantitative models of the effects of emotions (eight classes coded: trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, anticipation and joy) on behaviors of competing actors in Syria, Egypt and the Philippines (e.g., a dissident group, government and population). This approach highlights similarities and differences in resulting behaviors. For example, in both Egypt and the Philippines, societal fear, anger and disgust toward dissidents resulted in increases in dissident hostility. Conversely, in Egypt, government hostility increased in response to societal disgust whereas in Philippines it decreased.This research effort identified several apparently independent features: idea density and vocabulary diversity (proxies for integrative cognitive complexity) and affect expressed regarding in-group and out-group. Preliminary results indicate that the combination of these features would enable accurate forecasting of Naxalite bombings (.92 in sample, .8 out of sample correlation between model and actual bombings). These results are promising but preliminary; the generalization and robustness of these factors relative to different groups and languages will be assessed in a newly started research effort.The coding methodologies and the text analytic algorithms are a significant step forward in assisting analysts to systematically interpret threat narrative related language, characterize sources and reason about future behaviors and influence as well as helping to mitigate information overload by cueing analyst attention to potentially relevant documents and important events.
Laurie Fenstermacher a, Lawrence Kuznar b, Mariah Yager c, Steve Shellman d
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Semantic Enrichment and Reasoning for Mobile Data Collection of Socio-Cultural Data
Leveraging the widespread adoption of mobile devices, we have developed a semantic knowledge management, mobile data collection, and situational awareness capability that enables the automatic semantic annotation and fusion of mobile collected data. The major components of our semantic knowledge management system consist of form management; data collection, aggregation, and storage; and spatially aware semantic analysis. Our research transforms the analysis of large amounts of data collected from mobile devices from an unstructured process to a structured approach leveraging semantic technology and automated tagging. Semantic technology is used to author, publish, and distribute forms to mobile devices. When submitted from the mobile device, the structured form is mapped to a semantic form to automatically generate semantic annotations from the mobile collected data for semantic enrichment. The semantic representation of the data enables users to organize, analyze, visualize, and create custom information products from the aggregated data.
Alper Caglayan, Laura Cassani, Tim Clark, Jose Alavedra, Vinay Bharadwaj, Nick Lee, John Parkes
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Basic Study on Prevention of Human Error- How Cognitive Biases Distort Decision Making and Lead to Crucial Accidents -
On the basis of the analysis of past case studies of accidents, it was examined how cognitive biases were ubiquitous in the process of accident outbreak, distorted decision making, and led to crucial accidents. We made an attempt to point out that cognitive biases distort decision making and are potentially related to crucial accidents. Using a few cases of crucial accidents (Challenger space shuttle disaster, collision accident between the Japanese Aegis-equipped destroyer “Atago” and fishing boat, and Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident), it was demonstrated how cognitive biases are related to these accidents. It was demonstrated that heuristic-based biases such as confirmation bias, groupthink, and social loafing surely appeared in the process of accident breakout. Overconfidence-based biases such as illusion of control, fallacy of plan, and optimistic bias were also ubiquitous in the route to a crucial accident. Moreover, framing biases was found to contribute to the distorted decision making, and eventually turn into the main cause of crucial accident. In such a way, as well as human factors or ergonomics approaches, the prevention and the deletion of cognitive biases were indispensable for preventing crucial accidents from occurring.
Atsuo MURATA, Tomoko NAKAMURA
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
The End of a Civilization: What Moderns Might Learn from Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War
Thucydides self-consciously presents the Peloponnesian War as the greatest war the world had ever seen to that point in history, insofar as it was a contest between the two greatest Greek powers—Athens and Sparta—at the peak of Greek Civilization. The war, however, would mark the beginning of the end of this great civilization. Although Thucydides does not unequivocally blame Athens for the war that ultimately leads to the destruction of Greece, it is clear that he thinks Athenian devotion to motion, or to the perpetual pursuit of progress, spurred it on. Thucydides appears to lament the great expansion of education, in particular the sophistic education that became prevalent in Greece and contributed heavily to the theoretical justification behind the Athenian Empire. Even or especially education at its highest—Socratic philosophy—seems to bear some culpability for, or is at least symptomatic of, Athens’ decline, and ultimately Greece’s decline as well, in Thucydides’ view. This paper will examine Thucydides' teaching regarding the decline of civilization to see if it can offer any guidance to the current crisis of civilization in the West.
G. A. McBrayer
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
The Roots of Self-Doubt (and Self-Loathing) in the West
Democratic self-doubt is manifest in many ways, some of them a threat to the perpetuation of the very political orders responsible for the exceptional appeal of life in Western societies. This paper begins by defining the phenomenon and proceeds to examine its roots. Five contributing factors are identified, all of them in some way a constituent element of the very way of life, our confidence in which they threaten to erode. The factors discussed are the following: first, the value neutral nature of experimental natural science and its effect on the liberal arts; second, European romanticism and its suffusion through the entire cultural life of the West; third, a mania for equality which, although a fundamental principle of healthy republicanism, can (when pushed to the extreme) erode citizens’ pride in their own regime; fourth, materialism and material abundance, which distract citizens from the innately human longings and cut them off from participation in public life; fifth, egalitarianism desiccates the liberal arts—one of the greatest legacies of the West—and enervates the democrat’s capacity to be moved by them. The paper ends by considering a more insidious form of self-hatred that emerged from the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx.
Jonathan W. Pidluzny
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Extracting Understanding from Automated Metaphor Identification: Contrasting Concepts of Poverty Across Cultures and Languages
We compare several conceptual metaphors for POVERTY – location, enemy, disease, plant, burden - as they appear in English, Russian and Spanish using two different corpora. We additionally explore the English poverty is a location metaphor in detail, looking at the relative importance of its different dimensions and at the picture of poverty is a location that these dimensions suggest. These analyses provide a prototype for future cross language analyses of metaphor to provide cultural insight.
Sarah Taylora, Laurie Beth Feldmanb, Kit W Chob, Samira Shaikhb, Ignacio Casesb, Yuliya Peshkovab, George Aaron Broadwellb, Ting Liub, Umit Bozb, Kyle Elliottc, Boris Yamromb, Tomek Strzalkowskib
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Socio-Cultural Capability Requirements across All Phases of Military Operations
In modern military operations, it is critical that commanders and their staffs be sensitive to the social and cultural norms of populations with whom they must interact. Most military operations have the mission of promoting stability and reconstruction, or eventually evolve to such after major combat. Gaining the cooperation of the local population is critical to a secure environment. This paper identifies the socio-cultural capabilities needed to execute military missions, identifies which of these the military has access to, and proposes mitigating measures to close requirement gaps. We identified 27 missions across all phases of military operations along with 12 socio-cultural capability requirements organized in five categories: planning, communication and coordination, gaining detailed cultural awareness, engaging the population and assessing the impact of this engagement. We identified several gaps but in general, we found that substantial progress has been made in terms of closing these gaps. Personal initiative accounted for a large fraction of these efforts and attests to the growing appreciation among military personnel for the important role of socio-cultural capabilities. Although we provide recommendations to fill specific gaps, finding ways to encourage personal initiatives will nurture the development and testing of original ideas that could be used to address socio-cultural needs more broadly.
Walter Perry
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
PSYMDEV, a System Intended for Assisting the Military Analyst to Construct Psychological Messages
In asymmetric conflicts, the Armed Forces generally have to intervene in countries where the internal peace is in danger. They must make the local population an ally in order for them to be able to deploy the necessary military actions with its support. For this purpose, psychological operations (PSYOPS) are used to shape people’s behaviors and feelings by spreading out messages thanks to different media (tracts, loudspeakers, video clips, etc.). In this paper, we present PSYMDEV (PSYchological Message DEViser), a system that helps the military analyst to construct messages that trigger specific feelings in members of the population selected by social criteria like age or political opinion and called the info-targets. Given such a sociocultural group and a feeling that the latter must feel, the system provides a twofold-situation that consists of, on the one hand, a categorization-situation meant to induce a positive or negative initial state of mind in the info-targets depending on the type of feeling to be triggered through a psychological mechanism inspired by theories stemming from Social Psychology and an action-situation aiming at effectively triggering the specific feeling through a psychological process explained by the Intergroup Emotion Theory, an extension of the Appraisal Theory of Emotions. These situations are illustrated by means of images or a film or some auditive elements, thanks to adapted media generally used by the military like tracts or video clips, for example. Therefore, the twofold-situation gives birth to a psychological message intended to trigger a feeling. After presenting the theories underlying the system and its overall structure and functioning, we more specifically focus on the conception of a categorization-situation.
Colette Faucher, Malika Machtoune
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Impact of Network Connectivity and Agent Commitment on Spread of Opinions In Social Networks
The spread of opinions in social networks underlies other important socio-economical processes such as the spread of innovations, the acceptance of new technologies, or the speed of modernization of infrastructure and industries. Here, we present our results on spread of opinion and the fundamental role played in this spread by two characteristics of the agents, average interconnectivity and level of commitment to the current opinion. Those in turn are dependent on many cultural characteristics of the agent's society, such as trust in others, openness to new views, willingness to discuss certain opinions outside the narrow group of family and close friends, and so on. We also report on our initial investigation how the first factor, average connectivity of social network nodes, varies across cultures based on a study of a real social network. In our Binary Adoption Model (BAM) with committed agents, the spreading of opinions involves two stages. Without sufficient support, the committed minority can advance its cause only by increasing its ranks to the so-called tipping point fraction. After such a fraction is achieved, the opinion spreads rapidly across the society. We discuss how the tipping point fraction is impacted by the two social-based factors mentioned above.
David Galehouse a, Tommy Nguyen a, Sameet Sreenivasan a, Omar Lizardo b, G. Korniss a
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Behavioral Influence Assessment (BIA): A Multi-Scale System to Assess Dynamic Behaviors Within Groups and Societies Across Time
Sandia National Laboratories, in cooperation with the United States European Command’s (EUCOM) Strategic Foresight (SF) branch, has developed an initial capability to better understand and anticipate likely responses to events by groups within countries under EUCOM’s area of responsibility. The Behavioral Influence Assessment (BIA) system is a theory-based analytical capability that is intended to enable analysts to better assess the influence of events on groups interacting within a country or region. These events can include changes in policy, man-made or natural disasters, war, or other changes in environmental and economic conditions. To help achieve this, BIA models the dynamic social/political/economic actions and counter-actions between groups in response to events over time. This paper outlines the rationale and general results produced by this effort. This includes a discussion of: 1) underlying psychological, social, and economic theories that are synthesized within its structure; 2) inclusion of data and expert opinion into the modeling structure; 3) methods used to computationally instantiate theories, data and opinion; 4) types of assessments that are generated; and 5) implications of these assessments in comparison to current events.
Michael L. Bernard, George A. Backus, Asmeret B. Bier
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Applying Factor Analysis to Population Surveys in Afghanistan to Facilitate Improved Decision Making
As the U.S. Military’s involvement in Afghanistan has changed from a traditional kinetic fight to counter-insurgency to nation building, so too has our need to understand the population which we seek to assist. Multiple agencies have taken on the task of surveying Afghans at the national, provincial and district levels. Conducting these surveys carries great risk due to the presence of Taliban fighters and terrorist safe havens strewn throughout the country. While conducting the surveys has its share of obstacles, properly interpreting the results carry its own unique set of challenges. We use three surveys that have been mainstays as sources of information for the U.S. Military and other nations to understand popular perceptions. Using Factor Analysis on these three surveys collected over the last 3-5 years allows us to analyze all questions and responses in the surveys by identifying the most relevant data analytically vice a subjective analyst or commander deciding what is most important. We do so by using a methodology that establishes quality, analytically derived indicators (groups of survey questions) by using these three survey instruments collected throughout Afghanistan. We generate indicators from survey data using Factor Analysis then assess them by using nonparametric statistics techniques to detect spatial and temporal changes throughout the country. The final result is a full analytics suite that provides perspective to an analyst regarding indicator change across the country over time. Further, we improve the commander’s ability to allocate scarce resources to particular districts and provinces which need the most attention.
Capt. Joseph K. Maddux
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Using Geographic Information Systems Analysis for Mapping Adverse Events in an Active War Theater
This study is a review of adverse events throughout the war in Afghanistan by representing the mapping of these events, where we considered three types of adverse events in terms of number of people killed, wounded and hijacked, and their total number in the active war theater of Afghanistan over the period 2004-2010. The country was divided into seven regions for pattern analysis, where each region has different numbers of provinces, districts, and number of records. A point-density analysis was conducted to detect those areas where a high density of data point locations was concentrated. Based on the results obtained, it was concluded that the frequency of adverse events has increased from 2004 through 2010. The south-western region had the highest mean by district values than other regions and the whole of Afghanistan for all variables. On the other side, the north-western region had the lowest mean by district values than other regions and the whole of Afghanistan for all variables. When we compared the variables against each other, the number of people hijacked had the lowest values in total and average by district than the other variables.
Erman Cakit ª, Waldemar Karwowski
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Developing An Agent-based Architecture to Model Population Displacement
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees data reports the dislocation of millions from their native or accustomed environments. Statistical models authenticate the numbers exiting and ascertain proximate reasons for decisions to leave. These models employ static data and thus provide static outputs. This is problematic because when a decision to exit is concluded factors driving that decision can change or additional variables can present. A more efficient model is needed to envisage a broader range of outputs proffering why, when, and where migration will occur. Additionally, possessing the means to assess what-if scenarios allows for anticipating a range of expected/unexpected outcomes. This paper presents a unique architecture to state (environment) and population (agent) representation for agent-based modeling (ABM) as a means to analyze the decision-making process of individuals threatened with population displacement. This architecture facilitates agent-based modeling that can represent both fluid conditions in the environment and fluctuations in the decision-making process by people under duress. The predominant population displacement modeling application has been statistical, exclusive of dynamic inputs. The conclusions and recommendations within the literature validate implementing a new architecture for this research, which can model root, proximate, and triggering variables associated with this multi-layered, human-factors laden phenomenon.
John A. Sokolowski, Catherine M. Banks
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Validating a Hybrid Cognitive-System Dynamics Model of Team Interaction
Computational models of human behavior can lead to important insights regarding how people interact with each other and with their environments; but validation of these models is difficult and data is generally hard to collect. Better validation strategies could help to make these models more strongly justified and thus more useful. This paper describes an effort to study cooperation between teams in cyber security training exercises by building a model that captures the interactions between them. Real-world exercises provide a useful source of validation data and can serve to help calibrate the model. In this study we simulated two cyber scenarios where the primary difference was the intensity of cyber attacks experienced by two organizations. The model simulated the potential outcomes and decision-making processes involved in cooperative cyber security agreements designed to reduce redundant work. Insights learned from the model are intended to improve future versions of the cyber exercise. We also used validation data and insights from the exercise model to create and justify decision-making strategies in a model of a real-world counterpart to the situation exercises: information sharing programs for cyber defense.
Asmeret B. Bier, Michael L. Bernard
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Managing Safety-Related Compliance of Machines in Global Market
In global trade a machine manufacturer must localize their products for different customers and market areas and they need to manage large variety of product safety requirements, conformity declarations and product liability issues. The aim of this study is to determine 1) which kind of problems there are involved in managing product safety-related requirements of machines intended for use at work internationally and 2) how globally operating companies designing and manufacturing machines have managed this issue in global market. The study is based on literature review and interviews of representatives of two large internationally operating European companies manufacturing machines intended for use at work. The companies’ representatives experienced that the European integration has clarified the product safety requirements, but the actual practices may still vary between different member countries within the EU. The compliance with European product safety requirements were seen as a good basis for re-engineering the machines to the global market. The typical strategies to localize the products were 1) to meet the requirements locally in the front line, and 2) identify and take into account the local requirements and needs during the initial design and manufacturing of the machine.
Juha Vasara, Jouni Kivistö-Rahnasto
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Cross-Cultural Differences in Preference for Relationally Framed Decision Alternatives
Much research on cross-cultural psychology has focused on either culture-level dimensions or individual values as starting points for explaining the influence of culture on individual reasoning and decision-making. Culture is a complex concept, however, determined by the beliefs and behaviors of both individuals and of social systems. To understand how culture predicts the behavior of an individual in a situation requires lower-level descriptors of how individuals and groups interact in different contexts. We investigated the application of Relational Models Theory (Fiske, 1992) as a way both to describe social situations and to distinguish cultures by which relational models their members consider to be the most appropriate in different situations. We presented decision scenarios to participants from different cultural backgrounds through a survey and asked them to rate the appropriateness of several responses to each scenario that were oriented toward different relational models. We observed significant interactions between cultural background, scenario, and the ratings given to options associated with each relational model. We concluded that relational models might provide a valuable tool for understanding cultural differences in individual decision-making, but that the context of the situation itself also has a significant impact on the options people consider to be most appropriate for resolving situations.
Lelyn D. Sanera, Andrew Mathisb, Sergey Blokb, Sharon Glazerc, Ivica Pavisicc, Susannah Paletza
Open Access
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Conference Proceedings
Reading Patterns of Life: Practical Tools from Ethnography
Cross-cultural liaisons and advisors face numerous challenges understanding and adjusting to different cultures and working cross-culturally to accomplish capacity building goals. While pre-assignment culture-specific training is important, it cannot adequately prepare individuals for the full range of relevant information, requiring personnel to build and refine socio-cultural knowledge “on the ground.” Ethnography offers best practices for performing such cultural sensemaking in the field. Further complicating the issue, however, is the understanding that “culture” is not a unified whole, but rather a set of complex interacting systems; globalization, disconnections between politically and ethnically defined boundaries in host nations, and the interaction of cultural and practical or situational contexts mean that learning “culture” may not be sufficient. To provide sensemaking skills and interpretive tools that are actionable across cultural boundaries and accommodate social complexity we propose a Patterns of Life (PoL) framework that incorporates observable practices, social structures, interactions, and relationships not only among humans but also including the environment, objects, and non-human actors. We then outline our Ethnographically-informed Sensemaking Protocol (ESP), an iterative, reflective process drawing from ethnographic methods (e.g., participant observation and ethnographic interviewing protocols) to develop a holistic understanding of the human domain. We finally present an illustrative use case.
Tracy St. Benoita, Clarissa Graffeob
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Basic Study on Prevention of Human Error - Debiasing Method of Cognitive Biases in Decision Making -
Cognitive biases potentially and unexpectedly induce crucial disasters such as Three Mile Island disaster and Challenger space shuttle disaster. This study explored how cognitive biases can be eliminated by paying attention to the characteristics or properties of each bias. The following cognitive biases were used to discuss the effectiveness of debiasing method of cognitive biases: ignorance of base rate, regression to mean, conjunction fallacy, framing effect, illusion of covariation, and overconfidence. In other words, the effectiveness of debiasing methods of these biases in decision making was experimentally discussed. The debiasing methods presented in this study were effective to some extent for suppressing the biases (conjunction fallacy, ignorance of base rate, and regression to mean) to some extent. However, for some cognitive biases (framing effect, fallacy of covariation, and overconfidence), the debiasing methods in this study were not necessarily effective. Some implications for the prevention of crucial human errors and accidents were given from the viewpoints of cognitive biases included in disastrous accidents.
Atsuo MURATA, Tomoko NAKAMURA, Saki KUBO
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings