Social Sciences

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between social-emotional skills (SES) and perceptions of school violence among middle school students, considering both direct effects and heterogeneity in social-emotional profiles. A quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional design was used, with a sample of 311 students aged 8 to 15 (M = 10.65, SD = 1.69). SES were assessed across four dimensions (stress management, adaptation, sense of safety, and expectations), while perceptions of school violence included verbal, physical, relational, digital, and teacher-perpetrated acts. The results show that all dimensions of SES have significant negative effects on perceptions of violence, with moderate magnitudes, confirming their role as cognitive-emotional mediating resources. Likewise, three distinct SES profiles (high, medium, and low) were identified, with the profile exhibiting the highest levels consistently reporting lower perceptions of school violence. However, on the one hand, differences between profiles do not follow a strict, linear pattern, suggesting threshold effects. On the other hand, no differences in the perception of violence were found based on gender, despite evident differences in SES. The results indicate that SES operate as situated functional systems that modulate the interpretation of violence, particularly in relational and ambiguous forms. It is concluded that understanding school violence requires integrating variable- and profile-centred approaches and considering the interaction between individual resources and school contexts.

Abstract: This study examined parent–child physiological synchrony within the context of interactions and attachment-related differences. Specifically, this study investigated physiological synchrony, as indexed by the association between parent and child root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) during free-play interactions, and differences in children’s mean heart rates according to attachment classification. The participants were 25 parent–child dyads (mean child age = 36.48 months). Physiological responses were assessed during free-play interactions using heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). Children’s attachment was classified as secure or resistant based on their behaviors observed during the separation–reunion procedure. The results showed a significant positive association between the parent and child RMSSD (ρ =.48, p <.05). Parental anxiety was positively associated with both parents’ and children’s physiological arousal. Attachment-related group differences were observed only in the mean heart rate, with children with resistant attachment showing a significantly higher HR than those with secure attachment (t = 2.69, p <.05). No significant group differences were observed in the RMSSD or HR/RMSSD ratios. Overall, these findings suggest that the parent–child RMSSD association, as a component of physiological synchrony, may reflect a normative feature of parent–child interaction that emerges across attachment classifications. In addition, attachment-related differences were primarily observed in physiological arousal.

Abstract: This paper proposes a novel framework, HyperGAT-BERT-RAS, that integrates: (1) a Hy perGraph Attention Network (HyperGAT) with BERT for enhanced semantic representa-tion; (2) a Reference Answer Set (RAS) constructed via clustering of full-score answers; (3) Siamese Neural Networks (SNNs) for similarity-based scoring; and (4) GPT-4-based data augmentation to address class imbalance. Experiments on the Ohsumed and ASAP-5 da-tasets demonstrate that: (i) HyperGAT-BERT achieves 0.7317 accuracy on Ohsumed text classification, outperforming baseline HyperGAT by 2.69%; (ii) the full Hyper-GAT-BERT-RAS achieves 0.7991 accuracy and 0.7956 F1-score, with RAS contributing the most to performance gains (4.34% accuracy drop when removed); (iii) GPT-4 augmentation improves Quadratic Weighted Kappa from 0.584 to 0.880 and minority-class (scores 2–3) F1 by 15.3%. These improvements translate into more reliable scoring of diverse student answers, reduced teacher grading burden, and enhanced feasibility of AI-assisted forma-tive assessment in real classrooms. Ablation and error analyses confirm the contribution of each component. The framework advances ASAG by synergizing graph-based relational modeling, pretrained language understanding, and knowledge-guided scoring.

Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used to support writing, translation, reasoning, and consequential decision-making under the assumption that they improve judgment by expanding access to information and reducing human error. This article argues that such optimism overlooks a central psychological problem: LLMs do not engage neutral users, but motivated reasoners. In common patterns of use, people approach these systems with prior beliefs, directional goals, and a desire to reduce cognitive effort. They ask leading questions, search in preferred directions, and often stop once a fluent and coherent answer appears. Under these conditions, LLMs may function less as external correctives than as smart mirrors that reflect users’ assumptions back to them with the authority of machine objectivity. Drawing on research in judgment and decision-making, motivated reasoning, automation bias, processing fluency, and human–AI interaction, the article develops the concept of artificial confidence: an inflated sense of certainty sustained by the structure of the interaction rather than by the quality of the evidence. The paper concludes by outlining a research agenda for identifying when human–AI interaction improves judgment and when it amplifies bias and overreliance, erodes epistemic responsibility, and creates challenges for governance, oversight, and decision-making protocols in AI-augmented systems.

Abstract: Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) exercise veto power on most empirical research in the social and behavioural sciences. Although widely regarded as essential safeguards in behavioural research, their overall impact on knowledge production has been seldom scrutinized, much less systematically examined. Rather than evaluating IRBs in terms of their stated aims, this article considers them as institutions based on process characteristics: that is, as decision making units facing bureaucratic incentives to impose costs on others. From this political economic perspective, ethics review functions not as a neutral guardrail, but as an active agent influencing the selection pressures within the scientific ecosystems they regulate. This article examines the following key mechanisms through which IRBs affect knowledge production: (1) cost inflation and quality dilution that reduces both the supply of and demand for the knowledge produced by research; (2) selection effects operating on researcher characteristics and on the bureaucratization of decision-making processes in a direction detrimental to the quality and integrity of research production; and (3) non-random distortions of methods, topics, and rates of independent replication are all expected to contribute to a reduction in the practical significance and societal benefit of affected academic institutions. These impacts escalate because of asymmetric accountability and motivated mission expansion in a system where overreach more often self-reinforces than becomes restrained by corrective feedback. This points to empirical predictions and highlights the need to quantify the real costs of unchecked IRB expansion.

Abstract: Sustainable consumption research frequently highlights a gap between consumers’ pro-sustainability attitudes and their everyday purchasing practices. While wine has attracted growing attention as a sustainable product category, existing research has predominantly relied on quantitative approaches, offering limited insight into how consumers themselves interpret and negotiate sustainability in practice. This study adopts a qualitative, exploratory approach to examine how Austrian wine consumers make sense of sustainability in everyday wine consumption contexts. Based on five focus group discussions incorporating a guided wine tasting, the analysis explores meaning-making processes, moral justifications, and situational decision-making rather than attitudes, preferences or willingness to pay alone. The findings reveal that sustainability is not rejected but selectively applied and morally compartmentalized. Wine is frequently constructed as a morally legitimate exception to everyday ethical responsibility, with taste operating as a hegemonic evaluative authority that overrides sustainability considerations. Regional origin functions as a symbolic substitute for sustainability. Meanwhile formal certifications are often met with skepticism, especially when governance structures are perceived as weak. Willingness to pay for sustainable wine emerges as situational and context-dependent, requiring narrative and relational justification rather than abstract ethical commitment. By conceptualizing sustainability as a negotiated and situated practice, this study contributes to sustainable consumption research by moving beyond linear attitude–behavior models. The findings offer insights into eco-friendly living as it is practiced in everyday consumption, highlighting the role of moral boundaries, symbolic cues, and social context in shaping sustainability-related decisions. The research emphasizes everyday consumption practices, key challenges, and situational enablers of eco-friendly living.

Abstract: Cyberloafing is increasingly recognised as a common yet motivationally complex workplace behaviour. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) framework, this study examined whether toxic leadership is associated with cyberloafing through burnout syndromes and whether individual-level perceived psychosocial safety climate (PSC) buffers this health-impairment process. Using a cross-sectional online survey design, data were collected from 199 working adults across multiple industries, primarily from South Asia. A first stage moderated parallel mediation model was tested using Hayes’s PROCESS v5.0 Model 7 with 5000 bootstrap resamples. Toxic leadership was positively associated with all four burnout subdimensions, and significant indirect effects on cyberloafing emerged via exhaustion, cognitive impairment, and emotional impairment, whereas mental distance did not mediate the relationship. Individual-level perceived PSC did not significantly buffer the links between toxic leadership and burnout. Overall, the findings suggest that, in toxic supervisory contexts, cyberloafing may be better understood as a maladaptive coping response to burnout-related impairment than as a simple retaliatory behaviour. These results extend leadership and burnout research by locating toxic leadership within the JD-R health-impairment pathway and by highlighting the limited protective role of perceived PSC when the source of harm is the immediate supervisor. Practical implications support an integrated intervention strategy.

Abstract: Rapid advancements in digital payment technologies have completely changed how customers perceive spending, frequently making money less psychologically visible and promoting impulsive buying. This study creates a dual-mechanism framework to explain how digital spending environments both facilitate and regulate consumer purchasing decisions, building on the idea of Spendception. Spendception has been break into two dimensions: Perceived Spendception Control (PSC), which measures consumers' perceived capacity to keep an eye on and control their financial behavior in extremely stimulating online environments, and Perceived Spendception Ease (PSE), which describes the seamless and cognitively effortless character of digital spending. The study investigates how Digital Twin Environment (DTE) affects impulsive purchasing behavior through these two mechanisms, using survey data from Generation Z consumers involved in social commerce. PSE mediates the relationship between DTE and impulse buying by lowering psychological spending barriers, while PSC moderates this relationship by enhancing consumers' financial self-regulation and decreasing impulsive purchasing tendencies, according to the results of a study that used structural equation modeling in conjunction with machine learning techniques. These results show that the degree to which emotional stimuli result in impulsive consumption is determined by two opposing psychological forces produced by digital payment systems: spending facilitation and spending control. By viewing Spendception as a multifaceted concept, the study advances Spendception theory and offers crucial insights into how digital financial technologies affect consumer behavior in social commerce settings. The results emphasize the significance of creating digital payment systems that strike a balance between transactional ease and features that promote responsible consumption and financial awareness from a sustainability standpoint.

Abstract: This study aimed to analyse the effects of a parkour-based Adventure Education (AE) program on the intrinsic motivation of primary school students, and to examine the role of enjoyment, self-confidence, and resilience as associated and predictive variables, considering differences according to time (pre-test–post-test) and gender. The sample consisted of 492 fifth- and sixth-grade primary education students (249 boys and 243 girls) with a mean age of 10.67 years, enrolled in 12 Spanish schools. A quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test measures was used following the implementation of a seven-session program based on the Pedagogical Model of Adventure Education. Data were collected using instruments validated in the Spanish population: the Intrinsic Motivation subscale of the Perceived Locus of Causality Scale, the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale to measure enjoyment, the Self-Confidence subscale of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory, and the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale to assess resilience. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 28.0 software, conducting descriptive analyses, correlations, and hierarchical multiple linear regressions to examine the predictive capacity of the variables, and a 2×2 repeated-measures ANOVA (time × gender). The results showed significant increases in intrinsic motivation, enjoyment, self-confidence, and resilience after the intervention. Enjoyment emerged as the main predictor of intrinsic motivation, followed by self-confidence and resilience. Furthermore, the ANOVA revealed the significant effect of time whereas there were no significant differences between boys and girls, indicating that the program was equally effective for both genders.

Abstract: Background: The negative impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) on child development is documented. The parent-child relationship protects against ACEs and improves healthy child development. Hence, the parent-child environment plays a crucial role in preventing and mitigating ACEs through positive childhood experiences that elicit parental resilience. However, our understanding of the parent-child relation-ship within the social-ecological model (SEM) (i.e., intra- and interpersonal, community, and societal levels) is limited. Objective: This study explores parents’ perspectives on parental resilience as a protective factor for preventing ACEs and supporting PCEs at every level of the SEM, while considering parents’ personal ACE scores and emotional regulation (ER) scores. Method: This study uses a thematic analysis approach for qualitative research. In-depth individual interviews were conducted with members of a parent support group (PSG) (82% female, n = 14) based in a community-based organi-zation serving families (n = 17 parent interviews). Demographic information, ER, and ACE scores were collected for each participant. Results: Seven themes and 16 subthemes were identified, including parents experiencing aspects of emotional regulation from joining a PSG at all SEM levels, sensing a communication disconnect with school teachers, and parents desiring ACE prevention/mitigation training. Conclusion: ‪The insights on parental resilience perceptions are valuable and hold promise to inform future multi-level prevention strategies and mitigation practices using the SEM.

Abstract: We aimed to explore the personal and functional factors influencing the disaster or emer-gency coping abilities of individuals with intellectual disabilities. To this end, the study analyzed the relationships between personal factors—such as sex, age, presence of comorbid disabilities, and educational level—and functional factors—such as cognitive level and communication ability—using data from the disaster or emergency coping abil-ity survey included in the 2024 Panel Survey on Work and Life of Individuals with De-velopmental Disabilities. The analysis revealed that the level of disaster or emergency coping skills among individuals with intellectual disabilities was low. Sex, educational level, and cognitive and communication levels were identified as significant factors relat-ed to coping skills. Educational level was found to specifically influence the ability to evacuate oneself, a subdomain of disaster and emergency coping skills. The findings of this study suggest that systematic education and support, taking into account individual cognitive and communication characteristics, are necessary to improve the disaster or emergency coping abilities of individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Abstract: This study examined how digital equity conditions and bundled professional development policies are associated with sustainable teacher learning, self-efficacy, and student engagement in Greek primary schools. A total of 460 in-service teachers from urban, suburban, and rural areas participated in the study. Data were collected through Likert-scale measures assessing information systems use, TPACK-aligned professional development outcomes, teacher self-efficacy, implementation challenges, and student engagement. The analysis included ANOVA, MANOVA, OLS regression with interaction terms, and mediation models. The findings indicated that infrastructure funding alone was not a significant predictor of teacher capacity or student engagement after the introduction of relevant controls. More consistent effects emerged when funding was combined with mandated and time-protected professional development, together with minimum connectivity standards. Teacher self-efficacy partially mediated the association between information systems use and student engagement, while stronger indirect effects were observed among early-career teachers. In addition, a bundled governance index was associated with a reduction in urban–rural disparities in teacher capacity. The findings suggest that sustainable digital equity in primary education depends not only on access to resources but also on coherent professional support structures that strengthen teacher confidence, instructional continuity, and long-term engagement. Implications are discussed for the design of sustainable professional development policies in teacher education and primary schooling.

Abstract: Research on personality and behaviour has established that individuals exhibit relatively stable patterns of conduct across time, commonly described in terms of trait dimensions such as conscientiousness. At the same time, self-regulation and habit research have identified mechanisms involved in behavioural initiation, persistence, and automatization. Despite these advances, existing frameworks do not adequately specify the intermediate processes through which behavioural continuity is maintained across everyday contexts. This article introduces the concept of micro-discipline to address this gap. Micro-discipline refers to recurrent low-level acts of behavioural regulation that preserve continuity between intention and action under ordinary conditions of friction, including returning attention to a task, sustaining effort despite resistance, modulating minor impulses, and completing small obligations that might otherwise be deferred. The central claim is that these repeated regulatory acts constitute a distinct and temporally cumulative process through which behavioural patterns are stabilized and, over time, modified. Drawing on personality theory, self-regulation research, and related process-based approaches, the article develops a conceptual model explaining how such micro-regulatory processes bias the recurrence, persistence, and interruption of behavioural states, thereby contributing to trait stabilization and trait change. By clarifying this intermediate process layer, the framework provides a more precise account of how local regulatory acts scale into durable patterns of behaviour. It further offers implications for understanding personality development, the maintenance of goal-directed behaviour, and the conditions under which intentional behavioural change succeeds or fails.

Abstract: Background: Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) commonly show impairment in skills. Research has investigated procedures that may teach a skill and establish others through emergence, without direct instruction. A given procedure corresponds to instructive feedback (IF) with definition of secondary target during the teaching of a primary target. IF information may be presented in the consequent portion of a contingency. Research has shown that this procedure may produce acquisition of multiple targets in some learners. Methods: The current study directly taught a primary target, simple tact, with IF in three children with ASD. In addition, the effects of training with IF were assessed on the emergence of four secondary targets, that is, listener responding according to category, tact according to category, arbitrary visual matching-to-sample and intaverbal according to category. Results: The children acquired all targets. They had no previous experience with IF and data provided further evidence of its effectiveness with this population. In addition, the effects of training with IF were long-lasting, as high performance maintained 2 weeks later in probes. Limitations were discussed, and recommendations for future investigations were presented. Conclusions: Training with IF established primary and secondary targets for all children involved.

Abstract: This study examines whether multidomain self-esteem profiles differentiate adolescents’ interactions with conversational AI. Data come from a national school-based survey of Czech adolescents aged 13–17 (N = 42,772). Latent profile analysis based on Home, School, and Peer self-esteem identified three groups: high, moderate, and low self-esteem. These profiles were compared across AI-related domains, including social substitution, emotional regulation and self-disclosure, intimacy-related use, and perceived ease and safety of AI communication.Adolescents with low self-esteem reported the highest levels of friend-like interaction with AI, stronger beliefs that AI can replace human relationships, more frequent use for emotional support and disclosure, greater intimacy-related engagement, and stronger perceptions of AI as easier and safer than human communication. They also reported the highest psychological distress.

Abstract: Based on survey data collected from 817 consumers in China who use social media, we examine the factors influencing consumers’ adoption intentions toward robotaxis. Although prior research explores social media’s role in the marketing domain, its impact on consumers’ psychological and behavioral responses in the context of emerging technologies remains insufficiently investigated. To address this gap, we adopt the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model and employ both symmetric (linear regression) and asymmetric (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, fsQCA) approaches to examine how social media influences consumers’ experiential and instrumental attitudes, and their self-efficacy, thereby affecting adoption intentions toward robotaxis. We also examine the moderating role of a pro-environmental self-identity. Our results indicate social media exerts a positive effect on consumers’ experiential attitude, instrumental attitude, and adoption intention, while its impact on self-efficacy is not statistically significant. In addition, experiential attitude, instrumental attitude, and self-efficacy emerge as significant predictors of adoption intention, and pro-environmental self-identity positively moderates the relationship between experiential attitude and adoption intention. To complement the results based on structural equation modeling, findings from the fsQCA identify three configurational pathways (two distinct solution types) leading to high adoption intention and four configurational pathways leading to non-high adoption intention. In addition to the study’s theoretical and methodological contributions, we identify practical implications for firms and marketers operating during the early-stage deployment of robotaxis.

Abstract: Background: Youth labour markets across Sub-Saharan Africa combine high aspirations for secure wage work with entrenched informality and underemployment. Aim: This article clarifies how structural constraints shape stated employment preferences and entrepreneurial orientation among youth in Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Design: A constrained comparative secondary analysis drew on Afrobarometer Round 9 microdata for Sierra Leone and triangulated these findings with nationally reported labour-market and policy indicators for Rwanda. Public microdata for Rwanda were unavailable, so a bounded-evidence strategy transparently distinguishes verifiable survey statistics from document-based context. Findings: Sierra Leonean youth express a cautious economic outlook—fewer than half expect improvement within a year—yet most endorse redistributive growth and demand stronger gender equity in job access. Preference for self-employment appears necessity-driven where institutional trust and public-goods provision remain moderate, rather than an indicator of opportunity entrepreneurship. Rwanda’s reported labour-absorption pressure and pervasive informality reinforce this reading, suggesting that education-fuelled aspiration gaps widen when formal job creation lags. Contribution: The study advances an “institutionally conditioned planned-behaviour” framework that integrates the Theory of Planned Behaviour with opportunity-structure theory and human-capital expectations. Methodologically, it demonstrates how rigorous comparative inference can be maintained through explicit verification protocols when evidence access is asymmetric, and it outlines a reproducible pathway for symmetric modelling once Rwandan microdata become publicly available. Practical implications: Policies that promote youth entrepreneurship without parallel investment in inclusive growth, reliable public goods, and transparent digital governance risk shifting systemic labour-market failure onto young people rather than resolving it.

Abstract: Various disciplines have delved into the complex relationship between social behavior and its individual and collective benefits. In social psychology, many scholars have explored human behavior driven by altruistic and selfish actions. From the perspective of evolutionary biology, numerous studies have examined the positive and negative effects of the actor and recipient on behaviors. However, when viewed through an interdisciplinary lens, these approaches only partially capture the intricate interplay between the actors’ behaviors and the societal impact of their actions. In a collaborative spirit, this article considers the pivotal work of Carlo Cipolla’s "Laws of Human Stupidity," which sought to classify people based on the benefits for themselves and others. By comparing definitions and interpretations from different disciplines, the article demonstrates the theoretical compatibility of Cipolla’s types of people, behavioral definitions from evolutionary biology and social psychology, and understanding of human intentions behind behavior based on the "Theory of Planned Behavior." Finally, this article compiles the results in a "Social Impact" classification with integrated definitions based on human behaviors and their underlying intentions.

Abstract: The European Union relies heavily on voluntary tax compliance, yet evidence on how tax literacy (TL) and tax education (TE) relate to tax morale (TM) and voluntary tax compliance or compliance intentions (VTC) remains fragmented across partly disconnected strands of literature. This systematic review examined EU-relevant evidence on the stakeholder contexts in which TL/TE are discussed in relation to TM and VTC, with particular attention to schools, communities, and public institutions. Following PRISMA 2020, searches in Scopus and Web of Science (2000–2025) applied two complementary query streams focused on TL/TE and TM/VTC-related mechanisms. The searches identified 1327 records; after deduplication and screening, 402 studies were included. Based on structured coding of titles, abstracts, and author keywords, the review maps patterns of emphasis and framing rather than causal effects. Public-institutional and education-related contexts were the most frequently signposted stakeholder environments, while digital and outreach-oriented delivery cues were more visible than classroom-based cues. Trust and fairness/justice dominated the explanatory vocabulary. Overall, the review supports an ecosystem-oriented interpretation of stakeholder coordination in EU tax literacy research.

Abstract: This study explains cryptocurrency investment decisions by integrating personality traits, influencer credibility, and social influence within the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) framework. The position model of openness, extraversion, conscientiousness, influencer credibility, and social influence as stimuli; heuristic bias and herding behaviour as organism states; and cryptocurrency investment decision as the response, with risk tolerance operating as a serial mediating mechanism. Data were collected from 367 Indonesian retail cryptocurrency investors using an online survey and analysed with SEM-PLS (SmartPLS) and one-tailed significance testing. The measurement model demonstrates adequate convergent validity and reliability, and discriminant validity is supported by HTMT values below the recommended threshold. Structural results support all hypothesized relationships (H1–H12). Openness (β = 0.132), extraversion (β = 0.326), and conscientiousness (β = 0.195) positively influence the tendency toward heuristic bias. Influencer credibility (β = 0.303) and social influence (β = 0.285) positively influence herding behaviour. Heuristic bias positively affects risk tolerance (β = 0.585) and investment decision (β = 0.407), while herding behaviour positively affects risk tolerance (β = 0.185) and investment decision (β = 0.106). Risk tolerance positively affects investment decision (β = 0.354) and mediates the effects of heuristic bias (indirect β = 0.200) and herding behaviour (indirect β = 0.078) on investment decision. The model explains substantial variance in investment decisions (Adjusted R² = 0.623) and moderate variance in risk tolerance (Adjusted R² = 0.507). The findings extend SOR to sentiment-driven digital asset markets by showing that cognitive shortcuts and socially transmitted cues shape risk tolerance before translating into investment actions, and they highlight the importance of behavioural risk-mitigation and disclosure practices in crypto ecosystems.