Social Sciences

Abstract: Punishment serves as a critical governance tool for curbing free-riding in public goods provision, but its efficacy depends on the combined effects of detection probability and punishment severity. Most existing studies have examined these two dimensions in isolation, and few have distinguished between the ex ante deterrent effect and the ex post punitive effect. This study employs a repeated public goods experiment, consisting of a no-punishment baseline and three treatment groups with identical expected punishment but different schemes: low detection probability with high fines, medium detection probability with medium fines, and high detection probability with low fines. We examine how punishment schemes affect individual cooperative behavior. The results show that all three punishment designs significantly increase cooperation. Under fixed expected punishment, heterogeneous governance effects emerge across different probability-severity combinations; the medium-probability and medium-severity scheme generates the strongest cooperative incentives. Moreover, punishment promotes cooperation primarily through ex ante deterrence rather than ex post actual punishment. These findings depart from the predictions of traditional expected value theory and provide experimental evidence for understanding the differentiated governance effects of alternative punishment schemes.

Abstract: This article examines a women-led Jewish–Arab dialogue initiative in the Western Galilee and advances the concept of relational capacity as a mechanism of grassroots peacebuilding in protracted asymmetrical conflict. Drawing on qualitative interviews with twenty-one participants and supplementary descriptive survey data from an additional cohort, the study integrates intergroup contact theory, feminist peace scholarship, and everyday peace frameworks to analyse how sustained dialogue generates relational endurance rather than ideological convergence. The findings suggest that participants develop the capacity to maintain cross-community engagement during periods of political tension, translating interpersonal trust into forms of civic agency. Transnational exposure through a delegation visit further amplifies symbolic legitimacy and internal cohesion. Rather than conceptualising reconciliation as attitudinal harmony, the article proposes that grassroots peacebuilding operates as a layered relational process across micro, meso, and transnational levels. The study contributes a transferable analytical framework for examining women-led dialogue initiatives in other protracted conflicts.

Abstract: The mind–body problem remains a central unresolved issue in contemporary cognitive science. Although research on hemispheric asymmetry has yielded extensive knowledge about neural specialization and functional localization, it provides limited explanatory power for how lateralized neural processes become expressed as observable embodied behavior. Existing approaches typically treat bodily asymmetry either as an epiphenomenon or as a static anatomical correspondence, leaving a conceptual and operational gap between neural activity, subjective experience, and kinematic expression.This manuscript presents Subjectica, a purely theoretical neurophenomenological framework that addresses this gap by conceptualizing hemispheric asymmetry as a dynamic process of embodied cognitive orientation. Rather than positing a fixed mapping between hemispheres and body sides, the model proposes that lateralization is expressed as continuous sensorimotor organization reflecting the current interpretative orientation of the organism. Cognitive stance is therefore understood as an embodied orientation that emerges through the relative predominance of internally and externally integrated interpretative resources during contextual interpretation and becomes observable through structured asymmetries in posture, movement, and segmental motor activity.The model introduces four interrelated conceptual constructs: Personal-Oriented Left Side (PO-LS), Social-Oriented Right Side (SO-RS), Asymmetric Neurobehavioral Signal (ANS), and Body Segments (BS). Together, these constructs provide an interpretative framework linking hemispheric functional asymmetry, embodied cognitive orientation, and measurable bodily dynamics. The framework enables the analysis of lateralization as continuous probabilistic patterns of whole-body and segment-specific motor organization rather than as discrete anatomical or task-specific indicators.Subjectica is intended as a generative theoretical framework that produces testable hypotheses and operational pathways for future empirical research at the intersection of embodied cognition, hemispheric asymmetry, neurophenomenology, and embodied contextual interpretation.

Abstract: Accuracy and speed are essential in handball throwing, and players show distinctive responses to complex perceptual-motor stimuli. Virtual reality (VR) technologies create controlled conditions for training and assessing sport-specific cognitive skills. The objective of the study is to develop and validate the VR Handball environment for assessing and training perceptual-motor skills and inhibitory control in handball players. The study included 29 participants: 10 professional handball players (100% male, average age 22.1±1.8) and 19 controls (47% male, average age 21±1.8). The VR system modeled a realistic 3D handball court with correctly scaled goalposts and balls. Participants completed tasks of varying difficulty, deflecting yellow target balls while inhibiting responses to red non-target balls. Reaction speed and ball trajectory were recorded using controllers. Professional handball players showed significantly better overall performance than controls, with higher accuracy and stronger inhibitory control, especially in trials with red balls at Easy and Medium levels. Unlike controls, their accuracy did not decline with increased task difficulty; instead, their reaction times became faster. Professional handball players demonstrated more efficient perceptual-motor and cognitive control mechanisms. The VR Handball paradigm appears to be an ecologically valid tool for assessing sport-specific skills.

Abstract: Post harvest loss severely threatens smallholder livelihoods and food security across the Himalayan region of South Asian countries. Although improved solar dryers are technically viable, their adoption remains persistently low and unsustainable beyond donor-funded project lifecycles. This paper argues that the persistence of low adoption reflects shortcomings in business model design and institutional support rather than technological inadequacy alone. Employing a theoretically guided systematic literature review, this study integrates inclusive business model (IBM) theory, technology adoption theory (Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations and UTAUT), and institutional theory (North; DiMaggio and Powell) to develop a three-level conceptual framework for solar dryer adoption in high altitude agroecosystems. The framework positions inclusive business model configurations as the primary driver of sustained solar dryer adoption, moderated by institutional context and mediated by six interdependent adoption barriers, namely, economic, technical, market, social-cultural, institutional, and geographic. Three archetypal IBM configurations are theorized and compared: the micro-enterprise model, the cooperative shared-services model, and the social enterprise service provider model. Nepal and Bhutan serve as contrasting institutional cases, representing market-driven and state-coordinated governance contexts, respectively, to demonstrate how institutional environments shape the effectiveness of each configuration. The framework generates three empirically testable propositions concerning IBM fit, institutional moderation, and gender inclusion. This study contributes to the literature by advancing a context-specific, multi-level framework for technology scaling at the Base of the Pyramid in mountain agroecosystems, and by establishing a research agenda for comparative qualitative investigation in Nepal and Bhutan. This perspective offer actionable guidance for entrepreneurs, development practitioners, and policymakers seeking to foster resilient and inclusive agri-food systems in high-altitude regions.

Abstract: Background: Internet Gaming Disorder has drawn more attention as a public health problem in young adults, however, there are insufficient data regarding problematic gaming behaviour (PGB). This study explored the prevalence and predictors of PGB in Romanian medical students. Methods: Cross-sectional survey on 243 Romanian and international undergraduate students from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila” Bucharest. PGB was measured by the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale–Short Form. Personality traits, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, perceived social support and prosocial behaviour were assessed by standardised instruments. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to identify predictors of the IGDS9-SF scores. Results: Based on the cut-off score of 24 on the IGDS9-SF, 10.3% of the participants were classified as having PGB (mean IGDS9-SF = 14.99, SD = 6.03). The final regression model accounted for 28.9% of the variance in IGDS9-SF scores (R² = .289, p < .001), with gaming-related variables accounting for the largest incremental variance. Higher daily gaming time (β = .292, p = .001), non-competitive preferred game type (β = −.232, p = .006), and lower conscientiousness (β = −.201, p = .017) were significant independent predictors. IGDS9-SF scores were greater for competitive games. Perceived social support and prosocial behaviour did not contribute significantly and independently to PGB. Equally, depressive and anxiety symptoms improved model fit, but were not independent predictors. Conclusions: Among Romanian medical students, PGB demonstrates significant associations with gaming engagement and self-regulation, suggesting that screening and preventive approaches targeting these domains may represent relevant strategies for early identification and risk reduction.

Abstract: In an increasingly complex modern social information environment, in which consumers are exposed to both changes in economic conditions and pervasive social comparison cues, there remains limited research exploring the relationship between financial anticipation, social signals, and consumption choices. Using an experimental approach, we examine how income trajectories and social information shape consumption choices. Participants in our online decision task were randomly exposed to information indicating either increasing or decreasing income trajectories, alongside social information about the popularity of a relatively cheap or expensive choice of a specific type of product, among individuals with the same income trajectory. Firstly, we find that cheap information during economic decline undermines the standard prediction that anticipated income decline leads consumers to prefer cheaper products. Specifically, the results indicate a significant non-conformity effect specific to the scenario of anticipated income decline: when income was expected to decrease and the social information indicated a majority choice of cheap products, participants were more likely to select the expensive products. On the other hand, social information had no significant impacts when income was expected to increase. Our findings challenge the conventional intuition of a socially-driven trend in frugal consumption, highlighting counter-conformity as a driver of expensive purchase behavior during economic downturns.

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: Background: Aging in place (AiP) and healthy cognitive aging (HCA) are closely interrelated concepts but seldom examined together within real-world care systems. Integrated care (IC) offers a framework to understand how community settings can support both. Methods: This qualitative case study examined a 25-year-old community-based integrated health and social care program in a rural Czech microregion. Utilizing a realist-informed context–mechanism–outcome framework, the study integrated data from documentary analysis, semistructured interviews, and participant observation. Results: The findings suggest that IC may support AiP and HCA through interrelated, context-dependent, cumulatively operated mechanisms, including environmental predictability, continuity of care, coordination across services, social embeddedness, supported autonomy, and reductions in cognitive and organizational burden and stress. IC is not a direct intervention, but acts as a context-dependent mediator that shapes the conditions for AiP and HCA. Behaviorally, these mechanisms minimize decision-making complexity and establish predictable interaction patterns that support everyday functioning. Conclusions: AiP and HCA are co-produced through shared underlying mechanisms embedded in care systems and community contexts. IC may facilitate this by fostering stable, person-centered environments that may reduce cognitive demands and support relational continuity. The study contributes to behavioral science by demonstrating how IC can shape conditions relevant to cognitive and functional outcomes in later life and provides actionable insights for the design of IC systems.

Abstract: This study conceptualises a novel function called Brain Awareness by creating a Comprehensive Model of Self-Regulation through a systematic conceptual review of self-regulation, and functionalising it using the Composite Hierarchical Concept reformation process of De Boecke et al. The resulting Brain Awareness is the result of reconceptualising self-regulation into a composite hierarchical scaffolded function that enables contextual adaptation across six domains of human self-regulation: physiological, affective, behavioural, social, motivational and cognitive. Brain Awareness functions through a looping process of meta-awareness, detecting deviations from the contextually ideal state in each domain and uses cognitive control to enable domain specific mechanisms aimed at restoring equilibrium in the affected domains. This holistic and functional nature of Brain Awareness may facilitate neuroplastic brain development through the creation of therapeutic and educational experiences. Such experiences could rehabilitate neuropsychosocial deficits in self-regulation or improve self-regulation for optimal functioning throughout the lifespan for all populations.

Abstract: Environmental concern is widely recognized as a driver of electric vehicle (EV) adoption, yet less is known about whether this relationship differs between current car owners and non-car owners. This distinction matters because car owners evaluate EVs as potential replacement vehicles, while non-car owners may express a more aspira-tional future preference. Using a cross-sectional online survey of 328 adults in Canada, this study examines whether environmental concern predicts EV adoption intentions across ownership groups. Car owners were asked about the likelihood of choosing a plug-in electric vehicle if purchasing another vehicle, whereas non-car owners were asked whether they would prefer to drive an EV instead of a conventional car. Ordered logistic regression results show that environmental concern significantly predicts EV purchase likelihood among car owners (beta = 0.649, p < 0.001; OR approximately 1.91) and EV preference among non-car owners (beta = 0.440, p = 0.018; OR approximately 1.55). Personal environmental responsibility is positive but not statistically significant in the main car-owner model. The findings support Value-Belief-Norm theory while indicating that environmental concern alone may not overcome practical ownership barriers. EV adoption strategies should therefore connect environmental benefits with affordability, charging infrastructure, and everyday usability.

Abstract: Retail investors increasingly bring large language models (LLMs) into cognitively demanding trading decisions - not as tools but as conversational reasoning partners that help frame problems, test scenarios, and judge feasibility. This creates a calibration problem with direct bearing on trading behaviour: the same assistance can yield nhancement or miscalibrated confidence, deference, and offloading. Existing adoption and intention theories explain why investors engage such systems but leave unspecified the decision-time mechanism through which dialogic assistance enters evaluative reasoning - a gap diagnosed here as a three-layer (temporal, ontological, phenomenological) insufficiency. The Augmented Behavioural Capacity (ABC) Model addresses it as a domain-bounded extension for LLM-assisted retail-investor decision-making, specifying a moderated process architecture of three elements: Capacity, operationalised through Perceived Cognitive Assistance (PCA); Calibration, a diagnostic overlay separating calibrated enhancement from miscalibrated confidence, deference, or offloading; and Choice, the proximal outcomes spanning complexity intention, strategy evaluation, structural complexity, and risk assertion. The method is theoretical model development - construct roles, boundary conditions, rival explanations, and falsifiable propositions. The contribution is bounded: ABC claims neither improved returns nor full causal validation, but offers a specified architecture, partially anchored by prior PCA validation, and a staged agenda for causal, calibration, longitudinal, and behavioural-footprint testing.

Abstract: Self-medication is known to have potential harmful consequences. In times of a health shock, like the COVID‑19 pandemic, preventive drug intake may imply irresponsible behaviour. To provide insight into this phenomenon, this study explores the preventive behaviour of 4,642 respondents of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for the period 2020-2022 and 15 European countries. It aims at highlighting relevant drivers and relies on an econometric analysis backed by random-effects panel logistic as well as pooled logistic estimators. The results indicate that being female, more educated, with income, in worse health, or out of work due to COVID‑19 relates to higher odds of using preventive drugs for COVID‑19 disease. Interaction effects illustrate that those who report symptoms are additionally more likely to take preventive drugs when in poor health, with income, or having hardly any difficulties with making ends meet. Surprisingly, preventive drug intake when reporting symptoms decreases at older ages. No relevant impact is found for relationship status, financial distress, and country of citizenship. Overall, the study identifies important drivers of preventive drug intake informative for policymaking in the context of a health shock like COVID‑19.

Abstract: In information-saturated digital environments, students' vulnerabilities in information processing, emotion regulation, and social connection may fluctuate together within individuals, yet the role of information-environment homogeneity remains uncertain. Using a three-wave design with four-week intervals, we surveyed 615 students from two mainland Chinese universities that experienced qualifying campus public-discussion events and 190 comparison students from a third university. Analyses combined measurement modeling, RI-CLPM, latent growth modeling, and exploratory moderation tests using Shannon entropy of information-source exposure. A three-factor parcel-level model outperformed one- and two-factor alternatives. The RI-CLPM showed modest within-person coupling along all three primary paths after false discovery rate correction, but the IPD-ERV association was bidirectional, with the reverse ERV→IPD path numerically larger at the post-event lag. The linear three-wave LGCM indicated descriptive co-movement among growth indices but showed elevated RMSEA; H3 is therefore not interpreted as evidence of a well-fitting growth model. Neither global nor path-specific environmental moderation was supported. The SCV→IPD entropy interaction was directionally consistent but non-significant. Overall, the data support a distinguishable three-facet structure and modest within-person coupling, but not a strong ordered feedback loop, a well-fitting linear growth process, or confirmatory moderation by information-environment homogeneity.

Abstract: This study examines the relationships between human resource system performance, perceived process quality, and risk-related outcomes within an organizational systems framework. Using data from 750 respondents from the European Social Survey, Round 9, the study applies correlation, regression, mediation, and exploratory factor analyses. Since the dataset does not include direct organizational-level measures of formal HR systems, process quality, or corporate risk, a perception-based proxy approach is adopted. The findings indicate that human-resource-related indicators are significantly associated with perceived system stability and risk-related organizational outcomes, with general satisfaction and work engagement emerging as the most consistent predictors. Mediation analysis suggests that perceived process quality and reliability partially mediate the association between human resource system performance and risk-related outcomes. Exploratory factor analysis indicates a broadly interpretable two-dimensional structure of the examined indicators. The study contributes to systems-oriented organizational research by showing how human-resource-related conditions, perceived process quality, and risk-related outcomes may be interconnected within broader organizational systems. The findings offer practical implications for strengthening process reliability, organizational resilience, and risk-oriented management.

Abstract: Hypnotic hypoalgesia effectively reduces various types of pain, but its neurophysiological mechanisms remain unclear. EEG and somatosensory event-related potentials (SERPs) can help elucidate how hypnotic suggestions influence pain processing across sensory, emotional, and cognitive domains. This review synthesizes evidence on EEG oscillatory activity and SERP correlates in hypnotic pain modu-lation and interprets the findings through predictive coding and active inference frameworks. The review integrated relevant studies on EEG frequency-band oscillations, SERPs, and the modulation of pain by hypnosis, focusing on a convergent neurophysiological account of hypnotic pain modulation rather than on individual studies. Research indicates that hypnotic hypoalgesia is associated with concerted changes across multiple EEG frequency bands. Theta activity is linked to focused internal attention and the maintenance of sugges-tion-consistent representations, while increased alpha activity may indicate inhibitory sensory gating and reduced nociceptive gain. Beta oscillations enhance pain relief in cognitive and motor functions, while de-creased gamma activity indicates reduced significance of pain signals. SERP findings show that hypnotic suggestions primarily affect late evaluative components (e.g., P200/P250, P300) rather than early sensory elements, suggesting changes in salience attribution and affective-cognitive appraisal rather than uniform suppression of nociceptive input. Predictive coding and active inference explain how hypnotic suggestions change pain-related expectations and bodily perceptions. This insight is key to enhancing personalized pain management and guiding future neuroscience research.

Abstract: Infant-directed speech (IDS) has long been associated with attachment, yet this association has remained theoretically underspecified. Existing accounts treat attachment as a nominal placeholder rather than a precisely operationalized construct, and either ignore attachment formation or conflate it with attachment quality. The present paper advances two arguments. First, IDS is best understood as a formation-relevant signal operating within a biologically regulated sensitive period window rather than as a caregiving quality signal. Second, the signals operating in the parent-infant dyad during the attachment formation window constitute two independent evolved registers serving different organisms on different timetables. The Infant-Directed Register (IDReg) drives infant attachment to the parent through Phase 1 orientation of a broadly permissive infant toward species-typical caregiver stimuli. The Caregiver-Directed Register (CDReg) drives parental attachment to the infant through Phase 2 arousal-target coupling during the parent's open formation gate. This account is consistent with evolutionary theory, in which selection operates on individual organisms rather than dyadic relationships, and resolves longstanding ambiguities in the IDS-attachment literature.

Abstract: Consumption of conventional white and red meat is a societal and environmental problem. The assertion of these problems stems from factors that influence consumers’ intention to purchase plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs) from retailers which are fragmented. Thereby warranting a comprehensive synthesis of precursors that determine purchase intention of PBMAs based on an evidence-based multi-layered model. Applying the Value-Attitude-Behaviour (VAB) theory with the integration of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), this study examined how values (green value and animal welfare value) influenced perceived attitudes towards PBMAs, which further influenced consumer purchase intention of PBMAs. To close the literature gap, further testing was conducted on the mediating role of perceived behavioural control (PBC) and the subjective norms (SN) variable on the perceived attitude (PA) and purchase intention (PI) relationship. Data was collected by applying convenience and snowball sampling techniques. A total of 501 red and white meat consumers participated in the study to ascertain their potential intention to purchase PBMAs. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS for the descriptives statistics and PLS-SEM to test the direct and indirect effects. Findings indicate that direct relationships were supported, except that subjective norm did not influence purchase intention. Behavioural control mediated the attitude and purchase intention relationship, whereas subjective norms did not mediate the attitude and purchase intention relationship. The introduction of the mediators in the proposed model underscores the value of integrating multiple analytical perspectives in the complex formation of PBMA decision making.

Abstract: The article focuses on the changing paradigm that the energy transition is increasingly shifting from a purely technological domain toward a socio-political and behavioral process shaped by regional disparities and social conditions. Recent studies indicate that regional disparities and differences in policy effectiveness have increased the importance of behavioral factors, including awareness, social norms, motivation, and cultural practices, in shaping energy transition outcomes. This study is grounded in an interdisciplinary framework combining behavioral theories, socio-technical transition approaches, and regional development concepts. It aims to investigate the role of consumer behavior in shaping energy transition outcomes, with a particular focus on regional and educational factors. An empirical survey of 997 respondents across different regions of Ukraine was conducted. Using cluster analysis, three distinct groups were identified, reflecting different levels of awareness and engagement with energy transition issues. Factor analysis revealed that region and education are the most significant determinants of cluster formation. The results confirm that behavioral patterns are strongly influenced by socio-regional characteristics and cannot be explained solely by traditional energy indicators. Based on these findings, the study validates the need for region-sensitive energy policies and provides recommendations for designing targeted interventions that account for regional context and educational level to enhance the effectiveness of energy transition strategies.

Abstract: In the 21st century, digital development, which has become an indispensable element of all processes of human life, has a “bi-directional effect” on the efficiency of outputs, “both positive and negative”. This idea has been put forward in the cited studies. The case studies presented in this study reveal the negative effects of digital addiction in various fields. The study focuses on the individual and social damages of digital addiction, as well as its negative impact on productivity, which is our main topic, and discusses the measures and solutions that can be taken at the individual and organisational level. In this study, firstly, the concepts of digital addiction and work productivity will be defined in order to draw a conceptual framework. After drawing the conceptual framework, an overview of the relationship between “productivity and digital addiction” will be presented.