The Mini-Me Syndrome

The mini-me syndrome refers to the phenomenon that - for instance - human resources managers and executives often tend to choose employees and successors who are perceived as similar to themselves. (The mini-me syndrome is also discussed in parent-child relationships.) This similarity can be defined in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, career path or life style. The resulting discrimination is based on a bias people making HR decisions are often not aware of (via). There is no professional recruitment process without bias awareness.



Photograph of Buster Keaton (1895-1966) via

Born this day: Elinor Ostrom

"We've already entered a new era and we recognise that women have the capabilities of doing great scientific work. And yes, I appreciate that this is an honour to be the first woman but I won't be the last."
Elinor Ostrom


Photograph: Elinor Ostrom (Manitoulin Island, 1968, Elinor Ostrom Collection, The Lilly Library)

Elinor Claire "Lin" Ostrom (7 August 1933 - 12 June 2012) was the first - and so far only - woman to be awarded the Nobel memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2009) and the first woman to receive the William H. Riker Prize in political science (2008). Ostrom was awarded several other prizes ... years after struggling to be admitted to the PhD programme:

"That was an entirely different picture. It was in this hostile environment where a lot of the faculty did not like it that there were women in the programme. Economics just said 'no' and part of the reason they said that was because I had not had any math in college. And much of the reason for that was that in my high school they didn't let girls take trigonometry unless they got an A in algebra and geometry." Elinor Ostrom

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More:
::: Elinor Ostrom's Prize Lecture, 8 December 2009 (37 pages): Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems
::: Elinor Ostrom (29 pages): Understanding Institutional Diversity

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photograph via

Beef & Country of Origin Effect

The country of origin effect refers to consumers' bias against imports due to ethnocentrism ("tendency of giving the superior value to things from one's own group and rejecting those of the outgroups") or patriotism tendency. The bias, however, can also be reversed and refer to a favourable image improving the evaluation and increasing the acceptance of foreign imports. Country of origin image, i.e., consumers' perception about a country's people, development standards and the general quality of products can enhance preferences for imports.
The country of origin label is a very particular label that implies more than just the information where the product comes from. It can also provide information on food safety as regulations differ from country to country (British consumers, for instance, prefer beef not treated with hormones and may be reluctant to buy beef from countries where cattle is given growth hormones). For ethnocentric, patriotic consumers with national pride, the label symbolises "the appropriateness, indeed morality, of purchasing foreign-made products". The country of origin label has a strong effect on highly patriotic consumers which is also the reason why the label is sometimes discussed as a "barrier to trade" (Meas, 2014).



According to various studies, consumers prefer domestic beef across EU member states and are willing to pay higher prices. The UK is one of the largest beef importing countries in the EU and British consumers show a clear preference for domestic versus imported beef - in general. In particular, stronger preference against imports is found among consumers with patriotic sentiment toward their home country. And, the better the country of origin image, the more likely consumers are to choose imported beef (Meas, 2014).



- Meas, T. (2014). The effects of country of origin image and patriotism on consumer preference for domestic versus imported beef. Kentucky: Thesis
- photographs (Glyndebourne, 1967 and A Day at Richmond Park, 1967) by Tony Ray-Jones (1941-1972) via and via

"For me there is something very special and rather humorous about the English way of life and I wish to record it from my particular point of view before it becomes more Americanised". Tony Ray-Jones

The neglected 95%

"The vast majority of [American] psychologists and their students have extremely limited knowledge concerning the work of their international counterparts. In contrast to other disciplines, psychology is a rather provincial discipline dominated by the United States.”
Denmark (1998)

Psychology, the study of human behaviour, cognition, development, and relationships, produces research findings that usually - at least implicitly - apply to the entire human population. Hence, results are often regarded as representative and are generalised. According to Arnett's analysis of articles published in six premier APA (American Psychological Assocation) journals, however, US-American psychology is not based on "diverse sectors of the human population" but on a small sector, i.e. primarily people living in the US. On a global scale, concentrating on US-Americans means focusing on about 5% of the world's population and neglecting the other 95% (Arnett, 2008).



Henrich et al. come to similar conclusions and say that research findings about human behaviour are often based on WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic) samples – usually US-American undergraduates "who form the bulk of the database" in behavioural sciences. According to an analysis of top journals (2003-2007), 96% of the subjects are from Western industrialised countries, 68% come from the US, 99% of first authors are at Western universities, 73% at US-American universities. In other words, 96% of psychological samples come from countries with 12% of the world’s population. Interpretations, however, are not confined to these populations. WEIRD people are regarded as "standard subjects", as prototypes that are representative of other populations allowing generalisations.



Henrich et al. argue that it is WEIRD people in particular, who are rather unusual compared with others and call them part of "the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans" and a "thin, and rather unusual, slice of humanity". The domains the authors reviewed include self-concepts, fairness, cooperation, reasoning styles (analytic vs. holistic), moral reasoning, categorisation, inferential induction, spatial reasoning, the heritability of IQ, and visual perception. Visual perception, for instance, was compared on the basis of the Müller-Lyer illusion. Different populations showed different results, US-American undergraduates anchored an extreme end of the distribution while others were unaffected by the illusion (which in fact was no illusion to them).



Malick Sidibé is a Malian photographer, probably the country's most celebrated one and recipient of the Hasselblad Award, the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale and the ICP award for lifetime achievement (via). In 1960, Mali gained independence, two years later he launched "Studio Malick". His photographs were taken at a "key moment in West African history". Sidibé photographed his people with their new watches, handbags or socks from French prestigious labels; he captured the transformation into post-colonial Bamako. His photographs also captured Bamako's nightlife. This step towards documentary work was a big one since West African photography had until then been the domain of Europeans (via).

"If Malick Sidibé's images emanate so much power, it is because beyond the convivial and careless atmosphere he also illustrates the difficulty of having to adapt to life in the city. The confrontation with unemployment and alcohol, the irresistible desire to be like young whites. The pictures reflect the artist: convivial, intimate and yet not voyeuristic, they tell of a great complicity between the artist and his subjects. Like that other photographer Keita, Sidibé too has had to wait until the nineties to get recognition outside his own country." (via)

The second part of this posting (on WEIRD) was originally posted on Science on Google+ on 13 December 2014





- Arnett, J. J. (2008) The Neglected 95%. Why American Psychology Needs to Become Less American. American Psychologist, 63(7), 602-614
- Henrich, J., Heine, S. J. & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 61-135
- photographs by Malick Sidibé via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via