Rich and famous: recognition-based judgment in the Sunday Times rich list

Recognition as a cue to judgment in a novel, multi-option domain (the Sunday Times Rich List) is explored. As in previous studies, participants were found to make use of name recognition as a cue to the presumed wealth of individuals. Names that were recognized were judged to be the richest name from amongst the set presented at above chance levels. This effect persisted across situations in which more than one name was recognized; recognition was used as an inclusion criterion for the sub-set of names to be considered the richest of the set presented. However, when the question was reversed, and a “poorest” judgment was required, use of recognition as an exclusion criterion was observed only when a single name was recognized. Reaction times when making these judgments also show a distinction between “richest” and “poorest” questions with recognition of none of the options taking the longest time to judge in the “richest” question condition and full recognition of all the names presented taking longest to judge in the “poorest” question condition. Implications for decision-making using simple heuristics are discussed.

Construction impossible et défense improbable : la tour du roi Vertigier dans l'Historia Brittonum de Nennius, l'Historia Regum Britanniae de Geoffroy de Monmouth, le Brut de Wace et le Merlin de Robert de Boron

La question architecturale de l'impossibilité de l'usurpateur Vertigier à construire sa tour se double d'une réflexion politique et morale déterminante. La tour branlante est en effet à l'image du royaume déchiré de Grande Bretagne : elle emblématise l'instabilité politique et les affrontements militaires qui déterminent l'ascension illégitime puis la chute de ce mauvais roi.

Addition of different fats to a carbohydrate food: impact on gastric emptying, glycaemic and satiety responses and comparison with in vitro digestion

In vitro, the addition of lipids to a carbohydrate food has been found to increase the digestibility of starch. In contrast, in vivo studies have shown that the addition of fat to a food can reduce the glycaemic response (GR). The aim of this study was to assess if delayed gastric emptying (GE) causes reduced GR with the addition of lipids to a carbohydrate food and if a relationship between GR and in vitro digestion of starch exists for high fat foods. Ten healthy volunteers were tested on five occasions after consuming pancakes containing 50 g of available carbohydrate and 202 kcal of sunflower oil, olive oil, butter, medium chain triglyceride (MCT) oil or a control containing no oil. GR was measured using fingerpick blood samples, satiety using visual analogue scales and GE using the 13C octanoic acid breath test. There was a significant difference in GR between the different pancake breakfasts (p = 0.05). The highest GR was observed following the control pancakes and the lowest following the olive oil pancakes. There were significant differences in GE half time, lag phase and ascension time (p < 0.05) between the different pancakes with the control pancakes having the shortest GE time and the MCT pancakes the longest. There was a significant difference in satiety parameters fullness (p = 0.003) and prospective consumption (p = 0.050), with satiety being lowest following the control pancakes. There was a significant inverse correlation between the GR and all satiety parameters. A significant inverse correlation (p = 0.009) was also observed between the digestibility of starch in vitro and GR in vivo. The paper indicates that the digestibility of starch in vitro does not predict the GR for high fat containing foods

Within - versus between - country differences in risk attitudes: implications for cultural comparisons

Cultural comparisons enjoy increasing popularity in economics. Since cultural comparison must abandon random allocation to treatments, it is unclear whether differences found between countries can be attributed to country characteristics or are merely driven by differences in subject pools. In experiments in two Chinese cities and at two campuses in Ethiopia, we show that within-country differences are negligible. Differences between the two countries, on the other hand, are large.