„Mönch und Jungfrau“ Eine Diskurs- und Dispositivanalyse zur medialen Konstruktion abweichender Geschlechtlichkeit der südafrikanischen 800 Meterläuferin Caster Semenya

Einleitung Die mediale Debatte um das Geschlecht der südafrikanischen 800 Meterläuferin Casta Semenya entbrannte in dem Moment, in dem die Athletin im Finale der Leichtathletik Weltmeisterschaften in Berlin am 19. August 2009 als erste über die Ziellinie lief. Ihr Sieg war begleitet von vielseitig öffentlich geäusserten Zweifeln an ihrer Zuordnung zur weiblichen Geschlechterkategorie. und damit ihrem Recht, mit Frauen in sportlichen Wettstreit zu treten. Die International Association of Athletics Federations (IAFF) forderte für die Anerkennung der gewonnen Goldmedaille einen sogenannten Geschlechtertest (gender verification test). Theorie, Fragestellung und Methode Aus sozialkonstruktivistischer (Berger & Luckmann) poststrukturalistischer (Foucault) sowie gender und postkolonialer (Butler; Hall; Spivak) Perspektive, wird durch den diskursanalytischen Ansatz (Jäger) aufgezeigt, wie eine mögliche Intersexualität der nicht weissen, südafrikanischen Läufer_in Casta Semenya im hegemonialen Diskurs deutsch-schweizerischer Printmedien verhandelt wurde. Eine zentrale Fragestellung ist, wie der Körper als deviant konstruiert wurde und welche Diskursverschränkungen eine Pluralisierung und Diversifizierung hätten nahelegen können, jedoch zu der gänzlichen Infragestellung des als abweichend rezipierten Körpers und seiner legitimen Existenz im leistungssportlichen Kontext führte. Im Zusammenhang mit der Fragestellung werden empirisch Befunde zu intersektioneller Überlagerungen der Differenzkategorien, Geschlecht, Ethnizität und Sexualität vorgestellt. Ergebnisse und Diskussion In der abschliessenden Diskussion wird durch eine theoriegeleitete Kontextualisierung aufgezeigt, wie die verschränkten Kategorien Geschlecht, Ethnizität und Sexualität den nicht weissen, Körper als spektakulär Anderen konstituierten (Gilman). Am Beispiel des vielfältig verschränkten Diskurses zu Casta Semenya wird in Rückbezug auf postkoloniale Theorien gezeigt, wie an hegemonialen westlichen Normen eines weissen weiblichen Sportkörpers das „Othering“ des vermeintlich devianten Körper vollzogen wird (Coleman-Bell; Hall). Deutlich wird am Ende, dass nicht nur das binäre, geschlechterdifferenzierende Modell des Sports im Diskurs rekonsolidiert wurde, sondern vor allem auch die Postulate der Natürlichkeit, Fairness und Chancengleichheit des Leistungssports.

„Mönch und Jungfrau“. Eine Diskurs- und Dispositivanalyse zur medialen Konstruktion abweichender Geschlechtlichkeit der südafrikanischen 800 Meterläuferin Caster Semenya

Einleitung: Die mediale Debatte um das Geschlecht der südafrikanischen 800 Meterläuferin Casta Semenya entbrannte in dem Moment, in dem die Athletin im Finale der Leichtathletik Weltmeisterschaften in Berlin am 19. August 2009 als erste über die Ziellinie lief. Ihr Sieg war begleitet von vielseitig öffentlich geäusserten Zweifeln an ihrer Zuordnung zur weiblichen Geschlechterkategorie. und damit ihrem Recht, mit Frauen in sportlichen Wettstreit zu treten. Die International Association of Athletics Federations (IAFF) forderte für die Anerkennung der gewonnen Goldmedaille einen sogenannten Geschlechtertest (gender verification test). Theorie, Fragestellung und Methode Aus sozialkonstruktivistischer (Berger & Luckmann) poststrukturalistischer (Foucault) sowie gender und postkolonialer (Butler; Hall; Spivak) Perspektive, wird durch den diskursanalytischen Ansatz (Jäger) aufgezeigt, wie eine mögliche Intersexualität der nicht weissen, südafrikanischen Läufer_in Casta Semenya im hegemonialen Diskurs deutsch-schweizerischer Printmedien verhandelt wurde. Eine zentrale Fragestellung ist, wie der Körper als deviant konstruiert wurde und welche Diskursverschränkungen eine Pluralisierung und Diversifizierung hätten nahelegen können, jedoch zu der gänzlichen Infragestellung des als abweichend rezipierten Körpers und seiner legitimen Existenz im leistungssportlichen Kontext führte. Im Zusammenhang mit der Fragestellung werden empirisch Befunde zu intersektioneller Überlagerungen der Differenzkategorien, Geschlecht, Ethnizität und Sexualität vorgestellt. Ergebnisse und Diskussion In der abschliessenden Diskussion wird durch eine theoriegeleitete Kontextualisierung aufgezeigt, wie die verschränkten Kategorien Geschlecht, Ethnizität und Sexualität den nicht weissen, Körper als spektakulär Anderen konstituierten (Gilman). Am Beispiel des vielfältig verschränkten Diskurses zu Casta Semenya wird in Rückbezug auf postkoloniale Theorien gezeigt, wie an hegemonialen westlichen Normen eines weissen weiblichen Sportkörpers das „Othering“ des vermeintlich devianten Körper vollzogen wird (Coleman-Bell; Hall). Deutlich wird am Ende, dass nicht nur das binäre, geschlechterdifferenzierende Modell des Sports im Diskurs rekonsolidiert wurde, sondern vor allem auch die Postulate der Natürlichkeit, Fairness und Chancengleichheit des Leistungssports.

Impartiality in humans is predicted by brain structure of dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.

The moral force of impartiality (i.e. the equal treatment of all human beings) is imperative for providing justice and fairness. Yet, in reality many people become partial during intergroup interactions; they demonstrate a preferential treatment of ingroup members and a discriminatory treatment of outgroup members. Some people, however, do not show this intergroup bias. The underlying sources of these inter-individual differences are poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that the larger the gray matter volume and thickness of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), the more individuals in the role of an uninvolved third-party impartially punish outgroup and ingroup perpetrators. Moreover, we show evidence for a possible mechanism that explains the impact of DMPFC's gray matter volume on impartiality, namely perspective-taking. Large gray matter volume of DMPFC seems to facilitate equal perspective-taking of all sides, which in turn leads to impartial behavior. This is the first evidence demonstrating that brain structure of the DMPFC constitutes an important source underlying an individual's propensity for impartiality.

Dorsolateral and ventromedial prefrontal cortex orchestrate normative choice.

Humans are noted for their capacity to over-ride self-interest in favor of normatively valued goals. We examined the neural circuitry that is causally involved in normative, fairness-related decisions by generating a temporarily diminished capacity for costly normative behavior, a 'deviant' case, through non-invasive brain stimulation (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation) and compared normal subjects' functional magnetic resonance imaging signals with those of the deviant subjects. When fairness and economic self-interest were in conflict, normal subjects (who make costly normative decisions at a much higher frequency) displayed significantly higher activity in, and connectivity between, the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the posterior ventromedial prefrontal cortex (pVMPFC). In contrast, when there was no conflict between fairness and economic self-interest, both types of subjects displayed identical neural patterns and behaved identically. These findings suggest that a parsimonious prefrontal network, the activation of right DLPFC and pVMPFC, and the connectivity between them, facilitates subjects' willingness to incur the cost of normative decisions.

Ökonomie und Gesundheit: Was darf uns unsere Gesundheit kosten?

Der Sammelband ist die Frucht des von der UFL im November 2013 in Triesen FL veranstalteten Symposiums «Gesundheitsrecht am Puls der Zeit». Die Beiträge widmen sich der Gesundheitsversorgung und ihren Kosten aus dem Blickwinkel verschiedener Disziplinen. Aus der Warte von Gesundheitsökonomie, Ethik, Medizin und Recht setzen sich die Autorinnen und Autoren unter anderem mit medizinischen und pflegerischen Leistungen, dem Zugang zu teuren Medikamenten bei seltenen Krankheiten, den Folgen von krankheitsbedingten Absenzen am Arbeitsplatz und den Anreizen, denen die mit der Behandlung von kranken, behinderten und betagten Menschen beschäftigten Fachleute ausgesetzt sind, auseinander. Im Vordergrund dieser Betrachtungen zu Qualität, Fairness und Wirtschaftlichkeit des Gesundheitssystems, der Zusammenarbeit verschiedener Leistungserbringer vor, während und nach einer Behandlung im Spital sowie des betrieblichen Gesundheitsmanagements stehen Beispiele aus Liechtenstein und aus der Schweiz.

Dopaminergic stimulation increases selfish behavior in the absence of punishment threat.

RATIONALE People often face decisions that pit self-interested behavior aimed at maximizing personal reward against normative behavior such as acting cooperatively, which benefits others. The threat of social sanctions for defying the fairness norm prevents people from behaving overly selfish. Thus, normative behavior is influenced by both seeking rewards and avoiding punishment. However, the neurochemical processes mediating the impact of these influences remain unknown. Several lines of evidence link the dopaminergic system to reward and punishment processing, respectively, but this evidence stems from studies in non-social contexts. OBJECTIVES The present study investigates dopaminergic drug effects on individuals' reward seeking and punishment avoidance in social interaction. METHODS Two-hundred one healthy male participants were randomly assigned to receive 300 mg of L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) or a placebo before playing an economic bargaining game. This game involved two conditions, one in which unfair behavior could be punished and one in which unfair behavior could not be punished. RESULTS In the absence of punishment threats, L-DOPA administration led to more selfish behavior, likely mediated through an increase in reward seeking. In contrast, L-DOPA administration had no significant effect on behavior when faced with punishment threats. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study broaden the role of the dopaminergic system in reward seeking to human social interactions. We could show that even a single dose of a dopaminergic drug may bring selfish behavior to the fore, which in turn may shed new light on potential causal relationships between the dopaminergic system and norm abiding behaviors in certain clinical subpopulations.

Disrupting the prefrontal cortex diminishes the human ability to build a good reputation.

Reputation formation pervades human social life. In fact, many people go to great lengths to acquire a good reputation, even though building a good reputation is costly in many cases. Little is known about the neural underpinnings of this important social mechanism, however. In the present study, we show that disruption of the right, but not the left, lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) with low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) diminishes subjects' ability to build a favorable reputation. This effect occurs even though subjects' ability to behave altruistically in the absence of reputation incentives remains intact, and even though they are still able to recognize both the fairness standards necessary for acquiring and the future benefits of a good reputation. Thus, subjects with a disrupted right lateral PFC no longer seem to be able to resist the temptation to defect, even though they know that this has detrimental effects on their future reputation. This suggests an important dissociation between the knowledge about one's own best interests and the ability to act accordingly in social contexts. These results link findings on the neural underpinnings of self-control and temptation with the study of human social behavior, and they may help explain why reputation formation remains less prominent in most other species with less developed prefrontal cortices.

The effect of superiors' exogenous constraints on budget negotiations

In a world characterized by increasing pressure from financial and product markets, the question of how exogenous constraints affect internal coordination and control processes has become increasingly important. This experiment investigates how two exogenous constraints that superiors can face in budget negotiation settings, increased opportunity costs and financial pressure to meet unit targets, affect budget negotiations and subordinate effort. The results show that both constraints induce more cooperation, but in different ways. Financial pressure on the superior leads to more cooperative negotiation behavior by superiors and subordinates than increased opportunity costs. Specifically, subordinates do not take advantage of the superior's increased financial pressure to enforce lower budgets. After negotiation, both constraints strongly mitigate the negative effects of superior budget imposition on subordinate effort because exogenous constraints eliminate the effect of procedural fairness considerations on subordinate effort.

Essays on behavioral aspects of the design and disclosure of compensation contracts

This thesis consists of four essays on the design and disclosure of compensation contracts. Essays 1, 2 and 3 focus on behavioral aspects of mandatory compensation disclosure rules and of contract negotiations in agency relationships. The three experimental studies develop psychology- based theory and present results that deviate from standard economic predictions. Furthermore, the results of Essay 1 and 2 also have implications for firms’ discretion in how to communicate their top management’s incentives to the capital market. Essay 4 analyzes the role of fairness perceptions for the evaluation of executive compensation. For this purpose, two surveys targeting representative eligible voters as well as investment professionals were conducted. Essay 1 investigates the role of the detailed ‘Compensation Discussion and Analysis’, which is part of the Security and Exchange Commission’s 2006 regulation, on investors’ evaluations of executive performance. Compensation disclosure complying with this regulation clarifies the relationship between realized reported compensation and the underlying performance measures and their target achievement levels. The experimental findings suggest that the salient presentation of executives’ incentives inherent in the ‘Compensation Discussion and Analysis’ makes investors’ performance evaluations less outcome dependent. Therefore, investors’ judgment and investment decisions might be less affected by noisy environmental factors that drive financial performance. The results also suggest that fairness perceptions of compensation contracts are essential for investors’ performance evaluations in that more transparent disclosure increases the perceived fairness of compensation and the performance evaluation of managers who are not responsible for a bad financial performance. These results have important practical implications as firms might choose to communicate their top management’s incentive compensation more transparently in order to benefit from less volatile expectations about their future performance. Similar to the first experiment, the experiment described in Essay 2 addresses the question of more transparent compensation disclosure. However, other than the first experiment, the second experiment does not analyze the effect of a more salient presentation of contract information but the informational effect of contract information itself. For this purpose, the experiment tests two conditions in which the assessment of the compensation contracts’ incentive compatibility, which determines executive effort, is either possible or not. On the one hand, the results suggest that the quality of investors’ expectations about executive effort is improved, but on the other hand investors might over-adjust their prior expectations about executive effort if being confronted with an unexpected financial performance and under-adjust if the financial performance confirms their prior expectations. Therefore, in the experiment, more transparent compensation disclosure does not lead to more correct overall judgments of executive effort and to even lower processing quality of outcome information. These results add to the literature on disclosure which predominantly advocates more transparency. The findings of the experiment however, identify decreased information processing quality as a relevant disclosure cost category. Firms might therefore carefully evaluate the additional costs and benefits of more transparent compensation disclosure. Together with the results from the experiment in Essay 1, the two experiments on compensation disclosure imply that firms should rather focus on their discretion how to present their compensation disclosure to benefit from investors’ improved fairness perceptions and their spill-over on performance evaluation. Essay 3 studies the behavioral effects of contextual factors in recruitment processes that do not affect the employer’s or the applicant’s bargaining power from a standard economic perspective. In particular, the experiment studies two common characteristics of recruitment processes: Pre-contractual competition among job applicants and job applicants’ non-binding effort announcements as they might be made during job interviews. Despite the standard economic irrelevance of these factors, the experiment develops theory regarding the behavioral effects on employees’ subsequent effort provision and the employers’ contract design choices. The experimental findings largely support the predictions. More specifically, the results suggest that firms can benefit from increased effort and, therefore, may generate higher profits. Further, firms may seize a larger share of the employment relationship’s profit by highlighting the competitive aspects of the recruitment process and by requiring applicants to make announcements about their future effort. Finally, Essay 4 studies the role of fairness perceptions for the public evaluation of executive compensation. Although economic criteria for the design of incentive compensation generally do not make restrictive recommendations with regard to the amount of compensation, fairness perceptions might be relevant from the perspective of firms and standard setters. This is because behavioral theory has identified fairness as an important determinant of individuals’ judgment and decisions. However, although fairness concerns about executive compensation are often stated in the popular media and even in the literature, evidence on the meaning of fairness in the context of executive compensation is scarce and ambiguous. In order to inform practitioners and standard setters whether fairness concerns are exclusive to non-professionals or relevant for investment professionals as well, the two surveys presented in Essay 4 aim to find commonalities in the opinions of representative eligible voters and investments professionals. The results suggest that fairness is an important criterion for both groups. Especially, exposure to risk in the form of the variable compensation share is an important criterion shared by both groups. The higher the assumed variable share, the higher is the compensation amount to be perceived as fair. However, to a large extent, opinions on executive compensation depend on personality characteristics, and to some extent, investment professionals’ perceptions deviate systematically from those of non-professionals. The findings imply that firms might benefit from emphasizing the riskiness of their managers’ variable pay components and, therefore, the findings are also in line with those of Essay 1.

Promoting gender-fair language: The impact of arguments on language use, attitudes, and cognitions

The present research investigates whether arguments encourage speakers to use and to approve of gender-fair language. We collected and pretested arguments regarding gender-fair language and masculine generics and created four messages which supported either gender-fair usage or masculine generics (strong and weak arguments) as well as two control texts. Results showed that speakers changed their language behavior more in the direction of gender-fairness when they had been exposed to arguments for gender-fair language than after control texts. We did not find any effect of arguments promoting masculine generics and no effect on cognitive responses and attitudes. Taken together, these results show that arguments promoting gender-fair language can motivate speakers to use gender-fair wording, a new and important finding in the context of implementing gender equality in language.

Trust, Competition and Cooperation in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Objective: Impaired social interactions and repetitive behavior are key features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the present study we compared social decision-making in subjects with and without ASD. Subjects performed five social decision-making games in order to assess trust, fairness, cooperation & competition behavior and social value orientation. Methods: 19 adults with autism spectrum disorder and 17 controls, matched for age and education, participated in the study. Each subject performed five social decision-making tasks. In the trust game, subjects could maximize their gain by sharing some of their money with another person. In the punishment game, subjects played two versions of the Dictator’s Dilemma. In the dictator condition they could share an amount of 0-100 points with another person. In the punishment condition, the opponent was able to punish the subject if he/she was not satisfied with the amount of points received. In the cooperation game, subjects played with a small group of 3 people. Each of them could (anonymously) select an amount of 5, 7.5 or 10 Swiss francs. The goal of the game was to achieve a high group minimum. In the competition game, subjects performed a dexterity task. Before performing the task, they were asked whether they wanted to compete (winner takes it all) or cooperation (sharing the joint achieved amount of points) with a randomly selected person. Lastly, subjects performed a social value orientation task where they were playing for themselves and for another person. Results: There was no overall difference between healthy controls an ASD subjects in investment in the trust game. However, healthy controls increased their investment over number of trials whereas ASD subjects did not. A similar pattern was found for the punishment game. Furthermore, ASD subjects revealed a decreased investment in the dictator condition of the punishment game. There were no mean differences in competition behavior and social value orientation. Conclusions: The results provide evidence for differences between ASD subjects and healthy controls in social decision-making. Subjects with ASD showed a more consistent behavior than healthy controls in the trust game and the dictator dilemma. The present findings provide evidence for impaired social learning in ASD.

Schnell, aber fair? - Kritische Analyse des Entwurfs der „Testphasenverordnung“

Die Testphasenverordnung bildet die rechtliche Grundlage des Versuchs der Neustrukturierung des Asylverfahrens in der Schweiz und hat sich somit an deren Zielvorgaben zu messen. Aus diesem Grund wird in diesem Artikel die Frage untersucht, ob das Ziel der Effizienz unter gleichzeitiger Wahrung der Fairness im Asylverfahren durch das aktuelle Umsetzungsvorhaben erreicht wird. Nach einer Darstellung der geplanten Verfahrensabläufe werden zuerst die der Beschleunigung dienenden Bestimmungen der Testphasenverordnung dargestellt und kommentiert, danach diejenigen welche der Fairness und Rechtsstaatlichkeit dienen sollen. Im Ausblick werden weitere Fragen aufgeworfen und es wird versucht eine Einschätzung zu geben, ob das für die Testphase vorgesehene Verfahren geeignet ist, die Glaubwürdigkeit des Asylsystems zu fördern.

Subtile und direkte Mechanismen der sozialen Konstruktion von Geschlecht in Schulbüchern. Vorstellung eines Kategoriensystems zur Analyse der Geschlechter(un)gerechtigkeit von Texten und Bildern

Ausgehend von der Frauenbewegung in Deutschland wurden bereits vor über 40 Jahren erste Analysen zur Darstellung der Geschlechter in Schulbüchern vorgelegt. Sie haben gezeigt, dass weibliche Charaktere im Vergleich zu männlichen seltener und oft in geschlechterstereotypen Rollen dargestellt werden. Heute besteht auf gesellschaftlicher Ebene deutlich mehr Geschlechtergerechtigkeit, dennoch existieren nach wie vor subtile Formen von Diskriminierung in Schulbüchern. Der vorliegende Beitrag dokumentiert die Entwicklung eines Kategoriensystems, das geeignet ist, das Ausmaß von Geschlechter(un)gerechtigkeit in Texten und Bildern aus aktuell in deutschen Schulen verwendeten Deutsch- und Mathematikbüchern zu analysieren. Neben den Häufigkeiten der Darstellungen von weiblichen und männlichen Charakteren und der Geschlechtstypizität ihrer Rollen und Aktivitäten können hiermit zwei subtile Mechanismen der Herstellung von Geschlechterungleichheiten untersucht werden: geschlechter(un)gerechte Sprache und die räumliche Darstellung weiblicher und männlicher Charaktere. Erste Ergebnisse der Anwendung des Kategoriensystems für Deutsch- und Mathematikbücher werden in der Diskussion dargestellt.

Does gender-fair language pay off? The social perception of professions from a cross-linguistic perspective

In many languages, masculine forms (e.g., German Lehrer, “teachers, masc.”) have traditionally been used to refer to both women and men, although feminine forms are available, too. Feminine-masculine word pairs (e.g., German Lehrerinnen und Lehrer, “teachers, fem. and teachers, masc.”) are recommended as gender-fair alternatives. A large body of empirical research documents that the use of gender-fair forms instead of masculine forms has a substantial impact on mental representations. Masculine forms activate more male representations even when used in a generic sense, whereas word pairs (e.g., German Lehrerinnen und Lehrer, “teachers, fem. and teachers, masc.”) lead to a higher cognitive inclusion of women (i.e., visibility of women). Some recent studies, however, have also shown that in a professional context word pairs may be associated with lesser status. The present research is the first to investigate both effects within a single paradigm. A cross-linguistic (Italian and German) study with 391 participants shows that word pairs help to avoid a male bias in the gender-typing of professions and increase women's visibility; at the same time, they decrease the estimated salaries of typically feminine professions (but do not affect perceived social status or competence). This potential payoff has implications for language policies aiming at gender-fairness.

Penalty Enhancement for Hate Crimes: An Economic Analysis

The issue of bias-motivated crimes has attracted consderable attention in recent years. In this paper, we develop an economic framework to analyze penalty enhancements for bias-motivated crimes. We extend the standard model by introducing two different groups of potential victims of crime, and assume that a potential offender's benefits from a crime depend on the group to which the victim belongs. We begin with the assumption that the harm to an individual victim from a bias-motivated crime is identical to that from an equivalent non-hate crime. Nonetheless, we derive the result that a pattern of crimes disproportionately targeting an identifiable group leads to greater social harm. This conclusion follows both from a model where disparities in groups' victimization probabilities lead to social losses due to fairness concerns, as well as a model where potential victims have the opportunity to undertake socially costly victimization avoidance activities. In particular, penalty enhancements can reduce the incentives for avoidance activity, and thereby protect the networks of profitable interactions that link members of different groups. We also argue that those groups that are covered by hate crime statutes tend to be those whose characteristics make it especially likely that penalty enhancement is socially optimal. Finally, we consider a number of other issues related to hate crimes, including teh choice of sanctions from behind a Rawlsian 'veil of ignorance' concerning group identity.