From game theory to real life: How social value orientation affects willingness to sacrifice in ongoing close relationships.

This research adopted an interdependence analysis of sacrifice, examining the link between commitment (i.e., the subjective experience of dependence and long-term orientation) and willingness to sacrifice in ongoing close relationships, and determining whether this link is moderated by preexisting individual differences in social value orientation (i.e., prosocial, individualistic, or competitive orientation). Consistent with hypotheses, results of 2 studies revealed both that willingness to sacrifice was associated with greater commitment and that this link was more pronounced among individualists than among prosocials. Results also revealed an association between one's own willingness to sacrifice and beliefs regarding the partner's willingness to sacrifice (this link was somewhat more pronounced among prosocials than among individualists) and one's own willingness to sacrifice and actual partner's willingness to sacrifice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modelling lung cancer due to radon and smoking in WISMUT miners: preliminary results

A mechanistic two-stage carcinogenesis model has been applied to model lung-cancer mortality in the largest uranium-miner cohort available. Models with and without smoking action both fit the data well. As smoking information is largely missing from the cohort data, a method has been devised to project this information from a case-control study onto the cohort. Model calculations using 256 projections show that the method works well. Preliminary results show that if an explicit smoking action is absent in the model, this is compensated by the values of the baseline parameters. This indicates that in earlier studies performed without smoking information, the results obtained for the radiation parameters are still valid. More importantly, the inclusion of smoking-related parameters shows that these mainly influence the later stages of lung-cancer development.     

Voice in political decision-making: The effect of group voice on perceived trustworthiness of decision makers and subsequent acceptance of decisions.

The implementation of carbon dioxide capture and storage technology (CCS) is considered an important climate change mitigation strategy, but the viability of this technology will depend on public acceptance of CCS policy decisions. The results of three experiments with students as participants show that whether or not interest groups receive an opportunity to express their opinions in the decision-making process (i.e., group voice) affects acceptance of CCS policy decisions, with inferred trustworthiness of the decision maker mediating this effect. Decision-making procedures providing different interest groups with equal opportunities to voice their opinions instigate more trust in the decision maker and, in turn, lead to greater willingness to accept decisions compared to no-voice procedures (i.e., unilateral decision-making—Study 1) and unequal group-voice procedures (i.e., when one type of interest group receives voice, but another type of interest group does not—Study 2). Study 3 further shows that an individual's own level of knowledge about CCS moderates the desire for an opportunity for members of the general public to voice opinions in the decision-making process, inferred trustworthiness of decision makers, and policy acceptance. These results imply that people care about voice in decision-making even when they are not directly personally involved in the decision-making process. We conclude that people tend to use procedural information when deciding to accept or oppose policy decisions on political complex issues; hence, it is important that policymakers use fair group-voice procedures and that they communicate to the public how they arrive at their decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modelling breast cancer in a TB fluoroscopy cohort: implications for the Dutch mammography screening

Breast cancer incidence in a tuberculosis fluoroscopy cohort has been modelled with a two-stage carcinogenesis model. The relatively simple model, in which hormonal influences only affect the number of sensitive target cells, fits the data very well. Under the assumption that individual hormonal differences average out, and with a relative biological effectiveness for mammographic X rays of 1, the model yields ～10 fatal breast cancer cases induced by the entire Dutch screening programme over a period of 25 y. This is much lower than derived from standard ICRP risk estimates and should be compared with the number of lives saved, which is estimated at ～350 y(-1). As the extent of screening is currently being reconsidered in The Netherlands and elsewhere, this is an important result.