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Scholarly work, from varied disciplines, on topics that interest us, and might interest you.
How do we choose our food?
It seems nowadays everyone has an opinion on the right way to eat, and the right way to plan a diet. The modern diet – both in terms of content and quantity – is considered to be directed by a person's choice between health-related and appearance-related goals on the one hand, and short-term pleasure-based motivations on the other. Is this really how we choose our food? And is this really what directs the quantities we consume? Various studies have been undertaken to determine just what factors influence the food decision-making process. One line of research commonly examines the relative influence of the 'usual suspects': food quality, freshness, price, taste, health, convenience, familiarity, age, sex, education, income – a long list of largely rational factors (the exception is perhaps mood). However, this line of research is NOT the focus of the following list.
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Tagged: food, health, psychology, economics, consumerism, diet Border Control
The issue of the controlling of borders between countries, as it pertains to the unauthorized movement of people between two given territories, has gained much popularity in the academic writing of the last 15 years or so, and specifically in the 2010s. As such it mirrors a growing interest in this topic within political circles, the media and the general public, particularly within wealthy nations. While some of the texts written on the subject deal with technical issues of control and surveillance (including health related issues), most of them tend to focus on the human factor. That is, on the motivations to control the borders, on the history of this control, on its desired and unwanted effects, on its moral and legal justifications, and on the status of this control. Given that the issue of border control has become such a politically charged one, and draws much attention in elections times, the sources in the list below, and many more that weren't included, can be used to make the debate about border control much more intelligible.
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Tagged: crime, cinema, economics, policy, government, nationalism, morality, Latino, Muslim The Economics of Cannabis
The issue of marijuana legalization is being hotly debated around the world. While questions of ethics, health, and social order are all part of this debate, the economics of this "cash crop" surpasses them all in the attention that it attracts. The stakeholders are numerous, and while some stand to gain, some stand to lose. How will legalization affect financial institutions? Will consumers experience a decrease in prices? Will taxpayers benefit from lower spending on law enforcement? Will government win big from tax revenues? Will employers lose out over lost productivity? Will social services expenditures rise due to increasing drug abuse cases?
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Tagged: crime, drugs, economics, policy, legalization, government Psychopathy vs. Sociopathy
The debate whether psychopaths and sociopaths constitute distinct antisocial personality disorders has been ongoing for some 200 years. The common denominator that seems to be agreed upon is a propensity for deviant behavior and a lack of empathy. Opinions diverge on if and how these constructs differ or overlap. One may ask, does the debate in fact bear any relevance, or is it the mere manifestation of academic quibbling over terminology.
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Tagged: crime, antisocial, personality disorder, psychology, DSM, diagnosis
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