DYSFUNCTIONAL CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR – A REVIEW OF RESEARCH FINDINGS

Market changes in consumer behavior can take a desirable, positive form and be accepted by other market participants, or they can be contrary to accepted social norms. According to Fullerton and Punj [1998] such behavior is the great paradox of modern consumer culture. Dysfunctional consumer behavior has become an inherent part of modern consumer behavior. The purpose of this paper is to review the results of research on dysfunctional consumer behavior based on selected scientific publications. The presentation of research topics and results will be made in two separate parts. The first part concerns the dysfunctional behaviors of customers, i.e. the way they are presented in the literature and the factors determining such behavior. The second part includes a review of research results concerning the broadly understood consequences of dysfunctional customer behavior.

The Golden Rule as a Paradigm for Fostering Prosocial Behavior With Virtual Reality

The Golden Rule of ethics in its negative form states that you should not do to others what you would not want others to do to you, and in its positive form states that you should do to others as you would want them to do to you. The Golden Rule is an ethical principle, but in virtual reality (VR), it can also be thought of as a paradigm for the promotion of prosocial behavior. This is because in VR, you can directly experience harm that you inflicted or were complicit in inflicting from the embodied perspective of the victim. This use of what we refer to as the Golden Rule Embodiment Paradigm (GREP) relies on participants in VR having the illusion of body ownership over a virtual body. In this article, we introduce virtual embodiment and the consequent illusion of ownership over the virtual body, and describe how this phenomenon has been utilized to influence implicit attitudes. We then introduce the GREP and give examples of studies in which it enhanced helping behavior.

Morality from Compassion

According to Arthur Schopenhauer, compassion is the basis of morality. He sees concern for justice as a negative form of compassion, directed at not harming anyone, as opposed to the more far-reaching, positive form of benefiting. He thinks a higher degree of compassion involves realizing that the spatio-temporal separation of individuals is illusory and that in reality they are all identical. Such compassion is impartial and all-encompassing. Compassion is suited to be the centre of morality because its object are negative feelings, and only these are real. Contrary to these Schopenhauerian claims, it is here argued that compassion must be supplemented with attitudes like sympathy and benevolence because positive feelings exist alongside negative feelings; that a concern for justice, though morally essential, is independent of these attitudes which are based on empathy; that these attitudes involve not identifying oneself with others, but taking personal identity as insignificant in empathically imagining how others feel. Schopenhauer is, however, right that, though these attitudes are spontaneously partial, this can be corrected. His morality is also interesting in raising the question rarely discussed in philosophical ethics of how moral virtue relates to ascetic self-renunciation. Both of these ideals are highly demanding, but the book ends by arguing that this is no objection to their validity.

Eco-martyrdom: Positive elements of self-sacrifice

This theoretical article briefly explores the historical and modern concept of martyrdom and how it has taken on its current negative connotation due to suicide bombings after 9/11. The paper will review the literature on this more heavily studied form of martyrdom and then distinguish it from the less well-known area of “positive self-sacrifice.” The article asserts that this positive form is exemplified by the behavior of eco-martyrs: people who have given their life to protect the environment from further devastation. The paper will include the case of slain trade union leader and environmental activist Chico Mendes. Chico is an exemplar of the positive self-sacrifice seen in many eco-martyrs. Positive self-sacrifice is defined as prosocial and altruistic actions exhibited by a person who is so fused with their community’s survival that they focus on nothing but the well-being of the community (counterfinality). Since their community’s struggle is tied to an environmental conflict, they abide by an ecological self (humans are not superior to other beings) and over time display evidence of self-actualization and self-transcendence. Eco-martyrs are typically assassinated by the powerful organizations that they have been resisting.

Gradability and modality

This chapter investigates the relationship between gradability and modality in a case study from Samoan (Austronesian, Oceanic; ISO 639-3: smo). It develops a compositionally transparent semantic analysis of the SILI (ONA) construction that is used both for weak priority modality and for the superlative. The chapter argues against a quantificational-modal and in favor of a degree-based analysis of the construction that relies on an underspecified and type-polymorphic measure of VALUE. Under such an analysis, several other core properties of the construction then fall out from general properties of the grammar of gradable predicates in Samoan, notably the pragmatic strengthening of the positive form to a superlative interpretation if contextually licensed.

Being tall compared to compared to being tall and being taller

This paper investigates the semantics of implicit comparatives (Alice is tall compared to Bob) and its connections to the semantics of explicit comparatives (Alice is taller than Bob) and sentences with adjectives in plain positive form (Alice is tall). We consider evidence from two experiments that tested judgments about these three kinds of sentence, and provide a semantics for implicit comparatives from the perspective of degree semantics.

Alone in the COVID-19 lockdown: an exploratory study

Feelings of isolation have been prevalent worldwide since March 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. This has prompted increased concerns about loneliness and related mental health problems. During the first UK COVID-19 lockdown, 71 participants were asked to share their high and low point stories from lockdown. These were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis to explore how ‘aloneness’ was experienced at this time. Key themes identified in the data included emotional loneliness, social loneliness, and existential loneliness (established in existing literature), as well as a more positive form of aloneness, solitude. The study highlights the importance of understanding how facets of aloneness interrelate, and identifies potential loneliness risk or protective factors. In particular, solitude is proposed as a potential mechanism for alleviating loneliness, particularly existential loneliness, alongside more common social methods.

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG seroprevalence among non-vaccinated healthcare workers: a study from rural North India

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease reported in China initially which spread around the world in no time affecting millions of people. It is caused by a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2 or 2019 n-CoV). The healthcare workers (HCW) are at increased risk of acquiring the disease as well as antibody response.Methods: 457 health care workers (HCW) were recruited to give blood samples for anti-SARS CoV-2 IgG testing between September to October 2020.Results: Of the 457 participants, IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were detected in 116 health care workers (25.4%). The anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were detected maximally in HCWs involved in laboratory work. Around 4 % of health care workers were RT-PCR positive form whom IgG were detected in 15 individuals (71.4%) only.Conclusions: The study concludes a higher prevalence among health care workers involved with patient’s samples and laboratory.

THE COCCIDIAN SPECIES PARASITIZING THE DOMESTIC GOAT IN NIGERIA

Nine fully recognized and described species of coccidia in goats and also one species not previously described are identified. Size shape, colour, sporulation time, morphology of unsporulated oocysts were the criteria for species identification 30 out of 36 faecal sample were positive form single or mixed infections with 3 samples being pure infections of single species. The unidentified species has a low occurrence and probably is not of importance in clinical coccidiosis in goats. The sporulation time for different species is found to be directly related to the size of the oocysts. As most species sporulate within 48 hours, daily removal of faecal materials form goat pens is recommended