The Impact of Cognitive Biases on Professionals’ Decision-Making: A Review of Four Occupational Areas

The author reviewed the research on the impact of cognitive biases on professionals’ decision-making in four occupational areas (management, finance, medicine, and law). Two main findings emerged. First, the literature reviewed shows that a dozen of cognitive biases has an impact on professionals’ decisions in these four areas, overconfidence being the most recurrent bias. Second, the level of evidence supporting the claim that cognitive biases impact professional decision-making differs across the areas covered. Research in finance relied primarily upon secondary data while research in medicine and law relied mainly upon primary data from vignette studies (both levels of evidence are found in management). Two research gaps are highlighted. The first one is a potential lack of ecological validity of the findings from vignette studies, which are numerous. The second is the neglect of individual differences in cognitive biases, which might lead to the false idea that all professionals are susceptible to biases, to the same extent. To address that issue, we suggest that reliable, specific measures of cognitive biases need to be improved or developed.

A Review on Myths and Facts about COVID-19

Background: Myth is widely held but false idea or a belief. It is usually backed by religious, traditional , customs and rituals which tries to manipulate public mindset. Since the spread of Covid-19 Pandemic, myths are being believed by people .In this review article I am providing information about Myths and its actual facts about COVID-19 which are essential to be known so as to stop the spread of Myths by some set of people for own gains or either due to lack of Scientific Information It takes too long to debunk a myth by presenting facts. Conclusion: Myths have been believed by common people at large whenever a new disease or virus is identified. These Myths have potential to spread more vigorously than the virus itself Myths can have detrimental effects on various aspects of physical, mental and social health. These myths should be curbed by providing evidence based information which can stop its spread. Therefore strict possible measures as discussed above should be taken by respective authorities.

Divorce: Men Do Not Hold all the Cards—The Qur’an Actually Levels the Playing Field Through Mandated Process and Etiquette

Divorce is a huge topic of concern for God in the Qur’an. Even as He makes clear that it is His least-favourable solution to marital discord and even as He counsels a period of reflection and even recommends mediation, God makes explicit His commandment that the divorce process be kind and fair to women in contrast to the then-prevailing customs. But custom to this day has been neither kind nor fair to women: the “wedding-knot” (‘isma) has been deemed by society to be held solely by the man, limiting a woman’s ability to obtain a divorce at all, much less a fair one. This has often also impacted women’s access to their own children upon divorce, surely a most unkind situation, one that is only emboldened by the false idea that men are “guardians” of women as it makes them feel even more entitled to be the sole guardians of their children.

The influence of traditional Chinese landscape architecture on the image of small architectural forms in Europe

The article analyzes the influence of traditional Chinese landscape architecture on the shaping of European small architectural forms and the influence of European architecture on contemporary Chinese architectural practice. The purpose of the article is to identify the features of the architectural mutual influences of Chinese and European cultures. The method of historical analysis, the method of comparative analysis and the graphoanalytical method are used. The lack of identity between the Chinese and European gardens and the park with the pavilions is proved at the different hierarchical levels. Two groups of European Chinoiserie style pavilions have been identified: which give a false idea of Chinese architectural traditions and which represent a simplified version of those traditions. There is noticed the influence of the traditional Chinese approach to the architectural objects placement in the natural environment on the development of the contextualism concept in Western architecture (since the 1960s) which proclaims its purpose to preserve the natural beauty of the site through careful design that relates to its surroundings. The concept of contextualism is now widely used in the design of small architectural forms in the urban environment and in the design of the architectural environment in general, both in Europe and in China. This is a clear example of mutual enrichment with the ideas of two civilizations, each of which preserves its own culture.

Leaving the Dark Side? Insights Into the Evolution of Luciferases

Bioluminescence—i.e., the emission of visible light by living organisms—is defined as a biochemical reaction involving, at least, a luciferin substrate, an oxygen derivative, and a specialised luciferase enzyme. In some cases, the enzyme and the substrate are durably associated and form a photoprotein. While this terminology is educatively useful to explain bioluminescence, it gives a false idea that all luminous organisms are using identical or homologous molecular tools to achieve light emission. As usually observed in biology, reality is more complex. To date, at least 11 different luciferins have indeed been discovered, and several non-homologous luciferases lato sensu have been identified which, all together, confirms that bioluminescence emerged independently multiple times during the evolution of living organisms. While some phylogenetically related organisms may use non-homologous luciferases (e.g., at least four convergent luciferases are found in Pancrustacea), it has also been observed that phylogenetically distant organisms may use homologous luciferases (e.g., parallel evolution observed in some cnidarians, tunicates and echinoderms that are sharing a homologous luciferase-based system). The evolution of luciferases then appears puzzling. The present review takes stock of the diversity of known “bioluminescent proteins,” their evolution and potential evolutionary origins. A total of 134 luciferase and photoprotein sequences have been investigated (from 75 species and 11 phyla), and our analyses identified 12 distinct types—defined as a group of homologous bioluminescent proteins. The literature review indicated that genes coding for luciferases and photoproteins have potentially emerged as new genes or have been co-opted from ancestral non-luciferase/photoprotein genes. In this latter case, the homologous gene’s co-options may occur independently in phylogenetically distant organisms.

The Pragmatic Concept of the Truth – Communication Theory in Analytical Philosophy

The article analyzes the pragmatic concept of truth in analytical philosophy. Attention is focused on its main ideas – generality of thoughts, practical use. The paper presents the main ideas of representatives of the pragmatic concept of truth: J. Austin, H. P. Grice, P. Strawson. The pragmatic concept of truth is one of the main concepts in the analytical philosophy of language. This concept is characterized by the ideas of practicality and demand of knowledge, the definability of truth by a person. According to this concept, the true idea is the one that solves certain issues, and the false idea is an almost impossible idea. The paper proves the hypothesis that it is the pragmatic concept of true meaning formation that is most acceptable for its understanding and development, rather than the corresponding one aimed at matching the concept to the object. It is also stated that the desire for unity of thoughts and their practical applicability are the main and popular ideas in the process of forming, understanding and using meaning. The author presents the idea that the pragmatic concept of true knowledge is aimed at solving issues of communication, speech communication, and establishing a dialogue between interlocutors. In contrast to this concept, the corresponding and coherent concepts of truth are characterized by a strict correspondence of the concept to the subject, as well as a clear relationship between the concepts in the sentence. The paper proves that it is the pragmatic concept that makes it possible to form, interpret and implement meanings in communication, thus providing an individual opportunity to use their own ideas and aspirations. Here it should be noted that the corresponding or coherent concepts represent a model in which a sample of the description and characteristics of the material world is expressed. Thus, the model of an ideal language, expressing a strict scheme of perception, interpretation and understanding of reality, restricts a person’s ability to individually understand and implement the formulated ideas. The article presents a version of the failure of the corresponding, coherent concepts of truth, since they do not provide a person with the opportunity for reasoning, for the independent search for truth by each of us and the development of speech communication. It is also argued that it is the ideas of the pragmatic concept of truth - the community of ideas, the desire to transfer knowledge to each other, the realizability of ideas that are the basis of communication and are the main ones in the development of speech communication. The subject of the article is the pragmatic concept of truth, its main ideas and representatives in analytical philosophy. Methods used in the research: hermeneutical, analytical and pragmatic.

Leaving the Dark Side? Insights Into the Evolution of Luciferases

Bioluminescence – i.e., the emission of visible light by living organisms - is defined as a biochemical reaction involving, at least, a luciferin substrate, an oxygen derivative, and a specialised luciferase enzyme. In some cases, the enzyme and the substrate are durably associated and form a photoprotein. While this terminology is educatively useful to explain bioluminescence, it gives a false idea that all luminous organisms are using identical or homologous molecular tools to achieve light emission. As usually observed in biology, reality is more complex. To date, 11 different luciferins have indeed been discovered, and several non-homologous luciferases lato sensu have been identified which, all together, confirms that bioluminescence emerged independently multiple times during the evolution of living organisms. While some phylogenetically related organisms may use non-homologous luciferases (e.g., at least four convergent luciferases are found in Pancrustacea), it has also been observed that phylogenetically distant organisms may use homologous luciferases (e.g., parallel evolution observed in some cnidarians, tunicates and echinoderms that are sharing a homologous luciferase-based system). The evolution of luciferases then appears puzzling. The present review takes stock of the diversity of known “bioluminescent proteins”, their evolution and potential evolutionary origins. A total of 134 luciferase and photoprotein sequences have been investigated (from 75 species and 11 phyla), and our analyses identified 12 distinct types – defined as a group of homologous bioluminescent proteins. The literature review indicated that genes coding for luciferases and photoproteins have potentially emerged as new genes or have been co-opted from ancestral non-luciferase/photoprotein genes. In this latter case, the homologous gene’s co-options may occur independently in phylogenetically distant organisms.

Eliciting false insights with semantic priming

The insight experience (or ‘Aha moment’) generally evokes strong feelings of certainty and confidence. An ‘Aha’ experience for a false idea could underlie many false beliefs and delusions. However, for as long as insight experiences have been studied, false insights have remained difficult to elicit experimentally. That difficulty, in turn, highlights the fact that we know little about what causes people to experience a false insight. Across two experiments (total N=300), we developed and tested a new paradigm to elicit false insights. In Experiment 1 we used a combination of semantic priming and visual similarity to elicit feelings of insight for incorrect solutions to anagrams. These false insights were relatively common but were experienced as weaker than correct ones. In Experiment 2 we replicated the findings of Experiment 1 and found that semantic priming had a greater impact than visual similarity on false insights, although the combination of the two manipulations produced the strongest effect. These studies highlight the importance of misleading semantic processing in the generation of false insights.

Idea Technology and Ideology

Although we are accustomed to thinking about technology as involving things—objects and processes—derived from scientific discoveries, science also creates a technology of ideas, ways of thinking both about the world and about human beings. And unlike “thing technology,” “idea technology” can have powerful effects even when the ideas are false. This paper discusses false idea technology, or ideology, and suggests mechanisms by which it can have effects on both individuals and societies. It discusses neuroscience as the “next frontier” of ideology that may change our conceptions of human nature.