This paper investigates whether mindfulness training can generate spillovers to socially relevant economic behavior, particularly in the domains of environmental protection and income distribution. We conduct a randomized controlled trial among university students, offering an eight-week online mindfulness course and measuring outcomes using incentivized behavioral tasks and policy preference surveys. While the intervention successfully increases mindfulness, we find no robust evidence of causal effects on pro-environmental behavior, distribution choices, or related policy preferences, and only selective effects on the proposed mediating channels. These findings suggest that mindfulness interventions, especially in scalable online formats and voluntary settings, may have limited potential to influence behavior and preferences in these domains.
Wa Ode Dian Purnamasari, Sutawi, Bambang Yudi Ariadi, Wa Ode Al Zarliani
Coconut agroindustry supports rural livelihoods and economic resilience in Indonesia, yet many producers remain dependent on inefficient marketing systems characterized by intermediary dominance, weak bargaining power, and limited value-added diversification. This study examines how behavioral decision-making influences marketing institution preferences and strategic agroindustry development in Buton Regency, Indonesia. A field-based mixed-method study involved 489 copra processors, 182 coconut shell charcoal processors, marketing actors, and 10 institutional experts. Economic performance was evaluated through Hayami value-added analysis, farmer’s share, marketing margins, and a price-spread efficiency index. The archived expert-consensus ordering of five marketing-institution criteria was converted into normalized rank-order centroid weights. The retained four-group priority vector was analyzed through a transparent group-level SWOT-AHP synthesis and one-at-a-time sensitivity analysis. Coconut shell charcoal processing generated an average value added of IDR 1,002.52/kg and a value-added ratio of 54.87%. The shorter marketing channel increased farmer's share from 75.00% to 85.71% and reduced the price-spread index from 25.00% to 14.29%. Selling price (0.4567), demand stability (0.2567), and accessibility (0.1567) were the leading preference criteria. SWOT weights were 0.4658 for strengths, 0.2771 for opportunities, 0.1611 for weaknesses, and 0.0960 for threats. The normalized strategy scores ranked SO first (0.3715), followed by ST (0.2809), WO (0.2191), and WT (0.1286); no rank reversals occurred under ±10% and ±20% weight perturbations. Coconut-agroindustry decisions reflect both economic incentives and institutional constraints. Higher-value processing and shorter marketing channels improve economic outcomes, but liquidity certainty, transaction security, accessibility, and institutional familiarity continue to shape producer preferences. The behavioral interpretation is therefore preference-based and conceptual rather than a psychometric validation of bounded rationality or institutional trust.
Uma Parasuram, Chengyan Yue, R. Karina Gallardo, Garrett Steede, Benjamin R. Eisenreich, Matthew Clark
Consumer preferences can be impacted by many factors, including contextual factors such as gifting or self-consumption. While gift giving has been studied before, little is known about the attentional and neural differences between gift-giving and self-consumption purchase decisions. This study investigated how purchase occasion (self-consumption versus gift-giving) influences consumer preferences for wines produced from disease-resistant grape varieties. Participants completed an experiment in which wine labels varied in sustainability badges, customer reviews, price, and promotional messages while eye movements and electroencephalography (EEG) were recorded simultaneously. The results showed that gift-givers were less price sensitive and exhibited a more deliberate decision-making process and higher willingness to pay for wine attributes compared to the self-consumption group. Eye-tracking revealed only modest differences in visual attention between purchase occasions, whereas EEG responses differed more substantially across sustainability badges and price cues, suggesting differences in the temporal processing of label information. This research demonstrates the value of multimodal approaches by combining behavioral, attentional and neurophysiological measures to provide complimentary evidence on how purchase occasion influences the evaluation of novel wines and offers preliminary implications for the communication and marketing of sustainable wine products.
Policymakers often rely on simple quantitative indicators to navigate complex policy environments, yet these indicators frequently become targets that distort the very processes they are meant to monitor. Drawing on Campbell's Law (1979)) and two cognitive biases—availability heuristic and attribute substitution—this interpretive case study of Quebec's education policy examines the consequences of elevating the high-school graduation rate to the central performance target. Since the 2017 Politique de la réussite éducative, education spending has risen by 55% (2018–2019 to 2024–2025), the graduation rate has increased from 71.9% to 82.4% (2023–2024), and pass rates on ministerial examinations have improved. However, Quebec's scores on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in mathematics, science, and reading have stagnated or declined over the same period. The analysis identifies rational institutional adaptations—such as the rapid expansion of students designated with handicaps or learning difficulties, widespread use of assistive technologies in assessments, and teaching to the test—as mechanisms that boost the visible indicator without corresponding gains in deeper cognitive competencies. This case illustrates how cognitive biases and reductionist heuristics in governance can produce an illusion of progress, underscoring the need for decision-making frameworks that incorporate independent external benchmarks to better align incentives with genuine student competency development.
