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This paper is an attempt to broaden economic discourse by importing insights into human behavior not just from psychology, but also from sociology and anthropology. Whereas the concept of the decision-maker in standard economics is the rational actor and, in early work in behavioral economics, the quasi-rational actor influenced by the context of the moment of decision-making, in some recent work in behavioral economics the decision-maker could be called the enculturated actor. This actor's preferences, perception, and cognition are subject to two deep social influences: (a) the social contexts to which he has become exposed and, especially, accustomed; and (b) the cultural mental models—including categories, identities, narratives, and worldviews—that he uses to process information. The paper traces how these factors shape individual behavior through the endogenous determination of preferences and the lenses through which individuals see the world—their perception and interpretation of situations. The paper offers a tentative taxonomy of the social determinants of behavior and describes the results of controlled and natural experiments that only a broader view of these determinants can plausibly explain. The perspective suggests more realistic models of human behavior for explaining outcomes and designing policies.

La notion d’interaction, au cœur de bien des approches issues de la tradition pragmatiste, a nourri des recherches focalisées sur la production d’intelligibilité mutuelle entre les participants, notamment dans le champ du travail. Cet article montre qu’il convient toutefois d’introduire une notion plus large, celle de transaction, pour caractériser l’apport de cette tradition. On peut alors saisir son actualité pour l’étude du travail dans nos sociétés de plus en plus technicisées et cosmopolites, en particulier là où l’activité est menée par des participants aux perspectives radicalement hétérogènes. Trois études de cas, respectivement dans un centre de contrôle du trafic téléphonique, dans des services pédiatriques de soins d’urgence, et sur la pratique de jeux en ligne au travail, viennent illustrer notre argument. Ces activités collectives ne reposent pas sur la recherche d’une intelligibilité mutuelle, mais sur des formes de vie développées au travail, des rencontres ponctuelles entre des engagements qui s’ignorent et l’entrelacement par chacune des activités. Dans ces contextes, la notion de transaction permet de porter une attention particulière au rôle des dispositifs numériques, des tiers et des rythmes personnels. Interactions are at the core of major sociological approaches to work. Some lines of research have accounted for cooperative interactions which include incommensurate perspectives. But in this paper we argue that the notion of interaction needs to be extended to the notion of transaction, deeply rooted in the American pragmatist tradition. The shift from interaction to transaction allows for the study of a wide range of situations lacking mutual intelligibility. The main feature is the coexistence of cooperation and entirely asymmetric perspectives, not just for a transitory moment in the process of exchanging perspectives, but as a stabilized configuration. Such contexts mean coming to terms with long unnoticed but increasingly topical components of work environments. To understand these singular forms of coordination with minimal interactions, we need to take account of the role of digital artifacts, third-party participants, and personal rhythms. This paper draws on three studies conducted in different organizational settings: a telephone traffic control center, a pediatric emergency room, and on-line gaming in the workplace. Where collective activity does not mean mutual intelligibility, the analysis turns to the various forms of life developed in the process of work, the intermittent encounters between commitments that are unaware of one another, and the workers confronted with their multiple spaces of activity

What makes a literate person? What leads to literacy gains and losses within and between individuals and countries? This paper provides new evidence that helps answer these questions. The present comparative analysis of literacy is based on large representative samples from the Survey of Adult Skills conducted in 33 countries, with 25–65 year old participants. We provide, for the first time, estimates of relative importance for a comprehensive set of experiential factors, motivations, incentives, parental influence, demands of workplace, and other predictors of influence. We sketch a configuration of factors that predicts an “ideal” reader, i.e., the optimal literacy performance. Moreover, we discover a pivotal role of the age effect in predicting variability between countries. Countries with the highest literacy scores are the ones where literacy decreases with age the most strongly. We discuss this finding against current accounts of aging effects, cohort effects and others. Finally, we provide methodological recommendations for experimental studies of aging in cognitive tasks like reading.

In this paper we theorize about illicit roles and explore their effects on resilient team performance. We define an illicit role as one whose occupants specialize in activity forbidden by the law, regulatory bodies, or professional societies, in the belief that doing so provides a competitive advantage. Using longitudinal data on professional hockey teams, we examine the enforcer—a player who specializes in the prohibited activity of fighting. We find that team performance is more disrupted by the injury of an enforcer than by the injury of occupants of other formal roles on the team. In addition, team performance recovers more slowly after this setback to the extent the team tries to replace an enforcer, and the performance disruptions associated with his exit are magnified as a function of his experience with his team. We use these findings to develop new theory about organizational roles that operate outside official channels and formal structures. We suggest that such role occupants are more difficult to replace than their formal counterparts, in part because to enact these roles effectively requires experience in the local social context.

AimWe aimed to identify and evaluate the quality and evidence of the motor learning literature about intervention studies regarding the contextual interference (CI) effect (blocked vs. random practice order) in children with brain lesions and typically developing (TD) children.MethodEight databases (Cinahl, Cochrane, Embase, PubMed, Pedro, PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Knowledge) were searched systematically with predefined search terms. Controlled studies examining the CI effect in children (with brain lesions or TD) were included. Evidence level, conduct quality, and risk of bias were evaluated by two authors independently. A best evidence synthesis was performed.ResultsTwenty-five papers evaluating TD children were included. One of these studies also assessed children with cerebral palsy. Evidence levels were I, II, or III. Conduct quality was low and the risk of bias high, due to methodological issues in the study designs or poor description thereof. Best evidence synthesis showed mainly no or conflicting evidence. Single tasks showed limited to moderate evidence supporting the CI effect in TD children.ConclusionThere is a severe limitation of good-quality evidence about the CI effect in children who practice different tasks in one session, especially in children with brain lesions.