TY  - JOUR
A1  - Preuss, Malte
A1  - Hennecke, Juliane
T1  - Biased by success and failure
BT  - how unemployment shapes locus of control
JF  - Labour economics : an international journal
N2  - We test the stability of locus of control, a measure that has been attributed substantial explanatory power for economic outcomes since it depicts how much people believe in their ability to affect life outcomes. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel, we find that a job loss due to a plant closure has no long-lasting effect on locus of control. The common assumption of its stability is thus not rejected. However, during unemployment, control perception decreases by 30 percent of one standard deviation. The effect holds true independent from unemployment duration or socio-demographic characteristics and vanishes as soon as the unemployed find a new job. We therefore conclude that stated locus of control is affected by unemployment. Using this trait as explanatory variable can thus lead to biased estimations when this temporary deviation in measurement is not accounted for.
KW  - Personality
KW  - Locus of control
KW  - Unemployment
KW  - Measurement error
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2018.05.007
SN  - 0927-5371
SN  - 1879-1034
VL  - 53
SP  - 63
EP  - 74
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Montiglio, Pierre-Olivier
A1  - Dammhahn, Melanie
A1  - Messier, Gabrielle Dubuc
A1  - Reale, Denis
T1  - The pace-of-life syndrome revisited
BT  - the role of ecological conditions and natural history on the slow-fast continuum
JF  - Behavioral ecology and sociobiology
N2  - The pace-of-life syndrome (i.e., POLS) hypothesis posits that behavioral and physiological traits mediate the trade-off between current and future reproduction. This hypothesis predicts that life history, behavioral, and physiological traits will covary under clearly defined conditions. Empirical tests are equivocal and suggest that the conditions necessary for the POLS to emerge are not always met. We nuance and expand the POLS hypothesis to consider alternative relationships among behavior, physiology, and life history. These relationships will vary with the nature of predation risk, the challenges posed by resource acquisition, and the energy management strategies of organisms. We also discuss how the plastic response of behavior, physiology, and life history to changes in ecological conditions and variation in resource acquisition among individuals determine our ability to detect a fast-slow pace of life in the first place or associations among these traits. Future empirical studies will provide most insights on the coevolution among behavior, physiology, and life history by investigating these traits both at the genetic and phenotypic levels in varying types of predation regimes and levels of resource abundance.
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Immunity
KW  - Life history strategies
KW  - Metabolism
KW  - Personality
KW  - Trait interaction
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-018-2526-2
SN  - 0340-5443
SN  - 1432-0762
VL  - 72
IS  - 7
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Konon, Alexander
A1  - Kritikos, Alexander
T1  - Prediction based on entrepreneurship-prone personality profiles:
BT  - sometimes worse than the toss of a coin
JF  - Small business economics : an international journal
N2  - The human personality predicts a wide range of activities and occupational choices-from musical sophistication to entrepreneurial careers. However, which method should be applied if information on personality traits is used for prediction and advice? In psychological research, group profiles are widely employed. In this contribution, we examine the performance of profiles using the example of career prediction and advice, involving a comparison of average trait scores of successful entrepreneurs with the traits of potential entrepreneurs. Based on a simple theoretical model estimated with GSOEP data and analyzed with Monte Carlo methods, we show, for the first time, that the choice of the comparison method matters substantially. We reveal that under certain conditions the performance of average profiles is inferior to the tossing of a coin. Alternative methods, such as directly estimating success probabilities, deliver better performance and are more robust.
KW  - Advice
KW  - Personality
KW  - Entrepreneurship
KW  - Profiles
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-0111-8
SN  - 0921-898X
SN  - 1573-0913
VL  - 53
IS  - 1
SP  - 1
EP  - 20
PB  - Springer
CY  - Dordrecht
ER  -