Social Sciences

The government’s new white paper on health seems to suggest that patients should be offered more choice. However, visiting the doctor or phoning the police is simply not like shopping, according to people questioned for a new study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which found that most of us reject the trend towards treating everyone as ‘consumers’.

We see public services as different from the market-place and value their ‘publicness’, according to the project le

New research carried out by a consumer behaviour researcher at Henley Management College has investigated what drives people to search online. The findings reveal that convenience, time-efficiency and personal control are the key drivers for consumers to search online, rather than cost. It also shows that the relationship between traditional and online retailing outlets needs to be more unified.

E-shopping has changed the face of retail, and surfers are now looking for Spring sale ba

The minute the words are said, the regret sets in.

Communication scientists from Case Western Reserve University and Kent State University have studied how and why people choose certain ways to repair the damage done once hurtful words are spoken.

According to Jane R. Meyer from Kent State and Kyra Rothenberg from Case, most people offered an apology, spurred by guilt to mend any offense their remarks might cause in an intimate relationship. Following the offer of an apo

A study involving researchers from the Universities of Leicester, Birmingham and Sheffield has highlighted significant variation in the development of intermediate care in England.

The study, which included a national survey of intermediate care co-ordinators, data collection in five case-study sites and a systematic review of previous research, focused upon the costs and outcomes of intermediate care for older people.

Research Fellow Emma Regen said: “Findings from t

Many of us have experienced déjà vu – the unsettling sensation of knowing that a situation could not have been experienced, combined with the feeling that it has. It is usually so fleeting that psychologists have until recently thought it impossible to study. But for some people, the feeling of having been there before is a persistent sensation, making every day a ‘Groundhog Day’. Psychologists from Leeds’ memory group are working with sufferers of chronic déjà vu on the world’s first study

A forthcoming article in the March 2006 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research compares the attitudes of American and Singaporean subjects toward well-known brands in order to assess how a consumer’s self-view influences perception of consumer goods. The researchers found that Westerners, who tend to have a personality-oriented independent self-view, focus on the general qualities of the brand. Easterners, who focus more interdependently on contextual factors and their relationships to other