Fakultät Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hohpublica.uni-hohenheim.de/handle/123456789/22

Die Fakultät vereint Forschung und moderne Lehre nach internationalen Standards. Das Hohenheimer Modell verzahnt dabei betriebs- und volkswirtschaftliche, sozial- und rechtswissenschaftliche Aspekte.

Homepage: https://wiso.uni-hohenheim.de/

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Autonomous weapons: considering the rights and interests of soldiers
(2025) Haiden, Michael; Richter, Florian
The development of autonomous weapons systems (AWSs), which would make decisions on the battlefield without direct input from humans, has the potential to dramatically change the nature of war. Due to the revolutionary potential of these technologies, it is essential to discuss their moral implications. While the academic literature often highlights their morally problematic nature, with some proposing outright banning them, this paper highlights an important benefit of AWSs: protecting the lives, as well as the mental and physical health of soldiers. If militaries can avoid sending humans into dangerous situations or relieve drone operators from tasks that lead to lifelong trauma, this obviously appears morally desirable – especially in a world where many soldiers are still drafted against their will. Nonetheless, there are many arguments against AWSs. However, we show that although AWSs are potentially dangerous, criticisms apply equally to human soldiers and weapons steered by them. The combination of both claims makes a strong case against a ban on AWSs where it is possible. Instead, researchers should focus on mitigating their drawbacks and refining their benefits.
The effect of violent conflict on calorie consumption and dietary quality in Iraq
(2024) Parigi, Marta
By combining 2012 Living Standard Measurement Survey cross-sectional survey responses and georeferenced conflict data, this study quantifies the effect of violent conflict on food security and dietary quality in Iraq. Specifically, it estimates the effect of physical insecurity on different food security dimensions, including caloric consumption and household dietary diversity. Because disrespecting war-related foreign national cemeteries is a war crime that discourages nearby fighting, instrumenting conflict intensity by the exogenous variation in distance between these sites and household place of residence addresses potential sources of bias. The instrumental variable analysis confirms the positive (negative) effect of conflict—deriving from state, non-state and one-sided violence (e.g., attacks by the Islamic State)—on per capita caloric consumption (household dietary diversity), which although counterintuitive is unsurprising given Iraq's relatively high-income levels and changes in dietary pattern. Given that the primary driver of conflict's positive effect on calories is increased consumption of carbohydrates and, to a lesser extent, saturated fat, these results suggest that in countries transitioning to Western-style diets, violent conflict may drive the population toward an unhealthier diet, contributing heavily to a growing national prevalence of nutrition-related non-communicable diseases.
How news audiences allocate trust in the digital age: A figuration perspective
(2024) Mangold, Frank; Bachl, Marko; Prochazka, Fabian
The article enriches the understanding of trust in news at a time when mass and interpersonal communication have merged in the digital sphere. We propose disentangling individual-level patterns of trust allocation (i.e., trust figurations ) across journalistic media, social media, and peers to reflect the multiplicity among modern news audiences. A latent class analysis of a representative survey among German young adults revealed four figurations: traditionalists, indifferentials, optimists, and cynics. Political characteristics and education corresponded with substantial heterogeneity in individuals’ trust in news sources, their inclination to differentiate between sources, and the ways of integrating trust in journalistic and non-journalistic sources.
A longitudinal analysis of the privacy paradox
(2021) Dienlin, Tobias; Masur, Philipp K; Trepte, Sabine
The privacy paradox states that people’s concerns about online privacy are unrelated to their online sharing of personal information. On the basis of a representative sample of the German population, which includes 1,403 respondents interviewed at three waves separated by 6 months, we investigate the privacy paradox from a longitudinal perspective. Using a cross-lagged panel model with random intercepts, we differentiate between-person relations from within-person effects. Results revealed that people who were more concerned about their online privacy than others also shared slightly less personal information and had substantially more negative attitudes toward information sharing (between-person level). People who were more concerned than usual also shared slightly less information than usual (within-person level). We found no long-term effects of privacy concerns on information sharing or attitudes 6 months later. The results provide further evidence against the privacy paradox, but more research is needed to better understand potential causal relations.
Lowering acquisition costs with a commission cap? Evidence from the German private health insurance market
(2023) Braegelmann, Kylie A.; Schiller, Jörg
When consumers are neither particularly financially literate nor price sensitive, insurers have a strong incentive to pay high commissions to intermediaries for profitable new business. As a part of cost reduction regulation in the German private substitutive health insurance market, a commission cap and a minimum cancelation liability period for insurance intermediaries were introduced in 2012. Despite the fact that the commission cap lowered commissions paid to intermediaries, we provide evidence that the reform was only partly effective, as it led to a decrease in reshuffling of new business in the substitutive market, but did not significantly reduce total acquisition costs of health insurers. Our findings confirm that cost regulation is tricky and can be easily circumvented by insurers, as commission payments are only a part of total acquisition costs.
Navigating the social dilemma of autonomous systems: normative and applied arguments
(2025) Bodenschatz, Anja
Autonomous systems (ASs) become ubiquitous in society. For one specific ethical challenge, normative discussions are scarce: the social dilemma of autonomous systems (SDAS). This dilemma was assessed in empirical studies on autonomous vehicles (AVs). Many people generally agree to a utilitarian programming of ASs, but do not want to buy a machine that might sacrifice them deterministically. One possible way to mitigate the SDAS would be for ASs to randomize between options of action. This would bridge between a socially accepted program and the urge of potential AS users for some sense of self-protection. However, the normativity of randomization has not yet been evaluated for dilemmas between self-preservation and self-sacrifice for the “greater good” of saving several other lives. This paper closes this gap. It provides an overview of the most prominent normative and applied arguments for all three options of action in the dilemmas of interest: self-sacrifice, self-preservation, and randomization. As a prerequisite for inclusion in societal discussions on AS programming, it is ascertained that a normative argument can be elicited for each potential course of action in abstract thought experiments. The paper then progresses to discuss factors that may shift the normative claim between self-sacrifice, self-preservation, and randomization in the case of AV programming. The factors identified in this comparison are generalized into guiding dimensions for moral considerations along which all three options of action should be evaluated when programming ASs for dilemmas involving their users.
Opportunities and challenges of blockchain technology for negotiation support systems
(2025) Witt, Josepha; Schoop, Mareike; Knaus, Konstantin
Blockchain Technology (BCT) is the backbone of the next generation of the internet and thus affects how electronic business (e-business) is conducted. While the usage of BCT for the initiation and transaction phases in e-business has been studied, the negotiation aspect has not been considered in a comprehensive manner. The current literature on the utilisation of BCT in electronic negotiations (e-negotiations) primarily focuses on autonomous agents and lacks research on the support of e-negotiations conducted by human negotiators using negotiation support systems (NSSs). This results in the issue that the consequences of a transition to Web3.0-based NSSs are unclear, while other areas of e-business already apply Web3.0 technologies. We address this lack of knowledge following a design-oriented approach in three steps exploring the opportunities and challenges of using BCT for e-negotiations via NSSs. Firstly, the well-established negotiation support system Negoisst is extended by BCT features resulting in the development of a Web3.0-based NSS called NegoisstBCT to demonstrate the technical feasibility of this approach. Secondly, the potential opportunities and challenges of a Blockchain-based NSS are analysed referring to its technical architecture. Thirdly, a generalised view of the application of Web3.0-based NSSs in different settings is taken, discussing future research on BCT in e-negotiations. The present research thus fosters the application of Blockchain-based NSSs in e-negotiations and of NSSs in BCT application areas.
Response Item Network (ResIN): A network-based approach to explore attitude systems
(2024) Carpentras, Dino; Lueders, Adrian; Quayle, Michael
Belief network analysis (BNA) refers to a class of methods designed to detect and outline structural organizations of complex attitude systems. BNA can be used to analyze attitude-structures of abstract concepts such as ideologies, worldviews, and norm systems that inform how people perceive and navigate the world. The present manuscript presents a formal specification of the Response-Item Network (or ResIN), a new methodological approach that advances BNA in at least two important ways. First, ResIN allows for the detection of attitude asymmetries between different groups, improving the applicability and validity of BNA in research contexts that focus on intergroup differences and/or relationships. Second, ResIN’s networks include a spatial component that is directly connected to item response theory (IRT). This allows for access to latent space information in which each attitude (i.e. each response option across items in a survey) is positioned in relation to the core dimension(s) of group structure, revealing non-linearities and allowing for a more contextual and holistic interpretation of the attitudes network. To validate the effectiveness of ResIN, we develop a mathematical model and apply ResIN to both simulated and real data. Furthermore, we compare these results to existing methods of BNA and IRT. When used to analyze partisan belief-networks in the US-American political context, ResIN was able to reliably distinguish Democrat and Republican attitudes, even in highly asymmetrical attitude systems. These results demonstrate the utility of ResIN as a powerful tool for the analysis of complex attitude systems and contribute to the advancement of BNA.
The COVID-19 pandemic and emergencies in Otolaryngology-head and neck surgery: An analysis of patients presenting to emergency rooms in South-West Germany: A bi-center study
(2024) Wolpert, Stephan; Knoblich, Nora; Holderried, Martin; Becker, Sven; Schade-Mann, Thore; Mitra, Amal K.
This study was designed to examine the changes in emergency room visits in otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study included 11,277 patients who presented to a tertiary care hospital (ER) and an emergency practice (EP) during on-call hours in the first half of 2018, 2019, and 2020. The epidemiologic parameters, diagnoses, and level of urgency were recorded using a four-step scale. A comparison was made between the pre-pandemic years and 2020. The findings revealed a significant decrease in the frequency of ER visits in the second quarter of 2020 compared to 2019 (ER: 30.8%, EP: 37.8%), mainly due to the fact that there were significantly fewer patients, with low levels of urgency. Certain diagnoses, such as epistaxis (−3.0%) and globus sensation (−3.2%), were made at similar frequencies to 2019, while inflammatory diseases like skin infections (−51.2%), tonsillitis (−55.6%), sinusitis (−59%), and otitis media (−70.4%) showed a significant reduction. The study concludes that patients with a low triage level were less likely to visit the ER during the early stages of the pandemic, but some diagnoses were still observed at comparable rates. This suggests a disparity in perception between patients and ER staff regarding urgency. Many of the issues discussed were also emphasized in the 2024 proposal by the German Ministry of Health to reform emergency care in Germany.
The influence of social norms on expressing sympathy in social media
(2024) Graf-Drasch, Valerie; Gimpel, Henner; Bonenberger, Lukas; Blaß, Marlene
Increasingly, people are turning to social media to express grief. By and large, however, the social media community can do little more than improvise reactions, not quite sure how to use the old familiar social scripts as guides to lending effective support. To examine the role of social media in the grieving process, we used a mixed-methods approach: 12 interviews with “social media grievers” reveal the expectations of the bereaved regarding other users’ behavior. By way of two online experiments with 1058 participants, we tested how these expectations are met by the messaging of social media providers in accordance with social norm theory. We found that injunctive social norm messages are particularly effective, whereas descriptive social norm messages vary in their effectiveness, depending on which information is presented and how prominently so. What our study shows, then, is that both are potent socio-technical tools that can guide users towards more empathetic behavior when dealing with the bereaved, so while social media may not be a substitute for therapy, they can offer profound comfort for those of us dealing with bereavement and grief.

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