Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Uncritical faith in intense competition assumes the status of an unquestioned paradigm in America today. But this Competition Paradigm fails in the face of data, logic, and good sense. This presentation goes beyond the hype, to exam the evidence, carefully, systematically, comprehensively, and across disciplines. Analysis begins at the biological level and works through, step by step, to the international level of global competition. Examining competition at a broader, interdisciplinary level makes it easier to discover patterns and trends across levels. Something new is discovered about the nature of competition itself, that in its most destructive forms it generates a negative self-reinforcing spiral effect that is a worrisome liability in the long term.

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: The cultural studies scholar David Shumway has argued that our norms for love in adult heterosexual pairings are governed by three successive discourses that nevertheless intertwine in our cultural production and habits of living, and that the latest discourse of intimacy has worked to expand public support for same-sex marriage. The film Brokeback Mountain is not ostensibly an intimacy movie, and it has moved a large heteronymous group in ways that cannot be explained either by romance or intimacy narratives alone.The film both transcends romantic love tropes through its focus on lower working class men, through its portrayal of nurturance, and finally through its emotional explicitness, even about emotional repression. At the same time, it invigorates romantic love as a radical force both in its view of non-hetero men, but also in its spur to cultural activism through online forums.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper directly investigated the partner characteristics that reflect both risk and attractiveness as well as the correlation between these two concepts. Every one of 36 attributes were viewed as important by at least some respondents and there was wide variance in the frequency with which they were chosen. While 801f the respondents felt it was important to know something about the potential partner’s “appearance,” less than 5 0.000000elt it was important to know about “accessories.” In addition to “appearance”, only 4 other attributes were selected as one of the 15 most important by at least 601015057760f respondents. Correlations between risk and attractiveness at level of an individual aspect also varied. For the most part, risk and attractiveness were negatively correlated but the correlations were quite low: for more than 7527777752002f the aspects, knowing something about attraction provides relatively little information about risk and vice versa.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Although Internet dating has become a pervasive phenomenon, we know little about the characteristics of singles looking for (a) for casual dates or (b) romantic relationships online. Drawing on a survey among 330 single Internet users, we found that people's age (inverted U-shape), the temporal distance since the latest romantic break-up, and an interaction between gender and sexual orientation explained how often people looked for dates on the Internet. The frequency with which people looked for romance on the Internet was predicted by age (inverted U-shape), the chance of meeting a partner in one's social environment, the temporal distance since the latest romantic break-up, the cognitive accessibility of the latest partner, attachment avoidance, and attachment anxiousness. Our findings suggest that, for a considerable proportion of singles, Internet dating presents a possibility to cope with problems that result either from coming to terms with previous relationships or establishing new ones.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Communication campaigns aimed at population control, AIDS awareness, etc. are commonplace in developing nations around the world including Asia. When underdeveloped Singapore became independent in 1965, its population policies were “strongly anti-natalist. The government feared that unchecked population growth could strain the country’s limited resources (as a small island state with no natural resources) as they would of any underdeveloped country. As a result, population control became one of the primary goals of the city-state’s socio-economic development. In 1966, the National Family Planning Campaign was launched and the government embarked on a “Stop-At-Two” (children) policy with the slogan: “Girl or Boy – Two is enough.”

The populations control campaign was so successful, aided by the economic development of the country and increase in literacy, that the government realized that in a generation, Singapore would not be able to replace its population. That is when, probably for the first time in Asia, a country tried reverse course on population control and exhort people to have more babies! Romancing Singapore was the campaign that Singapore’s government envisaged to reverse the decrease in population. We study the efficacy of this campaign based on a survey and personal interviews with campaign planners as well as members of the audience. Data reveal that the campaign was not at all successful in persuading singles to marry or married couples to have more babies.