interpersonal comparisons Quick reference
A Dictionary of Economics (5 ed.)
...interpersonal comparisons Comparing the welfare of one individual with that of another. The welfare level of an individual is measured by a utility function . Utility can be ordinal so that it is no more than a numbering of indifference curves. An ordinal utility function can be subjected to any monotonic increasing transformation, f , without changing its meaning: the initial utility function U and the transformed utility U * = f ( U ) are equivalent. Utility is cardinal when the initial utility function U is equivalent to the transformed function...
interpersonal utility comparisons Reference library
Dictionary of the Social Sciences
... utility comparisons Many theories of social welfare recognize that concepts of welfare or well-being ( utility in economic terms) differ among persons and societies, but nonetheless require that comparisons between these concepts be possible. Utilitarianism is a prominent example: the goal of maximizing the sum of the utilities of all individuals in society requires a quantifiable common measure of well-being; similarly, the Rawlsian concept of justice seeks to maximize the welfare of the most disadvantaged individuals in society (see John ...
interpersonal comparisons
interpersonal utility comparisons
Pareto principle
cardinal utility
equal sacrifice
ordinal utility
collective choice
Pareto optimal Reference library
Dictionary of the Social Sciences
...intervention in markets and for laissez-faire policies more generally. The concept of Pareto efficiency holds beyond market applications, however, and is useful in any situation in which interpersonal utility comparisons cannot be made. Because it requires only that individuals judge their own situations, it allows some (often limited) welfare comparison of outcomes without requiring the weighing of some individuals' gains against others'...
ability-to-pay principle
Dictionary of the Social Sciences
...to pay taxes should contribute a larger amount. Horizontal equity states that taxpayers with the same ability to pay should contribute the same amount in taxes. To determine whether two taxpayers or families are similar in terms of ability to pay requires making interpersonal utility comparisons (i.e., comparing how much different people's welfare would decline if they had to give up the same amount of their income), a practice considered difficult, if not impossible, under most circumstances. The ability-to-pay principle is also complicated by the problem...
social-welfare function Reference library
Dictionary of the Social Sciences
...consisted simply of the sum of individual welfares. This model assumed that utility (the economic term for well-being) was cardinal (or quantifiable) and that it was therefore possible to compare utility between individuals ( see cardinal and ordinal utility ). Interpersonal comparisons of utility, however, proved extremely difficult to establish and constituted a major weakness of the Benthamite model. This criticism led to a reformulation of the social-welfare function on the basis of ordinal utilities, where only the individual ranking of...
utilitarianism Reference library
Dictionary of the Social Sciences
...recognized the challenge of equating forms of utility across different individuals or groups. He drew value distinctions between different forms of welfare in an effort to sharpen utilitarianism's social engagement, and he never abandoned the search for a basis for interpersonal utility comparisons . Subsequent utilitarian thought, especially in economics, has taken a more circumspect position on utility, seeking proxies, such as willingness-to-pay (in money), as indicators of individual valuation of social...
Pigou, Arthur C. (1877–1959) Reference library
Dictionary of the Social Sciences
...Pigou believed that laissez faire was justified where private and social interests coincided. Where they diverged, however, government intervention was required to ensure that social welfare took precedence. Unlike many economists of his time, Pigou believed that interpersonal comparisons could be made between people with similar ethnic backgrounds. On this basis, he thought it possible to make value judgments about relative welfare and to set practical guidelines for government action. Pigou succeeded Marshall in the chair of political economy at the...
Jevons, William Stanley (1835–1882) Reference library
Dictionary of the Social Sciences
...to do this, an individual increases consumption of a commodity to the point where an additional unit of the good increases utility by less than it costs (the basis of the concept of marginal utility; see marginal analysis ). Although he recognized the pitfalls of interpersonal utility comparisons (comparing one person's utility with another's), Jevons used them in extending the law of diminishing marginal utility to money. This argument justified redistributing income from the rich to the poor, since the resulting increase in utility for the poor was greater...
Bentham, Jeremy (1748–1832) Reference library
Dictionary of the Social Sciences
...benefits—informed most of his inquiries into law, punishment, and the determination of the general good, Bentham sought a quantitative measure of happiness (conceived rather narrowly in terms of pleasure and pain). In this, he came up against the problem of interpersonal utility comparisons —the comparison of inevitably complex evaluations of individual happiness, especially as it relates to changes in wealth. Few thought Bentham succeeded in this effort, but he did launch the search for a quantitative model of utility that proved a major preoccupation for...
Communication Accommodation Theory and Intergroup Communication Reference library
Yan Bing Zhang and Makiko Imamura
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Intergroup Communication
...). When group membership is irrelevant, on the contrary, the interaction is recognized as primarily interpersonal. Once a conversation partner is categorized in a social group that is different from our own, the nature of communication shifts from interpersonal orientation to intergroup orientation. Interpersonal and intergroup orientations are usually conceptualized on a continuum, although an interaction can be simultaneously high or low on both interpersonal and intergroup orientations ( Abeyta & Giles, 2017 ). For example, communication that is guided...
Agenda Setting in Health and Risk Messaging Reference library
Karyn Ogata Jones
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Health and Risk Message Design and Processing
...between mass and interpersonal communication within the agenda-setting framework. 1 Yanovitzky and Blitz ( 2000 ) studied the combined influence of mass media and interpersonal communication on women’s breast cancer screening, and in an example of agenda-setting theory applied to health issues, Jones, Denham, and Springston ( 2006 ) studied the effects of interpersonal communication in conjunction with mass communication among a group of college students and their mothers. This research looked at communication coming from interpersonal sources in a...
Social Media and Intergroup Communication Reference library
Caleb T. Carr
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Intergroup Communication
...previously bifurcated conceptualizations of mass communication and interpersonal, recognizing opportunities for messages to have properties of both. O’Sullivan and Carr ( in press ) explicated masspersonal communication as messages wherein: (a) individuals use conventional mass communication channels for interpersonal communication, (b) individuals use conventional interpersonal communication channels for mass communication, and (c) individuals engage in mass communication and interpersonal communication simultaneously . (p. 4) More directly, O’Sullivan and...
Direct Violence, Psychology of Reference library
The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace
...this positive group evaluation depends on successful comparisons with other social groups. Thus, the individual’s aim is to find comparative dimensions that provide a positive outcome for the in-group (the group with which the individual identifies), in order to enhance self-esteem. In contrast to many other psychological theories of political violence, social-identity theory considers changes between group relations over time. In order to cope with both positive and negative outcomes resulting from comparison processes, individuals and groups may adopt identity...
