The Problem Of Police Harassment Essay - 888 Words

Well, the numbers do lie, according to Michael A. Wood Jr., a former Baltimore narcotics cop with 11 years of experience. He has become a whistleblower for reforming police misconduct and he’ll be one of the first to tell you that stop and frisk statistics are â€Å"junk.† The reality of police harassment is much worse and he points out the obvious that filling out paperwork is time consuming and most cops don’t bother if a search is unsuccessful. This can be seen with the frisk that was recorded for The Nation. Wood says, â€Å"The black community hasn’t been lying (about harassment) for the last fifty years. We need to fix it in a realistic, scientific way to where we have some empathy and treat people like human beings. Because we don’t.† In cases where police have been caught fabricating evidence, it again seemingly most often victimizes minorities. For instance, the former police chief of San Jose and Kansas City, Joseph McNamara, estimated that hundreds of thousands of police officers commit perjury with drug arrests. He said, â€Å"They don t feel lying under oath is wrong because politicians tell them they are engaged in a ‘holy war’ fighting evil†¦(T)hese mostly white cops are testifying against are poor blacks and Latinos.† Two brothers, Jose and Maximo Colon, were awarded $300,000 after a settlement from a civil suit with the NYPD. Video evidence proved that NYPD narcotics detectives had falsely arrested them for selling cocaine. One of the officers involved, StephenShow MoreRelatedEssay on Jacksonville Shipyards1350 Words   |  6 Pagesworkplace has been a problem for women and in recent year’s men as well. Unfortunately, in the past this topic was overlooked until the case of Meritor Savings v. Vinson. We will establish the criteria for determining when unwelcome conduct of sexual nature constitutes harassment according to Title VII. Additionally, we will ascertain how to evaluate evidence of harassment, whether a work environment is sexually antagonistic, holding employers liable legally responsible for sexual harassment by supervisors;Read MoreWorkplace Discrimination in the Canadian Police Essay1587 Words   |  7 PagesPolice agencies are becoming more accustomed to hiring police offic ers of all cultures and ethnicities. However, like most careers an individual will choose to pursue there is always the possibility of them being discriminated against. A common type of discrimination police officers face is one based on their race or ethnicity. An officer is likely might experience racial discrimination in the form of harassment in the workplace. An example of this is a co-worker using racial slurs or unfavourableRead MoreSexual Harassment At The Workplace1697 Words   |  7 PagesSexual Harassment in the Workplace Eva L. Mendez-Zacher MG260, Business Law I 28 September 2014 Dr. Anita Whitby Abstract I’m conducting a study on Sexual harassment in the workplace. Sexual harassment is possible in all social and economic classes, ethnic groups, jobs and places in the community. Through this study I hope to clarify the common misconception that sexual harassment is an isolated female problem. Although the majority of the cases reported are in fact male on femaleRead MoreSexual Harassment At The Workplace1697 Words   |  7 Pages Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Eva L. Mendez-Zacher MG260, Business Law I 28 September 2014 Dr. Anita Whitby Abstract I’m conducting a study on Sexual harassment in the workplace. Sexual harassment is possible in all social and economic classes, ethnic groups, jobs and places in the community. Through this study I hope to clarify the common misconception that sexual harassment is an isolated female problem. Although the majority of the cases reported are in fact male on femaleRead MoreWhat Really Is Sexual Harassment?1281 Words   |  6 PagesSexual Harassment? Sexual Harassment can happen anywhere, whether it is in the workplace, school, or just in a public area. But as for many colleges across the country it is becoming a problem for most students and faculty. Sexual harassment on campus has been more serious than ever and far more dominant than the of charges would indicate. Many are confused by the definition of sexual harassment people consider it having different meanings than others. One may think sexual harassment is a naturalRead MoreP5 Review Methods Used by Public Services to Ensure Diverse Work Place760 Words   |  4 Pagesensure they have a diverse workforce Are the following: * Bullying and Harassment at work Policies * Policies designed to prevent bullying * They state what should be done if it happens * State responsibility is up to the individual Policy / procedures to prevent discrimination and promote equality and diversity: * Equal opportunities procedure * Grievance procedure * Bullying and harassment * Anti-discrimination * Complaints procedure P5 Georgia Johnson Read MoreThe New Jim Crow By Michelle Alexander Essay1653 Words   |  7 PagesThe third critical book review for this class takes a look at â€Å"The New Jim Crow† by Michelle Alexander published in 2012 by the New York Press. This book analyzes the problem with the incarceration system in the United States today that unfairly affects the African American community. This incarceration system is continuing to separate families, strip men of their freedom, and effectually make them into second class citizens upon release from prison as â€Å"free† men. She even describes that thoseRead MoreBuilding A Facie Case For Retaliation1239 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"unprofessionalism† of his involving the police in an office matter causing unnecessary disruptiveness to the work place. The Dean taking such an action could open the university up to an additional retaliation claim. In Litigating employment discrimination cases, Andrew Friedman explain s that anti-discrimination laws also contain provisions prohibiting retaliation against engaging in a constitutionally protected activity, such as filing a sexually harassment claim. He further explains that â€Å"to establishRead MoreWomen s Rights And Equality1132 Words   |  5 Pagesresources such as personal health, work, and education. But today, Egyptian women are suffering from sexual assault and sexual harassment everyday. Sexual assault is a form of a sexual act that the victim does not want and it is forced upon them. Rape, forced vaginal penetration, groping (unwelcome sexual touching), forced kissing are forms of sexual assault. Also, sexual harassment is a form of discrimination that includes unwanted sexual acts, sexual favors, and can be verbally spoken out. In a studyRead MoreEver since the founding of Police Departments, women have comprised only a small percentage. Back1500 Words   |  6 Pages Ever since the founding of Police Departments, women have comprised only a small percentage. Back then, women accounted for about 2% of sworn police personnel. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, women today represent about â€Å"13% of police agencies nationwide†. Despite legislation laws to integrate more women into policing, they are still under represented in law enforcement agencies. Although things seem to be improving for women, gender equality and full assimilation into policing is

Essay on India and Pakistan- Conflict over Kashmir

Introduction In late 1947, the newly created states of India and Pakistan went to war over the valley of Kashmir. A United Nations brokered ceasefire divided the state into Indian and Pakistani controlled territories, and resolved that a referendum would be held in which the people of Kashmir would be able to choose to join either country. The referendum has not been held to this day. India granted its portion of Kashmir a special status within its constitution, allowing for a great degree of self-autonomy. However, successive Kashmiri governments have been dissolved by the government of India, and elections have only been held in the presence of its armed forces. In 1965, Pakistan and India waged a second indecisive war over Kashmir. In†¦show more content†¦Within a few days of the partition of the Indian subcontinent in August 1947 nearly all of the 560 odd Princely States joined either India or Pakistan. The case of the Princely State of Kashmir, however, is one that remains unresolve d after more than fifty years of conflict. The U.N. mandated plebiscite has never taken place, and the history of the various regions of Kashmir has proceeded in a divergent manner since the division of the state along what is now known as the Line of Control. India granted the part of Kashmir that it controlled a special autonomous status under Article 370 of its constitution. The Maharaja was removed, and a new government was formed under the populist leader of the National Conference, Sheikh Abdullah known as the Lion of Kashmir‟, Sheikh Abdullah was to become the most important politician in the history of the province. Upon becoming Prime Minister he pursued a program of land reform in Kashmir, measures that were desperately needed by the Muslim peasantry, the majority of whom had been discriminated against during the years of Dogra rule. In 1964, there were brief hopes for peace. In July 1965, the Pakistan army launched â€Å"Operation Gibraltar†, a plan which aim ed to send infiltrators into Indian-occupied Kashmir to bring about a popular rebellion. The plan was a resounding failure. Few if any Kashmiris were interested in taking militant action against India, and the war that followed merely resulted in a stalemate. It wasShow MoreRelatedThe Struggle Over Kashmir, By Mohandas Gandhi1096 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction The name Kashmir has become synonymous with slaying, destruction and religious massacre in South Asia. Ever since the partition of India in 1947, when Britain dismantled its Indian empire, India and Pakistan have been archrivals. What makes this conflict interesting, conversely, is how much they hate one another. The hostility between these two has been rooted not only in religion and history, but is exemplified by the long-running battle over the control of Jammu and Kashmir. Which has recentlyRead MoreKashmir : An Understanding Of The Two Religious Groups Present1403 Words   |  6 PagesDescription The discussion of Kashmir requires an understanding of the two religious groups present in Kashmir – the minority Kashmiri Pandits (Kashmiris who practice Hinduism and are the original inhabitants of the Kashmir valley) and the majority Kashmiri Muslims – and the history of the movement for self-rule in Kashmir. The Dogra rule of Jammu and Kashmir originated from the Jammu region of the newly created state in 1846. The Dogras (neighboring Hindu’s) gained control of the state by purchasingRead MoreIndia s Issue Of Kashmir1558 Words   |  7 PagesIndia thinks that Kashmir is not the issue for an international concern and India does not consider UN’s take on any political action over Kashmir. India’s apprehension of Kashmir is reasonable somehow because India has fought three times with Pakistan regarding Kashmir’s issue. On the contrary, resolution does not come through military action. According to India, if India is ready to establish Kashmir as a democratic province with all the privileges of an autonomous, there is no guarantee to KashmirRead MorePakistan, India and The Disputed Region of Kashmir Essay1005 Words   |  5 Pagesdimensions. Pakistan is no other exception to this; now this thought paper will discuss what sort of flaws are there is Pakistanâ€⠄¢s foreign policy regarding the undisputed territory: Kashmir. The long conflict ravaged part which has caused several wars between India and Pakistan. Pakistan, ever since its inception, has been proclaiming a right on the territory of Kashmir. Indeed Jinnah argued that â€Å"the new nation would be incomplete without Kashmir†¦and the ‘K’ in Pakistan stood for Kashmir,† WhileRead MorePosition Paper1235 Words   |  5 Pagesexercise substantial autonomy- The Kashmir story. Country: Sudan Delegate: Divya Shetty, Manipal University The Kashmir dispute dates from 1947. The partition of the Indian sub-continent along religious lines led to the formation of India and Pakistan.   Because of its location, Kashmir could choose to join either India or Pakistan. Pakistan fails to recognize the Instrument of Accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh on October 26, 1947 ceding Kashmir to India as they believe it was signed forRead MoreEssay about Indo Pakistan Conflict Topic 1168 Words   |  5 PagesIndo Pakistan Conflict Topic Background: As World War II drew to a close, many new nations began to emerge. In the Middle East of course, the State of Israel was established; in South East Asia, two nascent countries were born, India and Pakistan. In 1947, Great Britain drafted a partition plan, separating British India into the two countries we now know as India and Pakistan. In conjunction was the Indian Independence Act, which formally gave both countries their sovereign right to govern, andRead MoreWhat Were the Problems Facing a Newly Independent India After the Partition of 1947? How Were They Handled? Were They Successful?1521 Words   |  7 Pagesruling. After India’s freedom was granted it was divided into two states which were Dominion of Pakistan later known as Islamic republic of Pakistan and Union of India later known as Republic of India. Right after the partition of 1947, it declared that it was leader or King of the state to decide if the state should follow the Muslim or a Hindu religion. This Polic y separated the people of India and Pakistan, and caused a lot of hatred between both sides. This policy also cause huge problems becauseRead MoreIndia and Pakistan are So Close and Yet So Far from Each Other933 Words   |  4 Pageslanguage, India and Pakistan hold such animosity and bitterness towards each other? Since their emergence as independent states from the British Indian Empire in 1947, India and Pakistan have sacrificed considerable blood battling each other. As part of the independence, India was divided into two separate nations—India and Pakistan. The Hindu states of British India formed the new country of India, while those states with a Muslim majority became part of Pakistan. The violent partition of India and PakistanRead MoreThe Kargil War : A Conflict Between India And Pakistan1536 Words   |  7 PagesThe Kargil war was a conflict between India and Pakistan. The two countries’ Armies were greatly involved in this conflict, with Pakistan having a bigger role to play in the war. It is important to note that Pakistan begun preparing for this war as early as February 1999 by selecting, training and deploying troops into the Kargil region. It is also imperative to understand the main intention behind all these preparations. The main aims of this grand plan were to isolate Siachen, to cause disruptionsRead MoreSouth Asian region is considered the heartland of present times owing to its geo-strategic1200 Words   |  5 Pagestotal there are seven countries in south Asia and the major countries of this region are India and Pakistan due to three major reasons: Firstly, huge land size, second population size, Third economic size and fourthly both are Nuclear powers. The added point is that both India and Pakistan both are neighbors and share a long boundary of 1600 KM between them. In the past Bangladesh was the part of West Pakistan. There are two aspects of water dispute; first Water dispute originated in 1947 due to Boundary

Plant Science View on Biohybrid Development free essay sample

One of the first things we found is that some root growth strategies, which we believed required gravity, do not require it at all. In the search for water and nutrients, plants grow roots, sending them to places nearby. On Earth, gravity is an important indicator trend growth, but plants also use touch (think root tip as a sensitive finger) to navigate around obstacles.In 1880, Charles Darwin showed that when you grow plants along the inclined surface, the roots grow from the seeds, not directly, but rather are deflected in the same direction. This growth strategy is called a skew. Darwin suggested that the reason for this a combination of gravity and the touch of the roots and 130 years, all the others also thought so.But the roots grew with a skew and without gravity. In 2010, we saw that the roots of plants grown on the ISS, overcame all the way across the surface of a Petri dish with the perfect tilting roots without any gravity. We will write a custom essay sample on Plant Science View on Biohybrid Development or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It was a surprise. Obviously, not gravity is behind the pattern of root growth.Plants on the ISS have a second potential source of information, from which they could be repelled: light. We have assumed in the absence of gravity, which could indicate the roots grow in the direction away from the leaves, light plays an important role in the orientation of the roots.It turned out that, yes, light is very important, but not just light must be the light intensity gradient, then it will act as a valuable guide. Imagine it as a good smell: you can with closed eyes to find the source of the smell in the kitchen, if the oven is only opened with cookies, but if the house is equally drowned in the scent of chocolate chip cookies, you can hardly find it.

Marcel Primary and Secondary Reflection free essay sample

This lecture is started by Marcel after discussing about truth as a value, the setting of any kind of thought but there is this distinctive character of philosophical thought that is reflection. It is about not just the meaning of something at first glance but by probing more deeply to the meaning of things and experiences that we encounter. 2. Marcel is going to illustrate how reflection is rooted in daily life by giving examples that show the importance of probing more deeply into thought. 3. Reflection happens due to an occurrence of a phenomenon that is a break from the daily normal life. If the phenomenon involves something that is valuable to me then, the reflection becomes a personal act where no one can reflect for oneself but oneself. If the watch was not valuable to me in the first place no reflection would have occurred for it would just have been something that occurred and not something that one would call as an experience. We will write a custom essay sample on Marcel Primary and Secondary Reflection or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 4. The lie that I made in the example was the occurrence that was a break from the normal everyday life. I considered myself as trustworthy and honest therefore telling the lie was indeed a phenomenon for me. The same things can be said for this situation just like in the previous one. The phenomenon has led me to reflect for myself and probe deeply to the lie that I made. I reach such questions as who I really am for I was already not the man who I thought he was. 5. This example is about being disappointed to someone for something that they did and then, remembering a memory where I have done a similar thing. Being disappointed to someone was the break from normal everyday life because disappointments only happen when your expectations do not meet with the reality. This has led to the question of who I really am because I am disappointed at someone who was exactly just like me before. I am not the man who I really thought I was anymore. This conclusion comes from the reflection for oneself where one explores deeply into the meaning of one phenomenon. The reflection can leave me in anguish but I am liberated. 6. In the last example, realizations come to me from the things I have explored to more deeply. I am already a better communicator to myself and to my friend for I have destroyed the barrier that once stood there to block our communication. This is the liberating part of reflection. Where I was once anguished by the thoughts that I had because of what I reflected yet it brought something liberating to my life. 7. The third example as I stated was about communication. This clearly shows the importance of the notion of intercourse. This shows that I need others and that other people need me. I need people who need me to make me assure myself of my awareness that I am aware of myself. 8. Life is one with reflection yet there seems to be and objection that differentiates life with reflection. Life is hot while reflection is cold. Life is like a fire burning with voices and experiences waiting to happen. Bursts of energy come for never-ending sources of emotions of joy and sadness. Reflection tends to make this thought as something that one would only analyze and not experience. Just like a car broken into pieces and analyzed. 9. The reflection in the intoxicated young man comes to him when realizes things that are important to him like his future. This is the something that is valuable to him that makes him reflect upon his actions. The rash things he said due to his intoxication was the phenomenon that made him reflect. His life was the thing that was at stake so then he had to reflect upon the things that he did and explore more deeply the consequences one action of his might do to his life. The other examples like the prisoner and the mother make me ask myself questions like â€Å"What am I really living for? † â€Å"Who am I living for? â€Å"What things do I live by? † These are questions whose answers make a great impact upon my life for these are the things that fuel my everyday life. I have to know what I live for and know for sure that is something that is valuable to me. It has to be something worth living and dying for so I can say to myself that I have lived my life to the fullest every day. 10. Reflection should be one with my life. It is not the bad guy in the movie anymore but the one that saves the day. Reflection makes us probe deeply into things and liberate us from our narrow thinking. But if we use reflection to reduce life to animalism, then this makes reflection the antagonist and as something that is an unintelligible concept. 11. Experience and reflection are analogous. One goes with the other. Experience is not just a passive memory but an active participation of the other. We can say therefore that one is more reflective if one has more experience and vice versa. But there are two levels of reflection that we need to differentiate. The first is primary reflection. Our immediate consciousness of what happens in our experience is our primary reflection. We must further break this down in order to come up with a deeper understanding. From this point, we reconstruct the experience while integrating what we have discovered from it, thus a transcendence of knowledge through reflection on experience. This is our secondary reflection or a reflection upon our reflection. Through this process, we become aware of our awareness. We experience exclamatory awareness. This is when we feel truly alive. 12. The question who am I still hangs and yet remains to be the most important one we must answer. Through primary and secondary reflection we might be able this question finally. 13. Because of the secondary reflection I am able to realize that I am like this person wearing someone else’s clothes. I have this feeling that I am not who I am now and who I was before. These realizations of mine makes me uneasy because I cannot myself of the question â€Å"Who really am I? † 14. The civil servant asking the question are you Mr. so and so may think that I am insane if I answer â€Å"Certainly not† but this is how I feel. I think that I am not the man who I was anymore. I am not the person I have written myself to be. My name already sounds different to me because of the realizations it brings to me. Who really am I? 15. The uneasy feeling that I am not who I am anymore leads me to the question again of who I really am. 16. I have realized that am a not a definite somebody. I am just this non-somebody linked in a profoundly obscure fashion, with a somebody about who I am being questioned about and about whom I am certainly not free to answer just what I like at the moment because I am not the person that the civil servant is describing anymore. 17. The uneasy feeling leads us to realizations that I am not a definite somebody. We have to explore deeply and probe deeply to this problem and hopefully answer this question. 18. I have to recognize the fact that I am not a definite somebody and therefore accept the facts that there is another sense in which I am somebody and that other somebodies also exist. 9. Marcel criticizes the relationship that I have with myself because of the paradox of how I appear to myself as a definite somebody and not a somebody. I could be anybody who I think I could be. A master, a friend, a teacher, a servant. This paradox is in relation to myself as a subject. It is in relation of myself as these definite characteristics are contingent. 20. The questions come whether we can consider this not being a definite somebody exists. Exists in a way that I have something to define myself, something I live for and something I live by. Definitely the answer to this question is negative. But this does not mean that I am imaginary, for it does not mean that what is not actual is imaginary. 21. Now I come to ask myself. Does anything really exist? Do I know of anything to prove that I myself exist? These questions ask for a centrally significant existence without which I cannot possibly judge anything else to exist. We should however expound and probe more into this statement of existential indubitablity otherwise we might have a collision with total or modified skepticism. 22. Total skepticism doubts the existence of anything. In the phenomenological level, total skepticism is meaningless. Our day to day experiences prove to us what exists and what does not. Experiences that we reflect upon further makes us aware of the existence of other people and objects. There is a clear distinction of what really exists or not through reflection. 23. Relative skepticism on the other hand makes me ask myself if I do really exist since I am the one questioning about existence of other things I should be able to answer my own existence. The separation of I and exist in the question â€Å"Do I really exist? † proves that the â€Å"I† is never a â€Å"that† and also that existence is not a predicate. 4. The â€Å"I exist† is an indubitable touchstone of experience therefore it cannot be separated. Marcel points out that â€Å"I exist† lies in another level. It is not something that one can infer so quickly for â€Å"I exist† lies in the banks of every possible current of inference. Therefore the substitution made by modern philosophers could be criticized since â€Å"Sentio, ergo sum† still hides a Cogito because of the ‘ergo’. 25. To say that you exist cannot be separated from the fact that you are existing, that is, others are aware of your existence as well, to truly exist is to manifest. With it, doubting oneself cannot be avoided and by doing so we become more aware of ourselves as likened that a child’s expressions. 26. To exist and the awareness of existence cannot be separated because that is the character of the self that cannot be doubted. It is inherent to the self that he exists for himself and for others and that cannot be apart from the datum that is my body. 27. The author talks about applying primary and secondary reflection on â€Å"my body†. Primary and secondary reflection means to look at my body the same way as all other bodies, subject to destruction and non privileged. It is detaching this body from the thought that is mine. 28. Secondary reflection is reuniting the ideas se apart by primary reflection and that is to unite the body back with the center. 29. There is difficulty in proceeding to secondary reflection without contradicting what was proposed in the primary reflection that both body and soul are distinct. 30. It is a matter of perspective that we proceed in reflection by considering that body and soul are distinct but interrelated. If we should reflect on what makes up my body then, we should reject the distinction that both are things. 1. To refer to my body as the â€Å"my† that I mean it to be then, I must reject a psycho-physical parallelism belief that me and my body are mere things but rather have an intimacy of relationship with each other. This intimacy manifests through the actual real life experiences of the body and the real thing from which we should get implications from and not put ideal meanings to it. These experie nces can cause us either to behave as a master of our body or a salve to it but either way, it is the â€Å"my† in my body that I own it to be. 32. The author relates a person’s ownership of the â€Å"my† of â€Å"my body† as the same with saying that â€Å"the dog is mine† for such dog to be really mine, there must exist a positive relationship like accepting that I have claim and all responsibility to it and it too will give the same positivity by responding to me. 33. It cannot be argues that you are the owner of your body as you are the owner of the dog in the previous analogy but in slave very, such is not the case for the master of a slave who claims to have ownership of his slave’s body but a slave cannot help but persist that his body is his especially after the injustices of slavery. 4. I have a responsibility to look after my body by providing for it the same as I do for my dog. But we must be aware of an upper limit of a situation that we are in, that we are now capable of dissociating ourselves from our lives saying â€Å"that this body is not mine† or â€Å"looking after th is body is not my responsibility. 35. My body is mine to a point where I am capable of controlling it like your dog’s obedience, but there is this time where an inner limit has to be considered as in the case of illness where you don’t have the same control of your body as you used to have. This is expressed in the phrase â€Å"I am no longer myself†. 36. The likeness of â€Å"my dog† as well as other objects that are mine is distinct from the spatio-terminal being that I am but here exists a link between us that we could be associated with each other. 37. There must be a link between me and my body from which is the means for me to relate all other ownerships and at every single ownership that there is. There is also that desire to personally experience that my body is mine. 38. To own something requires oneself to claim it and take care of it , therefore some one who owns things cannot be reduces to a dematerialized ego who cannot claim nor care for something. 39. Another observation made that when I become too attached with what I possess, it tends to become a part of my body. And when such possessions are threatened like in the case of being lost, it feels as if my body has also been affected. 40. The strength of possession is as reliant with how united you are with your body, but as of external possessions, when they get lost. it leaves the owner at vulnerable state form being affected with the loss leaving him to want more to possess things that are not identical or that do not define him, most especially, a person from which the very idea cannot be owned. 41. The link between me and my body cannot be asserted to be independent from each other but once that link breaks as by means of death, no experience could ever tell us now what we can still become. 42. Looking at the previous situation at a different view by means of secondary reflection. 43. My body can be thought of as being an instrument from which I can act what I intend to manifest myself into the world, this requires us to think what being an instrument would imply and under that conditions would that be. 44. An instrument could be understood as something that would increase the efficiency of an existing power that is present in the person using the instrument like an optical apparatus for seeing. Therefore my body can be seen as a united body with a group of powers. 45. I have to understand that my body is mine to avoid narrowing my body as an object. Also that I am my body is an instrument, an extension of another body’s powers. Such infinite reveres could be avoided by claiming my body as mine and not an instrument. 46. In claiming that I am my body, care must be observed so as not to reduce me as an object but rather as a subject, a being that has a relationship. Sympathetic meditation was a term used by Marcel to describe how my body was at first in accordance with my feelings. 47. Using my body to feel mu body is using it as an instrument and it has been described in the previous numbers that my body should not be reduced to an apparatus and in this case just to view my feelings. 48. Marcel ends it by introducing the inquiry to feelings that in doing so we do not begin with searching for explanations but rather look into how we get to feel in an everyday set up and how we represent it.

The History of Pepsi Cola

The History of Pepsi Cola Pepsi Cola is one of the most recognizable products in the world today, almost as famous for its commercials as for its never-ending battle with rival soft drink Coca-Cola. From its humble origins more than 125 years ago in a North Carolina pharmacy, Pepsi has grown into a product available in multiple formulations. Find out how this simple soda became a player in the Cold War and became a pop stars best friend. Humble Origins The original formula for what would become Pepsi Cola was invented in 1893 by pharmacist Caleb Bradham of New Bern, N.C. Like many pharmacists at the time, he operated a soda fountain in his drugstore, where he served drinks that he created himself. His most popular beverage was something he called Brads drink, a mix of sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, kola nuts, nutmeg, and other additives. As the beverage caught on, Bradham decided to give it a snappier name, eventually settling on Pepsi-Cola. By the summer of 1903, he had trademarked the name and was selling his soda syrup to pharmacies and other vendors throughout North Carolina. By the end of 1910, franchisers were selling Pepsi in 24 states.   At first, Pepsi had been marketed as a digestive aid, appealing to consumers with the slogan, Exhilarating, Invigorating, Aids Digestion. But as the brand flourished, the company switched tactics and decided instead to use the power of celebrity to sell Pepsi. In 1913, Pepsi hired Barney Oldfield, a famous racecar driver of the era, as a spokesman. He became famous for his slogan Drink  Pepsi-Cola.  It Will Satisfy You. The company would continue to use celebrities to appeal to buyers in the coming decades. Bankruptcy and Revival After years of success, Caleb Bradham lost Pepsi Cola. He had gambled on the fluctuations of sugar prices during World War I, believing that sugar prices would continue to rise - but they fell instead, leaving Caleb Bradham with an overpriced sugar inventory. Pepsi Cola went bankrupt in 1923. In 1931, after passing through the hands of several investors, Pepsi Cola was bought by the Loft Candy Co. Charles G. Guth, Lofts president, struggled to make a success of Pepsi during the depths of the Great Depression. At one point, Loft even offered to sell Pepsi to executives at Coke, who refused to offer a bid. Guth reformulated Pepsi and began selling the soda in 12-ounce bottles for just 5 cents, which was twice as much as what Coke offered in its 6-ounce bottles. Touting Pepsi as twice as much for a nickel, Pepsi scored an unexpected hit as its Nickel Nickel radio jingle became the first to be broadcast coast to coast. Eventually, it would be recorded in 55 languages and named one of the most effective ads of the 20th century by Advertising Age. Pepsi Postwar   Pepsi made sure it had a reliable supply of sugar during World War II, and the drink became a familiar sight to U.S. troops fighting all across the globe. In the years after the war, the brand would remain long after American GIs had gone home. Back in the States, Pepsi embraced the postwar years. Company president Al Steele married actress Joan Crawford, and she frequently touted Pepsi during corporate gatherings and visits to local bottlers throughout the 1950s. By the early 1960s, companies like Pepsi had set their sights on the Baby Boomers. The first ads appealing to young people called the Pepsi Generation arrived, followed in 1964 by the companys first diet soda, also targeted at young people.   The company was changing in different ways. Pepsi acquired the Mountain Dew brand in 1964 and a year later merged with snack-maker Frito-Lay. The Pepsi brand was growing up quickly. By the 1970s, this once failing brand was threatening to displace Coca-Cola as the top soda brand in the U.S.  Pepsi even made international headlines in 1974 when it became the first U.S. product to be produced and sold within the U.S.S.R. A New Generation Throughout the late 1970s and early 80s, Pepsi Generation ads continued to appeal to young drinkers while also targeting older consumers with a series of Pepsi Challenge commercials and in-store tastings. Pepsi broke new ground in 1984 when it hired Michael Jackson, who was in the midst of his Thriller success, to be its spokesman. The TV commercials, rivaling Jacksons elaborate music videos, were such a hit that Pepsi would hire a number of well-known musicians, celebrities, and others throughout the decade, including Tina Turner, Joe Montana, Michael J. Fox, and Geraldine Ferraro.   Pepsis efforts were successful enough that in 1985 Coke announced that it was changing its signature formula. New Coke was such a disaster that the company had to backtrack and reintroduce its classic formula, something Pepsi frequently took credit for. But in 1992, Pepsi would suffer a product failure of its own when the spin-off Crystal Pepsi failed to impress Generation X buyers. It soon was discontinued. Pepsi Today Like its rivals, the Pepsi brand has diversified far beyond what Caleb Bradham could ever have imagined. In addition to the classic Pepsi Cola, consumers can also find Diet Pepsi, plus varieties without caffeine, without corn syrup, flavored with cherry or vanilla, even an 1893 brand that celebrates its original heritage. The company has also branched out into the lucrative sports drink market with the Gatorade brand, as well as Aquafina bottled water, Amp energy drinks, and Starbucks coffee beverages. Sources Calderone, Anna. Crystal Pepsi Will Return to Shelves One Last Time This Summer. People.com. 19 July 2017.CBS News staff. Almanac: Pepsi Cola. CBSNews.com. 16 June 2013.Herrera, Monica. Michael Jackson, Pepsi Made Marketing History. Billboard.com. 7 March 2009.PepsiCo staff writers. The Pepsi Cola Story. Pepsi.com. 2005.

Neodymium essays

Neodymium essays My elements name is Neodymium. Neodymium was discovered in 1925 by C.F. Aver von Welsbach in Austria. This element got its name from the Greek words neos, which means new, and didymos, which means twin. Nd is the atomic symbol and it is in group IIIA, which is the rare earth elements or the Lanthanide Series. The price for Neodymium is about $1/g. Neodymium has a popularity of 16 out of 100. The atomic weight of Nd is 144.24 amu. It is white, yellow, or brown. It has a hexagonal shape. It has 60 Protons, 84 Neutrons, and 60 electrons. Neodymiums melting point is 1010.0 C, 1283. 15Â °K, and 1850.0F. Its boiling point is 3127.0C, 3400.15Â °K, and 5660.6F. Neodymium is a solid. The oxidation number is +3. Neodymium is never found in nature as a free element, it is found in ores monazite sand. It is mostly used for making magnets. Neodymium is used for to make many different things. It makes up about 18% of Misch metal, a material that is used to make flints for lighters. Neodymium is also a component of didymium glass, which is used to make certain types of welder's and glass blower's goggles. Neodymium is added to glass to remove the green color caused by iron contaminants. It can also be added to glass to create violet, red or gray colors. Some types of glass containing neodymium are used by astronomers to calibrate devices called spectrometers and other types are used to create artificial rubies for lasers. Neodymium salts are also used to color enamels and glazes in ceramics and for a special lens with praseodymium. Nd is also used to produce bright purple glass and special glass that filters infrared radiation. There is also a lot of Neodymium can be found in magnets and stained glass. Neodymium is present in misch metal to the extent of about 18%. The metal has a bright silvery metallic lustre. Neodymium is one of the more reactive rare-earth metals and ...

Account for plagiarism in English speaking countries Essay

Account for plagiarism in English speaking countries - Essay Example Make no mistake that the quotation encourages plagiarism. On the contrary, it promotes everyone to be original in their ideas. But could this in reality be practiced especially in academic writing? This may be ideal in fictional writing but academic writing profusely begs to differ. Being novel in every idea and thought without having been influenced by anyone else is something next to impossible particularly in this day and time when almost everything has been a derivative of another. The need to cite is an important part of academic writing. In order to provide a comprehensive and logical argument to support a thesis, the writer must be able to learn the value of researching pertinent materials from authoritative sources that offer information. These people have dedicated a great amount of time in their accumulated mastery base on derived facts. They serve a foundation or inspiration that catapults an idea into its shape which could either strengthen it or show its weaknesses. Thus , â€Å"A writer plagiarises when he or she presents another writer’s unique work as a product of his or her own knowledge and/or imagination† (Johns and Keller, 2005, p.1). This has become a prevalent problem especially in the four corners of educational institutions. Plagiarism has been on the rise due to societal pressures, poor time management and the internet. Societal pressures play a major role in enticing students to plagiarise. A great number of students feel justified in plagiarising because they feel the additional pressures imposed by teachers without much help makes completing assignments adequately impossible (Sterngold, 2004). Often, a student may be required to finish an assignment or something like a major requirement such as a term paper in more than one subject simultaneously. The need to finish by the set deadlines provokes them to make the wrong choices. These papers could make or break their grades and instead of failing to turn in an output, they would rather plagiarise in the hopes that they could get away with it. This is a habit that is shared by many students where they all know what each other is up to but there is a standing consensus to keep mum about it and go with the pack. Teachers, on their part, have different approaches to how they treat plagiarism. There are those who react indifferently especially in the lower level, giving the students a sense of impunity that they have become desensitized to knowing the difference. Then there are those who approach it with utter severity that they implement a strict regulation through verbatim analysis. This happens even without the teacher clearly setting forth the criteria and the measures on how to properly acknowledge a source. This generates hostility in students who demand justification (Hayes and Introna, 2005). Entering the university is an important goal for students who have been inculcated with the indispensability of tertiary education by their parents. Earning a bachelor’s degree, preferably in a refutable university, is the ultimate dream that parents have for their children. Among the reasons found by Devlin and Gray in their study why students plagiarise is ‘pressures,’ this they elaborate take many forms such as time, stress, family and societal such that one student remarks, â€Å"Parents nowadays expect their children to go to uni, whether they [i.e. the child] want to or not† (2007, n.p.). They are in turn pressured to fulfil their parent’s wishes and pressure themselves to avoid disappointing their family since parents see it a reflection of their parenting if their children fail to enter a university (ibid). Time management is an insistent problem that everyone has to face. In the urban jungle

Textbooks should be replaced by electronic books Essay

Textbooks should be replaced by electronic books - Essay Example It will provide empirical evidence in support of this line of thinking. With the advent of technology, Americans consumers particularly the students can find relevant academic material at their fingertips. Electronic books allow people to access any book at any time and place. In addition, it is cheap to produce electronic compared to paper books. The reason is that it allows publishers to produce and distribute these books at a fractional cost compared to the latter. Many Americans would not have believed that gramophones would be replaced with tapes and payphones by portable cell phones to name a few. Today, most magazine publishers have moved away from print media and currently produce their magazine entirely as materials viewable in e-readers (Conway, 2010). Below is an analysis on the benefits of electronic books over textbooks. First, electronic books are cheaper relative to paper books. In the US, the average price of a textbook is about $8. However, one can still get that same material for $3 on a kindle. In additional, production of paper books involves the cutting down of trees and hence resulting to environmental degradation. Adoption of electronic books would ensure the conservation of the environment and reading will become easier. Secondly, electronic books are so accessible and as a result, they have become very popular in the recent years. Instead of waiting for the delivery of a book shopped online, one can purchase and download an e-book within no time (Polatron, 2009). Additionally, they are less cheap since the publishers do not have to add any production cost. For this reason, electronic books are a great alternative to textbooks. Thirdly, Proponent of electronic books argues that both students and teachers support them since they are lighter and hence convenient to use. Electronic books can hold the material of close to hundred or more

Pressure Sores Essay Example for Free

Pressure Sores Essay The basic philosophy of palliative care is to achieve the best quality of life for patients even when their illness cannot be cured. Palliative care is provided through comprehensive management of the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs of patients, while remaining sensitive to their personal, cultural, and religious values and beliefs. Hospital palliative care services are often provided through an interdisciplinary team of health care professionals including, but not limited to: Doctors, Nurses, Healthcare Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers, and Priests. FATIGUE Fatigue is a common, distressing and debilitating symptom experienced by people with cancer. In those receiving palliative care it is probably the most frequently reported symptom and is experienced by more than 90 per cent of these patient. However, it represents the most commonly unrelieved cancer symptom. Cancer related fatigue can have a number of factors that can be difficult to establish, however despite these problems advancing research will help to promote the problem as a palliative care symptom that can be assessed and managed. In patients with advanced cancer, the prevalence rates of various symptoms are approximately as follows Pain 89% Fatigue 69% Weakness 66% Anorexia 66% Lack of energy 61% Nausea 60% Dry mouth 57% Constipation 52% Dyspnoea 50% Vomiting 30%. (Donnelly 1995) Defining Cancer-Related Fatigue Cancer-related fatigue is a complex phenomenon with physical, cognitive and affective methods of expression. A clear understanding of what it means is essential before it can be assessed and managed, or healthcare Assistants are able to discuss it with patients and colleagues. After exploring fatigue from the perspective of patients, Ream (1996) derived the following definition: a subjective, unpleasant symptom which incorporates feelings ranging from tiredness to exhaustion, creating an unrelenting overall condition which interferes with individual’s ability to function to their normal Causes and effects. The causes of cancer-related fatigue is still unknown, and lack of success in treating it at the end of life stage is in part due to this lack of knowledge. Quality of life is related to symptoms, functioning, and psychological and social well-being, while during end-of-life care, spirituality is a major issue, patients become too tired to participate fully in their roles an d activities that make life meaningful, fatigue therefore significantly affects their quality of life. Patients/Family Perceptions One of the barriers to treating fatigue at the end of life may be patients, families and Doctors perception of it as an unavoidable, untreatable symptom (Johnson, 2004).Many people experience fatigue, but studies have shown that fatigue experienced by patients with cancer is more rapid in onset, more energy-draining, more intense, longer-lasting, more severe and more unrelenting when compared with typical fatigue. Advance care planning and establishing goals of care are essential because they enhance the control patients have over their care and assure autonomy if the patient is unable to communicate their wishes or make decisions at later stages of illness. Patients want a voice in their healthcare, they want to know what to expect and how to plan for their treatment and their future. Establishing goals early on for current and future healthcare helps to avoid future unnecessary harm and inappropriate prolongation of dying. It is well recognized that interventions focused on curing dying patients result in increased suffering, with little or no benefit for the patient. This suffering may even extend beyond the patient. Nurses also struggle ethically and emotionally when care for dying patients is focused on technology rather than on comfort and quality of life. In addition, twenty-per cent of patients relatives develop a physical illness in response to the stress of coping with their loved on es poor health. Treating Underlying Causes Before a patients fatigue is simply attributed to the cancer it is important to identify and treat easily reversible underlying physiological and psychological causes of fatigue. For example, this may involve reducing non-essential medications, treating infections, correcting hypercalcaemia and electrolyte disorders or treating pain, depression, sleep disorders or anaemia .A link between fatigue, sleep and anxiety can be readily identified, and the approach to management is a general one. In palliative care, efforts are directed at alleviating symptoms, as well as toward preventing or treating the underlying cause when that is possible interventions should begin with the promotion of sensitive communication, giving patients the opportunity to discuss their fatigue in the context of living with a terminal illness and its impact on their lives , found that enabling patients to talk about their fatigue both facilitated professional assessment and helped them to explore the meaning of th e cancer and fatigue experience for themselves, and for their family and friends. This can help patients regain a sense of control and freedom to focus on other important aspects of their lives, so restoring their self-esteem .Patient and family education can be of great value in understanding cancer-related fatigue. Family members may interpret fatigue as a sign that the patient is giving up, when it is actually beyond her or his control. Complementary medicine embodies the principles of palliative care by helping to ease the physical, psychosocial, and spiritual effects of illness. It aims to control symptoms and to enhance quality of life for patients and their families. Relaxation, visualisation, massage and aromatherapy are currently being evaluated as part of a global intervention known as Beating Fatigue. There is already evidence of the beneficial effect of massage and aromatherapy on depression and other symptoms including fatigue. CONCLUSIONS/EVALUATIONS Whilst undertaking this assignment certain words keep coming to mind. Words like empathy, caring, stress, burnout, teamwork many more but I have learned to respect all patients, promote dignity, to be a better team player be confident in my abilities, but mostly I have realised that to further a career in any area of palliative care will require more training, more understanding of different patients conditions and there requirements on a daily basis and to be more conscience of the responsibilities of healthcare assistants when caring for all patients. As said previously I will seek further training in this area not only to be of greater benefit to the patients but also to seek training in some form of grief counselling to be of greater assistance to relatives and friends of patients, to empathise more and to just be able to listen when needed. Despite the high prevalence of cancer-related fatigue among patients in palliative care, its treatment is less successful than treatment for other symptoms at the end of life. The causes of fatigue in patients with advanced cancer are often unclear, multiple factors may be responsible and little is known about its causes. The specific goals of palliative care are to improve the quality of the last stages of patient’s lives, control symptoms, and provide support to family members and to pay attention to patient’s perceptions of purpose and meaning of life. The experience of cancer-related fatigue has a major impact on patient’s motivation as it means they are unable to undertake physical activities and that they lose interest in activities and life in general. Although it is difficult to conduct research on patients who are highly distressed, have severe symptoms or who are dying, there is the potential for such research to have a therapeutic benefit for those taking part. Providing patients with cancer an opportunity to discuss their feelings associated with symptoms such as fatigue provides information necessary to develop professional understanding and can also help patients to make sense or come to terms with their condition. Future research should focus on determining effective solutions including alternative and complementary therapies rather than on reassessing need. More focused fatigue assessment tools and targeted fatigue interventions for patients at the end of life are required, as is training in fatigue management so that healthcare assistants are more knowledgeable and skilled in assessing and managing fatigue. By understanding the physical, psychosocial and emotional needs of an individuals experience of advanced cancer, palliative care research demonstrates that health professionals can help patients to adapt to living with cancer-related fatigue. Such intervention can empower patients to maintain control over decisions relating to their care and can assist them to understand and find meaning in their fatigue. REFERENCES Donnelly S, Walsh D.(1995) The symptoms of advanced cancer. Semin Oncol 1995; 22(2 suppl 3):67–72. Johnson, C. (1992). Coping with compassion fatigue. Nursing, 22(4), 116, 118-120. Ream E. (2007) Fatigue in patients Nursing Stand.2007: 21(28)49-56

Teen Alcoholism :: Teen Drinking

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"In 1991, a study by the United States Surgeon General’s office stated that 8 million out of the 20.7 million young people in grades 7 through 12 drank alcoholic beverages every week. It went on to say that 454,000 of those youngsters reported weekly binges (Claypool 21).† In the United States and all over the world underage teens are drinking, and it may be because they just don’t know about alcohol and its effects (Monroe 56). Underage or teen drinking is a major problem today that is increasing more and more, and something needs to be done to stop this increase and to control the number of underage drinkers. There are many statistics that show just how big this problem is amongst our youth. One frightening statistic that shows how much this problem has been increasing is that between 1948 and 1988 the percent of teen drinkers increased by 57 percent (Nielsen 47). Many parents may think that their child may not drink until they are much older, but the average age that teenagers try alcohol is between the ages twelve and sixteen (9). Also, a 1995 study taken by the University of Michigan stated that 35 out of 100 high school seniors drank 5 or more drinks at one time at least once during their two week survey period (Claypool 10). â€Å" A recent poll by the National Association of Student Councils found that alcohol was the leading school problem and 46 percent [of students] said it was the school’s most serious problem (Monroe 53).† This may be because alcohol is very dangerous because it is a poisonous drug that can be very addictive (Mitchell 6). In order to help solve this problem of underage drinking we must first try to understand why teens drink alcohol. There are many reasons why a young teen may choose to drink alcohol. A national survey, taken in 1995, showed that 87 percent of parents thought that teens drank because of peer pressure, but 79 percent of teenagers said it was just because they liked the feeling they got when they drank (27). The main reason and the biggest reason why teens drink would probably have to be peer pressure, but there are many other reasons other than peer pressure why a teen might drink. â€Å"In addition to peer influences, some experts believe that media depiction of alcohol use in print advertising, television and radio commercials, and fictional television programs such as sitcoms and dramatic series glamorizes alcohol to young people and can influence their decision to drink (Mitchell 28).

The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations

Research Reports The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations Leaf Van Boven, Thomas Gilovich, and Victoria Husted Medvec The authors examined whether negotiators are prone to an â€Å"illusion of transparency,† or the belief that their private thoughts and feelings are more discernible to their negotiation partners than they actually are. In Study One, negotiators who were trying to conceal their preferences thought that their preferences had â€Å"leaked out† more than they actually did. In Study Two, experienced negotiators who were trying to convey information about some of their preferences overestimated their partners’ ability to discern them. The results of Study Three rule out the possibility that the findings are simply the result of the curse of knowledge, or the projection of one’s own knowledge onto others. Discussion explores how the illusion of transparency might impede negotiators’ success. I most cartoon depictions of negotiators in action (a tiny fraction of the cartoon universe, we admit), negotiators are shown with dialog bubbles depicting their overt comments and thought bubbles revealing their private thoughts. These conventions convey the different levels at which negotiators operate: Some of their wants, wishes, and worries are conveyed to the other side, but some are held back for strategic advantage. Because one task in negotiation is deciding how much information to hold back (Raiffa 1982), Leaf Van Boven is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Campus Box 345, Boulder, Colo. 80309. Email: [email  protected] edu. Thomas Gilovich is a Professor of Psychology at Cornell University, Department of Psychology, Ithaca, N. Y. 15850. Email: [email  protected] edu. Victoria Husted Medvec is the Adeline Barry Davee Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Ill. 60201. Email:[email  protected] orthwestern. edu. 0748-4526/03/0400-0117/0  © 2003 Plenum Publishing Corporation Negotiation Journal April 2003 117 it follows that part of the phenomenology of negotiation is monitoring how well one has conveyed what one wants to convey and concealed what one wants to conceal. Do negotiators know how well they have conveyed or concealed their preferences? Typically, negotiators know what they have and have not said, of course, so they may g enerally have a good idea what their partners know about their preferences. But how well calibrated are negotiators’ assessments of what they have conveyed and concealed? We explored one source of potential miscalibration, namely, whether negotiators experience an illusion of transparency, overestimating the extent to which their internal states â€Å"leak out† and are known by others (Gilovich, Savitsky, and Medvec 1998). Most research on the illusion of transparency shows that people overestimate their ability to conceal private information. But there is also evidence that people experience the illusion when trying to convey private information. Individuals who were asked to convey emotions with facial expressions alone overestimated observers’ ability to discern the expressed emotion (Savitsky 1997). Likewise, participants who were videotaped while exposed to humorous material thought they had been more expressive than observers subsequently rated them as being (Barr and Kleck 1995). These findings suggest that, when trying either to conceal or convey information, negotiators may experience an illusion of transparency, overestimating what their partners know about their preferences. Whether they do so is important, because previous research has shown that the likelihood of (optimal) settlement is often contingent on accurate perceptions of what others know about one’s own preferences (Bazerman and Neale 1992; Raiffa 1982; Thompson 1991). We conducted three different studies to examine whether negotiators experience an illusion of transparency in negotiations. Studies One and Three examined whether novice negotiators trying to conceal their preferences tend to overestimate the likelihood that their negotiation partners would be able to identify those preferences. Study Two investigated whether experienced negotiators attempting to communicate some of their preferences also succumb to an illusion of transparency. Study Three was also designed to distinguish the illusion of transparency from the â€Å"curse of knowledge,† or the tendency to project one’s knowledge onto others (Camerer, Loewenstein, and Weber 1989; Keysar and Bly 1995; Keysar, Ginzel, and Bazerman 1995). Specifically, we examined whether observers who are â€Å"cursed† with the same knowledge as the negotiators exhibit the same biases as the negotiators themselves. Study One Method Twenty-four previously unacquainted Cornell University undergraduates participated in pairs in exchange for course credit. Participants learned that 118 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations they would complete a negotiation exercise in which they would each represent the provost at one of two campuses of a multi-campus university system. Because of budget constraints, all of the system’s eight social psychologists needed to be consolidated at the two provosts’ universities. The provosts were to negotiate the distribution of the social psychologists between the two campuses. Participants were informed that some social psychologists were more valuable than others, and that some were more valuable to one campus than the other. These differences were summarized in a report describing the strengths and weaknesses of each psychologist and assigning each a specific number of points. The eight psychologists were among the fifteen most frequently cited in social psychology textbooks (Gordon and Vicarii 1992). To familiarize participants with the psychologist and his or her expertise, each psychologist was depicted on a 2- by 4-inch laminated â€Å"trading card† that displayed a picture of the social psychologist, his or her name, and two of his or her better-known publications. Each negotiator’s most and least valuable psychologists were assigned +5 and –5 points, respectively, and the other psychologists were assigned intermediate values. The experimenter said that all psychologists must be employed at one of the two universities because all were tenured. The most and least valuable psychologists were not the same for the two negotiators; the correlation between how much each of the eight psychologists was worth to the two participants was . 79. Participants were told that they should conceal their report, which was somewhat different from the other participant’s report. Because pilot testing indicated that many participants were unsure how to negotiate, we showed them a five-minute videotape of a staged negotiation in which two confederates bartered over who would get (or be forced to acquire) each psychologist. Confederates were shown trading cards actively back and forth. Participants were given as much time as they needed to negotiate, usually about 30 minutes. They were told that several prizes would be awarded at the end of the academic term (e. g. , a $50 gift certificate to the Cornell book store, dinner for two at a local restaurant) and their chance of winning a prize corresponded to the number of points they earned in the negotiation. We asked participants both early in the negotiation (after approximately five minutes) and at the end to name their partner’s most valuable and least valuable psychologists. At both times, we also asked them to estimate the likelihood (expressed as a percentage) that their partner would correctly identify their most and least valuable psychologists. We pointed out that the probability of correct identification by chance alone was 12. 5 percent. Question order was counterbalanced, with no effect of order in any of our analyses. Negotiation Journal April 2003 119 Results and Discussion Our key analysis was a comparison of participants’ mean estimates to a null value derived from the overall accuracy rate. Participants can be said to exhibit an illusion of transparency if their estimates, on average, are higher than the actual accuracy rate. As predicted, negotiators overestimated their partners’ ability to detect their preferences, but only after the negotiation was complete (see Table One). Early in the negotiation, individuals slightly underestimated (by 2 percent) the likelihood that their partners would correctly identify their most valuable psychologist and slightly overestimated (by 8 percent) the likelihood that their partners would identify their least valuable psychologist. Neither of these differences was statistically reliable. 1 Following the negotiation, participants overestimated the probability that their partners would identify correctly their most and least valuable psychologists by 14 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Both of these differences were statistically reliable. That is, the probability that negotiators overestimated by pure chance how much their partners knew about their preferences is less than . 05 (the t statistics for these two comparisons are 3. 16 and 3. 30, respectively). Negotiators thus experienced an illusion of transparency at the end of the negotiation, overestimating their partners’ ability to discern their preferences. Table One Negotiators’ estimates of the likelihood that their partners would be able to identify their most and least valuable social psychologists, and the corresponding percentages actually able to do so. Estimated % Early negotiation Most valuable Least valuable Post negotiation Most valuable Least valuable 72%* 76%* 58% 63% 69% 58% 71% 50% Actual % Note: * indicates that the estimated percentage is reliably greater than the corresponding actual percentage, p < . 5 120 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations These findings extend earlier research on the illusion of transparency, showing that negotiators believe their inner thoughts and preferences â€Å"leak out† and are more discernible than they really are. This result was obtained only during the second assessment, but we do not wish to make too much of this finding. First, it is hardly surprising because, at the time of the initial assessment, most groups had yet to engage in much discussion of specific candidates, and thus there was little opportunity for participants’ references to have leaked out. Furthermore, it was only participants’ estimates of the detectibility of their least valuable psychologists that rose predictably (from 58 to 76 percent) from early in the negotiation to the end — an increase that was highly statistically reliable (t = 3. 78). Their estimates of the detectibility of their most valuable psychologists stayed largely the same across the course of the negotiation (from 69 to 72 percent) and it was only a decrease in identification accuracy (from 71 to 58 percent) over time that led to the difference in the magnitude of the illusion of transparency. These subsidiary findings may result from the usual dynamics of the negotiation process: Negotiators typically focus initially on the most important issues, postponing a discussion of less important issues or of what they are willing to give up to obtain what they want until later in the negotiation. This would explain why negotiators felt that they had already leaked information about their most important psychologists early in the negotiation, but that a similar feeling of leakage regarding their least important psychologists took longer to develop. This tendency might also explain why it may have been relatively easy for the negotiators to discern one another’s â€Å"top choices† early in the discussion. It may have been harder to do so later on, after the negotiators discussed all of the psychologists and the various tradeoffs between them. Study Two In Study One, participants experienced an illusion of transparency when they were instructed to conceal their preferences from their partners. In many negotiations outside the laboratory, however, negotiators often attempt to communicate rather than conceal their preferences. In fact, negotiation instructors often advise MBAs and other would-be negotiators to communicate information about their preferences. Do negotiators experience an illusion of transparency when they attempt to communicate rather than conceal their preferences? Past research has shown that people experience an illusion of transparency when trying (nonverbally) to convey thoughts and feelings in settings outside negotiations (Barr and Kleck 1995; Savitsky 1997). We therefore examined whether negotiators attempting to communicate some of their preferences, whose efforts at communication are not limited to nonverbal channels, would likewise experience an illusion of transparency. Negotiation Journal April 2003 121 As part of a classroom exercise, MBA students in negotiation courses completed a complex six-party negotiation simulation (Harborco, a teaching tool available from the Clearinghouse of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, www. pon. org). The course emphasized the importance of negotiators communicating some of their preferences to one another in negotiations. Prior to the Harborco negotiation, students had engaged in numerous other exercises in which their failure to convey information resulted in nonoptimal settlements. To verify that the Harborco negotiators were attempting to communicate information about their preferences, we asked 22 Cornell and Northwestern University MBA students (not included in following study) who had just completed the Harborco negotiation to indicate which strategy they engaged in more: an information-sharing strategy (attempting to communicate their preferences to others), or an information-hiding strategy (attempting to conceal their preferences from others). Everyone indicated that they used the information-sharing strategy more. We hypothesized that the same psychological processes that lead novice negotiators trying to conceal their preferences to experience an illusion of transparency would also lead experienced negotiators trying to communicate at least some of their preferences to experience a similar illusion. We thus predicted that participants would overestimate the number of other negotiators who could correctly identify their preferences. Method Two hundred and forty MBA students at Cornell and Northwestern completed the Harborco simulation, negotiating whether, and under what circumstances, a major new seaport would be built off the coast of a fictional city. There were six parties to the negotiation. The negotiator who represented Harborco (a consortium of investors) was most central. A second negotiator, representing the federal agency that oversees the development of such seaports, had to decide whether to subsidize a $3 billion loan Harborco had requested. The other negotiators represented the state governor, the labor unions from surrounding seaports, the owners of other ports that might be affected by a new seaport, and environmentalists concerned about the impact of a new seaport on the local ecology. The negotiation involved five issues, each with several options of varying importance to the six parties. For each negotiator, points were assigned to each option of each issue. Student performance was evaluated according to the number of points accumulated. For example, the most important issue to the Harborco representative was the approval of the subsidized loan (worth 35 points for approval of the full $3 billion, 29 points for approval of a $2 billion loan, etc. ); the second most important issue was the compensation to other ports for their expected losses due to the new seaport (worth 23 points for no compensation, 15 points for compensation of $150 million, 122 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations etc. ). The Harborco negotiator’s preference order for the five issues was somewhat different from the preference order of the other five negotiators. Participants were given approximately one and a half hours to reach an agreement. They were required to vote on a settlement proposed by the Harborco negotiator at three points during the negotiation: after 20 minutes, after one hour, and at the end. A successful agreement required the approval of at least five negotiators. Any agreement that included the subsidized loan required the approval of the federal agency representative. The Harborco negotiator could veto any proposal. The dependent measures, collected after the first and final rounds of voting, concerned the Harborco negotiator’s estimates of the other negotiators’ identification of his or her preference order. The Harborco negotiators estimated how many of the other five negotiators would identify the rank ordering (to the Harborco negotiator) of each issue — for example, how many would identify the approval of the loan as their most important issue? We made clear that one negotiator would guess the exact importance of each issue by chance alone. Meanwhile, each of the other negotiators estimated the issue that was most important to Harborco, second most important, and so on. Figure One Number able to identify each issue 5 4 3 2 1 0 Predicted Number Actual Number ird co nd rth co nd Th ird th Fo ur h Fi rs Fi rs Fi ft Fi rs Th Se Fo u First Round ISSUE IMPORTANCE Predicted and actual number of negotiators able to identify correctly the importance of each issue to the Harborco negotiator after the first and final rounds of voting. Results and Discussion The dashed lines in Figure One indicate that, as predicted, the Harborco negotiators’ estimate of the number of other negotiators who could identify the rank of each issue was greater than the actual number of negotiators able Negotiation Journal April 2003 123 Se Second Round Fi ft h t t t to do so (as indicated by the solid lines). Following the first round of voting, the Harborco negotiators overestimated the number of their fellow negotiators able to identify the importance — to them — of all mid-range issues. All these differences were statistically reliable (all ts > 2. 0). Negotiators did not overestimate the number of negotiators able to identify their most and least important issues. Following the final round of voting, Harborco representatives overestimated the number of negotiators able to identify their four most important issues. This overestimation was statistically reliable for the four most important issues (all t > 2. 25), and was marginally reliable with a probability level of . 14 for the least important issue (t = 1. 5). These findings replicate and extend those of Study One and of previous research on the illusion of transparency. Experienced negotiators who were attempting to convey (rather than conceal) their preferences to other negotiators tended to overestimate the transparency of those preferences. Study Three We contend that negotiators’ overestimation of their partner’s ability to discern their preferences reflects an egocentric illusion whereby negotiators overestimate the transparency of their internal states. An alternative account is that negotiators experience a â€Å"curse of knowledge,† overestimating the knowability of whatever they themselves know (Camerer et al. 989; Keysar and Bly, 1995; Keysar et al. 1995). Negotiators may thus overestimate the discernibility of their preferences because they cannot undo the knowledge of their own preferences, not because they feel like their preferences â€Å"leaked out. † Studies One and Two provide some evidence against this alternative interpretation because participants did not significantly overestimate their partnersâ€⠄¢ ability to discern their preferences early in the negotiation — when they were â€Å"cursed† with the same knowledge, but had little opportunity for their preferences to leak out. To provide a more rigorous test of this alternative interpretation, Study Three employed a paradigm in which observers were yoked to each individual negotiator. The observers were informed of their counterpart’s preferences and thus were â€Å"cursed† with the same abstract knowledge, but not with the phenomenology of having — and possibly leaking — the negotiators’ preferences. After watching a videotaped negotiation between their yoked counterpart and another negotiator, observers estimated the likelihood that their counterpart’s negotiation partner would identify their counterpart’s preferences. We expected that observers’ estimates would be lower than actual negotiators’ estimates because observers would not have the experience of their preferences â€Å"leaking out. † 124 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations Method Twenty-four previously unacquainted Northwestern University undergraduates participated in pairs in exchange for the opportunity to earn between $4 and $13, based on their performance in the negotiation. Negotiators were taken to separate rooms and given instructions for the negotiation. The negotiation was similar to that used in Study One, except that it involved a buyer-seller framework, with which we felt our participants would be familiar. Participants learned that they would act as a provost of one of two campuses of a large university system. Because of budget cuts, the larger of the two campuses (the â€Å"seller†) needed to eliminate fifteen of its 35 psychology department faculty. Because the fifteen faculty were tenured, they could not be fired, but they could be transferred to the smaller of the two campuses (the â€Å"buyer†), which was trying to acquire faculty. Participants were to negotiate over the fifteen psychologists â€Å"in play†; any faculty not acquired by the buyer would remain at the seller’s campus. Participants were given a report that described each psychologist and his or her associated point value. Some of the psychologists had a positive value to buyers and a negative value to sellers, others had a positive value to both, and still others had a negative value to both. Participants were told that they should not show their confidential reports to the other negotiator. Participants earned 25 cents for every positive point and had to pay 25 cents for every negative point they accumulated. To give buyers and sellers an equal chance to make the same amount of money, we endowed sellers with an initial stake of $10 and buyers with an initial stake of $4. If buyers obtained all nine of the beneficial faculty and none of the four costly faculty (two were worth 0 points) they earned an additional $8, for $12 total. Similarly, if the sellers eliminated all eight costly faculty and retained all five beneficial faculty (two were worth 0 points) they earned $2, for $12 total. If no agreement was reached, sellers retained all faculty, losing $6, and buyers acquired no psychologists, leaving both with $4. As in Study One, we gave participants laminated trading cards with a picture of each psychologist and two of that psychologist’s better-known works on the back. The fifteen faculty members, although in reality all social psychologists, were arbitrarily divided into the three subdisciplines of social, clinical, and human-experimental psychology. We designed the payoffs so that the sychologist within each discipline who the buyer most wanted to obtain was not the psychologist the seller most wanted to eliminate. To encourage participants to obtain or retain psychologists across the three disciplines, sellers were offered an additional two points if they eliminated at least one faculty member from each discipline, and an additional four points if they eliminated at least two from each discipline. Similarly, buyers were offered an additional two points if they acquired at least one faculty Negotiation Journal April 2003 125 member from each discipline, and an additional four points if they acquired at least two from each discipline. Thus, maximum earnings for buyers and sellers were $13 (the $12 earned by accumulating all possible positive points, no negative points, plus the $1 bonus). After negotiators understood their task, they were brought together and given as long as they needed to negotiate a division of the fifteen psychologists, usually about 20 minutes. Afterward, buyers estimated the likelihood (expressed as a percentage) that the seller would correctly identify the psychologists from each subdiscipline who were the most and least important for the buyer to obtain; sellers estimated the likelihood that the buyer would correctly identify the psychologists from each subdiscipline who were the most and least important for the seller to eliminate. Participants were told that the chance accuracy rate was 20% percent. Buyers were also asked to identify the psychologists from each subdiscipline who were the most and least important for the seller to eliminate, and sellers were asked to make analogous judgments about the buyers’ incentive structure. Control Condition. Twelve pairs of previously unacquainted Northwestern undergraduates were paid $6 and â€Å"yoked† to one of the 12 pairs from the negotiation condition — one student matched to the buyer and one to the seller. Participants read the instructions given to t heir yoked counterpart (either the buyer or seller) in the actual negotiation before viewing their counterpart’s videotaped negotiation. Participants then made the same estimates as their counterparts in the negotiation condition, identifying the psychologists from each subdiscipline who were most and least important for their counterpart’s negotiation partner to acquire (or eliminate), and estimating the likelihood that their counterpart’s negotiation partner would be able to guess the psychologists in each subdiscipline who were most and least important for their counterpart to obtain (or eliminate). Results Negotiators. As anticipated, negotiators exhibited an illusion of transparency. As can be see in the left and right columns of Table Two, buyers and sellers overestimated their partners’ ability to identify their most important psychologists by 20 percent — both statistically reliable differences (ts= 3. 58 and 3. 45, respectively). Buyers and sellers also overestimated the likelihood that their partner would be able to identify their least important psychologists by 4 percent and 25 percent, respectively, with only the latter result statistically reliable (t = 4. 34). Control participants. Control participants displayed a â€Å"curse of knowledge,† overestimating the likelihood that their counterpart’s negotiation partner would correctly identify their counterpart’s preferences (compare the center and right columns of Table Two). This was particularly true for 126 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations those yoked to sellers: They reliably overestimated the likelihood that their yoked counterparts’ negotiation partners would identify their counterparts’ most and least important psychologists by 12 percent and 19 percent, respectively (ts = 2. 58 and 4. 9). Control participants who were yoked to buyers, in contrast, did not overestimate the likelihood that their yoked counterparts’ negotiation partners would overestimate their counterparts’ preferences. Table Two Participants’ estimates of the likelihood that their negotiators’ partners were able to identify the negotiat ors’ most and least important psychologists, and the corresponding percentages actually able to do so. Negotiators’ Estimates Control Estimates Actual Accuracy Most Important Buyers Sellers Least Important Buyers Sellers 62% 68%* 56% 63%* 58% 42% 70%* 59%* 53% 51%* 50% 39% Note: * indicates that the estimated percentage is reliably greater than the corresponding actual percentage, p < . 05 More important, in every case the control participants’ estimates (overall M = 56 percent) were lower than the actual negotiators’ estimates (overall M = 64 percent) — a statistically reliable difference (t = 2. 53). Thus, negotiators overestimated the transparency of their preferences more than yoked observers who were â€Å"cursed† with the same knowledge, but did not have the same subjective experience as negotiators themselves. Discussion The results of Study Three indicate that negotiators’ overestimation of their partners’ ability to discern their preferences stems from both a curse of knowledge and an illusion of transparency. Observers who were provided with the same abstract knowledge as the negotiators — those provided with Negotiation Journal April 2003 127 abstract information about sellers’ preferences at any rate — overestimated the likelihood that those preferences would be detected. However, this effect was not as strong as that found for actual negotiators’ estimates. Those participants, possessing more detailed knowledge about how it felt to want to obtain some psychologists and avoid others, apparently thought that some of those feelings had leaked out to their partners because they made significantly higher estimates of the likelihood of detection than the observers did. Negotiators experience an illusion of transparency over and above any curse of knowledge to which they are subject. What Does it All Mean? These three studies provide consistent support for an illusion of transparency in negotiations. Undergraduate students who were instructed to conceal their preferences thought that they had â€Å"tipped their hand† more than they actually had (Studies One and Three). Likewise, business students experienced in negotiation who were attempting to communicate information about some of their preferences overestimated how successfully they had done so (Study Three). These results are not due to an abstract â€Å"curse of knowledge† because observers who were cursed with the same knowledge as the negotiators did not overestimate the detectibility of the negotiators’ preferences to the same extent as the negotiators did (Study Three). The illusion of transparency is thus due to the sense that one’s specific actions and reactions that arise in the give-and-take of negotiation — a blush here, an averted gaze there — are more telling than they actually are. These results complement and extend findings by Vorauer and Claude (1998) who examined participants’ ability to estimate how well others could discern their general approach to a joint problem-solving exercise — i. e. , whether they were most interested in being assertive, being fair, being accommodating, and so on. They found that participants thought their goals would be more readily discerned than they actually were. Their findings, however, appear to reflect a curse of knowledge rather than an illusion of transparency because their participants’ estimates of the detectibility of their own goals were just the same as those made by observers who were simply informed of the participants’ goals. The Vorauer and Claude findings should not be surprising since their participants did not actually engage in face-to-face interaction. Instead, each participant exchanged notes with a â€Å"phantom† other, whose responses were crafted by the experimenters. Without interaction, it is difficult see how an illusory sense of transparency could emerge. Vorauer and Claude’s studies, along with the results of Study Three, suggest that the curse of knowledge can likewise lead to exaggerated estimates of how readily one’s negotiation partner can discern one’s own perspective on the negotiation (Keysar et al. 1995). 128 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations It is important to note that both the illusion of transparency and the curse of knowledge reflect people’s difficulty in getting beyond their privileged information. In the curse of knowledge, this information is abstract knowledge of one’s beliefs, preferences, or goals; in the illusion of transparency, this information is more detailed, phenomenological knowledge of how one feels or how difficult it was to suppress a particular reaction. At one level, then, it may be fair to characterize the illusion of transparency as a special case of knowledge — more detailed and affect-laden — with which one is cursed. At another level, however, the differences between the two phenomena may be sufficiently pronounced that there is more to be gained by viewing them as distinct. Ultimately, a more complete understanding of the relationship between the curse of knowledge and illusion of transparency must await the outcome of further research. Future research might also further examine the underlying mechanism proposed for the illusion of transparency. Gilovich et al. (1998) attribute the phenomenon to a process much like Tversky and Kahneman’s (1974) anchoring and adjustment heuristic. When attempting to ascertain how apparent their internal states are to others, people are likely to begin the process of judgment from their own subjective experience. Because people know that others are not as privy to their internal states as they are themselves, they adjust from their own perspective to capture others’ perspective. Because such adjustments tend to be insufficient (Tversky and Kahneman 1974; Epley and Gilovich 2001), the net result is a residual effect of one’s own phenomenology, and the feeling that one is more transparent than is actually the case. This account suggests that the illusion of transparency should be particularly pronounced when the internal state being assessed is one that is strongly and clearly felt, such as when negotiating especially important issues. In addition, future research might examine the impact of the illusion of transparency on negotiation processes and outcomes. Thompson (1991) has shown that when negotiators have different priorities, negotiators who provide information about their priorities to their partners fare better than those who do not. The illusion of transparency may lead negotiators to hold back information about their priorities in the mistaken belief that one has conveyed too much information already. By leading negotiators to believe that their own preferences are more apparent than they really are, the illusion of transparency may give rise to the belief that the other side is being less open and cooperative than they are themselves — which may lead each negotiator to hold back even more. The process can thus spiral in the wrong direction toward greater secrecy. Negotiation Journal April 2003 129 It may be advantageous, then, for negotiators to be aware of the illusion of transparency. If negotiators know they tend to conceal less than they think they do, they may open up a bit more and increase their chances of reaching optimal agreements. In other words, knowing that one’s own â€Å"thought bubbles† are invisible to others can lead to more successful negotiations. NOTES This research was supported by Research Grant SBR9319558 from the National Science Foundation. We thank Tina Rackitt her help in collecting data and Dennis Regan for his comments on an earlier draft. 1. Because the data for each pair of negotiators are interdependent, all analyses in this and subsequent studies used the dyad (or group) as the unit of analysis. 2. A t statistic is a measure of how extreme a statistical estimate is. Specifically, a t is the ratio of the difference between a hypothesized value and an observed value, divided by the standard error of the sampled distribution. Consider negotiators’ estimates, following the negotiation, that their negotiation partner had a 72 percent chance of correctly identifying their most valuable psychologist. Because, in actuality, egotiators identified their partners’ most valuable psychologist only 58 percent of the time, the difference between the hypothesized value (58 percent) and the observed value (72 percent) is 14 percent. The standard error, in this case, is the standard deviation of the difference between a negotiators’ predicted likelihood and the actual likelihood (the average squared difference betw een these two scores), divided by the square root of the sample size. In general, t statistics more extreme than 1. 96 are statistically reliable — that is, the probability that the observed difference is due to chance alone is less than . 5. 3. We also asked negotiators to estimate which subdiscipline was most important to their partner, and to estimate the likelihood that their partner would discern correctly their own preference order vis-a-vis the three subdisciplines. During debriefing, however, participants said they found these questions confusing because they did not parse the 15 faculty according to their subdiscipline, but instead focused on the value of each individual faculty. These responses are therefore not discussed further. REFERENCES Barr, C. L. and R. E. Kleck. 1995. Self-other perception of the intensity of facial expressions of emotion: Do we know what we show? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 68: 608-618. Bazerman, M. H. and M. Neale. 1992. Negotiating rationality. New York: Free Press. Camerer, C. , G. Loewenstein, and M. Weber. 1989. The curse of knowledge in economic settings: An experimental analysis. Journal of Political Economy 97: 1232-1253. Epley, N. and T. Gilovich. 2001. Putting adjustment back in the anchoring and adjustment heuristic: An examination of self-generated and experimenter-provided anchors. Psychological Science 12: 391-396. Gilovich, T. D. , K. K. Savitsky, and V. H. Medvec. 1998. The illusion of transparency: Biased assessments of others’ ability to read our emotional states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75: 332-346. Gordon, R. A. and P. J. Vicarii. 1992. Eminence in social psychology: A comparison of textbook citation, social science citation index, and research productivity rankings. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 18: 26-38. Keysar, B. and B. Bly. 1995. Intuitions about the transparency of intention: Linguistic perspective taking in text. Cognitive Psychology 26: 165-208. Keysar, B. , L. E. Ginzel, and M. H. Bazerman. 1995. States of affairs and states of mind: The effect of knowledge on beliefs. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 64: 283293. Raiffa, H. 1982. The art and science of negotiation. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press. 130 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations Savitsky, K. 1997. Perceived transparency of and the leakage of emotional states: Do we know how little we show? Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Cornell University. Thompson, L. 1990. An examination of naive and experienced negotiators. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 26: 528-544. ———. 1991. Information exchange in negotiation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 27: 161-179. Tversky, A. and D. Kahneman. 1974. Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science 185: 1124-1131. Vorauer, J. D. and S. Claude. 1998. Perceived versus actual transparency of goals in negotiation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 24: 371-385. Negotiation Journal April 2003 131

Legalizing Drugs: The Ultimate Alternative to Cease the Drug War

For years, the United States has constantly been in the midst of a war. As a matter of fact, it is a war that is extreme, costly, and very exposed. Not only is it fought within the U.S. boundaries, but also in foreign shores. This so-called war is the War on Drugs. No one can argue that drugs are like a plague in our society. However, as bad as the effect of drugs on our society is, the effect of prohibition is worse. Federal government has spent billions of dollars on the struggle to end this war. Even the state and local government have spent millions of dollars to cease this war. Local reformers also contribute to this war by generating their own versions of the war and by recruiting as many community groups and leaders as they can to further the effort, but it all seems useless because no favorable results have been obtained so far. The best way to cease this everlasting war is to legalize drugs. Legalizing drugs will help the community as a whole because it will save many lives, help reduce crimes rates, improve research for medicine, and increase the government’s income. By legalizing drugs, hundred of lives can be saved each year. Many of the deaths that are now categorized as â€Å"drug overdose† are, in fact, caused by drugs that are purer than the users’ accustomed dose. This will cause an overdose by merely taking the dose to which they are accustomed. Other deaths are caused by the drugs being â€Å"cut† or diluted with impure or dangerous substances. At present, drugs are cut with anything from relatively harmless things such as baking soda, powdered sugar, lactose and corn starch to poisons like strychnine and arsenic. Legal drugs would fall under the supervision and standards of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), thereby insuring cleaner and purer drugs at consistent dosages. In addition, intravenous and intramuscular drugs could be packaged in single use syringes that are designed to be destroyed by the act of using them once. Thus, preventing the reuse and sharing of needles. This will reduce the spread of AIDs, hepatitis, and many other types of infections. Hence, more lives saved, as well as the reduction of burden on many public resources since many drug abusers cannot afford to pay for medical treatment. The government would have control of all drugs. Once the government has control over the drugs, private industries would be in control of the sale of the drugs. Society learned from the, prohibition of alcohol during the 1920’s, â€Å"private industry is much easier to control compared to public industry or the black market† (Prohibition of Alcohol). Legalizing drugs with the appropriate regulation and control would severely limit the access of drugs to children. Just as minors cannot legally but alcohol, they would not be able to walk into a state regulated drug store and buy drugs. Under the present conditions, drug dealers do not care if he customer is 5 years old or 50 years old. These drug dealers are only concerned on the amount of money that goes into their pockets. New laws would be imposed to the people who can but drugs, how much a person can buy, and where the person can buy drugs. Therefore, this would create a safer and more organized society. Legalizing and regulating drug production and sale will eliminate a plethora of drug crimes, as well as crimes related to drugs. Crimes such smuggling, producing and selling drugs would cease to be profitable. It will also limit the availability of funds to finance other crimes such as illegal gambling, prostitution, extortion and terrorism. Former Nobel Prize Winner for Economics, Milton Friedman states, â€Å"The legalization of drugs would simultaneously reduce the number of crimes and improve the respect for the law. It is hard to imagine any other single provision which could make a more significant contribution to the promotion of law and order (Legalization of Drugs).† Being one of the world’s leading drug-related crime nation, the United States needs to diminish the crime rate. The best option is to obtain this is by legalizing drugs or else like former U.S. Secretary of State, George Schultz says â€Å"†¦ will never obtain any results as long as we are unable to separate crime from the drug business and the incitement to criminality this causes† (Legalization of Drugs). Drugs will likely be cheaper. The supply would be relatively consistent. Market forces such as â€Å"supply and demand† will be less of a determining price factor. Nor will the risk factor to dealers and smugglers affect price. The cost of producing most illegal drugs is minimal, particularly in an industrial setting. Therefore, legalization will reduce crimes such as burglary, mugging, and prostitution. Legalizing drugs would be useful in the medicinal world. It is probably one of the prime reasons why drugs should be legalized because it will be helpful for medical-related research. There are numerous ways in which drugs could be used in the medical field. For example, marijuana helps relieve pain caused by glaucoma. Glaucoma is a â€Å"group of eye diseases characterizes by an increase in intraocular pressure (Garcia, Matthews) † in the eyeball causing damage to the optic disc and impaired vision which sometimes develops into blindness for many people every year. Medical researchers found that as the dose of marijuana increases, the pressure within the eye decreases by up to a 30%, thus, lowering the risk of suffering from such a agonizing and dreadful disease (Garcia, Matthews). Cocaine is another drug which can be used because it was the first effective local anesthetic (Spillane, 2000). However, in the late 1880’s surgical procedures using local anesthetics was replaced by a general anesthesia solution. Several countries South America such as Peru and Bolivia still use coca as both a general stimulant and for more specific medical purposes (Spillane 2000). There are, however, some recent and so far uncertain signs of reviving interests in cocaine from the medical institutions and even coca itself for other medical purposes to be used in researches as well as in diagnosis and treatments. Another illegal drug useful for medical usages is heroin. Heroin was once and is still used as a powerful pain-killer which is used to control intense chronic pains caused by severe diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis (Schaffer). Researchers have found signs showing that heroin is significantly less harmful than most of the drugs which are given in its place. There are other ways drugs could be used for medical purposes, however, due to its illegal status there has not been many in-depth studies into the possible uses of illegal drugs as was initially hoped for. Not only will legalizing drugs help the medical community but it will take the medical world into a new horizon with these drugs. The federal government does not know how to control the great amount of money that they have spent on the war on drugs, which still continues. Yearly, â€Å"the federal government spends around $20 billion dollars (Mann, 2001)† on issues related to the war on drugs. Not only does legalizing drugs help needy organizations, but it also helps the community. The money that the government annually spends on the drug war could be used for building rehabilitation centers for handicapped citizens, building more schools to educate people on drugs, or go into funds for a medical or scientific research. According to former chief of the Planning Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, Theodore R. Vallance, â€Å"the legalization of the now illegal drugs would result in a net saving of $37 billion annual savings for the federal government (Vallance).† The federal government will also benefit from the increase in income due to taxation and licensing of drugs. Just like cig arettes and alcohol, drugs would be taxed. The tax imposed on these drugs should vary on how the drug affects the individuals who take drugs. Marijuana’s side effects, which as â€Å"loud talking and bursts of laughter, lack of memory in conversations, and chronic redness of the eyes (Glantz),† should have a smaller tax rate because its side effects are less severe compared to cocaine and heroin’s side effects. By placing different tax rates on different drugs, according to their side effects, users would start using softer drugs and the usage of harder drugs would be less common because of its high cost. People would have to either start paying to obtain harder drugs or they would diminish their drug use. Drug sales are probably the largest untaxed markets in the United States and around the world, hence, if drugs were legalized, the money from taxing drugs would be used for more serious problems. In short, legalizing drugs will benefit the community at a larger extent. The overly fought, absurd Drug War has been, is, and will continue to be an absolute failure if the United States continues to struggle with it like it has done. Instead, actions needs to be taken and the ultimate alternative is to legalize all drugs. By doing so, a number of lives are saved in many ways. Legalization helps reduce crime, making the community a safer place to live in. Legalization also allows for the exploring or research in the field of medicine. Lastly, the government can save money, but its income will also increase. Works Cited Garcia, G., Matthews, L. â€Å"Laser and Eye Safety in the Laboratory.† New York: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1995): 102 Glantz, Meyer D. â€Å"Correlates and Consequences of Marijuana Use.† Washington D.C.: METROTEC (1984):37 Mann, Judy. â€Å"Money Spent of Drug War Could Be Put To Better Use.† Washington Post (D.C.) 17 October 2001: C12 Nadelmann, Ethan A. â€Å"An Unwinnable   War on Drugs.† New York Times. 26 April 2001: A23 Spillane, Joseph. Cocaine: from medical marvel to modern menace in the United States. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press (2000): 58-61 Schaffer, Clifford A. â€Å"Basic Facts About the War on Drugs.† Drug Reform Coordination Network.