Social Psychology

proattitudinal. It is unclear, therefore, whether ingroup members elicited favoritism from mortality salient participants because of their group membership or because of their presumably proattitudinal position, or both. The authors present two studies in which the individual's group membership and attitudinal position are jointly manipulated. Results showed that among mortality salient participants, the outgroup member received favorable or unfavorable evaluations depending on his position, whereas the ingroup member received moderately positive evaluations regardless of the position taken.

Recent research on the self-validation hypothesis suggests that source credibility identiWed after message processing can inXuence the conWdence people have in their own thoughts generated in response to persuasive messages . The present research explored the implications of this eVect for the possibility that high credibility sources can be associated with more or less persuasion than low credibility sources. In two experiments, it is demonstrated that when people generate primarily positive thoughts in response to a message (e.g., because the message contains strong arguments) and then learn of the source, high source credibility leads to more favorable attitudes than does low source credibility. When people have primarily negative thoughts in response to a message (e.g., because it contains weak arguments), however, this eVect is reversed-that is, high source credibility leads to less favorable attitudes than does low source credibility.

People can generate the same thoughts or process the same information with different degrees of ease, and this subjective experience has implications for attitudes and social judgment. In prior research, it has generally been assumed that the experience of ease or fluency is interpreted by people as something good. In the two experiments reported here, the meaning or value of ease was directly manipulated, and the implications for evaluative judgments were explored. Across experiments, we replicated the traditional ease-of-retrieval effect (more thought-congruent attitudes when thoughts were easy rather than difficult to generate) when ease was described as positive, but we reversed this effect when ease was described as negative. These findings suggest that it is important to consider both the content of metacognition (e.g., ''those thoughts were easy to generate'') and the value associated with that content (e.g., ''ease is good'' or ''ease is bad'').

This study investigated whether the temporal order of people's expressed statements and their behaviors affected others' judgments of hypocrisy, and why. It was proposed that hypocrisy would be greater when a statement establishing a personal standard preceded a behavior violating that standard as opposed to the reverse order. This order effect occurred in three studies, generalizing across two topic areas (healthy living and safe sex) and for both normative and nonnormative statements (pro/anti-safe sex). Mediation analyses indicated that the reverse order mitigated against hypocrisy because the target's inconsistency was attributed to dispositional change. The discussion addresses additional variables likely to affect hypocrisy and the relationship of this research to hypocrisy paradigms in dissonance.

Research indicates that messages or products matching individuals' self-schemata are viewed more favorably, but little is known about how or when such effects occur. Experiment 1 indicates that messages matched to participants' level of extroversion lead to larger argument quality effects on attitudes than do mismatched messages. In experiment 2, these effects are replicated with the selfschema of need for cognition. Across studies, matching messages to recipients' self-schemata leads to increased or decreased persuasion, depending on the advertisement's argument quality. The interaction of self-schema matching with argument quality along with participants' pattern of cognitive responses suggests an elaboration-based account.

The current research explored the interaction of context and motivation to control prejudice reactions (MCPR) on automatic evaluative responses toward individuals of different races. Three studies incorporated contextual backgrounds into an evaluative priming procedure. Across all three studies, White participants low in MCPR demonstrated automatic ingroup biases when threatening contexts were presented. However, in contexts where targets could be construed as threatening, Whites high in MCPR showed automatic outgroup biases in favor of Blacks over Whites. Importantly, this outgroup bias was driven by an automatic inhibition of negative responses toward Blacks. The results indicate that even at the automatic level, people high in motivation to control prejudice can inhibit negative responses toward Blacks in contexts that have cues associated with prejudice.

We examine the influence of two specific negative emotions (i.e., sadness and anger) on consumers' preference for an advertised product promoting either activity (e.g., exercise) or passivity (e.g., relaxation). On the basis of empirical distinctions between the level of activation accompanying sadness and anger, and drawing upon a mood-as-information perspective, we hypothesized that individuals will have a preference for activity to passivity when in an angry compared to a sad emotional state. Thus, when angry, they preferred a product advertised as active, whereas when sad they preferred a product described in more passive terms.

Two studies are reported examining individual differences in the need to evaluate as a determinant of memory-based versus online information processing. In each study, participants read statements describing the behaviors of a hypothetical target person and reported their attitudes toward this person. Consistent with expectations, high need to evaluate individuals formed attitudes in a spontaneous, on-line fashion, whereas low need to evaluate individuals formed them in a less spontaneous, more memory-based fashion. This conclusion was supported by two kinds of evidence: attitude-recall valence relationships (Experiments 1 and 2) and response latency measures (Experiment 2). These results suggest that evaluative responding in the domain of person perception is less pervasive than concluded in prior research.

Although much research on stereotyping has documented significant negative consequences for the targets of unfavorable racial stereotypes, relatively little work has examined negative implications for the holders of such stereotypes. The present research highlights a notable cost for stereotype holders. In two studies, we demonstrated that racial stereotype activation can elicit maladaptive, stereotype-consistent behavior for nonstereotyped individuals who hold a stereotype. Non-African-American participants who were subtly primed with the African American stereotype performed significantly worse on a standardized math test than participants who were not so primed. The effect of the prime was significantly stronger for those individuals who spontaneously considered the stereotype from the first-person perspective. Implications and possible mechanisms of the effect are discussed.

The social inhibition of helping is well documented, and this phenomenon has been explained in terms of the general processes of audience inhibition, social influence, and diffusion of responsibility. In the present research, we adapted the paradigm used in studies of the attribution of responsibility for an accident to examine a specific audience-inhibition process that may contribute to the social inhibition of helping. Evidence from two experiments showed that an individual who adopted the perspective of a helper following an accident expected to be held increasingly responsible by arriving onlookers for the victim's plight as the number of extant bystanders increased. Results also indicated that there was an objective basis for this expectation: Subjects who adopted the perspective of a newly arriving onlooker increasingly attributed responsibility for doing harm to the individual helping the victim in the accident as the number of bystanders described as already at the scene increased. The distinction between confusion and diffusion of responsibility is emphasized, and limitations to confusion of responsibility for accidents are discussed.

The rationality of individual agents is secured for the most part by their make-up or design. Some agents, however -in particular, human beings -rely on the intentional exercise of thinking or reasoning in order to promote their rationality further; this is the activity that is classically exemplified in Rodin's sculpture of Le Penseur. Do group agents have to rely on reasoning in order to maintain a rational profile? Recent results in the theory of judgment aggregation show that under a range of plausible conditions they do. In a slogan: group agents are made, not born.

The technological manipulation of life was first advocated at the turn of the last century and was instrumental in shaping the rise of molecular biology. However, the widespread use of the term has only occurred since the mid-2000s, as the field has emerged owing to the falling cost of gene sequencing and synthesis. The aims of synthetic biology include: 1) the production of minimal living genomes; 2) the design of interchangeable parts that can be assembled into pathways for the fabrication of novel components; 3) the construction of entirely artificial cells; and 4) the creation of synthetic biomolecules.

Although fully generative models have been successfully used to model the contents of text documents, they are often awkward to apply to combinations of text data and document metadata. In this paper we propose a Dirichlet-multinomial regression (DMR) topic model that includes a log-linear prior on document-topic distributions that is a function of observed features of the document, such as author, publication venue, references, and dates. We show that by selecting appropriate features, DMR topic models can meet or exceed the performance of several previously published topic models designed for specific data.

Although fully generative models have been successfully used to model the contents of text documents, they are often awkward to apply to combinations of text data and document metadata. In this paper we propose a Dirichlet-multinomial regression (DMR) topic model that includes a log-linear prior on document-topic distributions that is a function of observed features of the document, such as author, publication venue, references, and dates. We show that by selecting appropriate features, DMR topic models can meet or exceed the performance of several previously published topic models designed for specific data.

Although fully generative models have been successfully used to model the contents of text documents, they are often awkward to apply to combinations of text data and document metadata. In this paper we propose a Dirichlet-multinomial regression (DMR) topic model that includes a log-linear prior on document-topic distributions that is a function of observed features of the document, such as author, publication venue, references, and dates. We show that by selecting appropriate features, DMR topic models can meet or exceed the performance of several previously published topic models designed for specific data.

This study investigates the relationship between self-deception and variables associated with antisociality in the general population (i.e., mating effort, antisocial thinking, psychopathy, and personality), seeking to provide an evolutionary explanation for how self-deception might influence antisocial thinking. The Mating Effort Scale (MES); an adjusted version of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS); the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP); the NEO-Five Factor Inventory-Revised (NEO-FFI-R), and the Paulhus Deception Scales (PDS) were administered to 95 participants (33 males, 62 females, mean age = 36.4 years). Self-deceptive enhancement correlated significantly and negatively with Neuroticism (r = −.30, p < 0.01), and positively with Openness (r = .27, p < 0.05) and Conscientiousness (r = .43, p < 0.01). Mating effort related primarily to the PICTS and self-reported psychopathy. Factor analysis of the scales produced two underlying components; ‘careless non-cooperation’ (defined by impulsive antisociality) and ‘careful cooperation’ (reflecting dutifulness, emotional stability, and social desirability). Our results suggest self-deceptive enhancement may be a protective factor against antisocial thinking and behaviour, and that this is impeded by high neuroticism and impulsive thinking.

The current study examined the relationship between narcissism and vanity, and the degree these are predicted by the ‘Big Five’ personality traits and mating effort (ME) using a sample of 103 females recruited from a large beauty salon. Narcissism correlated with vanity at 0.72 (P < 0.001), and was associated positively with extraversion (E), ME and the subscales of vanity; narcissism was associated negatively with neuroticism (N) and agreeableness (A). Vanity correlated positively with E, conscientiousness, both subscales of narcissism, and ME, and negatively with N and A. A composite narcissism–vanity score was produced using principal components analysis, and used along with scores from the NEO-FFI-R to predict mating effort. The narcissism–vanity composite, low A and E significantly and independently predicted mating effort (adjusted R2 = 0.28, F(9.96) = 7.74, P < 0.001). These results show that mating effort is additionally predicted by narcissism as well as self-reported personality.

In two longitudinal studies, the authors examined the direction of the relationships between trait gratitude, perceived social support, stress, and depression during a life transition. Both studies used a full cross-lagged panel design, with participants completing all measures at the start and end of their first semester at college. Structural equation modeling was used to compare models of direct, reverse, and reciprocal models of directionality. Both studies supported a direct model whereby gratitude led to higher levels of perceived social support, and lower levels of stress and depression. In contrast, no variable led to gratitude, and most models of mediation were discounted. Study 2 additionally showed that gratitude leads to the other variables independently of the Big Five factors of personality. Overall gratitude seems to directly foster social support, and to protect people from stress and depression, which has implications for clinical interventions.

Are some people more prone to instabilities in partisanship due to the ways they rank and organize their core values? We investigate the mechanisms of partisan volatility, considering whether instabilities reflect value-driven ambivalence in party identification. Our expectation is that when the basic values of the American ethos come into conflict in elite discourse, citizens become ambivalent about partisan beliefs when they cannot reconcile their own value arrangement with that of elites. To this end, we use several heteroskedastic regression and ordered probit models to explore whether the conflict of competing values explains the response variance and over time instability of individual level partisanship and ideology. To construct measures of value conflict, we rely on data from the 1992, 1994, and 1996 American National Election Studies. We find that while instabilities in partisan identification reflect low information for some, the competition of core values generates ambivalence in partisan affiliations for others. In deliberating the value tradeoffs of politics, people may end up conflicted even about central beliefs such as party identification.

Buyer-Seller networks are pervasive in developing economies yet remain relatively understudied. Using primary data on contracts between the largest tractor assembler in Pakistan and its suppliers we …nd large variations in prices and quantities across suppliers of the same product. Surprisingly, "tied" suppliers -those that choose higher levels of speci…c investments -receive lower and more unstable orders and lower prices. These results are explained by developing a simple model of ‡exible specialization under demand uncertainty. A buyer faces multiple suppliers with heterogeneous types to supply customized parts. Speci…c investments raise surplus within the relationship but lower the seller's ‡exibility to cater to the outside market. Higher quality suppliers have a greater likelihood of selling outside and so this cost is greater for them. Therefore even if a buyer typically prefers high types, some low type suppliers might be kept as marginal suppliers because of their greater willingness to invest more in buyer-speci…c assets. Further empirical examination shows that the more tied suppliers are indeed of lower quality.

The paper presents a simulation of the dynamics of impersonal trust. It shows how a "trust and reciprocate" norm can emerge and stabilize in populations of conditional cooperators. The norm, or behavioral regularity, is not to be identified with a single strategy. It is instead supported by several conditional strategies that vary in the frequency and intensity of sanctions.

In this article, we propose that adolescents' online interactions are both a literal and a metaphoric screen for representing major adolescent developmental issues, such as sexuality and identity. Because of the public nature of Internet chat rooms, they provide an open window into the expression of adolescent concerns. Our study utilizes this window to explore how issues of sexuality and identity are constructed in a teen chat room. We adapt qualitative discourse methodology to microanalyze a half-hour transcript from a monitored teen chat room, comparing it, where relevant, to a second transcript, used in a prior study [Greenfield, P.M., Subrahmanyam, K., 2003. Online discourse in a teen chat room: New codes and new modes of coherence in a visual medium. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 24, 713-738.]. Our microanalysis reveals that participants use the online space of teen chat to air adolescent concerns about sexuality and to develop creative strategies to exchange identity information with their peers. This exchange is critical to the activity of bpairing offQ, an important teenage expression of emerging sexuality. Developmental issues from adolescents' offline lives are reconstructed online with some important differences. The virtual world of teen chat may offer a safer environment for exploring emerging sexuality than the real world. Through the verbally explicit exchange of identity information, participants are able to bpair offQ with partners of their choice, despite the disembodied nature of chat participants. D

Deviations from the predictions of covariational models of causal attribution have often been reported in the literature. These include a bias against using consensus information, a bias toward attributing effects to a person, and a tendency to make a variety of unpredicted conjunctive attributions. It is contended that these deviations, rather than representing irrational biases, could be due to (a) unspecified information over which causal inferences are computed and (b) the questionable normativeness of the models against which these deviations have been measured. A probabilistic extension of Kelley's analysis-of-variance analogy is proposed. An experiment was performed to assess the above biases and evaluate the proposed model against competing ones. The results indicate that the inference process is unbiased.

The authors performed two experiments in which subjects were asked to make similarity judgments about social concepts, varying the direction of the comparison specified by the question. Asymmetries in rated similarity were used to diagnose concepts that function as habitual reference points. In Experiment 1 subjects rated a friend as more similar to themselves than vice versa along both social and physical dimensions, suggesting that the self served as a reference point. In Experiment 2 subjects made global similarity comparisons between themselves and typical examples of various social stereotypes. Directional asymmetries were inversely related to the extent of subjects' knowledge about the stereotypes: The self acted as a reference point with respect to stereotypes with few known attributes but not with respect to those with many attributes. The relation between level of self-monitoring and asymmetry effects was weak and inconsistent across the two experiments. The results suggest that concepts serving as social reference points vary across judgment contexts in accord with general cognitive models of similarity comparisons.

Previous research has indicated that decision making is accompanied by an increase in the coherence of assessments of the factors related to the decision alternatives. In the present study, the authors investigated whether this coherence shift is obtained before people commit to a decision, and whether it is obtained in the course of a number of other processing tasks. College students were presented with a complex legal case involving multiple conflicting arguments. Participants rated agreement with the individual arguments in isolation before seeing the case and after processing it under various initial sets, including playing the role of a judge assigned to decide the case. Coherence shifts were observed when participants were instructed to delay making the decision (Experiment 1), to memorize the case (Experiment 2), and to comprehend the case (Experiment 3). The findings support the hypothesis that a coherence-generating mechanism operates in a variety of processing tasks, including decision making.

Previous research has indicated that decision making is accompanied by an increase in the coherence of assessments of the factors related to the decision alternatives. In the present study, the authors investigated whether this coherence shift is obtained before people commit to a decision, and whether it is obtained in the course of a number of other processing tasks. College students were presented with a complex legal case involving multiple conflicting arguments. Participants rated agreement with the individual arguments in isolation before seeing the case and after processing it under various initial sets, including playing the role of a judge assigned to decide the case. Coherence shifts were observed when participants were instructed to delay making the decision (Experiment 1), to memorize the case (Experiment 2), and to comprehend the case (Experiment 3). The findings support the hypothesis that a coherence-generating mechanism operates in a variety of processing tasks, including decision making.

Computational models of analogical inference have assumed that inferences about the target are generated solely by "copying with substitution and generation" from the source, guided by a mapping based on similarity and parallel structure. In contrast, work in philosophy of science has stressed that analogical inference is based on causal models of the source and target. In two experiments, we showed that reducing analogical overlap by eliminating a matching higherorder relation (a preventive cause) from the target increased inductive strength even though it decreased similarity of the analogs. Analogical inference appears to be mediated by building and then "running" a causal model.

Because youth with aggressive conduct disorder (CD) often inflict pain on others, it is important to determine if they exhibit atypical empathic responses to viewing others in pain. In this initial functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, 8 adolescents with aggressive CD and 8 matched controls were scanned while watching animated visual stimuli depicting other people experiencing pain or not experiencing pain. Furthermore, these situations involved either an individual whose pain was caused by accident or an individual whose pain was inflicted on purpose by another person. After scanning, participants rated how painful the situations were. In both groups the perception of others in pain was associated with activation of the pain matrix, including the ACC, insula, somatosensory cortex, supplementary motor area and periaqueductal gray. The pain matrix was activated to a significantly greater extent in participants with CD, who also showed strong amygdala, ventral striatum, and temporal pole activation. When watching situations in which pain was intentionally inflicted, control youth also exhibited signal increase in the medial prefrontal frontal cortex, lateral obitofrontal cortex, and temporoparietal junction, whereas youth with CD only exhibited activation in the insula. Furthermore, connectivity analyses demonstrated that youth with CD exhibited less amygdala/prefrontal coupling when watching pain inflicted by another than did control youth. These preliminary findings suggest that youth with aggressive CD exhibit an atypical pattern of neural response to viewing others in pain that should be explored in further studies.

Traditional activities change in surprising ways when computermediated communication becomes a component of the activity system. In this descriptive study, we leverage two perspectives on social activity to understand the experiences of individuals who became active collaborators in Wikipedia, a prolific, cooperatively-authored online encyclopedia. Legitimate peripheral participation provides a lens for understanding participation in a community as an adaptable process that evolves over time. We use ideas from activity theory as a framework to describe our results. Finally, we describe how activity on the Wikipedia stands in striking contrast to traditional publishing and suggests a new paradigm for collaborative systems.

Can covert sensorimotor simulation of stimulus-relevant actions influence affective judgments, even when there is no intention to act? Skilled and novice typists picked which of two letter dyads they preferred. In each pair, one dyad, if typed using standard typing methods, would involve the same fingers (e.g., FV); the other would be typed with different fingers (e.g., FJ). Thus, if typed, dyads of the former kind should create more motor interference than dyads of the latter kind. Although individuals could not explain how the dyads differed, skilled typists preferred those typed with different fingers. Novices showed no preference. Moreover, a motor task performed while making dyad preference judgments attenuated skilled typists' preference-but only when the motor task involved the specific fingers that would be used to type the dyads. These findings suggest that in skilled typists, perceiving letters prompts covert sensorimotor simulation of typing them, which in turn influences affective judgments about this information.

Different patterns of young people's and adult's political participation depend on two types of causal factors (Bennet, 1997). On the one hand, there is a cohort effect that reflects different contexts in which the process of political socialization of each generation takes place. And therefore, there is a trend that explains stable differences between generations. On the other hand, there is also a life-cycle effect, and depending on this factor political participation patterns change as time passes, which leads to a convergence between generations. However, on an empirical level, it is very complex to distinguish the size of both effects when it comes to explaining differences in participation of young people and adults at a certain moment in time. This article makes a comparison using three waves of the EVS (European Value Survey) in 1980, 1990 and 2000. There are two objectives: First, comparing differences in patterns of participation of young people during the last three decades in Europe (cohort effect). In the second place, study evolution of the trajectories of political participation of young people in the three cohorts throughout time (life-cycle effect). Comparisons of these results will allow us to identify to what extent differences between cohorts are persistent (in which case, we will have to find the explanations in different contexts of political socialization) or, on the contrary, if there is convergence between cohorts (in that case, explaining factors will be found in the processes of transition from youth to adulthood).

This paper presents two studies, conducted in two different countries, investigating perceptions of ingroups as enduring, temporally persistent entities, and introduces a new instrument measuring 'perceived collective continuity' (PCC). In Study 1 we show that perceptions of ingroup continuity are based on two main dimensions: perceived cultural continuity (perceived continuity of norms and traditions) and perceived historical continuity (perceived interconnection between different historical ages and events). This study also allows the construction of an internally consistent PCC scale including two subscales tapping on these two dimensions. Study 2 replicates findings from the first study; it also reveals that PCC is positively correlated to a set of social identity-related measures (e.g., group identification and collective self-esteem), and that its effects on these measures are mediated by perceived group entitativity. Overall, these two studies confirm that PCC is an important theoretical construct, and that the PCC scale may become an important instrument in future research on group processes and social identity.

Research has shown that people tend to perceive the groups to which they belong (e.g., national groups) as temporally persistent. In this paper we argue that enhanced perceptions of collective continuity lead to lower levels of anomy and misfit, and to higher levels of social well-being (SWB). Furthermore, we argue that the effects of perceived collective continuity (PCC) on SWB are mediated by collective self-esteem (CSE). Finally, we contend that PCC has positive effects on perceived group entitativity (PGE), which in turn has a positive influence on CSE. This model is tested by means of a cross-sectional study using a sample of Spanish nationals (N ¼ 145) drawn from the general public. Results confirm that the data fit the model well. These findings are in line with research demonstrating that a sense of personal continuity through time is related with better mental health and personal well-being.

This volume is the first to bring together the fast-growing research on self-continuity from multiple perspectives within and beyond social psychology.

The book covers individual and collective aspects of self-continuity, while a final section explores the relationship between these two forms. Topics include environmental and cultural influences on self-continuity; the interplay of autobiographical memory and personal self-continuity; the psychological function of self-continuity; personal and collective self-continuity; and resistance to change. The volume is rounded off with commentaries on the central issues and themes that have been discussed.

The book provides a unique sourcebook for this important topic and will appeal not only to upper-level students and researchers in social psychology, but, in view of the multiple perspectives represented in the volume, it will also appeal to cognitive, developmental, and personality psychologists.

When performances are evaluated they are very often presented in a sequential order. Previous research suggests that the sequential presentation of alternatives may induce systematic biases in the way performances are evaluated. Such a phenomenon has been scarcely studied in economics. Using a large data set of performance evaluation in the Idol series (N=1522), this paper presents new evidence about the systematic biases in sequential evaluation of performances and the psychological phenomena at the origin of these biases.

Many people argue that computer games are unhealthy, and some people claim that they are "addictive." Such arguments assert that as a result of these games, children have lost interest in school, spouses have lost interest in partners, and employees are coming to work tired and distracted. Is this true? And if so, what makes online games so "addictive?"
In this study we report on ethnographic fieldwork from "inside" the EverQuest community, including participant observation and in-depth interviews concerning the experience of becoming a member of the EverQuest community. We test our hypothesis that video game addictions are constructions of a greater need for community. First we discuss the issues regarding addiction and community as they pertain to this study of EverQuest. Second, we highlight initial findings from our fieldwork data. Third, we suggest possible avenues for further exploration by looking at possible implications of regulating online game communities. We have looked at historical perceptions of addiction, the concept of community, and conducted background research on the online game EverQuest. Our fieldwork included conducting participant observation in Norrath, and interviews with people who treat addiction disorders and those who partake in the community of EverQuest.

Brain images are believed to have a particularly persuasive influence on the public perception of research on cognition. Three experiments are reported showing that presenting brain images with articles summarizing cognitive neuroscience research resulted in higher ratings of scientific reasoning for arguments made in those articles, as compared to articles accompanied by bar graphs, a topographical map of brain activation, or no image. These data lend support to the notion that part of the fascination, and the credibility, of brain imaging research lies in the persuasive power of the actual brain images themselves. We argue that brain images are influential because they provide a physical basis for abstract cognitive processes, appealing to people's affinity for reductionistic explanations of cognitive phenomena.

Este estudio tiene como principal objetivo analizar el impacto de la ineficiencia judicial sobre la pequeña empresa en Perú. Se funda sobre la hipótesis de que los problemas crónicos de los sistemas de justicia de la región tienen consecuencias negativas para el desarrollo de las micro, pequeñas y medianas empresas. Nuestro análisis se concentra, en primer lugar, en la forma en que las pymes se relacionan con el sistema de justicia. En segundo lugar, indaga acerca de las decisiones tomadas por los pequeños empresarios a fin de mitigar los efectos del mal desempeño de los tribunales. Por último, identifica las diversas maneras en que la ineficiencia judicial se traslada al sector productivo y se intenta cuantificar su impacto económico.

This study analyzes the impact of judicial inefficiency on small businesses in Peru. It is based on the hypothesis that chronic problems in the region’s judicial systems have negative consequences on the development of micro, small and medium-sized businesses. The analysis focuses, first, on the relationship between small businesses and the legal system. Secondly, it looks at decisions made by small businesses to mitigate the effects of poor performance by the courts. Lastly, it identifies several ways in which judicial inefficiency is transferred to the business sector. The analysis also attempts to quantify the economic impact of judicial inefficiency.