Media and Legal Influences on Decision-Making

媒体和法律对决策的影响

• 批准号: 1421442
• 负责人: Mary Nell Trautner
• 金额: $ 16.36万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Buffalo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-15 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1421442&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Media; Legal; Influences; Decision; Making

How does culture influence decision making? Specifically, this research examines the role that culture plays in whether and how people come to think of medical problems as legal problems. Uncovering how media and the civic and legal social climate influence what people think and what they do when it comes to law not only helps explain the role of these types of culture in shaping people's decisions, but also helps practitioners and activists understand how when the media can encourage citizens to mobilize their rights. Additionally, the study contributes to understanding how legal resources may be translated into health advantages. One crucial resource that is often overlooked by medical sociologists is legal assistance. Under what conditions do families turn to law to help remedy a child's medical problems? Findings may encourage medical sociologists to more routinely consider law as an additional kind of resource that families mobilize for health.In each of four cities selected to reflect distinctive characteristics, the PI will interview 25 families of children who have experienced the same serious, but often preventable , medical injury (Erb's Palsy, a brachial plexus birth injury) about their decisions whether or not to pursue legal action against their doctor. The four cities vary in terms of overall civic climate and extent of exposure to recent media activities surrounding tort reform initiatives. The possible influence of such media is unclear, especially because the messages surrounding different interests in tort reform initiatives are in tension with one another. A message that plaintiffs are "greedy" and "ruining the system for everyone" could make people more reluctant to sue, while a message that "plaintiffs usually win large amounts" may increase people's likelihood of suing. Moreover, these messages may play out differently or have more or less salience in cities with different social characteristics. The expectation is that individuals' decisions are shaped by their social contexts and the unique combinations of civic, legal, and media climates.

文化是如何影响决策的？具体地说，这项研究考察了文化在人们是否以及如何将医疗问题视为法律问题方面所起的作用。揭示媒体以及公民和法律的社会氛围如何影响人们在涉及法律时的想法和行为，不仅有助于解释这些类型的文化在影响人们决策方面的作用，也有助于从业者和活动家了解媒体何时可以鼓励公民动员他们的权利。此外，这项研究有助于理解法律资源如何转化为健康优势。一个经常被医学社会学家忽视的关键资源是法律援助。在什么情况下，家庭会求助于法律来帮助解决儿童的医疗问题？研究结果可能会鼓励医学社会学家更经常地将法律视为家庭动员起来促进健康的另一种资源。在被选为反映鲜明特征的四个城市中的每一个城市，PI将采访25个经历了同样严重但往往可以预防的医疗伤害(Erb‘s Palsy，臂丛神经出生损伤)的儿童家庭，讨论他们是否对医生采取法律行动的决定。这四个城市在整体城市氛围和对最近围绕侵权改革倡议的媒体活动的暴露程度方面存在差异。这类媒体的可能影响尚不清楚，特别是因为围绕侵权改革倡议中不同利益的信息彼此紧张。原告“贪婪”和“破坏每个人的系统”的信息可能会让人们更不愿意起诉，而“原告通常会赢得大笔费用”的信息可能会增加人们起诉的可能性。此外，这些信息可能会以不同的方式在不同的社会特征的城市中发挥作用，或者或多或少具有显着性。人们的期望是，个人的决定是由他们的社会背景以及公民、法律和媒体环境的独特组合决定的。