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Professor EAMONN FERGUSON's Outputs (143)

Moral relativism as a disconnect between behavioural and experienced warm glow (2016)
Journal Article
Ferguson, E., & Flynn, N. (2016). Moral relativism as a disconnect between behavioural and experienced warm glow. Journal of Economic Psychology, 56, 163-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2016.06.002

We examine the robustness of warm glow preferences to changes in the choice set. Behavioural warm glow is measured using the crowded-out charity dictator game of Crumpler and Grossman (2008). In the give treatment, subjects could donate any part of t... Read More about Moral relativism as a disconnect between behavioural and experienced warm glow.

For better or for worse: the moderating effects of personality on the marriage life satisfaction link (2016)
Journal Article
Boyce, C. J., Wood, A. M., & Ferguson, E. (2016). For better or for worse: the moderating effects of personality on the marriage life satisfaction link. Personality and Individual Differences, 97, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.005

On average, marriage tends to lead to temporary increases in life satisfaction, which quickly return to pre-marital levels. This general pattern, however, does not consider the personality of individuals entering into marriage. We examine whether fol... Read More about For better or for worse: the moderating effects of personality on the marriage life satisfaction link.

Individual differences in loss aversion: conscientiousness predicts how life satisfaction responds to losses versus gains in income (2016)
Journal Article
Boyce, C. J., Wood, A. M., & Ferguson, E. (2016). Individual differences in loss aversion: conscientiousness predicts how life satisfaction responds to losses versus gains in income. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(4), https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216634060

Loss aversion is considered a general pervasive bias occurring regardless of context or person making the decision. We hypothesized that conscientiousness would predict an aversion to losses in the financial domain. We index loss aversion by the rela... Read More about Individual differences in loss aversion: conscientiousness predicts how life satisfaction responds to losses versus gains in income.

Individual differences in good manners rather than compassion predict fair allocations of wealth in the dictator game (2016)
Journal Article
Zhao, K., Ferguson, E., & Smillie, L. D. (in press). Individual differences in good manners rather than compassion predict fair allocations of wealth in the dictator game. Journal of Personality, https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12237

Objective. One of the most common tools for studying prosociality is the dictator game, in which allocations to one’s partner are often described in terms of altruism. However, there is less consensus regarding the motivations driving these allocatio... Read More about Individual differences in good manners rather than compassion predict fair allocations of wealth in the dictator game.

Blood donation and altruism: the mechanism of altruism (MOA) approach (2016)
Journal Article
Ferguson, E., & Lawrence, C. (2016). Blood donation and altruism: the mechanism of altruism (MOA) approach. ISBT Science Series, 11, https://doi.org/10.1111/voxs.12209

Is blood donation a pure altruistic act? The answer to this question has profound implications for the type of interventions we can adopt and the way in which research is conducted into blood donor behaviour. This review will address this question an... Read More about Blood donation and altruism: the mechanism of altruism (MOA) approach.

Visuospatial ability as a predictor of novice performance in ultrasound–guided regional anesthesia (2015)
Journal Article
Atif, S., Ferguson, E., Thanawala, V., Bedforth, N. M., Hardman, J., & McCahon, R. A. (2015). Visuospatial ability as a predictor of novice performance in ultrasound–guided regional anesthesia. Anesthesiology, 123(5), https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000000870

Background: Visuospatial ability correlates positively with novice performance of simple laparoscopic tasks. The aims of this study were to identify if visuospatial ability could predict technical performance of an ultrasound–guided needle task by no... Read More about Visuospatial ability as a predictor of novice performance in ultrasound–guided regional anesthesia.

We need to talk about error: causes and types of error in veterinary practice (2015)
Journal Article
Oxtoby, C., Ferguson, E., White, K., & Mossop, L. (2015). We need to talk about error: causes and types of error in veterinary practice. Veterinary Record, 177(17), https://doi.org/10.1136/vr.103331

Patient safety research in human medicine has identified the causes and common types of medical error and subsequently informed the development of interventions which mitigate harm, such as the WHO’s safe surgery checklist. There is no such evidence... Read More about We need to talk about error: causes and types of error in veterinary practice.

Cortisol levels and suicidal behavior: a meta-analysis (2015)
Journal Article
O’Connor, D. B., Ferguson, E., Green, J. A., O'Carroll, R. E., & O'Connor, R. C. (in press). Cortisol levels and suicidal behavior: a meta-analysis. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 63, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.10.011

Suicide is a major cause of death worldwide, responsible for 1.5% of all mortality. The causes of suicidal behavior are not fully understood. Dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, as measured by cortisol levels, is one pote... Read More about Cortisol levels and suicidal behavior: a meta-analysis.

Mechanism of altruism (MOA) approach to blood donor recruitment and retention: a review and future directions (2015)
Journal Article
Ferguson, E. (2015). Mechanism of altruism (MOA) approach to blood donor recruitment and retention: a review and future directions. Transfusion Medicine, 25(4), https://doi.org/10.1111/tme.12233

Background and Objectives. Why do people donate blood? Altruism is the common answer. However, altruism is a complex construct and to answer this question requires a systematic analysis of the insights from the biology, economics and psychology of al... Read More about Mechanism of altruism (MOA) approach to blood donor recruitment and retention: a review and future directions.

An international comparison of deceased and living organ donation/transplant rates in opt-in and opt-out systems: a panel study (2014)
Journal Article
Shepherd, L., O’Carroll, R. E., & Ferguson, E. (2014). An international comparison of deceased and living organ donation/transplant rates in opt-in and opt-out systems: a panel study. BMC Medicine, 12, Article 131. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-014-0131-4

Background
Policy decisions about opt-in and opt-out consent for organ donation are based on limited evidence. To fill this gap we investigated the difference between deceased and living organ donation rates in opt-in and opt-out consent systems acr... Read More about An international comparison of deceased and living organ donation/transplant rates in opt-in and opt-out systems: a panel study.

Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy predicts drug use via externalizing behavior in two community-based samples of adolescents (2014)
Journal Article
Lotfipour, S., Ferguson, E., Leonard, G., Miettunen, J., Perron, M., Pike, G. B., Richer, L., Séguin, J. R., Veillette, S., Jarvelin, M., Moilanen, I., Mäki, P., Nordström, T., Pausova, Z., Veijola, J., & Paus, T. (2014). Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy predicts drug use via externalizing behavior in two community-based samples of adolescents. Addiction, 109(10), 1718-1729. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.12665

Background and Aims
Prenatal exposure to maternal cigarette smoking (PEMCS) is associated with a higher probability of substance use in adolescence. We explore if externalizing behavior mediates this relationship, while controlling for a number of p... Read More about Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy predicts drug use via externalizing behavior in two community-based samples of adolescents.

Fast to Forgive, Slow to Retaliate: Intuitive Responses in the Ultimatum Game Depend on the Degree of Unfairness (2014)
Journal Article
Ferguson, E., Lawrence, C., Bibby, P., & Maltby, J. (2014). Fast to Forgive, Slow to Retaliate: Intuitive Responses in the Ultimatum Game Depend on the Degree of Unfairness. PLoS ONE, 9(5), Article e96344. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0096344

Evolutionary accounts have difficulty explaining why people cooperate with anonymous strangers they will never meet. Recently models, focusing on emotional processing, have been proposed as a potential explanation, with attention focusing on a dual s... Read More about Fast to Forgive, Slow to Retaliate: Intuitive Responses in the Ultimatum Game Depend on the Degree of Unfairness.

The ‘Dark Side’ and ‘Bright Side’ of Personality: When Too Much Conscientiousness and Too Little Anxiety Are Detrimental to the Acquisition of Medical Knowledge and Skill (2014)
Journal Article
Ferguson, E., Semper, H., Yates, J., Fitzgerald, E., Skatova, A., & James, D. (2014). The ‘Dark Side’ and ‘Bright Side’ of Personality: When Too Much Conscientiousness and Too Little Anxiety Are Detrimental to the Acquisition of Medical Knowledge and Skill. PLoS ONE, 9(9), Article e8860

Theory suggests that personality traits evolved to have costs and benefits, with the effectiveness of a trait dependent on how these costs and benefits relate to the present circumstances. This suggests that traits that are generally viewed as positi... Read More about The ‘Dark Side’ and ‘Bright Side’ of Personality: When Too Much Conscientiousness and Too Little Anxiety Are Detrimental to the Acquisition of Medical Knowledge and Skill.

Defining and measuring blood donor altruism: a theoretical approach from biology, economics and psychology (2014)
Journal Article
Evans, R., & Ferguson, E. (2014). Defining and measuring blood donor altruism: a theoretical approach from biology, economics and psychology. Vox Sanguinis, 106(2), https://doi.org/10.1111/vox.12080

Background and Objectives
While blood donation is traditionally described as a behaviour motivated by pure altruism, the assessment of altruism in the blood donation literature has not been theoretically informed. Drawing on theories of altruism fro... Read More about Defining and measuring blood donor altruism: a theoretical approach from biology, economics and psychology.

Health specific traits beyond the Five Factor Model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to Watson (2012), Matthews (2012) and Haslam, Jetten, Reynolds, and Reicher (2012) (2013)
Journal Article
Ferguson, E., Ward, J. W., Skatova, A., Cassaday, H. J., Bibby, P. A., & Lawrence, C. (2013). Health specific traits beyond the Five Factor Model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to Watson (2012), Matthews (2012) and Haslam, Jetten, Reynolds, and Reicher (2012). Health Psychology Review, 7(Supple), Article S85-S103. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2012.701061

In this article we reply to the issues raised by the three commentaries on Ferguson's (2012) article. Watson argues that the four traits identified by Ferguson (2012) – health anxiety, alexithymia, empathy and Type D – do not lie outside the Five Fac... Read More about Health specific traits beyond the Five Factor Model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to Watson (2012), Matthews (2012) and Haslam, Jetten, Reynolds, and Reicher (2012).

Personality is of central concern to understand health: towards a theoretical model for health psychology (2011)
Journal Article
Eamonn, F. (2013). Personality is of central concern to understand health: towards a theoretical model for health psychology. Health Psychology Review, 7(Suppl1), S32-S70. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2010.547985

This paper sets out the case that personality traits are central to health psychology. To achieve this, three aims need to be addressed. First, it is necessary to show that personality influences a broad range of health outcomes and mechanisms. Secon... Read More about Personality is of central concern to understand health: towards a theoretical model for health psychology.