Calidad de vida

Que vaya por delante que a pesar de llevar más de un cuarto de siglo fuera, soy y seré español, y escribo estas líneas más por frustración que por irritar a nadie (y recuerden, por favor, el título del blog). El caso es que más de una y más de doce veces, hablando con amigos compatriotas que siguen viviendo en esa nuestra patria trágica, sale el tema de la calidad de vida, y, más por evitar discusiones que por otra cosa, me suelo callar. Pero, teniendo ya unos años, un abanico de experiencias internacionales, y unos ciertos conocimientos de psicología, he llegado a la conclusión de que en muchas ocasiones la actitud de “en España se vive mejor” no es más que un autoengaño. Y si fuese solo eso, pues que cada cual se cuente a sí mismo las historias que le hagan la vida más cómoda. Faltaría más. Pero a menudo este tipo de sesgos llevan a la complacencia, a la resignación, y a la inercia, y se convierten en actitudes perniciosas que ponen piedras en el camino de las posibilidades de mejora de nuestro país.

Avoiding “out of scope” at JoEP

In a previous post, I discussed desk rejections at the Journal of Economic Psychology, which I have been editing since January 1st, 2019. Here I want to pay special attention to a particular type of those: “out of scope,” that is, desk rejections indicating that “I regret to inform you that your paper is not appropriate for our audience.” The Journal of Economic Psychology publishes research which is generally at the intersection of economics and psychology. As a declaration of intentions, we are interested in the psychological foundations of and mechanisms underlying economic decisions. That covers a lot of ground, including (obviously) all of economic psychology, generally all of behavioral economics, and also nascent fields as neuroeconomics and behavioral economic theory.

Still, as the Editor in Chief, I regularly reject papers with an “out of scope” notice.

Editor in Chief of the Journal of Economic Psychology

On January 1^st, 2019, I became the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Economic Psychology (JoEP), an interdisciplinary journal which publishes research both on Economic Psychology and on Behavioral Economics. I have succeeded Martin Kocher and Stefan Schulz-Hardt, who in turn succeeded Erik Hoelzl and Eric Kirchler a couple of years ago. There will eventually be a second Co-Editor, but for the moment being I am alone at the helm, and I have committed to be a Co-Editor until at least end of 2022. I know the journal well, as I have been in the board as an Associate Editor for some years now (since the times of Erik and Eric).

Musings on the German Universities’ “Chair System”

As a tenured full professor in Germany, for the last twelve years (and change) I have also been a “Chair holder” in the famous and infamous “Chair system” of German universities, where the power rests on the Chairs and not on the departments. That is, even if there is a Department of X, the actual administrative unit is the “Chair” (somehow, I feel that I have to capitalize that), where a single full professor has near-absolute power over a few assistants, a part-time secretary, and a modest research budget. The “Department” is then just a loose coalition of Chairs, which sometimes cooperate with each other. The most-prominent alternative is the actual department structure, where professors are colleagues within a larger unit, with hiring committees, common budgets, organized supervision of Ph.D. students, and front offices with shared administrative personnel.

On Spanish names: I am not Mr. Ferrer!

Again somebody called me “Mr. Ferrer” today. So tired, really. Twenty years abroad, and it still bothers me that so many people just assume that Germanic/Anglic naming conventions are universal in this planet. And I am not just speaking of non-academics and people with a, hm, let’s say “local horizon.” I have also seen this kind of mistake among scientists and internationally-oriented professionals, including the newspaper The Economist calling Gabriel García Márquez “Mr. Márquez” (I still shudder when remembering that one; the sloppiness of that newspaper in things like these was one of the reasons which made me give up my subscription years ago).

Dieser Eintrag wurde gelöscht

Es gab hier mal einen Eintrag über studentische Empörungswellen, Mathe-Angst, und den Anschein der Ausländerfeindlichkeit. Ich wurde “von oben” darum gebeten, diesen Eintrag zu löschen. Er wurde also gelöscht, denn so wichtig ist es mir nicht (mehr). Meine Meinung ist und bleibt meine Meinung, jedoch ist sie in dieser Angelegenheit hier nicht mehr zu lesen, denn es könnte eine Empörungswelle geben. Für alle die es verstehen: dem Anschein nach, N=4.