Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Understanding The Barriers To Carbon Farming On Private Lands, Harrison Naftel

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Climate change caused by manmade greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most important challenges facing society today. Through effective management for carbon sequestration private agricultural lands could become an important part of the solution to this problem. This paper explores the many different methods that farmers, ranchers, and landowners could use to implement sequestration on their land and examines the barriers to further participation in these projects by reviewing the challenges in the world’s current carbon offset markets and offering possible solutions.

The Monster Theory Of Relativity: Triggering Supernatural Monsters, Maggie Mercil

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Current monster scholarship examines monstrous bodies, how they represent our cultural fears, anxieties, or forbidden desires, and how monsters can guard, break, or blur the boundaries between us and Other. While examining the monsters themselves can provide a better understanding of ourselves and our culture, it is just as important to consider the conditions in which these monsters were able to manifest in the first place. This paper argues that it is through our own actions, whether intentional or not, that we effectively “trigger” the monsters into our narratives. There are three categories of “triggers” that this paper will explore: …

Misinformation, Fact Checking, And Immigration Voting Preferences, Katherine Van Shaar

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Although misinformation is rampant in social media and society, there is not an extensive literature exploring the impact of misinformation and fact checks on people’s political preferences relating to immigration policies in the US. The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of misinformation and fact-checking on people’s policy preferences about immigration. Using an experimental survey and a between-subject approach, we observe how anti-immigration politician’s statements (ranging from false to partially true) impact participants’ perceptions of hot-topic immigration issues with and without fact checks. We also study the correlation between people’s political affiliation and the impact of politicians’ …

A Welfare Comparison Of Historical Cost And Fair Value Accounting Regimes, Palmer Edholm

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

With ongoing controversy concerning fair value and historical cost accounting, existing accounting theory is focused on intra-firm decision making and is thus deficient in addressing the issue of maximizing social welfare. I propose models of historical cost and fair value accounting regimes which are embedded in models of monopoly and oligopoly. This allows for social welfare implications. I find that historical cost results in greater expected profits for both monopolists and oligopolists. However, if the market is elastic enough, a fair value regimes is welfare enhancing. Whereas, if the market is inelastic enough, historical cost is welfare enhancing.

Organizational Culture And Communication Competence Workshop: Masters Plan B, Travis Bergon

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project began as an attempt to understand how events, such as the “Great Resignation” (i.e., an unprecedented mass exit of employees from the U.S. workforce), have impacted the way in which organizations are attempting to mitigate employee turnover. In addition, this project examined what role managers might play in promoting a positive organizational culture. A review of literature identified Schein’s (1990) model of organizational culture and Spitzberg and Cupach’s (1984) conceptualization of communication competence as useful frameworks for helping managers understand and promote positive organizational culture and employee mental health and well-being. In addition, the review of literature pointed …

Medicaid Expansion: Changes In Individual Health Outcomes, Julie Norman

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Affordable Care Act is one of the biggest changes in the American healthcare system in the 21st century. One element of the ACA is medicaid expansion, which opened up federal funding for states to cover any individual earning below 138% of the federal poverty line. 21 states expanded medicaid in 2014 while 12 haven’t expanded. This paper utilizes the disparity for a natural experiment to determine the efficacy of the program. Outcome variables of interest include measurements of individual health, health access and utilization, and premature death rates. The results indicate positive, but small improvements due to the policy, …

Do Rational Agents Steal, Randy Hill

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Do Rational Agents Steal?

Modern economists from Adam Smith to the present have broadly assumed that rational agents respect property rights. This respect for property rights has been a feature of nearly all economic models from the beginning. This paper examines a simple two person, production and trade model where the agents are allowed to choose to steal. Even within this simple model, there are a broad range of parameters that affect the agents' choices. In most parameter sets, the agents choose to steal as the reward for conflict outweighs the opportunity cost of not engaging in conflict. The parameter …

Making The Old New: The Recontextualization And Traditionalization Of Tree Spirits In Video Games, Alexandria Ziegler

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Folklorists study the active rituals between humans and deities, as well as the inactive participation between them in narrative. However, they do not study the active participation that comes in the form of video games between them, though with shifts in society, this new way of engaging through digital forms is widespread and accessible. In my research, I studied Russian and Japanese tree spirits in a variety of video games to understand this new form of engagement with ancient deities. These video games are Okami, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Black Book, and The Witcher 3: The …

Teaching Japanese As A Foreign Language With A Cultural Context, Naomi Fujii

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of the author's work during her studies in the Master of Second Language Teaching program at Utah State University. It also includes the author's reflections on her language teaching experience as a graduate instructor. This portfolio is organized into three primary sections. The first section includes the author’s teaching perspectives which include professional environment, teaching philosophy statement, and professional development through teaching observations. The second section consists of two research papers, one on refusal strategies in Japanese, the other on the use of CALL for the development of oral proficiency. The third section contains an …

Oaths And Evasion: Variable Honesty In Tax Evasion Games, Logan Krebs

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Previous research has indicated that an ex-ante pledge of honesty reduces the likelihood that participants will lie during a lab experiment. We show that a bandwagon effect, occurring when participants know that others are acting dishonestly, can erode the positive effects of honesty oaths. Taxpayers do not make their reporting decisions in a vacuum. They have access to information concerning how others in the community are behaving and develop perceptions around this information. We add these realistic features to a tax evasion game involving an ex-ante honesty oath. Results indicate that social context can reduce the positive effects of honesty …

Evaluating Short Term Effects Of Opportunity Zone Designation, Sarah M. Bennett

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 included a substantial economic development effort known as Opportunity Zones. These Zones cover 12% of the census tracts in the United States and are estimated to cost $1.6 billion in lost capital gains tax revenue. Our paper seeks to find whether this program has had an impact four years after going into effect, using an econometric analysis on changes in housing prices.

Pragmatics In Game Activities, Humor, And Technology In Second Language Learning, Zachary Brandon Brown

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio compiles work the author explored and developed during the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). It encompasses a range of experiences from teaching abroad and at USU, insights from the observation of other classrooms, and reflections from studies in the MSLT program.

Three distinct sections comprise the portfolio: teaching perspectives, research perspectives, and an annotated bibliography. The teaching perspectives detail beliefs regarding games, computer technology, humor, and pragmatics and how they influence second language learning based on the author’s personal experiences. The research perspectives and annotated bibliography elaborate further on those topics …