Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Pr ide
Anger
Lust
Avar ice
G l u t t o ny
Envy
Sloth
The views and statements expressed in this publication are those of the
authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the ESRC.
Contents:
Foreword
Professor Ian Diamond
Pride
Northern Ireland: in-group pride and out-group prejudice
Professor Ed Cairns and Professor Miles Hewstone
Anger
Anger, irritability and hostility in children and adults
Dr Eirini Flouri and Professor Heather Joshi
12
Lust
Changing sexual behaviour in the UK
Professor Kaye Wellings
16
Avarice
Executive pay in the United States
Professor Martin Conyon
20
Gluttony
Binge drinking and the binge economy
Professor Dick Hobbs
24
Envy
Debt: envy, penury or necessity?
Stephen McKay
28
Sloth
Turnout: a crisis in UK politics?
Professor Charlie Jeffery
32
36
38
Foreword
Ian Diamond
Chief Executive, ESRC
F o r e wo r d
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Avarice
Executive pay in the United States
Do the high levels of pay of US chief executive officers
(CEOs) reflect the greed is good attitude of avarice?
Martin Conyon suggests that there other equally
plausible explanations that explain pay outcomes, such
as the need to recruit, retain and motivate talented
CEOs to manage increasingly complex organisations in
the competitive global economy.The evidence suggests
that CEO compensation both current pay and
aggregate shares and options owned do provide the
right incentives to focus on maximising corporate
wealth. At the same time, shareholders and boards
must be vigilant in the design of compensation
contracts.
Gluttony
Binge drinking and the binge economy
An extraordinary amount of media attention focuses
on alcohol consumption and its impact on public order
and health. But as Dick Hobbs shows, while binge
drinking youths dominate the headlines, it is older
drinkers in their middle years that are most likely to
succumb to alcohol-related death. He argues that it is
the logic of the market and not the logic derived from
careful data analysis that informs government policy on
alcohol. As a society, we embrace the night-time
economy and the jobs, urban regeneration and
taxation that it generates while seeking to punish the
routine transgressions of its primary consumers.
Envy
Debt: envy, penury or necessity?
What part does envy play in the apparently spiralling
stock of personal debt in the UK, which last year
passed the 1 trillion mark? Looking at data from the
British Household Panel Survey, Stephen McKay finds
that the average man has borrowed close to 5,000
while the average woman owes around 3,000. Whats
more, people who are envious of what others have,
and dissatisfied with their own incomes, do tend to
have higher levels of credit and greater difficulties
making repayments. But the size of this effect is small
compared with the effects of age, income and changes
in circumstances.
Sloth
Turnout: a crisis in UK politics?
The last two general elections had the second and
third worst turnouts since 1900. Charlie Jeffery uses
the British Election Study and other surveys of political
participation to understand growing voter apathy.
He argues that the real problem lies not in the voters
sloth but in the failure of politicians to inspire trust, to
communicate clear policy platforms and to reach out
to habitual non-voters.That failure seems deeply
embedded at the UK level but is also present in the
devolved nations despite extravagant claims made in
the 1990s about a new politics of better participation
for ordinary citizens.
Romesh Vaitilingam
June 2005
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Pride
Pride
Northern Ireland: in-group pride and out-group prejudice
Percentage
80%
60%
Measuring pride
Data on social attitudes and voting preferences are one thing,
but what about measures of pride? One indirect measure for
the citizens of Northern Ireland is preference for specific
flags. Pride in the flag is not a new idea, but it is only recently
that social scientists have used it as a measure (Brown and
Maginty, 2003). In Northern Ireland, there is a history of flag
flying provoking controversy and sometimes violence. As a
result, for many years, the Unionist government outlawed the
flag of the Republic of Ireland, the Irish tricolor.
Brown and Maginty analysed data from the 2001 Northern
Ireland Life and Times Survey, in which respondents were
asked which flag they thought should be flown over public
buildings on special occasions. As Figure 1b shows, there was
substantial communal polarisation: Catholic views were more
diffuse, but Protestants emphatically endorsed the flying of
40%
20%
0%
1989
1991
1993
1994
1995
1996
Year
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
1998
1999
2000
2001
Pride
Figure 1b: What flag do you think should be flown outside public
buildings on special occasions? (percentages)
Catholic
Protestant
No religion
All
Union flag
6%
72%
43%
48%
Irish tricolor
4%
0%
1%
1%
18%
4%
7%
9%
No flag at all
32%
5%
20%
15%
34%
16%
25%
23%
1%
1%
1%
1%
Dont care
2%
0%
1%
1%
Dont know
3%
2%
2%
2%
Other answer
Neighbourhood
Catholics
Percentage of
all participants
Percentage
who are ultras
Protestants
Percentage of
all participants
Percentage
who are ultras
Workplace
School
17%
7%
39%
43%
37%
28%
29%
19%
41%
68%
74%
63%
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
10
Pride
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Pride
11
Further reading
A peace dividend?
As expected, we observed a general in-group bias effect:
respondents were more positive towards the in-group than
the out-group. But the effect was much stronger for those
who identified highly with their religious group than for those
who identified at only a low level.Thus, in-group pride was
related to out-group prejudice.There was also more bias
shown by Protestants than Catholics, a well-established effect.
We also found different effects for the two years of the
survey. People with higher levels of group pride showed ingroup bias in both the relatively peaceful year and the more
volatile year. But people with lower levels of group pride
showed less bias in the more peaceful year. Indeed, that year,
both Catholics and Protestants with lower group pride
showed no bias. But when things became bad again, in 2001,
respondents with lower levels of pride were biased in favour
of their own community.
Finally, we found a modest positive correlation between ingroup and out-group feelings.This is consistent with the view
that in-group favouritism is not inevitably related to outgroup derogation (Brewer, 1999, 2001).
In many ways, these are positive findings for Northern Ireland.
Pride in ones own group can be thought of as benign,
acceptable and indeed positive in many ways. It is not
inevitably linked to sectarian views. Indeed, in-group warmth
tends to be positively correlated with out-group warmth. And
bias can actually disappear when the level of the conflict is
relatively low a true peace dividend.
Thus, a peaceful future does not have to be built by
attempting to cleave individuals from their valued identities,
which is probably impossible anyway. It is more likely to be
built by helping all citizens of Northern Ireland particularly
the ultras to learn that positive, secure social identities do
not have to be based on out-group derogation.
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
12
Anger
Anger
Anger, irritability and hostility in children and adults
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Anger
13
Anger in children
At age 7, 11 per cent of the children born in 1958 were
rated by their mothers as frequently irritable and quicktempered; 89 per cent were either never or sometimes
irritable. At age 11, the figures were 14 per cent and 86 per
cent respectively. Although the majority (58 per cent) of
children born in 1958 who were frequently irritable at age 7
did not continue to be so at age 11, 42 per cent were
described as frequently irritable at 11 as well.There were
more boys than girls among children who were frequently
irritable on at least one occasion.There was also a link
between parents social class and childrens anger: children
from lower classes were more likely to be described as
frequently irritable and quick-tempered.
When the children born in 1970 were 5, one in eight
mothers reported that their child had temper tantrums at
least once a week, one in ten reported tantrums less often
but at least once a month, and over three quarters said their
children rarely had tantrums. At age 10, a greater proportion
(84 per cent) of the children had tantrums rarely, 7 per cent
had them monthly but not weekly, and 8 per cent had them
at least once a week. Boys were almost twice as likely as girls
to be in the minority with very frequent tantrums at both
ages. As in the earlier cohort, children from lower social
classes were more likely to have very frequent temper
tantrums at both ages.
Anger in childhood
Anger at either
5 or 10
Anger rare
in child surveys
1958 cohort (NCDS)
Anger at both
7 and 11
Anger at either
7 or 11
Anger rare
in child surveys
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Percentage of cohort
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
14
Anger
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Anger
15
Further reading
15
14
13
12
11
10
Neither 20s nor 30s
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
16
Lust
Lust
Changing sexual behaviour in the UK
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
Women
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Lust
17
Sexual partnerships
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
0
Men
3-4
5-9
10+
3-4
5-9
10+
Women
Men 1990
Men 2000
Women 1990
Women 2000
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
18
Lust
0%
5%
10%
Percentage
15% 0%
5%
Percentage
Men 1990
Men 2000
Source: Natsal 1990 and 2000
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Women 1990
Women 2000
10%
15%
Lust
19
Further reading
Kaye Wellings
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
20
Av a r i c e
Avarice
Executive pay in the United States
Greed is good
Gordon Gekko, character in the 1987 film Wall Street
For many years, the press, policymakers and researchers have
remarked on the high levels of pay of US chief executive
officers (CEOs) and questioned whether they are consistent
with shareholders interests. Some academics have gone
further, arguing that problems with US corporate governance
and CEO pay are so profound that excess is not limited to a
few bad apples and that most CEOs are overpaid.
Is the greed is good attitude of avarice really so prevalent in
US boardrooms? Or are there other plausible explanations
that explain pay outcomes, such as the need to recruit, retain
and motivate talented CEOs to manage increasingly complex
organisations in the competitive global economy? We
investigated US CEO pay using a set of firms from the
ExecuComp dataset.
How CEOs are rewarded
We focus on CEO pay in publicly traded firms where
ownership is distributed among many owners each too small
to exercise effective control of the organisation. When firm
ownership is separated from control, CEOs have the
opportunity to promote their interests above those of
shareholders what is known as the agency problem.
Appropriately structured compensation schemes can alleviate
this problem and align managerial and shareholder interests
(Murphy, 1999).
Executive compensation has four basic components: base
salary (usually competitively benchmarked against peer firms);
annual bonus (typically based on accounting performance);
share options (which give the right to purchase shares at a
pre-specified exercise price for a pre-specified term); and
other pay such as restricted stock grants.
US CEOs are often handsomely rewarded. In 2000, Jack
Welch of General Electric received total compensation of
about $125 million, including a $4 million salary, a $12.7
million bonus, $57 million in options and $48.7 million in
restricted stock grants.This package was linked to firm
performance and was therefore well structured. Welch
managed a large and complex organisation and under his
leadership, General Electrics share price soared. But in the
wake of US corporate scandals like Enron and Tyco, even
CEOs with stellar performance records have faced criticism:
Welch was censured in the press for alleged non-disclosure
of lavish retirement benefits.
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Av a r i c e
21
20%
Percentage
15%
10%
5%
0%
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Source: ExecuComp
Salary/Pay
50%
Options/Pay
40%
30%
20%
0%
1992
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Source: ExecuComp
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
22
Av a r i c e
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Av a r i c e
23
Further reading
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
24
G l u t t o ny
Gluttony
Binge drinking and the binge economy
16-24
25-44
46-64
65+
All
Men
12%
18%
20%
12%
17%
More than
eight units
37%
28%
17%
4%
21%
18%
17%
12%
3%
13%
23%
11%
4%
1%
8%
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Women
G l u t t o ny
25
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
26
G l u t t o ny
Alcohol-related deaths
Whats more, the emphasis on disorder tells a very partial
story. Public health data suggest that the longer, less
apocalyptic view is even more daunting. It is older drinkers in
their middle years who are most likely to succumb to an
alcohol-related death. And as Figure 5b indicates, alcoholrelated death rates have been rising.
This longer view shifts our attention from the immediate realities
of violence and disorder to the long-term impact of alcohol use
on the wider population. It is clear that problem drinking, binge
or otherwise, has become quite normal. No longer a terrain
limited to societys outcasts, the impact of problem drinking can
fall anywhere, with up to 1.3 million children affected by parental
alcohol problems (Strategy Unit, 2004).
There seems to be a distinctly hypocritical attitude to alcohol.
Despite its enormous social cost, the government continues
to value the jobs, the associated urban regeneration and the
7 billion pounds in taxation that it derives from the industry.
Widespread international evidence has linked alcohol
availability to alcohol-related harms but this evidence, in
particular that relating to the number and density of alcohol
outlets and to opening hours, is absent in the Strategy Unit
document (Hadfield, 2005).
The binge economy
When we consider this hypocrisy, we might also consider the
ludicrous tainting of drunken youths as binge drinkers and the
reluctance to reflect too carefully on the binge economy so
readily embraced by successive governments.The Strategy Unit
document did a good job in setting out the available evidence
and suggests more education, working in partnership with the
alcohol industry, improved treatment facilities and a clampdown
on disorder in the night-time economy.
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
G l u t t o ny
27
Further reading
16
14
Rate per 100,000 population
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1979
1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003
Source: Office for National Statistics, Health: Alcohol-related deaths, March 2005
Males
Females
Boys
Girls
11%
5%
5%
12%
11%
9%
13%
18%
19%
14%
34%
31%
15%
52%
46%
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
28
E nv y
Envy
Debt: envy, penury or necessity?
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
England
Wales
Scotland
Country in UK
Has store/credit card
Credit repayments a burden
Problems paying for housing
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Northern Ireland
E nv y
29
Percentage who
owe any money on
credit commitments
Unweighted
base (individuals
aged 16-59)
48%
53%
51%
49%
48%
40%
33%
664
827
1,618
2,391
2,936
1,900
821
46%
11,363
Is often
envious
of others
Others are
often envious
of you
All
18%
7%
23%
8%
20%
15%
6%
17%
7%
14%
13%
5%
16%
5%
14%
1,071
6,463
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
30
E nv y
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
E nv y
31
Further reading
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
32
Sloth
Sloth
Turnout: a crisis in UK politics?
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Increased standards
Decreased standards
No difference
Dont know/
too early to say
Scotland
Wales
Northern
Ireland
27%
5%
59%
9%
22%
3%
64%
11%
24%
12%
43%
21%
Sources: Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, Welsh Election Study and Northern Ireland Life
and Times Survey, 2001
Sloth
33
Scotland
2001
Scotland
2003
Wales
before
devolution
Wales
2001
Wales
2003
Northern
Ireland
2001
Devolved
Assembly/
Parliament
40%
15%
24%
30%
17%
22%
28%
Westminster
39%
66%
50%
44%
61%
58%
51%
Sources: Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (1999, 2001, 2003), Welsh Assembly Election Survey (1999), Welsh Election Study (2001, 2003),
and Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey (2001)
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
34
Sloth
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
1999
69%
59%
48%
34%
33%
29%
2003
84%
79%
70%
63%
44%
43%
Sources: Welsh Assembly Election Survey (1999 percentage who did not vote),
and Electoral Commission (2003b Did you manage to vote at the National Assembly
election on 1 May?)
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Sloth
35
Further reading
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
36
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Gluttony
Sloth
37
Envy
The British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) is a
representative sample of 6,000 households interviewed in
every year since 1991. It now contains detailed data on
incomes, work, housing, family structure, health, political
engagement and much more.This core information, together
with special questionnaires for young people, has given rise to
a substantial body of research on children and young people.
The BHPS is managed by the UK Longitudinal Studies Centre
(ULSC) at the Institute for Social and Economic Research
(ISER), University of Essex, and funded by ESRC.
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
38
Avarice
Martin Conyon is an Assistant Professor in the
Management Department of the Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Wharton, he
was a Professor at Warwick Business School. His
research interests are in corporate governance,
specialising in the design of executive compensation
plans and the effectiveness of boards of directors.
Gluttony
Dick Hobbs is Professor of Criminology at Durham
University. His current research includes a project on
organised crime in Europe funded by the European
Commission, and an ESRC-funded project looking at
the role of female doorstaff in the night-time economy.
Anger
Dr Eirini Flouri is a Senior Lecturer in the School of
Psychology and Human Development at the Institute
of Education, University of London. Her research
interests include parenting and childrens mental health;
parenting and childrens educational and social
outcomes; the role of the early environment in later
attainments; and resilience.
Envy
Stephen McKay is Deputy Director of the Personal
Finance Research Centre at the University of Bristol.
He studied economics at Oxford and has worked at
various universities and thinktanks, including the
Institute for Fiscal Studies. His current research mostly
concerns the living standards of families with children.
P r i d e A n g e r L u s t Av a r i c e G l u t t o ny E nv y S l o t h
Sloth
Charlie Jeffery is Professor of Politics in the School of
Social and Political Studies at the University of
Edinburgh. He directs ESRCs research programme on
Devolution and Constitutional Change. He will shortly
publish Devolution and Electoral Politics (with Daniel
Hough), the latest in a series of books on devolution
from Manchester University Press.
Editors
Iain Stewart was, until recently, ESRCs Associate
Director, Press and PR. He is now head of publications
at the International Institute for Applied Systems
Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna.
Romesh Vaitilingam is the author of numerous articles
and several successful books on economics and public
policy. His work also involves media consultancy for the
social science research community, notably advising the
Royal Economic Society and several ESRC-funded
research centres on the management and development
of their public profile.
The Economic and Social Research Council is the UKs leading research and training agency
addressing economic and social concerns. We aim to provide high-quality research on issues
of importance to business, the public sector and government.The issues considered include
economic competitiveness, the effectiveness of public services and policy, and our quality of life.
The ESRC is an independent organisation, established by Royal Charter in 1965, and funded mainly
by the Government.
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