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Papers by Pier Luigi Sacco

Brain Sciences

Nowadays, the use of social networks (SNs) is pervasive and ubiquitous. Among other things, SNs h... more Nowadays, the use of social networks (SNs) is pervasive and ubiquitous. Among other things, SNs have become a key resource for establishing and maintaining personal relationships, as further demonstrated by the emergence of the pandemic. However, easy access to SNs may be a source of addictive behaviour, especially among the younger population. The literature highlights various psychological and physiological factors as possible predictors of vulnerability to SN addiction. This paper explores the joint effects of stress level and cognitive absorption, in the form of temporal dissociation while on SNs, on the addiction of university students to SNs. Here, 312 participants were involved in an online survey. About 14% of the sample presented a risk for SN addiction. Moreover, it was found that stress level predicted SN addiction both directly and indirectly through the effect of individual temporal dissociation, as experienced during SN usage. These results suggest a significant role o...

Journal of Cultural Economics, 2020

Journal of Cultural Heritage, 2017

Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2018

Folk-economic beliefs may be regarded as “evidential fictions” that exploit the natural tendency ... more Folk-economic beliefs may be regarded as “evidential fictions” that exploit the natural tendency of human cognition to organize itself in narrative form. Narrative counter-arguments are likely more effective than logical debunking. The challenge is to convey sound economic reasoning in narratively conspicuous forms – an opportunity for economics to rethink its role and agency in public discourse, in the spirit of its old classics.

Social Science & Medicine, 2018

Chaos (Woodbury, N.Y.), 2018

In this paper, we introduce an innovative approach to the fusion between datasets in terms of att... more In this paper, we introduce an innovative approach to the fusion between datasets in terms of attributes and observations, even when they are not related at all. With our technique, starting from datasets representing independent worlds, it is possible to analyze a single global dataset, and transferring each dataset onto the others is always possible. This procedure allows a deeper perspective in the study of a problem, by offering the chance of looking into it from other, independent points of view. Even unrelated datasets create a metaphoric representation of the problem, useful in terms of speed of convergence and predictive results, preserving the fundamental relationships in the data. In order to extract such knowledge, we propose a new learning rule named double backpropagation, by which an auto-encoder concurrently codifies all the different worlds. We test our methodology on different datasets and different issues, to underline the power and flexibility of the Theory of Imp...

Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2017

An effect of the long-term cycle of industrial and post-industrial global development is the incr... more An effect of the long-term cycle of industrial and post-industrial global development is the increasingly generalized access to abundant and diversified food sources. This poses a substantial problem of self-regulation that mainly affects the less affluent and whose failures may play an important role in the explanation of the increasing social incidence of overweight and obesity problems.

The Annals of Regional Science, 2016

Cities, 2016

Abstract What is the role of culture in contemporary urban life? Can culture function as an urban... more Abstract What is the role of culture in contemporary urban life? Can culture function as an urban planning tool for individual and social well-being? Two elements are of special relevance in this regard: cultural vibrancy in terms of level of initiative in policies, use of facilities and activities, and individual and social propensities towards the participation in, and consumption of, cultural activities and goods. This paper takes the recent path of research on the impact of cultural participation on the social and economic sustainability of urban processes, with a specific focus on the individual subjective well-being dimension. Two Italian cities, one endowed with a high stock of cultural facilities, activities, and access (Bolzano/Bozen) and the other with a comparatively much lower stock in all respects (Siracusa), are examined. Comparative analysis suggests that the impact of culture on subjective well-being in a context of high cultural supply and substantial cultural participation is much more relevant with respect to low-endowment and low-participation cases, thus suggesting the possibility of a culture/well-being positive feedback dynamics leading to urban ‘cultural poverty traps’. On the basis of these results, we draw some implications for cultural policy design in urban contexts.

Economics and Social Interaction

Frontiers in Sociology

In this brief report we followed the evolution of the COVID-19 Infodemic Risk Index during 2020 a... more In this brief report we followed the evolution of the COVID-19 Infodemic Risk Index during 2020 and clarified its connection with the epidemic waves, focusing specifically on their co-evolution in Europe, South America, and South-eastern Asia. Using 640 million tweets collected by the Infodemic Observatory and the open access dataset published by Our World in Data regarding COVID-19 worldwide reported cases, we analyze the COVID-19 infodemic vs. pandemic co-evolution from January 2020 to December 2020. We find that a characteristic pattern emerges at the global scale: a decrease in misinformation on Twitter as the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases increases. Similar local variations highlight how this pattern could be influenced both by the strong content moderation policy enforced by Twitter after the first pandemic wave and by the phenomenon of selective exposure that drives users to pick the most visible and reliable news sources available.

Cornell University - arXiv, Feb 27, 2022

Cornell University - arXiv, Mar 1, 2022

Sustainability

The link between culture and sustainable development has become a major research topic in the pas... more The link between culture and sustainable development has become a major research topic in the past few years. [...]

Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, 2021

Le città d'arte medio-piccole come piattaforma di innovazione socio-culturale Lo scenario eco... more Le città d'arte medio-piccole come piattaforma di innovazione socio-culturale Lo scenario economico contem-poraneo è al centro di grandi cambiamenti strutturali che in-fluiscono profondamente sulla distribuzione globale delle ri-sorse, sulla creazione di nuovi modelli organizzativi e imprendi-toriali, sulla struttura sociale e sugli stili di vita individuali e col-lettivi. Queste profonde trasformazioni avvengono tuttavia per lo più in ambienti urbani che hanno una lunga storia che spesso si mostra visibilmente a livello spaziale e simbolico. Il contrasto tra permanenza e perpetuo cambiamento si percepisce tuttavia an-che nei luoghi nei quali la lunga durata storica costituisce un ele-mento presente e condiviso dell'identità locale. E tale tensione si riflette anche nell' elaborazione e nello sviluppo di nuovi modelli economici della produzione e dell'accesso culturale sulla scala urbana, che risentono anch' essi fortemente dell' evoluzione della struttura de...

Techne. Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, 2017

Humanities, 2021

Fictional narratives cannot be considered as mere escapist entertainment, and have a significant ... more Fictional narratives cannot be considered as mere escapist entertainment, and have a significant social cognition potential. Their study is also important in understanding the mechanisms of behavioral change, as many fictions focus on processes of personal transformation of the main characters. Romantic fictions are of special interest in this regard, as the formation of a new couple entails negotiation and mutual adaptation between partners, with possible transformation of personal attitudes, value orientations, and behaviors: ‘marrying’ a new idea or cause is, tellingly, the strongest possible metaphorical statement of adoption. Korean TV series (K-dramas) are a particularly interesting source of case studies in this regard due to the specific characteristics of their production system. We analyze a K-drama, My Ajussi, where the lead characters go through a complex process of personal change, through the lens of the so-called Tie-Up Theory, which has proven useful in the analysis ...