-
PloS One 2020Social cognition is dependent on the ability to extract information from human stimuli. Of those, patterns of biological motion (BM) and in particular walking patterns...
Social cognition is dependent on the ability to extract information from human stimuli. Of those, patterns of biological motion (BM) and in particular walking patterns of other humans, are prime examples. Although most often tested in isolation, BM outside the laboratory is often associated with multisensory cues (i.e. we often hear and see someone walking) and there is evidence that vision-based judgments of BM stimuli are systematically influenced by motor signals. Furthermore, cross-modal visuo-tactile mechanisms have been shown to influence perception of bodily stimuli. Based on these observations, we here investigated if somatosensory inputs would affect visual BM perception. In two experiments, we asked healthy participants to perform a speed discrimination task on two point light walkers (PLW) presented one after the other. In the first experiment, we quantified somatosensory-visual interactions by presenting PLW together with tactile stimuli either on the participants' forearms or feet soles. In the second experiment, we assessed the specificity of these interactions by presenting tactile stimuli either synchronously or asynchronously with upright or inverted PLW. Our results confirm that somatosensory input in the form of tactile foot stimulation influences visual BM perception. When presented with a seen walker's footsteps, additional tactile cues enhanced sensitivity on a speed discrimination task, but only if the tactile stimuli were presented on the relevant body-part (under the feet) and when the tactile stimuli were presented synchronously with the seen footsteps of the PLW, whether upright or inverted. Based on these findings we discuss potential mechanisms of somatosensory-visual interactions in BM perception.
Topics: Adult; Female; Humans; Judgment; Male; Motion Perception; Photic Stimulation; Physical Stimulation; Touch Perception; Visual Perception; Young Adult
PubMed: 32525897
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234026 -
Cognitive Science May 2022We propose a cognitive-psychological model of linguistic intuitions about copredication statements. In copredication statements, like "The book is heavy and...
We propose a cognitive-psychological model of linguistic intuitions about copredication statements. In copredication statements, like "The book is heavy and informative," the nominal denotes two ontologically distinct entities at the same time. This has been considered a problem for standard truth-conditional semantics. In this paper, we discuss two questions that have so far received less attention: What kinds of word representations and cognitive mechanisms are responsible for judgments about the felicitousness of copredication statements? Relatedly, why can similar copredication statements have different degrees of felicitousness? We first propose a cognitive-computational model of copredication within the predictive processing framework. We then suggest that certain asymmetries in felicitousness judgments can be modeled in terms of a set of expectations that are influenced by higher-order priors associated with discourse context and world knowledge.
Topics: Humans; Intuition; Judgment; Linguistics; Models, Psychological; Semantics
PubMed: 35488793
DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13138 -
PloS One 2022The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of deliberative vs. intuitive thinking styles on forensic judgments of legal professionals. Two hypotheses...
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of deliberative vs. intuitive thinking styles on forensic judgments of legal professionals. Two hypotheses were tested: (a) that low deliberative thinking would be related to judgmental biases (b) that lawyers would report a greater tendency and preference toward deliberative thinking in comparison to students and make more rational judgments.
METHOD
Ninety-one lawyers and 120 undergraduate students, who served as controls, were asked to read a criminal case depicting sexual harassment (SH) and judge victim and offender blame, whether the case constitutes SH, and the damage for the victim.
RESULTS
Deliberative thinking of lawyers was higher than students, and higher than their intuitive thinking style, supporting the more rational blame attributions of the former. In addition, higher deliberative thinking was related to a stronger perception of the event as SH. Nevertheless, all the participants were more inclined to perceive the case as SH when the victim was a woman instead of a man.
CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that gender stereotypes and bias may persist despite high deliberative thinking and may even be manifested through deliberative thinking processes. Awareness of legal professionals of these biases as well as the development of more objective tools which will help make the judging process less subjective-will ensure more accurate assessment of victims, offenders, and cases.
Topics: Crime Victims; Female; Humans; Judgment; Lawyers; Male; Sexual Harassment; Social Perception; Students
PubMed: 35951515
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272606 -
Communications Biology Nov 2022Distinguishing animate from inanimate things is of great behavioural importance. Despite distinct brain and behavioural responses to animate and inanimate things, it...
Distinguishing animate from inanimate things is of great behavioural importance. Despite distinct brain and behavioural responses to animate and inanimate things, it remains unclear which object properties drive these responses. Here, we investigate the importance of five object dimensions related to animacy ("being alive", "looking like an animal", "having agency", "having mobility", and "being unpredictable") in brain (fMRI, EEG) and behaviour (property and similarity judgements) of 19 participants. We used a stimulus set of 128 images, optimized by a genetic algorithm to disentangle these five dimensions. The five dimensions explained much variance in the similarity judgments. Each dimension explained significant variance in the brain representations (except, surprisingly, "being alive"), however, to a lesser extent than in behaviour. Different brain regions sensitive to animacy may represent distinct dimensions, either as accessible perceptual stepping stones toward detecting whether something is alive or because they are of behavioural importance in their own right.
Topics: Humans; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Brain; Brain Mapping; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Judgment
PubMed: 36376446
DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-04194-y -
Journal of Medical Ethics Oct 2005Counsellors, like other members of the caring professions, are required to practise within an ethical framework, at least in so far as they seek professional... (Review)
Review
Counsellors, like other members of the caring professions, are required to practise within an ethical framework, at least in so far as they seek professional accreditation. As such, the counsellor is called upon to exercise her moral agency. In most professional contexts this requirement is, in itself, unproblematic. It has been suggested, however, that counselling practice does present a problem in this respect, in so far as the counsellor is expected to take a non-judgemental stance and an attitude of "unconditional positive regard" toward the client. If, as might appear to be the case, this stance and attitude are at odds with the making of moral judgments, the possibility of an adequate ethics of counselling is called into question. This paper explores the nature and extent of the problem suggesting that, understood in a Kantian context, non-judgmentalism can be seen to be at odds with neither the moral agency of the counsellor nor that of the client. Instead, it is argued, the relationship between the non-judgmental counsellor and her client is a fundamentally moral relationship, based on respect for the client's unconditional worth as a moral agent.
Topics: Attitude of Health Personnel; Choice Behavior; Counseling; Humans; Judgment; Moral Obligations; Personal Autonomy; Philosophy; Prejudice; Professional-Patient Relations; Self Concept; Social Values
PubMed: 16199597
DOI: 10.1136/jme.2004.011387 -
Cognition Feb 2024Despite the importance of uncertainty in decision-making, few published studies have examined how individuals make moral judgments under uncertainty. Across four...
Despite the importance of uncertainty in decision-making, few published studies have examined how individuals make moral judgments under uncertainty. Across four experiments (N = 445), we examined whether a relatively small shift in probability affected participants' judgments of both moral acceptability and choice. Overall, reading dilemmas where the characters were either certain or likely to die, the probability of the sacrificed individual and the group at risk dying both had independent effects on participants' responses. That is, participants were more accepting of sacrificing the individual if they were not certain to die, but less accepting if the group was only likely to die when the individual was not sacrificed. Furthermore, a number of participants made acceptability ratings that did not match the action they endorsed, either finding the sacrificial decision more acceptable but refusing to make it, or choosing the sacrificial decision while viewing it as less acceptable. Many participants also stated that this was because they recognised a crucial difference between what they viewed as morally acceptable in a dilemma and what they were actually willing to do. Such mismatches may reflect the sensitivity and complexity of the moral principles that individuals employ during their moral decision-making.
Topics: Humans; Decision Making; Uncertainty; Judgment; Morals; Moral Obligations
PubMed: 38101081
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105692 -
Scientific Reports Sep 2022We investigated whether brief non-judgmental focus on the details of one's non-dominant hand might lead to changes in perception of its size, and if such a change would...
We investigated whether brief non-judgmental focus on the details of one's non-dominant hand might lead to changes in perception of its size, and if such a change would be related to central coherence, body dissatisfaction, or how much participants liked their hand. After two pilot experiments (N = 28 and N = 30 respectively: Appendix 1), a within-subject experiment (N = 82) was conducted. Subjects were mainly university students. They were asked to rate the size of their non-dominant hand and how much they liked it, and the size of an external object (a X-box controller) on a visual-analog scale before and after focusing on their details for 5 min, as well as the size of another object (a calculator) before and after a 5 min long distraction task. After completing the tasks, they were asked to respond to a brief questionnaire on body dissatisfaction. A s significant interaction between time and factors (non-dominant hand, X-box controller and calculator) emerged (F(2, 78) = 6.41, p = .003). Participants rated their hand as larger after focusing on its details compared to baseline, and this change was significantly larger than those reported for the X-box controller. No significant change in how they liked their hand was observed, and contrary to the pilot experiments, the perceived change in size of the hand was not related to body dissatisfaction. The significant change in reporting of the size of the hand after focusing on its details seems to be an interesting finding, worth further replications.
Topics: Hand; Humans; Judgment; Size Perception
PubMed: 36123432
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-19919-6 -
PloS One 2014Should you sacrifice one man to save five? Whatever your answer, it should not depend on whether you were asked the question in your native language or a foreign tongue...
Should you sacrifice one man to save five? Whatever your answer, it should not depend on whether you were asked the question in your native language or a foreign tongue so long as you understood the problem. And yet here we report evidence that people using a foreign language make substantially more utilitarian decisions when faced with such moral dilemmas. We argue that this stems from the reduced emotional response elicited by the foreign language, consequently reducing the impact of intuitive emotional concerns. In general, we suggest that the increased psychological distance of using a foreign language induces utilitarianism. This shows that moral judgments can be heavily affected by an orthogonal property to moral principles, and importantly, one that is relevant to hundreds of millions of individuals on a daily basis.
Topics: Decision Making; Emotions; Ethical Theory; Humans; Judgment; Language; Morals
PubMed: 24760073
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094842 -
PloS One 2018Moral evaluations occur quickly following heuristic-like intuitive processes without effortful deliberation. There are several competing explanations for this. The...
Moral evaluations occur quickly following heuristic-like intuitive processes without effortful deliberation. There are several competing explanations for this. The ADC-model predicts that moral judgment consists in concurrent evaluations of three different intuitive components: the character of a person (Agent-component, A); their actions (Deed-component, D); and the consequences brought about in the situation (Consequences-component, C). Thereby, it explains the intuitive appeal of precepts from three dominant moral theories (virtue ethics, deontology, and consequentialism), and flexible yet stable nature of moral judgment. Insistence on single-component explanations has led to many centuries of debate as to which moral precepts and theories best describe (or should guide) moral evaluation. This study consists of two large-scale experiments and provides a first empirical investigation of predictions yielded by the ADC model. We use vignettes describing different moral situations in which all components of the model are varied simultaneously. Experiment 1 (within-subject design) shows that positive descriptions of the A-, D-, and C-components of moral intuition lead to more positive moral judgments in a situation with low-stakes. Also, interaction effects between the components were discovered. Experiment 2 further investigates these results in a between-subject design. We found that the effects of the A-, D-, and C-components vary in strength in a high-stakes situation. Moreover, sex, age, education, and social status had no effects. However, preferences for precepts in certain moral theories (PPIMT) partially moderated the effects of the A- and C-component. Future research on moral intuitions should consider the simultaneous three-component constitution of moral judgment.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Character; Ethical Theory; Female; Humans; Intuition; Judgment; Male; Middle Aged; Morals; Virtues; Young Adult
PubMed: 30273370
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204631 -
Human Brain Mapping Oct 2016Morality is defined as prescriptive norms regarding how people should treat one another, and includes concepts of fairness, justice, and rights. One recent study with... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
Morality is defined as prescriptive norms regarding how people should treat one another, and includes concepts of fairness, justice, and rights. One recent study with moral dilemmas suggested that testosterone administration increases utilitarian judgments, which depends on second-to-fourth (2D: 4D) digit ratio, as a proxy of prenatal priming. However, the neural mechanism by which acute testosterone modulates moral reasoning remains to be determined. Using a placebo-controlled within-subject design, the current study examined the neuromodulatory effect of testosterone in young females by combining moral dilemmas, 2D: 4D, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and subjective ratings of morally laden scenarios. Results showed that testosterone administration elicited more utilitarian responses to evitable dilemmas. The high 2D: 4D group scored more punishments for moral evaluation, whereas the low 2D: 4D group did the opposite. The activity in the amygdala, anterior insular cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) was increased when participants evaluated morally unorthodox actions (intentional harm). The activity in the posterior superior temporal sulcus/temporoparietal junction (pSTS/TPJ) to accidental harm was decreased, specific to the high 2D: 4D group. The functional connectivity between the amygdala and dlPFC was reduced. The activity in the pSTS/TPJ to perceived agency predicted utilitarian responses to evitable dilemmas. The findings demonstrate the acute effect of testosterone on neural responses associated with moral judgment, and provide evidence to support that prenatal sex-hormones priming could be important for early neurodevelopment, which plays a crucial role in the neural and behavioral manifestations of testosterone on adult moral reasoning. Hum Brain Mapp 37:3417-3430, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Topics: Adult; Affect; Brain; Brain Mapping; Cerebrovascular Circulation; Cross-Over Studies; Double-Blind Method; Female; Fingers; Humans; Judgment; Longitudinal Studies; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Morals; Neural Pathways; Neuropsychological Tests; Psychotropic Drugs; Saliva; Testosterone; Visual Perception; Young Adult
PubMed: 27145084
DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23249