Prior Exposure to Creatures From a Horror Film

This experiment assesses the impact of two exposure strategies on children's emotional and cognitive reactions to a frightening movie scene. Children from two grade levels (kindergarten and first vs. second through fourth) received a desensitization treatment in which modeled exposure to a live earthworm was factorially varied with exposure to graphic photographs of worms taken from a horror film. Children then viewed a frightening scene involving worms taken from this same film. Results indicated that exposure to photographs increased children's enjoyment of the movie segment and reduced fear reactions to the scene. In contrast, the live exposure strategy was effective in reducing fear reactions to the movie only among boys. However, live exposure did alter children's affective reactions to and judgments of worms themselves. The findings are discussed in terms of current theories of desensitization and information processing.     

Hope: Being Human in the Anthropocene

Given the calamities involved in climate change and the impact it is having – and will continue to have, on lives driven towards subsistence – what can be said about the goodness of creation? This essay explores how privileged theologians might rethink the notion of the common good in a situation where the majority are under-privileged. It argues for a need for imaginative investment to develop empathy, not sympathy; a need to listen in ways that are attentive and tending; and for a learning to accompany, such that dependence can be empowering when recognised and practised as mutual. Theologically, the sharing and accompaniment necessary has to be appreciated as inhering to the existence of all things, such that relationality and dependence are living expressions of the goodness of creation. Such sharing and accompaniment are expressions and incarnations of the uncreated goodness of the Triune God, operating in and through the ongoing processes of creation.     

Don't Tease Me: Effects of Ending Type on Horror Film Enjoyment

This experimental study explores the influence of horror film ending type on audience enjoyment. Four horror films were manipulated to create versions with traditional endings (endings in which the evil/antagonist is destroyed) or teaser endings (endings in which the evil/antagonist revives). Analysis explored differences in the preferences for ending type based on watcher motivations. Results suggest that viewers, particularly viewers highly motivated by gore or thrill factors, rated traditional endings more favorably than teaser endings, although seemingly for different reasons.     

救世主--弥赛亚:人类宗教精神的期盼--从犹太教与基督教谈起

救世主的观念是一切系统的人为宗教所具有的基本思想 ,早在波斯的琐罗亚斯德教、希伯莱的犹太教、印度的佛教中都有所表现。希伯莱民族在长期的苦难历程中萌发了救世主———弥赛亚的观念和说法。基督教直接承继了犹太教弥赛亚的思想 ,直接指出耶稣基督即是全人类的弥赛亚 ,更加强调了人类宗教精神拯救的效用 ,使得弥赛亚成为基督宗教的核心思想。     

Uniqueness, Individuality, and Human Cloning

This paper challenges two main arguments often presented to show that cloning a human being would be morally wrong per se . These arguments are that human cloning would be intrinsically wrong 1) because it involves manufacturing a person rather than creating or reproducing one, and 2) because it violates some claim or right that individuals have to be biologically unique. I argue that while cloning may involve genetic selection, it need not always be a decision to select for a certain type of individual. Furthermore, I contend that the notion of biological uniqueness is inadequate to ground either the idea that biologically non-unique individuals are morally worse off than unique ones or that biological uniqueness itself constitutes a criterion of moral value or status.     

Hope in the Last Judgement and Human Dignity

Reviewing modern criticisms of eschatological judgement, both theological and moral-philosophical, this article argues that the notion of the last judgement by Jesus Christ constitutes the dignity of the human person. In modern industrial societies, assertions of autonomous human self-realization rarely lead to human dignity. By contrast, God's acts as creator, saviour and judge constitute human worth.     

Ambivalence,Autonomy, and Organ Sales

Recent philosophical arguments in favor of legal markets in human organs such as kidneys claim that respect for autonomy justifies such markets. I argue that these arguments fail to establish the moral permissibility of commercialized organ sales because they do not show that those most likely to serve as vendors would choose to sell autonomously. Pro‐market views utilize hierarchical theories of autonomy to demonstrate that potential organ vendors may autonomously consent to selling their organs even in the absence of any practical alternative to doing so. But central to hierarchical accounts of autonomy is the idea that persons my experience volitional ambivalence, a condition in which the will is irreconcilably conflicted. Because commercialized organ sales would create volitional ambivalence in many of those who opt to sell an organ, the choice to sell an organ would not be an autonomous one.     

On the Perils of Living Dangerously in the Slasher Horror Film: Gender Differences in the Association Between Sexual Activity and Survival

The slasher horror film has been deplored based on claims that it depicts eroticized violence against predominately female characters as punishment for sexual activities. To test this assertion, a quantitative content analysis was conducted to examine the extent to which gender differences are evident in the association between character survival and engagement in sexual activities. Information pertaining to gender, engagement in sexual activities, and survival was coded for film characters from a simple random sample of 50 English-language, North American slasher films released between 1960 and 2009. Results indicated that sexual female characters were less likely to survive and had significantly longer death scenes as compared to those female characters who did not engage in sexual behaviors.     

Ambivalence, discomfort, and motivated information processing

In two studies we examined the nature and consequence of ambivalent attitudes. In the first study, we assessed whether holding ambivalent attitudes was aversive, and tested whether this aversion was resolved through biased information processing. To do this we manipulated participants’ attributions of the discomfort associated with an ambivalent message through a pill manipulation (tense vs. relaxed). Participants who attributed their discomfort to their ambivalence reported more negative emotions and generated more one-sided thoughts than participants who attributed their discomfort to the pill. In the second study, we examined the conditions necessary for ambivalence reduction. Results suggest that people spontaneously engage in biased information processing in order to resolve their ambivalence.     

Oscar Wilde in Singapore: Ambivalence,Enforcement, and the Criminalization of Homosexuality

The city state of Singapore, which recently celebrated 50 years of independence, still curiously retains a nineteenth century colonial penal code that criminalizes homosexuality. While state censorship discourages its citizens from engaging in public discourse that explores the implications of this penal code, colloquially known as 377A, discussions on the topic are still visible. High profile attempts to repeal the law through challenging the Singapore Constitution are reported in mainstream media outlets, and the artistic community also supports the repeal of the penal code. One of the most powerful instances of this was W!ld Rice’s 2013 all-male production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest followed by Moisés Kaufman’s Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (the former played to international acclaim in Macau in 2014 and Brisbane in September 2015). This essay examines the relationship between art and state policy in Singapore by considering how artistic expressions that address social and cultural anxieties contribute to rather than subvert conversations about social policy-making. In this case, the seemingly comical Wilde plays produced an especially serious and nuanced analysis of the off-stage consensus problems in Singapore, among the LGBT community, heterosexual citizens, and the government. The plays effectively expose and articulate the deeply ambivalent sentiments that have come to characterize the 377A debate.     

Dissociative Identity Disorder,Ambivalence, and Responsibility

If someone with dissociative identity disorder (DID) commits a wrongful act, is she responsible? If one adopts the Multiple Persons Thesis, it may seem that one alter cannot be responsible for the actions of another alter. Conversely, if one regards the subject as a single person, it may seem that she is responsible for any actions she performs. I will argue that this subject is a single person, but one who suffers from delusions of disownership and therefore does not fulfill ordinary requirements for responsible agency. This is because she suffers from extreme ambivalence: her deep‐seated needs and desires conflict, and she forms alter‐personalities as a way to cope with inner discord without abandoning any of these contradictory impulses. However, although the ability to exercise autonomous agency is eroded in such cases, the capacity for autonomous agency is preserved. The subject with DID is weakly responsible for her wrongful acts.