An Argument for Compulsory Vaccination: The Taxation Analogy

I argue that there are significant moral reasons in addition to harm prevention for making vaccination against certain common infectious diseases compulsory. My argument is based on an analogy between vaccine refusal and tax evasion. First, I discuss some of the arguments for compulsory vaccination that are based on considerations of the risk of harm that the non-vaccinated would pose on others; I will suggest that the strength of such arguments is contingent upon circumstances and that in order to provide the strongest defence possible of compulsory vaccination, such arguments need to be supplemented by additional arguments. I will then offer my additional argument for compulsory vaccination: I will argue that in both cases of vaccine refusal and of tax evasion individuals fail to make their fair contribution to important social and public goods, regardless of whether each individual contribution ‘makes a difference’. While fairness considerations have sometimes been used to support a moral duty to vaccinate, they have not been appealed to in order to argue for a legal duty to vaccinate. I will suggest that this is due, among other things, to a misapplication of the principle of the least restrictive alternative in public health. Finally, I will address nine possible objections to my argument.     

The Care and Development of Children Living in Contexts of Poverty

Human development is determined by both genetic and environmental factors, especially during early childhood. Recently, research has indicated that the circumstances surrounding poverty can significantly influence children’s development. In this study, we aimed to measure the developmental level of children living in low-income, rural areas in northern Colombia. A total of 629 children (aged 0–5 years) were assessed using the Battelle Developmental Inventory. Results indicated that 17?% of the participants had a general developmental delay for their age group. This was especially true for scores on cognitive development (35.5?%) and communication (21.5?%). Moreover, the number of children with developmental delay increased at 6 months of age and continued to increase after 1 year in the communication and cognitive domains. The findings of this study suggest that impoverished social contexts—such as the one studied herein—offer opportunities that favor the development of the social domain, but restrict the development of the cognitive domain. Therefore, to promote cognitive development, individuals within children’s environment need to actively and intentionally stimulate them. Thus, there is a need for interventions that will improve environmental conditions; especially those that will help parents improve their caregiving practices and train educational staff to recognize and respond to the stimulation needs of children, especially those developmental domains that are affected by the environment.     

Reply to My Critics: (Re-)Defining Racism: A Philosophical Analysis

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice - In (Re-)Defining Racism, I offer the first comprehensive examination of the philosophical literature on racism and argue for a new methodological approach that I...     

Social attention across borders: A cross-cultural investigation of gaze cueing elicited by same- and other-ethnicity faces

The gaze-cueing effect is a robust phenomenon which illustrates how attention can be shaped by social factors. In four experiments, the present study explored the interaction between the ethnic membership of the participant and that of the face providing the gaze cue. Firstly, we aimed to further investigate the differential impact of White, Black, and Asian faces on the gaze-cueing effect in White individuals. Secondly, we aimed to explore, for the first time, the impact of faces belonging to different ethnicities on gaze cueing in Chinese participants. The results allowed to rule out alternative accounts and showed that White participants exhibit a gaze-cueing effect for White and Asian faces, but not for Black faces, consistent with previous studies. As regards Chinese participants, the overall findings suggested a stronger gaze-cueing effect for White faces than for Asian faces. The results are discussed with reference to differences in the perceived social status of the various groups, pointing to the need of taking into account different cultural contexts.     

A follow-up study on students attending a university counselling service in Northern Italy

The aims of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of a university counselling service in Northern Italy, to assess the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of students who used counselling service, and to assess the psychological conditions of the students who ended the counselling after a 4 month follow-up period. The study involved 100 students, who filled out the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), the Brief COPE Inventory, and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). The results showed that who received counselling were positively affected by this experience. The areas of benefit were psychological well-being, coping behaviours, ability to positively reframe problems and less sense of guilt. Additional studies are needed to identify which factors influence the outcomes of university counselling services in Italy. These studies would be important to evaluate the services rendered, upgrade the skills of counsellors and visualise priority areas of need.     

Role of TRPV1 in consolidation of fear memories depends on the averseness of the conditioning procedure

Despite the fact that TRPV1 receptors are widely expressed in brain structures such as the hippocampus, its functions remain largely unknown. In the present study, we have investigated the possible modulatory role of the hippocampal endovanilloid system upon memory consolidation of two different behavioral tasks in rats. Post-training infusion of the TRPV1 antagonist capsazepine disrupted memory consolidation with a strong training protocol, but not with a weak one in the contextual fear conditioning or in the step-down inhibitory avoidance task. These results provide evidence that the modulation of the hippocampal memory consolidation through TRPV1 receptors takes place only in presence of a strong emotional experience, suggesting that a certain aversiveness level is required in order to recruit endovanilloids to exert this function. A possible synergic role of hippocampal endovanilloid and endocannabinoid system on memory consolidation is discussed.     

Fitting a Thurstonian IRT model to forced-choice data using Mplus

To counter response distortions associated with the use of rating scales (a.k.a. Likert scales), items can be presented in a comparative fashion, so that respondents are asked to rank the items within blocks (forced-choice format). However, classical scoring procedures for these forced-choice designs lead to ipsative data, which presents psychometric challenges that are well described in the literature. Recently, Brown and Maydeu-Olivares (Educational and Psychological Measurement 71: 460–502, 2011a) introduced a model based on Thurstone’s law of comparative judgment, which overcomes the problems of ipsative data. Here, we provide a step-by-step tutorial for coding forced-choice responses, specifying a Thurstonian item response theory model that is appropriate for the design used, assessing the model’s fit, and scoring individuals on psychological attributes. Estimation and scoring is performed using Mplus, and a very straightforward Excel macro is provided that writes full Mplus input files for any forced-choice design. Armed with these tools, using a forced-choice design is now as easy as using ratings.     

The adaptation of the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW) for European Portuguese

This study presents the adaptation of the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW; Bradley & Lang, 1999a) for European Portuguese (EP). The EP adaptation of the ANEW was based on the affective ratings made by 958 college students who were EP native speakers. Subjects assessed about 60 words by considering the affective dimensions of valence, arousal, and dominance, using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) in either a paper-and-pencil or a Web survey procedure. Results of the adaptation of the ANEW for EP are presented. Furthermore, the differences between EP, American (Bradley & Lang, 1999a), and Spanish (Redondo, Fraga, Padrón, & Comesa?a, Behavior Research Methods, 39, 600–605, 2007) standardizations were explored. Results showed that the ANEW words were understood in a similar way by EP, American, and Spanish subjects, although some sex and cross-cultural differences were observed. The EP adaptation of the ANEW is shown to be a valid and useful tool that will allow researchers to control and/or manipulate the affective properties of stimuli, as well as to develop cross-linguistic studies. The normative values of EP adaptation of the ANEW can be downloaded at .