Why don't you believe me? Detecting deception in messages written by nonnative and native speakers

Detecting lies is crucial in numerous contexts, including situations in which individuals do not interact in their native language. Previous research suggests that individuals are perceived as less credible when they communicate in a nonnative compared with native language. The current study was the first to test this effect in truthful and fabricated messages written by native and nonnative English speakers. One hundred native English speakers judged the veracity of these messages, and overall, they proved less likely to believe and to correctly classify nonnative speakers' messages; differences in verbal cues between native and nonnative speakers' messages partly explained the differences in the judgments. Given the increased use of nonnative languages in a globalized world, the discrimination against nonnative speakers in veracity judgments is problematic. Further research should more thoroughly investigate the role of verbal cues in written and spoken nonnative language to enable the development of effective interventions.     

Genealogy of Morality and Law

In order to clarify the relationship between morality and law, it is necessary to define both concepts precisely. Cultural realities refer to concepts which are more specifically defined if we focus towards the genealogy of those realities, that is to say, their motivation, function and aim. Should we start from legal anthropology, comparative law and history of law, law arises as a social technique which coactively imposes ways of solving conflicts, protecting fundamental values for a society's co-existence. Values subject to being protected are proposed by morality, the latter making subordination of law to morality inevitable. This explains that a great number of modern constitutions include a reference to fundamental moral values, that is to say, they have explicitly positivised moral contents. Legal reasoning, at all levels and expressions, needs to appeal to the aforementioned values. Constitutional reasoning, international law, legislative activity and judicial practice are studied to verify the latter. This subordination of law to morality sets out a serious problem: moralities are cultural realities which are only valid for a specific society. In order for law not to fall in a not very rational legal relativism, law should not be subordinated to morality, but to ethics, the latter understood as cross-cultural morality. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a step forward in this sense.     

Depicting Depictions

How is it possible for a picture to depict a picture? Proponents of perceptual theories of depiction, who argue that the content of a picture is determined, in part, by the visual state it elicits in suitable viewers, that is, by a state of seeing‐in, have given a plausible answer to this question. They say that a picture depicts a picture, in part, because, under appropriate conditions of observation, a suitable viewer will be able to see a picture in the picture. In this article, I first argue that this answer is in conflict with the way in which some of the most influential perceptual theories of depiction – Robert Hopkins's version of the experienced resemblance theory and Dominic Lopes's version of the recognition theory – construe seeing‐in. I then formulate a version of the recognition theory that avoids this conflict and show how it can explain the depiction of pictures.     

Pain and Depressive Symptoms: Exploring Cognitive Fusion and Self-Compassion in a Moderated Mediation Model

The association between chronic pain (CP) and depression is complex and influenced by several psychological processes. Cognitive fusion (i.e. being entangled with one´s internal experiences) and self-compassion (i.e. being touched by one´s suffering, with a motivation to alleviate it) have been hypothesized as relevant psychological processes in physical and mental health, but few studies have addressed them in CP, and none in a comprehensive model relating pain intensity and depressive symptoms. This study tests, in a moderated mediation model, the mediator role of cognitive fusion between pain intensity and depressive symptoms, and the moderator effect of self-compassion in this mediation. In a cross-sectional study, 231 female CP patients (Age: M?=?48.51, SD?=?10.89) responded online self-report measures. PROCESS, an SPSS macro for conducting path analysis modeling, was used to test the hypothesized model. The model explained 63% of depressive symptoms, and cognitive fusion mediates the association between pain intensity and depressive symptoms. Also, self-compassion moderates this mediation (regardless of self-compassion being low, moderate or high). Although pain intensity is a predictor of depressive symptoms, fusion with thinking in general mediates this association, this relationship is buffered when patients are able to respond to setbacks and perceived shortcomings with self-kindness and warmth. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.