Having an Inner Life

We readily recognize the concept of an inner life as a moral category. We struggle to say what an inner life is, though. This essay examines and rejects naturalistic attempts to either dismiss the idea of an inner life or make it a matter of brain states, a sort of efficient causality to behaviour. Relying on Simone Weil's distinction between “the language of the market place and the language of the nuptial chamber,” it distinguishes, as she did, between levels of value. The inner life is a life of dealing with values that demand some kind of personal and intimate response.     

Capital juror questionnaires in death-penalty cases: A study of attitudes,denials, and deceptions

The Sixth Amendment right to an “impartial jury” should guarantee fundamental fairness that in capital cases may literally be a matter of life and death. For ecological validity, the current study focuses on capital jury questionnaires (CJQs) employed in actual death-penalty cases. Study I examined 248 undergraduates and their responses to death-penalty relevant questions. As an MTurk investigation, Study II consisted of 259 community members potentially eligible for capital trial jury trials. Misrepresentations were operationalized as either denials (concealing their true views) or outright deceptions (dissembling the opposite viewpoint). Both studies found that CJQ items were very susceptible to both types of misrepresentation, irrespective of support-life or support-death views. Nearly 30% of undergraduates openly acknowledged that they would misrepresent close to half their CJQ responses. Overall, community members were much more willing to engage in denials and outright deceptions. The discussion focuses on how CJQs could be improved to promote candor about death-penalty views.     

The Interactive Influence of Prosocial Places,Youth Population,and Poverty on Incidents of Violent Assault

The article builds on previous work by Roman and colleagues in order to specify the potential causes for increased incidents of violent assault in areas featuring a high number of prosocial institutions (i.e., schools, recreation centers). Utilizing aspects of routine activity theory and crime pattern theory, the argument is presented that both poverty and youth population will have a conditioning impact on the relationship between the presence of prosocial places and incidence of violent assault. Least squares regression was utilized in order to show that such institutions can serve as generators for offending and/or victimization, and that their location in lower income areas may magnify the problem.     

Beyond Harm and Fairness: A Study of Deviance and Morality

Using data from 1,429 students, we test whether a moral foundations approach focusing on both individual- and group-oriented measures of morality improves our ability to predict deviant behavior over and above the effects of individual-oriented measures alone. Results show that the emphasis individuals place on group-oriented moral concerns is inversely associated with a range of deviant behaviors. Moreover, these associations are stronger and more pervasive than the emphasis placed on individual-level moral concerns. Additionally, we find that a recently developed “moral identity” measure does not add to the prediction of deviant behavior over and above group-oriented measures.     

Interest in Complex Novelty

Complex novelty like new technologies can be exciting in terms of promising possibilities, but people might also feel that they do not exactly grasp its meaning or purpose. We argue that to become interested in complex novelty, it is key that people have a sense that they can cope with it. In three experiments we showed that people who have relatively high coping potential are more interested in complex novelty than people who have relatively low coping potential. Specifically, interest in complex novel products and inventions increased after increasing product-specific understanding (Experiments 1 and 2) and after inducing a more general state in which people can tolerate complex novelty (Experiment 3). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.