Homo moralis strikes back

Restorative justice presents a morally relevant method for alternative conflict resolution. However, this potential is not always applied fully. Instead, the practice may be used in ways foreign to it. This claim comes to the fore in the practice of restorative justice in domestic violence cases. Despite the persistent feminist critique of it the practice is widely offered. This suggests that the practice can cater to needs not originally depicted in the rationale of it. This paper works out of a wittgensteinian approach and argues that there is a confusing language use going on around mediation. The argument is based on an analysis of public talk of mediation in Finland which shows that it is predominantly conducted in the light of homo economicus. This is problematic. The paper suggests that instead of referring to mediation in terms of homo economicus, the value of it should be counted in terms of homo moralis. This is what restorative justice originally intended to do. The paper establishes a new perspective on the critique of restorative justice in general and offers a fruitful way forward.     

Inhibiting retrieval of trauma cues in adults reporting histories of childhood sexual abuse

Are people who report having forgotten their childhood sexual abuse (CSA) characterised by superior ability to inhibit retrieval of disturbing material? To test this hypothesis, we asked adults reporting either repressed, recovered, or continuous memories of CSA or no history of CSA to participate in a directed forgetting experiment (list method). They rated the emotionality of two consecutive lists of trauma‐related and positive words. After the first list, the experimenter instructed participants to forget these words, and to continue rating the remaining words. A surprise recall task revealed robust directed forgetting and valence effects: All groups recalled more words from the second list than from the first list, and recalled more trauma words than positive ones. Participants reporting either repressed or recovered memories of CSA did not exhibit superior forgetting of trauma versus positive words relative to the other two groups. Finally, a subsidiary analysis revealed that participants exhibiting a “repressor” coping style (low self‐reported anxiety plus high defensiveness) did not exhibit superior directed forgetting of trauma words.     

You Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Angry: A Daily Diary Study of Displaced Online Aggression in Dual-Earner Couples

Modern technologies can aid working processes as well as provide individuals with an opportunity to connect and form interpersonal relationships. However, they can also create a context for displaced aggression. In this study, we examine whether people experiencing work stressors may engage in online antisocial behavioral as a means of venting their negative emotions. Specifically, we investigate whether experiencing stressors at work fuels anger in the private context and whether this anger triggers subsequent displaced aggression in the form of antisocial online behavior (AOB) throughout the evening. Additionally, we examine the crossover of anger to AOB in couples in their private context. We conducted a diary study amongst 95 dual-earner couples, twice a day, during five consecutive working days. Results confirmed that men’s daily work stressors spilled over to their private context in the form of anger after work and AOB throughout the evening. No crossover effects were found from their partner. For women, a crossover effect was found of their partner’s work stressors and anger on their own AOB. These results demonstrate gender differences in displaced online aggression.     

Cooperative social coordination and aggression: II. Effects of sex and housing among three strains of intact laboratory rats differing in aggressiveness

Pairs of laboratory rats were rewarded with sugar solution for cooperating by means of synchronized shuttling in a rectangular chamber. Learning and performance were compared in males and females of three strains--S3, Charles River, and Wistar--ordered in terms of decreasing levels of aggressiveness. In addition, same-sex pairs of each strain were housed either together or individually. When housed together, males and females of all strains eventually cooperated at comparable levels, with rates of acquisition across strains inversely related to their aggressiveness. Individual housing, in contrast, was associated with severe deficits in males of the S3 and CR strains linked to violent fighting and prolonged freezing by animals who had previously been defeated. All other individually housed groups, including males of the Wistar strain and females of all strains, were able to cooperate, including S3 females whose violent fighting was not associated with immobility by defeated animals. In general, the majority of groups were able to cooperate despite differences in aggressiveness associated with sex, strain, and housing. Possible processes in this accommodation are discussed.