The effect of social marketing communication on safe driving

Processing of cognition, affect, and intention was investigated in viewers of advertisements to prevent speeding while driving. Results indicated that anchoring-point messages had greater effects on viewers' cognition, attitude, and behavioral intention than did messages without anchoring points. Further, the changes in message anchoring points altered participants' perceptions of acceptable and unacceptable judgments: a higher anchoring point in the form of speeding mortality was more persuasive in promoting the idea of reducing driving speed. Implications for creation of effective safe driving communications are discussed.     

Using the Black Sheep Effect to reveal normative stakes: The example of alcohol drinking contexts

The present study shows that the paradigm relative to Black Sheep Effect (BSE) may be used to reveal normative stakes whose existence is not clearly identified. To this end, our study focuses on alcohol drinking practices among students, specifically with regard to drinking contexts (solitary vs. group). Our hypothesis was that the drinking norms are determined by their context (i.e. social vs. solitary drinking). More specifically, we suggested that social drinking is viewed by students as pro‐normative, while solitary drinking is viewed as anti‐normative. The results confirmed our hypotheses and enable us to consider that the BSE paradigm has the potential to reveal normative stakes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide from Confucian Moral Perspectives

This essay first discusses the three major arguments in favor of euthanasia and physician-assisted-suicide in contemporary Western society, viz., the arguments of mercy, preventing indignity, and individual autonomy. It then articulates both Confucian consonance and dissonance to them. The first two arguments make use of Confucian discussions on suicide whereas the last argument appeals to Confucian social-political thought. It concludes that from the Confucian moral perspectives, none of the three arguments is fully convincing.     

Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation: Relationships With Various Forms of Racism

Previous research revealed that right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) are strongly related to racism. However, this line of inquiry neglected to study these relationships for various forms of racism. In Study 1, it was found in a Flemish heterogeneous adult sample ( N = 146) that RWA and SDO bore about equally strong relationships with biological racism, symbolic racism, ethnocentrism, and aversive racism. Study 2 revealed in a heterogeneous adult sample ( N = 176), also administered in Flanders (Belgium), that RWA was positively related to both subtle and blatant prejudice, whereas SDO was positively related only to blatant prejudice. Moreover, RWA differentiates better between different types of racists composed on the basis of scores on the racism dimensions. The implications of these results for RWA- and SDO-based prejudice are discussed.     

Why C-luck really is a problem for compatibilism

Some philosophers have recently argued that luck at the time of decision is a problem for compatibilists and libertarians alike. But conceptual ambiguity regarding deterministic luck at the time of decision – henceforth C-luck – has obscured recognition of the problem C-luck poses to compatibilism. This paper clarifies C-luck and distinguishes it from present luck, showing that the former arises from contingent factors at the time of decision instead of presupposed free will requirements. We then argue that empirical findings confirm the existence of C-luck thereby raising a fundamental challenge to compatibilist accounts of moral responsibility.     

Factor analysis and validation of a self-report measure of impaired fear inhibition

Difficulties with inhibiting fear have been associated with the emergence of anxiety problems and poor response to cognitive–behavioural treatment. Fear inhibition problems measured using experimental paradigms involving aversive stimuli may be inappropriate for vulnerable samples and may not capture fear inhibition problems evident in everyday life. We present the Fear Inhibition Questionnaire (FIQ), a self-report measure of fear inhibition abilities. We assess the FIQ’s factor structure across two cultures and how well it correlates with fear inhibition indices derived experimentally. Adolescent participants from Hong Kong and England completed the FIQ, with the English participants also completing a conditioning and extinction task to assess fear inhibition problems. Across both cultures, the FIQ showed a single factor structure and low FIQ scores, or worse fear inhibition problems, were associated with self-reports of heightened anxiety. Correlation of FIQ scores with experimental indices, whilst controlling for anxious symptoms, suggests that the FIQ represents a valid and unique measure of fear inhibition abilities. The FIQ might be used to assess more ecologically valid fear inhibition problems particularly amongst people who have or who are at risk of anxiety diagnoses.     

Perisaccadic parietal and occipital gamma power in light and in complete darkness

Our objective was to determine perisaccadic gamma range oscillations in the EEG during voluntary saccades in humans. We evaluated occipital perisaccadic gamma activity both in the presence and absence of visual input, when the observer was blindfolded. We quantified gamma power in the time periods before, during, and after horizontal saccades. The corresponding EEG was evaluated for individual saccades and the wavelet transformed EEG averaged for each time window, without averaging the EEG first. We found that, in both dark and light, parietal and occipital gamma power increased during the saccade and peaked prior to reaching new fixation. We show that this is not the result of muscle activity and not the result of visual input during saccades. Saccade direction affects the laterality of gamma power over posterior electrodes. Gamma power recorded over the posterior scalp increases during a saccade. The phasic modulation of gamma by saccades in darkness--when occipital activity is decoupled from visual input--provides electrophysiological evidence that voluntary saccades affect ongoing EEG. We suggest that saccade-phasic gamma modulation may contribute to short-term plasticity required to realign the visual space to the intended fixation point of a saccade and provides a mechanism for neuronal assembly formation prior to achieving the intended saccadic goal. The wavelet-transformed perisaccadic EEG could provide an electrophysiological tool applicable in humans for the purpose of fine analysis and potential separation of stages of 'planning' and 'action'.