Engineering and the Problem of Moral Overload

When thinking about ethics, technology is often only mentioned as the source of our problems, not as a potential solution to our moral dilemmas. When thinking about technology, ethics is often only mentioned as a constraint on developments, not as a source and spring of innovation. In this paper, we argue that ethics can be the source of technological development rather than just a constraint and technological progress can create moral progress rather than just moral problems. We show this by an analysis of how technology can contribute to the solution of so-called moral overload or moral dilemmas. Such dilemmas typically create a moral residue that is the basis of a second-order principle that tells us to reshape the world so that we can meet all our moral obligations. We can do so, among other things, through guided technological innovation.     

Being a Body: Women’s Appearance Related Self-Views and their Dehumanization of Sexually Objectified Female Targets

When sexually objectified, women are reduced to their bodies or sexual body parts and become likely targets of dehumanization. Not only men, but also women engage in this process. In the present research, we tested the link between women’s appearance related self-views and their tendency to dehumanize sexually objectified female targets. Specifically, we test two mediational models and predict that (1) women’s motivation to look attractive to men and (2) their tendency to internalize the sociocultural beauty standards are linked with the dehumanization of sexually objectified female targets, and their level of self-objectification mediates both relations. To test these hypotheses, a sample of 55 heterosexual undergraduate female students from Northern Italy volunteered. Participants’ motivation to look attractive to men, their level of internalization of the sociocultural beauty standards, and their tendency to self-objectify was measured. Results confirmed that only sexually objectified female targets were significantly dehumanized, while their non-objectified counterparts were not. Moreover, both participants’ motivation to look attractive to men and their tendency to internalize the sociocultural beauty standards were positively linked with the dehumanization of sexually objectified female targets. As expected, these relations were mediated by participants’ level of self-objectification. These results show that higher levels of self-objectification among those women who are motivated either to look attractive to men or to internalize the sociocultural beauty standards are linked with their tendency to dehumanize sexually objectified female targets.     

How Can You Best Measure Reaction Times?

Comparing many ways of measuring and analyzing reaction times reveals that the chosen method influences both the judged reaction time and, more importantly, conclusions about how the reaction time depends on the circumstances under study. The task was to lift one's finger in response to a tone. The response amplitude was either constrained or not. Constraining the amplitude made the response less vigorous. When the response was less vigorous it took longer to move far enough to release a switch or exceed the elasticity of the finger pulp. Although using a micro-switch would have made the reaction time appear to be longer for the constrained movement, reaction times determined in the most reliable ways were not systematically longer for the constrained movement. The most reliable method is to use extrapolation of the change in the average force that the finger exerts on the surface to estimate the reaction time.     

Spatiotemporal configuration of memory arrays as a component of VWM representations

Visual working memory (VWM) has been found to support a very limited representation of visual information and yet relatively little is known about the mechanisms that underlie this important cognitive construct. Prior investigations have revealed that VWM performance can be affected by relatively minor changes in the test method as well as the method of encoding. In the present two experiments, we separately investigated these two factors. The results suggest that sequential object displays can improve VWM performance significantly but that a lack of context relatedness between encoding and retrieval impairs performance. This impairment seems to be caused by a mismatch in the spatiotemporal configuration of the memory and test displays, and, importantly, cannot be compensated by selective attention. These findings suggest that spatiotemporal configuration information may be a fundamental component of the information that is stored in VWM as suggested by a number of influential theories.     

Children's intervention strategies in situations of victimization by bullying: Social cognitions of outsiders versus defenders

This study examined the social cognitions of outsiders and defenders about intervening in situations of victimization by bullying. Do outsiders and defenders behave differently in victimization situations because of differences in competence beliefs, or because of a selectivity effect in intervening? These issues were examined in a sample of 102 outsiders and 107 defenders who were classified into these bullying roles through a peer-nomination procedure out of a total sample of 761 10- to 14-year-old Dutch children. These children were presented with imaginary victimization events. They answered questions about their cognitions and self-efficacy beliefs about intervening in victimization situations and about handling such situations. Outsiders, compared to defenders, claimed to intervene indirectly in victimization situations rather than directly. Defenders, compared to outsiders, claimed to intervene directly in victimization situations rather than indirectly. Both outsiders and defenders claimed to be more likely to intervene when a friend was being victimized than when a neutral classmate was being victimized. Outsiders and defenders did not differ in their self-efficacy for indirect intervention, but only defenders claimed a high self-efficacy for direct intervention. Both outsiders and defenders claimed to benefit from direct help when they themselves are victimized, but only outsiders also reported to need indirect help. The results suggest that outsiders and defenders behave differently in victimization situations because of differences in competence beliefs rather than because of a selectivity effect. More generally, the results suggest that not only defenders but also outsiders have the intention to help children who are being bullied. However, outsiders' anti-bullying attempts are likely to be indirect and less firm than those of defenders.     

Stepwise Latent Class Models for Explaining Group-Level Outcomes Using Discrete Individual-Level Predictors

Explaining group-level outcomes from individual-level predictors requires aggregating the individual-level scores to the group level and correcting the group-level estimates for measurement errors in the aggregated scores. However, for discrete variables it is not clear how to perform the aggregation and correction. It is shown how stepwise latent class analysis can be used to do this. First, a latent class model is estimated in which the scores on a discrete individual-level predictor are used to construct group-level latent classes. Second, this latent class model is used to aggregate the individual-level predictor by assigning the groups to the latent classes. Third, a group-level analysis is performed in which the aggregated measures are related to the remaining group-level variables while correcting for the measurement error in the class assignments. This stepwise approach is introduced in a multilevel mediation model with a single individual-level mediator, and compared to existing methods in a simulation study. We also show how a mediation model with multiple group-level latent variables can be used with multiple individual-level mediators and this model is applied to explain team productivity (group level) as a function of job control (individual level), job satisfaction (individual level), and enriched job design (group level).     

Multilevel Mixture Factor Models

Factor analysis is a statistical method for describing the associations among sets of observed variables in terms of a small number of underlying continuous latent variables. Various authors have proposed multilevel extensions of the factor model for the analysis of data sets with a hierarchical structure. These Multilevel Factor Models (MFMs) have in common that—as in multilevel regression analysis—variation at the higher level is modeled using continuous random effects. In this article, we present an alternative multilevel extension of factor analysis which we call the Multilevel Mixture Factor Model (MMFM). It is based on the assumption that higher level units belong to latent classes that differ in terms of the parameters of the factor model specified for the lower level units. We demonstrate the added value of MMFM compared with MFM, both from a theoretical and applied perspective, and we illustrate the complementarity of the two approaches with an empirical application on students' satisfaction with the University of Florence. The multilevel aspect of this application is that students are nested within study programs, which makes it possible to cluster these programs based on their differences in students' satisfaction.     

Clustering of drinker prototype characteristics: What characterizes the typical drinker?

Prototypes (social images) have been shown to influence behaviour, which is likely to depend on the type of image. Prototype evaluation is based on (un)desirable characteristics related to that image. By an elicitation procedure we examined which adjectives are attributed to specific drinker prototypes. In total 149 young Dutch adults (18–25 years of age) provided adjectives for five drinker prototypes: abstainer, moderate drinker, heavy drinker, tipsy, and drunk person. Twenty‐three unique adjectives were found. Multilevel latent class cluster analysis revealed six adjective clusters, each with unique and minor overlapping adjectives: ‘negative, excessive drinker,’ ‘moderate, responsible drinker,’ ‘funny tipsy drinker,’ ‘determined abstainer cluster,’ ‘uncontrolled excessive drinker,’ and ‘elated tipsy cluster.’ In addition, four respondent classes were identified. Respondent classes showed differences in their focus on specific adjective clusters. Classes could be labelled ‘focus‐on‐control class,’ ‘focus‐on‐hedonism class,’ ‘contrasting‐extremes‐prototypes class,’ and ‘focus‐on‐elation class.’ Respondent classes differed in gender, educational level and drinking behaviour. The results underscore the importance to differentiate between various prototypes and in prototype adjectives among young adults: subgroup differences in prototype salience and relevance are possibly due to differences in adjective labelling. The results provide insights into explaining differences in drinking behaviour and could potentially be used to target and tailor interventions aimed at lowering alcohol consumption among young adults via prototype alteration.     

Matching auditory and visual signals: is sensory modality just another feature?

In order to perceive the world coherently, we need to integrate features of objects and events that are presented to our senses. Here we investigated the temporal limit of integration in unimodal visual and auditory as well as crossmodal auditory-visual conditions. Participants were presented with alternating visual and auditory stimuli and were asked to match them either within or between modalities. At alternation rates of about 4 Hz and higher, participants were no longer able to match visual and auditory stimuli across modalities correctly, while matching within either modality showed higher temporal limits. Manipulating different temporal stimulus characteristics (stimulus offsets and/or auditory-visual SOAs) did not change performance. Interestingly, the difference in temporal limits between crossmodal and unimodal conditions appears strikingly similar to temporal limit differences between unimodal conditions when additional features have to be integrated. We suggest that adding a modality across which sensory input is integrated has the same effect as adding an extra feature to be integrated within a single modality.