The role of practice and habituation in Socrates’ theory of ethical development

ABSTRACT

The goal of this paper is to challenge the standard view that Socrates of the early Platonic dialogues is an intellectualist with respect to virtue. Through a detailed analysis of the educational theory laid out in the early dialogues, it will be argued that Socrates believes that the best way to cultivate virtues in his interlocutors is not to convince them of ethical truths by way of reason and argument alone, but to encourage them to participate in the practice of virtue. Habit and practice are essential to the cultivation of virtue because they mould the desires and dispositions of the agent and promote a kind of knowledge that cannot be achieved discursively – craft-knowledge. Only when agents have achieved craft-knowledge can they be counted on to act virtuously on every occasion; and craft-knowledge can only be achieved by way of practice and habituation.     

Prodigal Sons: Dual Abrahamic Categorization Mediates the Detrimental Effects of Religious Fundamentalism on Christian–Muslim Relations

Religious fundamentalism is associated with Christian–Islamic conflicts globally, but the psychological reasons remain unexplored. Here, we show that fundamentalism is detrimental to interreligious relations because it makes Christians and Muslims alike reject common theological grounds and Abrahamic origins. Specifically, Study 1 demonstrated that such dual Abrahamic categories mediated the negative effects of fundamentalism on real monetary donations to outgroup children desperately in need (i.e., Save the Children Syria) among Christians but not Atheists. Of importance, this was the case only to the degree that Syrian children were perceived as Muslims and, hence, as part of an Abrahamic outgroup. Using a double-randomized experimental design, Study 2 demonstrated the causal effects of religious fundamentalism on Abrahamic categorization and of Abrahamic categorization on mutual resource distribution bias among Muslims and Christians. Together, these studies suggest that religious fundamentalism fuels interreligious conflicts because it crucially impacts basic categorization processes, with subsequent negative effects on intergroup relations.     

Sexism,rape myths and feminist identification explain gender differences in attitudes toward the #metoo social media campaign in two countries

ABSTRACT

On October 15, 2017, actress Alyssa Milano popularized the #metoo campaign, which sought to expose the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault in public domains by encouraging victims to share their experiences on social media using the hashtag metoo. The online campaign rapidly grew to a global phenomenon, which was generally well supported. However, some criticized the campaign online as a battle of the sexes, which pits men against women. Our cross-cultural research investigated whether gender differences in attitudes and feelings toward #metoo are due to underlying differences in ideologies and experiences that only partly overlap with gender. We surveyed respondents in the United States, where the campaign began, and in Norway, a highly gender-egalitarian country. In both countries, men expressed less positivity toward #metoo than women and perceived it as substantially more harmful and less beneficial. These gender differences were largely accounted for by men being higher than women in hostile sexism, higher in rape myth acceptance, and lower in feminist identification. The results, hence, suggest that gender differences in attitudes to social media campaigns such as #metoo might be best characterized as dimensional ideological differences rather than fundamental group differences.     

Automatic Behavior – Its Social Embedding and Individual Consequences

Automatic behavior, that is, the non‐conscious activation of perceiver behavior by social category priming, has undergone considerable development in the recent years. While initial effects pointed to often rather surprising effects that could be characterized as imitation of the behavior of the social category itself, current research unfolds a much more complex picture. Not only imitative behavior but, contrasting, also response behavior is getting activated. Response behavior is fundamentally different from imitation and contrast and denotes behavior that is directed toward the social category out of the action ecology of the perceiver. Furthermore, boundary conditions have been established and could reveal that motivation (goals) and social context modulate the selection of specific automatic responses. Most recent findings reveal that social category priming embedded in context also modulates visual attention patterns pertaining to means functional for the response behavior. Similar to the increased complexity of findings, the proposed underlying explanatory models have developed in comprehensiveness. Taken together, automatic behavior now has to be seen as a valid form of social influence, and its benefits and pitfalls are further to be investigated.     

Controlling death by defending ingroups — Mediational insights into terror management and control restoration

A large body of evidence supports the key tenet of terror management theory (TMT) that people manage death anxiety by defending cultural ingroups. However, surprisingly little is known about the motivational processes driving this effect. Given that mortality salience (MS) as well as control deprivation instigate ingroup defense, it is possible that MS effects on ingroup defense are fueled by the motivation to restore control that has been shattered by the inevitability of death. Study 1 revealed that control motivation – operationalized as illusory pattern perception – mediates MS and control deprivation effects on ingroup defense. Study 2 showed that thoughts about lacking control mediate MS and control deprivation effects on perceptions of randomness. Study 3 compared control motivation – operationalized as state need for structure – and death-thought accessibility (i.e., the main mediator candidate in TMT) in terms of mediation of MS and control deprivation effects on ingroup defense. Replicating the results of Study 1, control motivation mediated both MS and control deprivation effects, whereas death-thought accessibility failed to mediate any effects. Using different operationalizations of control motivation, these studies provide broad mediational evidence for the notion that MS-induced ingroup defense serves the function of compensating for the loss of control that is inherent in the inescapability of death.     

The Attitudinal Entropy (AE) Framework as a General Theory of Individual Attitudes

Abstract

This article introduces the Attitudinal Entropy (AE) framework, which builds on the Causal Attitude Network model that conceptualizes attitudes as Ising networks. The AE framework rests on three propositions. First, attitude inconsistency and instability are two related indications of attitudinal entropy, a measure of randomness derived from thermodynamics. Second, energy of attitude configurations serves as a local processing strategy to reduce the global entropy of attitude networks. Third, directing attention to and thinking about attitude objects reduces attitudinal entropy. We first discuss several determinants of attitudinal entropy reduction and show that several findings in the attitude literature, such as the mere thought effect on attitude polarization and the effects of heuristic versus systematic processing of arguments, follow from the AE framework. Second, we discuss the AE framework’s implications for ambivalence and cognitive dissonance.     

Being modest makes you feel bad: Effects of the modesty norm and mortality salience on self‐esteem in a collectivistic culture

Terror management research shows that existential terror motivates people to live up to social norms. According to terror management theory (TMT), people can achieve a sense of self‐worth through compliance with social norms. However, this has not yet been empirically tested. Modesty has long been known as an important social norm in Eastern cultures, such as China, Japan, and Korea. The current research examined whether conforming to the modesty norm in response to reminders of death concerns increases self‐esteem for Chinese. In Study 1, following the modesty norm (i.e., explicit self‐effacement) led to decreased implicit self‐esteem, however, this was only the case if mortality was salient. In Study 2, violating the modesty norm (i.e., explicit self‐enhancement) increased implicit self‐esteem – however – again, this was only the case when mortality was salient. These findings indicate that self‐esteem cannot be maintained through compliance with the modesty norm. Implications of this research for understanding the interplay between self‐esteem and social norms in terror management processes are discussed.     

Are there ��His�� and ��Her�� Types of Decisions? Exploring Gender Differences in the Confirmation Bias

Research on biased information seeking demonstrates that after decisions, people show a preference for supporting rather than conflicting information (confirmation bias). In a laboratory study (N?=?86 German undergraduates), we examined the interactive effects of different decision types and gender on the confirmation bias. Our study revealed that women showed less confirmation bias when the decision concerned themselves and their mate (interdependent decision) compared to a decision concerning only themselves (independent decision). In contrast, men showed less confirmation bias when they made an independent compared to an interdependent decision. Results were discussed in terms of self-construal differences between men and women leading to different motivations (defense vs. accuracy) during the information seeking depending on the decision type.     

Modifications in basal and stress-induced hypothalamic AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity in rats chronically treated with an angiotensin II receptor blocker

5' adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) plays a prominent role as a metabolic stress sensor. The role of hypothalamic AMPK in response to restraint and surgical stress has not been previously investigated. It has been recently suggested that the renin-angiotensin system, in addition to its role in stress regulation, may play a significant role in regulating metabolic pathways including the regulation of the AMPK system. This study was thus aimed to evaluate the effects of candesartan, an angiotensin II AT1 receptor blocker drug, on hypothalamic AMPK activity under basal conditions and after restraint in conscious rats or after surgical stress under general anesthesia. Male Wistar rats were treated with 5 mg/kg/day candesartan in the drinking water for 2 weeks. The hypothalamic AMPK activity was determined under basal and stress conditions, using a kinase activity assay. Chronic administration of candesartan significantly increased hypothalamic AMPK activity. Hypothalamic AMPK activity was also increased by restraint stress whereas no change was observed during surgical stress under anesthesia. The high levels of hypothalamic AMPK activation observed in candesartan-treated rats were not changed by restraint stress but were reduced to control levels by anesthesia and surgery. In conclusion, chronic candesartan treatment and restraint stress in conscious rats stimulate the hypothalamic AMPK activity, whereas surgical stress under anesthesia inhibits pathways regulating the AMPK activity even in candesartan-treated rats.