Tops are more salient than bottoms

Past research has verified that observers assume that objects are reliably oriented with respect to a gravitationally centered coordinate system. Observers also appear to attend more to specific parts of objects, like faces, that typically are closer to the top. In the present work, we explored whether or not observers have a generic bias to view tops as being more salient than bottoms. In three experiments, observers indicated whether random shapes appeared to be more similar to comparison shapes that shared identical tops rather than bottoms. Observers exhibited a reliable tendency to match figures with similarly shaped tops. Matching choice was also a function of global shape attributes such as axis of elongation or size. The findings are consistent with the notion that, in nature, tops tend to be the most visible part and to provide the best information with respect to important aspects of objects such as animal intentionality and artifact functionality.     

Attitudes Toward Professional Psychological Help Seeking in South Asian Students: Role of Stigma and Gender

This study examined (a) the roles of perceived and personal stigma on attitudes toward professional psychological help seeking and (b) the effects of these constructs across gender in South Asians. Personal stigma and being male was negatively associated with attitudes toward professional psychological help seeking; no difference in the association between personal and perceived stigma and attitudes across genders was found. These findings have implications for the engagement of South Asians in mental health services in the United States. Este estudio examinó (a) los roles de estigmas percibidos y personales en las actitudes hacia la búsqueda de ayuda psicológica profesional y (b) los efectos de estos constructos en indiviuos sudasiáticos según su sexo. El estigma personal y la identidad masculina se asociaron negativamente con las actitudes hacia la búsqueda de ayuda psicológica profesional; no se halló diferencia en la asociación entre estigmas personales y percibidos y las actitudes de los distintos sexos. Estos hallazgos tienen implicaciones para la participación de los individuos sudasiáticos en los servicios de salud mental en Estados Unidos.     

Building the buzz in the hive mind

What is the secret to buzz marketing? Buzz marketing is defined as the amplification of initial marketing efforts by third parties through their passive or active influence. This powerful conceptual framework is illustrated in this paper with practical information on how to build the buzz. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications Ltd.     

Exploring Moderators of Gender Differences: Contextual Differences in Door‐Hoiding Behavior1

The simple behavior of holding a door for another person can be interpreted as gender‐neutral, helpful, or benevolently sexist. Each interpretation leads to competing hypotheses predicting no gender differences in door holding, consistent door holding by men as chivalrous helpers, and door holding by men in the gender‐salient context of dating but not in everyday interactions, respectively. Observations of 769 college‐aged, female‐male dyads found a strong pattern of male door holding in dating but not in everyday contexts. This pattern highlights social role theory's emphasis on understanding contextual moderators of apparent gender differences, changes in door‐holding behavior in everyday contexts across the past 20 years, and the benevolent sexism subtly conveyed by male dominance in door holding in dating contexts.     

Ancillary care obligations in light of an African bioethic: from entrustment to communion

Henry Richardson recently published the first book ever devoted to ancillary care obligations, which roughly concern what medical researchers are morally required to provide to participants beyond what safety requires. In it, Richardson notes that he is presenting the ‘only fully elaborated view out there’ on this topic, which he calls the ‘partial-entrustment model’. In this article, I provide a new theory of ancillary care obligations, one that is grounded on ideals of communion salient in the African philosophical tradition and that is intended to rival and surpass Richardson’s model, which is a function of Western considerations of autonomy. I argue that the relational approach of the former has several virtues in comparison to the basic individualism of the latter.     

Higher Education,Knowledge for Its Own Sake,and an African Moral Theory

I seek to answer the question of whether publicly funded higher education ought to aim intrinsically to promote certain kinds of “blue-sky” knowledge, knowledge that is unlikely to result in “tangible” or “concrete” social benefits such as health, wealth and liberty. I approach this question in light of an African moral theory, which contrasts with dominant Western philosophies and has not yet been applied to pedagogical issues. According to this communitarian theory, grounded on salient sub-Saharan beliefs and practices, actions are right insofar as they respect relationships in which people both share a way of life, or identify with one another, and care for others’ quality of life, or are in solidarity with each other. I argue that while considerations of identity and solidarity each provide some reason for a state university to pursue blue-sky knowledge as a final end, they do not provide conclusive reason for it to do so. I abstain from drawing any further conclusion about whether this provides reason to reject the Afro-communitarian moral theory or the intuition that blue-sky knowledge is a proper final end of public higher education. I do point out, however, that the dominant Western moral theories on the face of it do no better than the African one at accounting for this intuition.     

Censure Theory <Emphasis Type="Italic">Still</Emphasis> Best Accounts for Punishment of the Guilty: Reply to Montague

In an article previously published in this journal, Phillip Montague critically surveys and rejects a handful of contemporary attempts to explain why state punishment is morally justified. Among those targeted is one of my defences of the censure theory of punishment, according to which state punishment is justified because the political community has a duty to express disapproval of those guilty of injustice. My defence of censure theory supposes, per argumentum, that there is always some defeasible moral reason for the state to proportionately punish the guilty, and then demonstrates that censure theory best entails and explains this intuition. Montague does not question the intuition, but instead argues that three rival theories of punishment, including his societal-defence view, account for it to no worse a degree than my censure theory. In this article I defend my initial argument, noting resources for its defence that Montague does not appreciate and that, I maintain, provide those who believe that there is always pro tanto injustice in the state failing to proportionately punish the guilty reason to adopt censure theory over all competitors, including Montague’s societal-defence theory.