Anger, disgust, and presumption of harm as reactions to taboo-breaking behaviors

Three experiments investigated the relationship between the presumption of harm in harmfree violations of creatural norms (taboos) and the moral emotions of anger and disgust. In Experiment 1, participants made a presumption of harm to others from taboo violations, even in conditions described as harmless and not involving other people; this presumption was predicted by anger and not disgust. Experiment 2 manipulated taboo violation and included a cognitive load task to clarify the post hoc nature of presumption of harm. Experiment 3 was similar but more accurately measured presumed harm. In Experiments 2 and 3, only without load was symbolic harm presumed, indicating its post hoc function to justify moral anger, which was not affected by load. In general, manipulations of harmfulness to others predicted moral anger better than moral disgust, whereas manipulations of taboo predicted disgust better. The presumption of harm was found on measures of symbolic rather than actual harm when a choice existed. These studies clarify understanding of the relationship between emotions and their justification when people consider victimless, offensive acts.     

Below the Age of Consent: Influences on Moral and Legal Judgments of Adult–Adolescent Sexual Relationships1

Sexual age‐of‐consent violations involving adult–adolescent relationships (AARs) are sometimes viewed with ambivalence by the media and are infrequently prosecuted. Two studies conducted in Britain (where the age of consent is 16) examined influences on disapproval of minimally presented AARs between a 14‐year‐old and a 30‐year‐old. In Study 1, AARs involving an older man were seen as more harmful and objectionable than those involving an older woman. A second study on a jury‐eligible adult population replicated Study 1's gender effects, and also found a difference between legal knowledge and personal belief that the older person had committed a crime. Gender effects in both studies were mediated by perceived harm and emotions.     

The big picture: Writing psychology into the history of the human sciences

The grand narratives which once gave order and readability to histories, of science and of the human sciences are widely rejected in current historiography, and historians focus on detailed studies of scientific knowledge and activity in particular contexts. How, then, are synthetic general histories, accessible to the non-specialist, to be written? This paper, designed as an open-ended discussion, reflects on the business of writing about psychology in a general history of the human sciences. It considers three large topics: reflexivity, and the situation in the human sciences where “man” is both subject and object; the boundary-less identity of the human sciences and hence the need to express values in delimiting the content of the field; and the long-standing debate about what sort of “science” is appropriate for knowledge of human beings. The conclusion turns to “the quest” as a narrative form. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The intention interference effect and aging: similar magnitude of effects for young and old adults

In young adults, intentions have been shown to be more accessible (e.g. faster reaction times and higher accuracy) compared to other sorts of to‐be‐remembered information, a result termed an ‘intention superiority effect’ (Goschke & Kuhl, 1993 ). In the current study, we assessed whether older adults also demonstrate this superiority of intention‐related material and we used a new interference paradigm to examine performance. On each trial, participants performed a Stroop‐like colour‐naming task on a short series of words, including words related to an intention that they encoded at the beginning of the trial. In Experiment 1, results revealed an ‘intention interference effect’ for both young and older adults in which performance was slower for words belonging to an intention that participants intended to carry out versus an intention that did not have to be executed. In Experiment 2, we tested the effect that completing an intention had on the representation of intentions. For both groups, completing an intention led to a decrease in interference in Stroop task performance. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Against faith schools: a philosophical argument for children’s rights

In spite of the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights grants parents the right to an education in conformity with their own religious convictions, this paper argues that parents should have no such rights. It also tries to demonstrate that religious and cultural minorities have no rights to establish faith schools and that it is a child’s right in trust, to autonomous well‐being, which trumps any such claims. Faith schools, it is argued, represent a real and serious threat to children’s autonomy, especially their emotional autonomy. As such, they are incompatible with the aims of education required by a liberal democracy.     

Reviving the Mainline: An Overview of Clergy Support for Evangelical Renewal Movements

Evangelical renewal movements (ERMs) are proliferating in the old Protestant mainline and they show few signs of splitting from their parent denominations. Ironically, the very theological pluralism that ERMs seek to eliminate has provided an opportunity for their entry and a barrier for their expulsion. This essay offers an introduction to the evangelical movements arising in the mainline and reports the initial findings from a survey of United Methodist clergy's involvement in ERMs. As expected, United Methodist clergy are predominantly older, white males leading small congregations. Surprisingly, however, fully 29 percent of the clergy do not have a seminary degree and more than half of those with seminary degrees did not attend United Methodist-affiliated schools—with 22 percent attending an evangelical seminary. The clergy involved in ERMs are younger, more likely to have attended evangelical seminaries (or no seminary at all), and hold more exclusive Christian beliefs. The survey also found that the once isolated evangelical clergy of the United Methodist Church are now embedded in evangelical associations and hold friendships with other evangelical clergy. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

My brain's running slow today – The preference for “things ontologies” in research and everyday discourse on human thinking

The focus of the article is toreflect on the tendency of research traditionsin the areas of human learning, development,and communication, to use metaphors andanalogies that construe human mental activitiesand resources in terms of physical objects.This is evident, for instance, in moderncognitive science where computer metaphors(information processing and informationstorage) have been foundational for thediscipline. However, this tendency to reifyhuman activities can be found in many othertraditions, and it goes back to ancient Greekthinking. It is argued that the consequences ofthis tradition of reification are significantfor the human sciences. One important elementof these types of metaphors is that theydescribe people and their capacities in static,rather than developmental, terms.