What’s wrong with human extinction?

Abstract

This paper explores what could be wrong with the fact of human extinction. I first present four reasons why we might consider human extinction to be wrong: (1) it would prevent millions of people from being born; (2) it would mean the loss of rational life and civilization; (3) it would cause existing people to suffer pain or death; (4) it would involve various psychological traumas. I argue that looking at the question from a contractualist perspective, only reasons (3) and (4) are admissible. I then consider what implications this limitation on reasons has for the wrongfulness of various forms of human extinction.     

Measuring perceived ceiling height in a visual comparison task

When judging interior space, a dark ceiling is judged to be lower than a light ceiling. The method of metric judgments (e.g., on a centimetre scale) that has typically been used in such tasks may reflect a genuine perceptual effect or it may reflect a cognitively mediated impression. We employed a height-matching method in which perceived ceiling height had to be matched with an adjustable pillar, thus obtaining psychometric functions that allowed for an estimation of the point of subjective equality (PSE) and the difference limen (DL). The height-matching method developed in this paper allows for a direct visual match and does not require metric judgment. It has the added advantage of providing superior precision. Experiment 1 used ceiling heights between 2.90?m and 3.00?m. The PSE proved sensitive to slight changes in perceived ceiling height. The DL was about 3% of the physical ceiling height. Experiment 2 found similar results for lower (2.30?m to 2.50?m) and higher (3.30?m to 3.50?m) ceilings. In Experiment 3, we additionally varied ceiling lightness (light grey vs. dark grey). The height matches showed that the light ceiling appeared significantly higher than the darker ceiling. We therefore attribute the influence of ceiling lightness on perceived ceiling height to a direct perceptual rather than a cognitive effect.     

An experimental analysis of body checking

The relationship between repeated body checking and its impact on body size estimation and body dissatisfaction is of interest for two reasons. First, it has importance in theoretical accounts of the maintenance of eating disorders and, second, body checking is targeted in cognitive-behavioural treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of manipulating body checking on body size estimation and body dissatisfaction. Sixty women were randomly assigned either to repeatedly scrutinize their bodies in a critical way in the mirror ("high body checking") or to refrain from body checking but to examine the whole of their bodies in a neutral way ("low body checking"). Body dissatisfaction, feelings of fatness and the strength of a particular self-critical thought increased immediately after the manipulation among those in the high body checking condition. Feelings of fatness decreased among those in the low body checking condition. These changes were short-lived. The manipulation did not effect estimations of body size or the discrepancy between estimations of body size and desired body size. The implications of these findings for understanding the influence of body checking on the maintenance of body dissatisfaction are considered.     

Women's bust size and men's courtship solicitation

Previous studies have found that women with larger breasts than the average were considered to be more physically attractive. In these studies attractiveness was measured with the help of silhouette figures or photographs and the effect of breast size on men's behaviour was not considered. In this study two experiments were carried out in order to test the effect of a woman's breast size on approaches made by males. We hypothesized that an increase in breast size would be associated with an increase in approaches by men. A young female confederate was instructed to wear a bra that permitted her to artificially vary her breast size. In the first experiment the female confederate was instructed to sit in a nightclub for one hour whereas in the second experiment she was instructed to take a seat in a pavement area of a bar. It was found that increasing the breast size of the female confederate was associated with an increasing number of approaches by men.     

BANOVA: Bayesian Analysis of Experiments in Consumer Psychology

This article introduces a Bayesian extension of ANOVA for the analysis of experimental data in consumer psychology. The approach, called BANOVA (Bayesian ANOVA), addresses some common challenges that consumer psychologists encounter in their experimental work, and is specifically suited for the analysis of repeated measures designs. There appears to be a recent surge in interest in those designs based on the recognition that they are sensitive to individual differences in response to experimental treatments and that they offer advantages for assessing causal mediating mechanisms, even at the individual level. BANOVA enables the analysis of repeated measures data derived from mixed within–between‐subjects experiments with Normal and nonNormal‐dependent variables and accommodates unobserved individual differences. It allows for the calculation of effect sizes, planned comparisons, simple effects, spotlight and floodlight analyses, and includes a wide range of mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation analyses. An R software package implements these analyses, and aims to provide a one‐stop shop for the analysis of experiments in consumer psychology. The package is illustrated through applications to a number of data sets from previously published studies.     

Point-biserial correlation: Interval estimation,hypothesis testing,meta-analysis,and sample size determination

The point-biserial correlation is a commonly used measure of effect size in two-group designs. New estimators of point-biserial correlation are derived from different forms of a standardized mean difference. Point-biserial correlations are defined for designs with either fixed or random group sample sizes and can accommodate unequal variances. Confidence intervals and standard errors for the point-biserial correlation estimators are derived from the sampling distributions for pooled-variance and separate-variance versions of a standardized mean difference. The proposed point-biserial confidence intervals can be used to conduct directional two-sided tests, equivalence tests, directional non-equivalence tests, and non-inferiority tests. A confidence interval for an average point-biserial correlation in meta-analysis applications performs substantially better than the currently used methods. Sample size formulas for estimating a point-biserial correlation with desired precision and testing a point-biserial correlation with desired power are proposed. R functions are provided that can be used to compute the proposed confidence intervals and sample size formulas.     

Bayesian power equivalence in latent growth curve models

Longitudinal studies are the gold standard for research on time-dependent phenomena in the social sciences. However, they often entail high costs due to multiple measurement occasions and a long overall study duration. It is therefore useful to optimize these design factors while maintaining a high informativeness of the design. Von Oertzen and Brandmaier (2013,Psychology and Aging, 28, 414) applied power equivalence to show that Latent Growth Curve Models (LGCMs) with different design factors can have the same power for likelihood-ratio tests on the latent structure. In this paper, we show that the notion of power equivalence can be extended to Bayesian hypothesis tests of the latent structure constants. Specifically, we show that the results of a Bayes factor design analysis (BFDA; Schönbrodt & Wagenmakers (2018,Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 25, 128) of two power equivalent LGCMs are equivalent. This will be useful for researchers who aim to plan for compelling evidence instead of frequentist power and provides a contribution towards more efficient procedures for BFDA.     

编码强度对字体大小效应的影响

本研究采用3个实验考察编码强度对字体大小效应的影响, 探讨由于知觉特征而引发的元认知错觉的内在产生机制(实验1)与有效的矫正措施(实验2和实验3)。结果发现:(1)大字体词语的知觉流畅性显著优于小字体, 并且贝叶斯多层中介分析结果表明, 知觉流畅性对字体大小效应起部分中介作用(实验1); (2)随着编码强度的增加, 由字体大小引起的学习判断错觉逐渐消失(实验2和实验3)。以上结果表明, 刺激的知觉特征(字体大小)对个体学习判断的影响, 随编码强度激活线索的增加而逐渐减弱。这一结果为真实教学情境中提高学习者的编码强度, 进而削弱学习判断对知觉特征线索的依赖, 并准确地监测自身的学习进程提供了科学依据。     

Effects of preweaning predatory or consummatory experience and litter size on cricket predation in northern grasshopper mice (Onychomys leucogaster)

Preweaning exposure to cricket killing and consumption, but not consumption alone, facilitated postweaning cricket predation. This facilitatory effect did not result from kill-sharing by the parents or from food competition among the offspring. The results were strongly influenced by litter size. Small litters (N = 3–4) were strongly facilitated in all measures of predatory behavior when compared to litters of five to six mice. Since smaller litters of this species also show much higher levels of play behavior, it is suggested that play frequency may strongly facilitate later predatory behavior.