Oh,the things you don’t know: awe promotes awareness of knowledge gaps and science interest

ABSTRACT

Awe is described as an a “epistemic emotion” because it is hypothesised to make gaps in one’s knowledge salient. However, no empirical evidence for this yet exists. Awe is also hypothesised to be an antecedent to interest in science because science is one way to fill those knowledge gaps. Results from four pre-registered studies (N?=?1518) indicate that manipulating awe through online (Studies 1a, 1b, and 1c) and virtual reality (Study 2) videos, led to greater awareness of knowledge gaps. Awareness of knowledge gaps was consistently associated with greater science interest and to choosing tickets to a science museum over tickets to an art museum (Study 1b). These effects were not consistently observed on, nor moderated by, other measures related to cognition, religion, and spirituality. However, exploratory analyses showed that science interest was better predicted by positive emotions than by awe. Still, these results provide the first empirical evidence of awe as an “epistemic emotion” by demonstrating its effects on awareness of knowledge gaps. These findings are also extended to the effects of awe on science interest as one possible outcome of awareness of knowledge gaps.     

Parental Characteristics,Ecological Factors,and the Academic Achievement of African American Males

Parental characteristics, ecological factors, and the academic achievement of African American male high school students were examined. One hundred fifty‐three 11th and 12th grade African American males completed the Parenting Style Index ( Steinberg, Lamborn, Darling, Mounts, & Dornbusch, 1994 ) and a demographic questionnaire. Results indicated no significant relationship between parenting styles and enrollment in honors courses. However, the results indicated that fathers’ education level and two‐parent family structures are positive predictors of grade point average (GPA), and fathers’ expectations is a negative predictor of GPA. Implications for counselor practice and research are delineated.     

Wind Power Planning Controversies and the Construction of ‘Expert’ and ‘Lay’ Knowledges

UK and Scottish planning policies include commitments to reflect the views of the public. However, this case study of one planning application for a wind farm in rural Scotland highlights the limited role played by lay knowledge within planning processes. The planning application process had two separate stages which structured the roles of lay and expert knowledge differently. Local objectors were able to influence the early planning application stage. However, this resulted in an appeals process (public inquiry) which was beyond the influence of lay people, and within which lay knowledge played only a marginal role. The early planning application stage enabled a wider range of knowledges to be relevant, perhaps even allowing lay knowledge to sideline expert knowledge. Within the inquiry such roles were reversed. Witnesses who could not back up their evidence with ‘reliable’ data or scientific reasoning were discredited as illegitimate and as having little to contribute to the inquiry process. Thus the inquiry constructed boundaries between expert and lay knowledge, in ways which diminished the role that lay knowledge might play. Whilst the construction of expert knowledge at the public inquiry played a central role in marginalising lay knowledge, it was central to all sides of the argument; the role of expert knowledge was reinforced by both the opposition group and the developers. Therefore, it is not only policy-makers and planning officials, but also lay people who act as though expert and lay knowledge can be clearly distinguished from one another.     

Fuzzy Genes: Epistemic Tensions in Genomics

Genomics contributed to making modern biology a prolific multi-disciplinary field leading to new approaches such as systems biology. Reporting in the media reflects the high stakes involved in these changes, but such reporting often appears inconsistent as contradictory claims are made about new applications contrasting with uncertainties from new insights. Such inconsistent claims might relate to different disciplines involved in the field. New approaches from engineering disciplines such as computer science have changed research practices and approaches towards the object; the meaning of genes having become context-dependent. Since disciplines must cooperate, tensions arise over methods, evidence criteria and the significance of hypotheses. The concept of epistemic cultures, developed to highlight differences between distant fields such as high-energy physics and molecular biology, can render insights into the ‘cultures’ related to practices and approaches within genomics. Qualitative interviews with scientists shed light on how computer science and experimental molecular biology co-operate and which problems arise from epistemic differences as the criteria for relevant findings become subject to the disciplinary context. In addition, genomics-like approaches have entered other fields of biological research, whilst systems biology further challenges hypothesis-driven experimentation. This may lead to a new epistemic culture differing from the one previously described. These findings provide insights into how different accounts arise and shed light on general properties of prolific multi-disciplinary research fields. Inconsistencies in the way such fields appear from outside might be considered normal rather than the exception.     

The Napsterization Of Everything

This essay reviews Warwick Anderson's book The Collectors of Lost Souls: Turning Kuru Scientists into Whitemen. I present the book as a model of postcolonial science studies research that exemplifies the complementarity of postcolonial studies and science studies.     

It's Complicated: Corporate Sustainability and the Uneasiness of Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a technique and field of expertise aimed at modeling the complete ‘cradle-to-grave’ life of goods and services, as well as their multiple impacts on environmental and human well-being. Although not new, in recent years LCA has become a central tool in corporate and government initiatives to improve overall product sustainability. These initiatives show how corporate supply chains have become increasingly important sites and objects of knowledge production. But the production process is not straightforward. LCA practitioners must navigate complicated relationships with corporations that serve as both clients and sources of vital information. The challenges of generating knowledge deemed both credible and useful are compounded by the complexity, diversity and contingency of product life cycles, as well as by ongoing debates about exactly how product sustainability should be modeled and assessed. While some of these challenges are unique to LCA, others reflect tensions common to many fields that assess corporate conduct in order to improve it.     

Translation and Interpretation in Ibn Taymiyya's Logical Definition

This article deals with the concepts of translation and interpretation in Ibn Taymiyya's Theory of Definition. Translation is replacement of one name by another or of one named object by another, while, Interpretation is replacement of one name by a named object or of a named object by a name. The relationship between the definition and the definiendum is decided by the law of al-Tard wa al-'Aks (coextensiveness-cumcoexclusiveness) that looks at objects from all sides and decides the traits of the definiendum. It also aims at deciding the signification of the name and this is also the aim of the definition. Since the ‘name’; is a linguistic matter, the definition is related to the signification of the name and its language.     

现代针灸学研究应当警惕被文化绑架

针灸学的文化属性由其漫长的历史积淀特质所决定,针灸学的科学属性由其在现实中治疗疾病的有效性及其机制的探索过程所决定.针灸学的文化属性与科学属性犹如硬币的正反两面永远无法分离,但无法实现同一个角度的双面认识.不能以其文化属性而排斥科学属性,不能利用文化角度的认识方法和认识结果取代科学角度的探索方法和探索结果,反之亦然.文化的针灸可以努力固守,以保个性的纯洁与永恒;但科学的针灸需要不断发展,以超越个性文化而走向科学大同.现代针灸学研究应当警惕被文化绑架.     

道德自我调节视角下的学业自我效能感与大学生学术不端的关系研究

本研究构建了一个中介性调节模型,以解释较低的学术自我效能感与大学生学术不端之间的关系,提出学业自我效能感与学术不端之间的关系以道德推脱为中介,且这一中介效应受到道德自我认同的调节。495名大学生参加了本研究,他们完成了学业自我效能感问卷、道德推脱问卷、道德自我认同问卷和学术不端问卷。数据分析发现,学业自我效能感、道德推脱、内化道德认同和象征化道德认同都影响道德推脱和学术不端,且学业自我效能感与学术不端的关系以道德推脱为部分中介,但是这一中介效应只受内化道德认同的调节,不受象征化道德认同的调节。本研究表明,较高的内化道德认同能够降低学术自我效能感较低的个体的道德推脱倾向。并由此减少其学术不端的可能性。