MORALITY THROUGH INQUIRY,MOTIVE THROUGH RHETORIC: THE POLITICS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION IN THE EPOCH OF THE ANTHROPOCENE

In an epoch marked by the threat of global warming, the conflicts between science and religion are no longer simply matters that concern only intellectual elites and armchair philosophers; they are in many ways matters that will determine the degree to which we can meet the challenges of our times. John H. Evans's Morals Not Knowledge represents an important provocation for those committed not only to using scientific method as a resource for making moral judgments but also to creating political alliances with religious constituencies. In this important work, Evans argues that most conflicts between science and religion do not concern a clash between two contradictory ways of knowing, but rather a clash over our moral responsibilities and ultimate values. In my response to his work, I suggest that integrating both John Dewey's pragmatic understanding of the moral situation and Kenneth Burke's rhetorical interpretation of motives helps bolster Evans's cause and provides support for a political movement that aims to bridge the divide between science and religion in the epoch of the Anthropocene.     

Effects of Creative Personality on EEG Alpha Oscillation: Based on the Social and General Creativity Comparative Study

The neural mechanism underlying creativity has been identified and confirmed by numerous studies. This current exploratory study compared the neural basis between social creativity and general creativity and explored the effect of creative personality on their neural basis by employing multiple regression analysis. The EEG activities of 34 participants were recorded during social or general creative tasks. The results indicated that a stronger alpha event‐related synchronization (ERS) was presented during the social creative task than during the general creative task. High creative personality individuals were found to exhibit higher event‐related desynchronization (ERD) only for the upper alpha band. Additionally, high creative personality individuals revealed no significant task differences regarding the alpha ERS. However, low creative personality individuals exhibited a stronger alpha ERS for social creative tasks than they did for general creative tasks. The current investigation could lead to new approaches for examining the brain correlates of creativity from different domains and their correlations with respect to creative personality.     

Resting Frontal EEG Asymmetry and Personality Traits: A Meta‐analysis

Frontal asymmetry has been widely used as a marker of emotion, motivation, and psychopathology. When assessed during the resting state, it is regarded as an index of trait approach and withdrawal motivation. However, the replicability of these associations with personality is currently unclear. The present meta‐analysis seeks to provide a comprehensive quantitative review of the relationship between personality traits and resting electroencephalographic (EEG) frontal asymmetry. We distinguished five personality clusters: extraversion, neuroticism, impulsivity, anger, and defensiveness. Data from 79 independent samples with overall 5700 participants were included in the meta‐analysis. The results revealed that less than 0.4% of the variance in extraversion and neuroticism could be explained by resting frontal asymmetry. Similarly, a small effect was observed for trait anger, and a small‐sized to medium‐sized effect was observed for defensiveness, although the number of studies was very low. No significant effect emerged for impulsivity. The effects were further reduced after adjustment for publication bias. Given some evidence for heterogeneity, sub‐traits were analysed, and methodological moderators were investigated. Based on the results, we conclude that the validity of resting frontal asymmetry as a marker for personality is not supported. Finally, recommendations are given to increase the replicability of frontal asymmetry research. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Creating Brand Meaning: A Review and Research Agenda

In this paper I review, from the perspective of experimental research, studies that have examined how brands acquire cultural meaning, and suggest future research directions. McCracken's (Journal of Consumer Research, 13 , 1986 and 71) model of the meaning transfer process gained influence about thirty years ago, but experimental studies of the processes it posited have been limited in their scope. The review is organized around three questions. First, what should be the dependent variables: the types of meanings that can adhere to brands? Second, what have we learned from studies on the types of visual, sensory, and human cues that are the sources of particular types of brand meaning—our independent variables? Third, what do we know, and need to know, about the inferential and other processes through which consumers “take possession” of these brand meanings from these cues? The review concludes with a research agenda.     

Position,Preference and Personality: A Microlevel Explanation of Negativity in Day‐To‐Day Politics

While many scholars investigate the determinants of negativity in the political sphere, it remains largely unclear why some politicians are more negative than others. Studies thus far lack explanations at the individual level, and they almost exclusively focus on negativity during electoral races. Surveying national and regional representatives in Belgium (N = 228), this study seeks to explain individual politicians’ willingness to go negative during everyday politics. The results show that negativity is not so much related to institutionally driven differences between representatives but more to politicians’ personal characteristics and preference roles. Negative politics, hence, is not an inevitable result of institutional structures, rules, and norms, but rather depends on the characteristics and motivations of the individual representatives citizens elect.     

Minimizing Mistreatment by Female Adults: The Influence of Gender-Based Social Categories and Personality Differences on Attitudes about Child Sexual Abuse

We investigated the effects of gender-based social categories (i.e., men, women, boys, and girls) on attitudes about child sexual abuse and individual differences in the use of such categories. In four experiments, we systematically varied perpetrators’ sex and victims’ sex. In three investigations, we assessed personality variables potentially related to participants’ use of these social categories. Across these four experiments, we varied perpetrator-victim relationships (teacher-student, neighbors) and victims’ ages. In experiment one, individuals had the least negative attitude about child sexual abuse involving adult female neighbors and eighth grade male neighbors. In experiment two, we replicated this effect with fifth grade victims and demonstrated that attitudes were moderated by individual differences in intolerance of ambiguity. In experiment three, we again replicated the aforementioned effect while (a) extending this finding to teacher-student relationships with eighth grade adolescent victims and (b) demonstrating the need for cognition was a moderator. In experiment four, we again replicated (a) our perpetrator sex/victim sex interactive effect and (b) need for cognition moderation while also demonstrating that these effects were applicable to fifth grade victims. Methodological limitations as well as clinical and policy implications (e.g., attenuating the underreporting incidents of child sexual abuse) are discussed.     

Abusive supervision,leader-member exchange,and moral disengagement: A moderated-mediation model of organizational deviance

This paper draws from social exchange theory and social cognitive theory to explore moral disengagement as a potential mediator of the relationship between abusive supervision and organizational deviance. We also explore the moderating effect of leader-member exchange (LMX) on this mediated relationship. Results indicate that employees with abusive supervisors engaged in moral disengagement strategies and subsequently in organizational deviance behaviors. Additionally, this relationship was stronger for those higher in LMX. Important implications for management research and practice are discussed.     

Convenience in Criminal Entrepreneurship: The Case of a Norwegian Hashish Baron

The intent of this article is to study a case of criminal entrepreneurship, which reflects the key attributes of convenience theory in order to test that theory. The intent is also to show that the theory of convenience can be extended beyond white-collar crime to include criminal entrepreneurship. The theory of convenience is introduced in this article to explain why criminal entrepreneurship can be an attractive avenue for some people. Convenience theory suggests that a strong desire for financial gain to satisfy greed and solve problems, an attractive organizational opportunity to commit and conceal crime, as well as a personal willingness for deviant behavior can make criminal entrepreneurship attractive. The case of a Norwegian hashish baron illustrates convenience theory by the person’s ability to stay in the illegal drug business for two decades as a white-collar criminal.     

Do emotions play an essential role in moral judgments?

The past few decades of moral psychology research have yielded empirical anomalies for rationalist theories of moral judgments. An increasing number of psychologists and philosophers argue that these anomalies are explained well by sentimentalism, the thesis that the presence of an emotion is necessary for the formation of a sincere moral judgment. The present review reveals that while emotions and moral judgments indeed often co-occur, there is scant evidence that emotions directly cause or constitute moral judgments. Research on disgust, anger, sympathy, and guilt indicates that people only reliably experience emotions when judging conduct that is relevant to the welfare of the self and valued others. Moreover, many recent studies have either failed to replicate or exposed crucial confounds in the most cited evidence in support of sentimentalism. Moral psychologists should jettison sentimentalism, and focus instead on how considerations of harm and welfare—the core concepts of rationalist theories— interact with empirical beliefs to shape moral judgments.     

The relationship between religion and health-related behaviours in patients with borderline personality disorder

With addictive disorders frequently co-occurring among patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), exploring factors that may influence health-related behaviours, like religious involvement, is important. This study assesses whether religious involvement is associated with smoking and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) in BPD subjects. This study used data from Wave 2 of the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), which used the Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule–DSM-IV (AUDADIS-IV) as its assessment instrument. The AUDADIS-IV assessed personality disorders, tobacco usage, the presence of AUDs, and religious involvement. Attending a place of worship and weekly or more frequent worship attendance were significantly associated with reduced likelihood of current smoking and AUDs among BPD subjects. AUDs were also significantly less common in those reporting higher subjective religiousness. In conclusion, people with BPD who are religiously inclined are less likely to engage in addictive behaviours, specifically smoking and AUDs.