No Lake Wobegon in Beijing? The impact of culture on the perception of relative ranking

A prominent example in the literature on relative ranking is the “better‐than‐average” effect: that people have a general tendency to view themselves in a positive light and think they are above average. The current paper evaluates whether such biases are specific to culture. In Experiment 1, Americans exhibited a larger better‐than‐average effect than Chinese. In Experiment 2, the study was designed to understand what drives this cultural difference. Estimates of relative standing for Americans relied more on perceptions of their own ability compared to those for Chinese participants. Relatively structured questions (experimental manipulation of the question frame) facilitate Americans making better judgments but not Chinese, supporting the hypothesis that relative‐ranking estimates are influenced by the degree to which other (vs. self) information is used cross‐culturally.     

Are animals moral?: Zhu Xi and Jeong Yakyong’s views on nonhuman animals

One significant feature of Jeong Yakyong’s丁若鏞 (1762–1836) thought is his deconstruction of Zhu Xi’s 朱熹 (1130–1200) moral universe based on li 理 and qi 氣. For Zhu Xi, the world in its entirety was a moral place, but Jeong Yakyong distinguished nonmoral domains from the moral domain. One question that follows in pursuing a comparison of their philosophies on this topic is what each thinker meant by ‘moral’ and, in particular, whether they meant the same thing. In this paper, I delve deeper into this topic by comparing their respective perspectives on whether nonhuman animals are moral. Interestingly, they held exactly opposite views: Zhu Xi believed that certain actions on the part of nonhuman animals manifest moral values, whereas Jeong Yakyong claimed that none of the actions of nonhuman animals has moral value. In comparing their views, I introduce Mark Rowlands’ distinction between ‘moral subjects’ and ‘moral agents.’     

The Effect of Transparency on Framing Effects in Within‐Subject Designs

A long‐lasting assumption about the framing effect is that if the participants discover the purpose of the experiment in a within‐subject design, then this test transparency would trigger them to override their initial answer and make coherent choices. For this reason, researchers try to mask the connection between the two parts of the test by inserting filling questions or a time delay between the two parts of the test. In this research, we explored the extent to which these customarily used masking solutions are effective in increasing test sensitivity for the framing effect. In three experiments, we assessed the effect of masking on the tests of the attribute framing and the risky‐choice framing effects. Contradicting the general belief, our results indicate that these effects are already measurable without any masking or delay and we found no convincing evidence that the attempts to decrease task transparency provide worthwhile benefits for general tests of the effect. Beyond their practical relevance, the results question whether the test is a good measure of coherence rationality and better suit those accounts that suggest that the two parts of the framing tasks cannot be regarded as identical. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

4PLRT模型与3PLRT模型在瑞文标准推理测验中的比较研究

研究目的：考察反应时与智力的关系以及通过模型对比考察4PLRT模型特性。方法：以瑞文标准推理测验为例,对4PLRT模型与3PLRT模型作比较研究。结论：（1）项目时间参数与难度参数正相关,可以依据时间参数将瑞文标准测验划分成三大部分。（2）能力估计结果比较：由于项目参数和被试速度参数的作用,CTT条件下能力相等的不同被试在计时与非计时条件下存在差异。（3）关于被试的答题策略：被试会基于自身能力而充分权衡时间与准确性的关系。这两种不同模型下被试的能力值之间的比较也说明了时间是一个重要的智力评估因子。     

Which Scientificity for the social Sciences?

Since their emergence in the nineteenth century, the epistemology of social sciences has oscillated from aiming at the classical model of scientificity to emphasizing its own specificities. We argue here that the existence of unambiguous, well defined objects has allowed discoveries and cumulativity in the natural sciences. Whereas, in the social sciences, the term is most often used in a metaphorical meaning, as it represents a basically fluid and changing reality. Its apprehension partly depends on the emotional/intellectual identity of the researcher, which makes it difficult to achieve a full consensus. Yet, beside real, natural or created objects, we do find structures, regularities and objectivations in society.     

Do historic threats to the group diminish identity fusion and its correlates?

We examined the reactions of Spanish participants to three negative historic events: a corruption scandal involving the Royal Family and two separatist efforts by a prosperous region of Spain. Although average fusion scores declined following these events, these declines were limited to sentiments toward the group category – collective ties-; they did not tarnish sentiments toward individual group members – relational ties. Moreover, strongly fused persons continued committed to remain in the group and act agentically by fighting and dying for it. Finally, rank orderings of fusion scores remained stable. These findings demonstrate that negative events weaken some aspects of alignment with the group, including collective ties and fusion, but not other aspects, such as relational ties and endorsement of pro-group behaviors.     

知觉流畅性对判断和决策的影响

流畅性是个体对加工信息难易程度的一种主观体验, 它分为知觉流畅性、概念流畅性、提取流畅性等。研究者通过操纵刺激与背景的颜色对比度、刺激的字体类型、清晰程度等因素来控制知觉流畅性, 发现知觉流畅性会影响一系列判断和决策任务, 如命题真实性、类别判断、偏好、熟悉性等。知觉流畅性既可以作为判断的直接线索也可以通过选择不同线索和认知策略来间接影响判断和决策。     

Understanding social suffering: a phenomenological investigation of the experience of inequality

As global market conditions erode traditional forms of solidarity, there is evidence of psychological disturbance among a number of social groups as a direct result. This paper investigates this issue among a disadvantaged working‐class group in South Yorkshire (England) and argues that understanding emerging forms of social suffering requires both a social and a person‐centred approach that transcends normal clinical/psycho‐analytic accounts. The attempt here is to create well‐founded terms of reference that will support investigators who seek to embed agents' case histories in a social‐psychological framework as they set about illuminating social pathologies. The paper attempts to trace the contours of pathology holistically by following its traces as they are manifest in everyday experience and articulated in conversation; thus putting agents' everyday perceptions of the data at the heart of this account. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SIGNALING STATIC: ARTISTIC,RELIGIOUS, AND SCIENTIFIC TRUTHS IN A RELATIONAL ONTOLOGY

Abstract. In this essay I point toward the difficulties inherent in ontological objectivity and seek to restore our truth claims to validity through a relational ontology and the dynamic of coimplication in signals and noise. Theological examination of art and science points toward similarities between art, religion, and science. All three have often focused upon a “metaphysics of presence,” the desire for absolute presence of the object (the signified, the divine, the natural object). If we accept a relational ontology, however, we must accept that the revelation of presence is always simultaneously a concealment. This helps explain technoscientific achievement without recourse to a philosophically flawed objectivity. Twentieth‐century information theory shows the impossibility of a “pure signal.” By accepting that signal and noise are permanently interconnected, we begin to see how noise makes signal possible and even how noise becomes signal (allowing the discovery of novel facts). Information theory thus underscores important similarities and leads toward new approaches in aesthetics, Christian theology, and scientific research. By comparing art, religion, and science, I argue that rejecting a metaphysics of presence without rejecting presence itself allows human beings to know the world. Although religion, science, and art often seek the absolute presence of their objects, they function better without.