In Defense of Sophisticated Theories of Welfare

Philosophia - “Sophisticated” theories of welfare face two potentially devastating criticisms. They are based upon two claims: that theories of welfare should be tested for what they...     

Can intergroup behaviors be emitted out of self-determined reasons? Testing the role of group norms and behavioral congruence in the internalization of discrimination and parity behaviors

Bringing self-determination theory to understand why intergroup behaviors are emitted, two studies were conducted to investigate how group norms and individuals' congruence with these norms predicted self-determination to pursue two types of intergroup behaviors (parity and discrimination). Experiment 1 (N = 97) manipulated ingroup norms in favor of parity versus of discrimination and assessed the behavior participants displayed (congruent or incongruent with the norm) and their motivations for emitting this behavior. The manipulated norms significantly influenced group members' behaviors. When the ingroup norm was parity, participants whose behavior was congruent with this norm reported more self-determination to emit this behavior. When the ingroup norm was prodiscrimination, participants whose behavior was congruent with this norm were less self-determined. Experiment 2 (N = 139) replicated and extended these findings in a more conflictual intergroup setting. Results are discussed in light of motivational and intergroup theories.     

Coda and counterpoint

This essay responds to several of the issues raised by the various review essays on the author's book, Semiotics of Religion: Signs of the Sacred in History, while simultaneously offering some observations on the nature, current state, and future prospects of the semiotics of religion; on the explanatory ambitions and methodological limitations of this field; and on the location of semiotics in the human sciences and in historical and cultural studies, as distinguished from universalizing or Cartesian approaches.