Absence Of Intention Research Articles

TRAFFIC CRIMES

The topic of traffic crimes is a growing concern in many countries, including Brazil, due to serious accidents, injuries, and deaths resulting from violations of traffic laws. The aim of this work is to analyze the characteristics and main differences between intentional and negligent crimes, as well as their application to traffic offenses. The distinction between intentional and negligent crimes in traffic offenses lies in the presence or absence of intent, which is the deliberate and conscious will to commit the crime, according to current legislation. The classification of a traffic offense as intentional or negligent depends on a detailed analysis of the circumstances of each specific case, taking into account factors such as the conduct of the agent, the resulting outcome, the causal link, and the agent’s culpability, based on court precedents. The development of this work highlights that traffic offenses are classified in the Brazilian Traffic Code (CTB) and can be categorized as intentional or negligent, depending on the conduct of the agent and the resulting outcome. Intentional crimes occur when the driver acts with the intention of causing the outcome, while negligent crimes occur when the driver behaves negligently, recklessly, or in an unskilled manner, resulting in a traffic accident. The reference work used in this study emphasizes the importance of considering the presence or absence of intent in differentiating between intentional and negligent crimes in traffic offenses and underscores the need for an individualized analysis of each case. This research employed a bibliographic review methodology, which was essential to provide a theoretical foundation for the study and identify gaps and research opportunities on this topic. In conclusion, the application of intent or negligence to a specific case will depend on the evidence presented to the judge, both by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the time of indictment and by the defense during the presentation of the response to the charges. Thus, the classification of the conduct ceases to be of an objective nature and becomes subjectively evaluated by the judge.

Characteristics of the subjective aspect of the non-submission of a declaration by a person authorized to perform state or local self-government functions

The article is dedicated to exploring the peculiarities of the subjective aspect of non-submission of declarations by subjects obliged to declare assets as persons authorized to perform the functions of the state or local self-government. The subjective aspect of a criminal offense is its internal side, reflecting the attitude of the consciousness and will of the person who committed the criminal offense towards their action and its consequences. Legal characteristics of the subjective aspect are guilt, motive, and purpose, which define its content. Guilt is the main and obligatory feature of every composition of a criminal offense. Article 3663 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine provides for a direct indication of the intentional form of guilt, but does not define the type of intent. Most scholars adhere to the point of view that this criminal offense can only be committed with direct intent, although some admit the possibility of indirect intent. Given that this criminal offense has a formal composition, the first point of view is more convincing. When failing to submit a declaration, the person must be aware of the social danger and unlawfulness of the action. The obligation of such awareness is also confirmed by judicial practice materials.
 The content of guilt is largely determined by the motive and purpose of the criminal offense. Purpose and motive are facultative characteristics of the subjective side of the general composition of a criminal offense. They are mandatory only when they are directly mentioned or unambiguously follow from the content of the article’s disposition. In establishing the subjective aspect of the criminal offense under Article 3663 of the Criminal Code, determining the motive with which the declarant acted is of great importance. The absence of evidence indicating a specific motive for non-submission of the declaration is a basis for concluding that the person did not actually realize the social danger and unlawfulness of their action, and thus, the absence of intent in their behavior. The Higher Anti-Corruption Court supports the same position. The usual purpose of non-submission of declarations by the subjects is considered to be the concealment of assets and funds previously obtained as a result of committing another criminal offense.

Using Voice Biomarkers to Classify Suicide Risk in Adult Telehealth Callers: Retrospective Observational Study.

BackgroundArtificial intelligence has the potential to innovate current practices used to detect the imminent risk of suicide and to address shortcomings in traditional assessment methods.ObjectiveIn this paper, we sought to automatically classify short segments (40 milliseconds) of speech according to low versus imminent risk of suicide in a large number (n=281) of telephone calls made to 2 telehealth counselling services in Australia.MethodsA total of 281 help line telephone call recordings sourced from On The Line, Australia (n=266, 94.7%) and 000 Emergency services, Canberra (n=15, 5.3%) were included in this study. Imminent risk of suicide was coded for when callers affirmed intent, plan, and the availability of means; level of risk was assessed by the responding counsellor and reassessed by a team of clinical researchers using the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (=5/6). Low risk of suicide was coded for in an absence of intent, plan, and means and via Columbia suicide Severity Scale Ratings (=1/2). Preprocessing involved normalization and pre-emphasis of voice signals, while voice biometrics were extracted using the statistical language r. Candidate predictors were identified using Lasso regression. Each voice biomarker was assessed as a predictor of suicide risk using a generalized additive mixed effects model with splines to account for nonlinearity. Finally, a component-wise gradient boosting model was used to classify each call recording based on precoded suicide risk ratings.ResultsA total of 77 imminent-risk calls were compared with 204 low-risk calls. Moreover, 36 voice biomarkers were extracted from each speech frame. Caller sex was a significant moderating factor (β=–.84, 95% CI –0.85, –0.84; t=6.59, P<.001). Candidate biomarkers were reduced to 11 primary markers, with distinct models developed for men and women. Using leave-one-out cross-validation, ensuring that the speech frames of no single caller featured in both training and test data sets simultaneously, an area under the precision or recall curve of 0.985 was achieved (95% CI 0.97, 1.0). The gamboost classification model correctly classified 469,332/470,032 (99.85%) speech frames.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates an objective, efficient, and economical assessment of imminent suicide risk in an ecologically valid setting with potential applications to real-time assessment and response.Trial RegistrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12622000486729; https://www.anzctr.org.au/ACTRN12622000486729.aspx

V. Dornröschens Erwachen im Recht der Willensmängel – ein misslungenes Scheingeschäft vor dem Reichsgericht

Abstract The Awakening of Sleeping Beauty in an Absence of Intent – a Failed Simulated Transaction in the German Imperial Supreme Court. When the Friedrich Krupp Corporation promised to supply gas to the City of Bochum in 1910, the parties of this long-term contract could not anticipate the scarcity of raw materials during the upcoming First World War. In the aftermath of the war, Krupp was not able to provide for the quality that had initially been stipulated. Nevertheless, the parties prolongated the contract. When the City of Bochum insisted in proper fulfilment, Krupp argued that the prolongation of the contract according to the original conditions had been a simulated transaction the City of Bochum could not insist on. In 1941, the German Imperial Supreme Court denied the applicability of the provisions of the German Civil Code concerning an absence of intent, holding that each and every simulated transaction to be certified within an official document must be considered fraudulent. This article reviews the court’s decision in the light of its ideological background.

A systematic approach to the disclosure of genomic findings in clinical practice and research: a proposed framework with colored matrix and decision-making pathways

BackgroundWhether and how to disclose genomic findings obtained in the course of genomic clinical practice and medical research has been a controversial global bioethical issue over the past two decades. Although several recommendations and judgment tools for the disclosure of genomic findings have been proposed, none are sufficiently systematic or inclusive or even consistent with each other. In order to approach the disclosure/non-disclosure practice in an ethical manner, optimal and easy-to-use tools for supporting the judgment of physicians/researchers in genomic medicine are necessary.MethodsThe bioethics literature on this topic was analyzed to parse and deconstruct the somewhat overlapping and therefore ill-defined key concepts of genomic findings, such as incidental, primary, secondary, and other findings. Based on the deconstruction and conceptual analyses of these findings, we then defined key parameters from which to identify the strength of duty to disclose (SDD) for a genomic finding. These analyses were then applied to develop a framework with the SDD matrix and systematic decision-making pathways for the disclosure of genomic findings.ResultsThe following six major parameters (axes), along with sub-axes, were identified: Axis 1 (settings and institutions where findings emerge); Axis 2 (presence or absence of intention and anticipatability in discovery); Axis 3 (maximal actionability at the time of discovery); Axis 4 (net medical importance); Axis 5 (expertise of treating physician/researcher); and Axis 6 (preferences of individual patients/research subjects for disclosure). For Axes 1 to 4, a colored SDD matrix for genomic findings was developed in which levels of obligation for disclosing a finding can be categorized. For Axes 5 and 6, systematic decision-making pathways were developed via the SDD matrix.ConclusionWe analyzed the SDD of genomic findings and developed subsequent systematic decision-making pathways of whether and how to disclose genomic findings to patients/research subjects and their relatives in an ethical manner. Our comprehensive framework may help physicians and researchers in genomic medicine make consistent ethical judgments regarding the disclosure of genomic findings.

Semantic oscillations of supporting music of the ancient cult as the foundation of metamodernism elements in the works of contemporary opera directors

In recent decade, modernism as one of the varieties of post-postmodernism, draws interest of the researchers. It is suggested that modern culture has transgressed the situation of postmodernism, gravitating towards conceptual and semantic sustainability. As a language of self-description of the new era, the foundations of metamodernism are reflected in various forms of art. The opera house, overcoming the inertia of conservatism, perceives these trends, refracting them in a characteristic oscillation between the extreme semantic poles, which formed during the period of antiquity. The subject of this research is the correlation between the ancient musical heritage and metamodernistic trends in the modern opera theater. It is determined that translation of the principles of musical score of the ancient cult within the framework of the works of modern opera directors implies the characteristic to the supporting music of the cult forms of Ancient Greece and Rome oscillation between the poles of monophony &amp;ndash; polyphony, instrumentality of accompaniment &amp;ndash; a cappella, improvisational &amp;ndash; preset of musical pieces. Paradigmatic assimilation of the fluctuations inherent to the cult of antiquity, as well as the absence of intentionality in their manifestations (which partially reflects the religious-ecstatic procedurality of art), largely determine the specific attributes of metamodernism, emphasized in the works of R. Castellucci, P. Sellars, R. Wilson, and&amp;nbsp;D. Chernyakov.

We need to talk about deception in social robotics!

Although some authors claim that deception requires intention, we argue that there can be deception in social robotics, whether or not it is intended. By focusing on the deceived rather than the deceiver, we propose that false beliefs can be created in the absence of intention. Supporting evidence is found in both human and animal examples. Instead of assuming that deception is wrong only when carried out to benefit the deceiver, we propose that deception in social robotics is wrong when it leads to harmful impacts on individuals and society. The appearance and behaviour of a robot can lead to an overestimation of its functionality or to an illusion of sentience or cognition that can promote misplaced trust and inappropriate uses such as care and companionship of the vulnerable. We consider the allocation of responsibility for harmful deception. Finally, we make the suggestion that harmful impacts could be prevented by legislation, and by the development of an assessment framework for sensitive robot applications.

Revisiting the legal implication of employment status of religious ministers in Nigeria

The legal status of the nature of employment of religious ministers is a matter of global concern. Before now, Religious Ministers were not seen as employees due to the absence of intention to create legal relations between Ministers and the Churches. This paper argues that a Religious Minister can be an employee and, therefore, should not be denied rights accruing from contracts of employment. Comparatively, the position of other common law jurisdictions was looked into. We indeed found situations where a contract of employment can exist between the Minister and the Church. In this context, the paper makes some recommendation.

Effect of tax penalties, tax audit, and taxpayers awareness on corporate taxpayers’ compliance moderated by compliance intentions

This study aims to empirically examine the impact of tax penalties, tax audits, and taxpayers’ awareness of corporate taxpayer compliance and the role of compliant intentions as the moderating variable in its correlation. The analytical method used is the Multiple Linear Regression (Multiple Regression Analysis) and the Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA). The population of this study is the corporate taxpayers in North Banjarmasin Tax Office in 2019 with a sample of 142 corporate rate taxpayers. The sampling method used is convenience sampling. The results show that tax penalties, tax audits, and taxpayers’ awareness positively affect corporate taxpayer compliance. However, the compliant intention is unable to moderate the effect of fines, tax audits, and taxpayers’ awareness toward corporate taxpayer compliance. This is due to the applied penalties and tax audits following the taxation laws and the corporate taxpayer’s awareness of the importance of taxation as the source of state income. The purposes of this research are to provide inputs and references for the tax authorities and taxpayers, to examine further about tax penalties and tax audits that have been implemented, and to raise awareness among taxpayers for complying with taxes. Then, this research is influenced by external factors and internal factors, namely penalty sanctions, tax audits, and awareness of taxpayers who make taxpayers compliant with taxes, so that the presence or absence of intentions will continue to make taxpayers obedient to taxes.

Profile of “Suspected Suicide Attempters” based on variations in intent

Background: Suicide and attempted suicide are on a rise in India. Suicide attempt is an area which is well researched. However, there is a dearth of studies that focus on any other/absence of suicidal intent in “suspected suicidal attempters” (SSA). The present study aimed at identifying the presence or absence of intent in SSA to gain insight into the preventive methods. Methods: This study was based on cross-sectional baseline data of an ongoing prospective study of suicide attempters undertaken in General Hospital Psychiatry Unit. Convenient sampling was done; data were collected using semi-structured pro forma. Consenting medically stable SSA referred for psychiatric evaluation were included, and grouped based on variations in intent. Using SPSS software version 20.0, descriptive and inferential statistics were done. Results: Two hundred and forty-two participants were included in the study. Majority of participants (73.55%) with suicide intent were impulsive and 15.29% were planned. About 11.16% of participants had no intent (accidental incidents). Participants in accidental group were significantly older and more often diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD) than the other two groups. Significantly, more number of agriculturists attempted impulsively/accidentally. Planned attempters significantly had less social support, higher suicide intent, and were more depressed. Conclusions: A tetrad of rural background, agriculturist, poisoning with pesticides, and AUD was seen in accidental and impulsive attempters, a noteworthy finding requiring imposing restrictions on the availability of alcohol and pesticides to prevent such occurrences. Accidental incidents as a group need further research and classification for its clinical and legal impact.

Requirements of intention in light of belief

Much work in the philosophy of action in the last few decades has focused on the elucidation and justification of a series of purported norms of practical rationality that concern the presence or absence of intention in light of belief, and that demand a kind of structural coherence in the psychology of an agent. Examples of such norms (all roughly formulated) include: Intention Detachment, which proscribes intending to do something in case some condition obtains, believing that such condition obtains, and not intending to do that thing; Intention-Belief Consistency, which proscribes intending to do what you believe you will not do; Intention Consistency, which proscribes intending each of two ends you believe to be inconsistent; and Means-End Coherence, which proscribes intending an end and not intending the means you believe to be implied by your end. In this paper, I present a series of examples that show that these requirements are not genuine requirements of rationality. The reason for this is simple: these requirements concern the presence or absence of intention in light of all-out belief. Rational agents like us, however, do not, and in fact should not, always form or revise their intentions in light of what they all-out believe. When such agents do not form or revise their intentions in light of what they all-out believe, they need not be irrational if they do not conform to these requirements.

The implementation and first insights of the French-speaking Swiss programme for monitoring self-harm.

Self-harm is a major risk factor for suicide but remains poorly documented. No data on self-harm in French-speaking Switzerland exist. To address this deficiency, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health commissioned a specific self-harm monitoring programme. We present and discuss its implementation and first findings. Every patient aged 18&ndash;65 years presenting for self-harm to the emergency departments of the Lausanne and Neuch&acirc;tel general hospitals were included in the monitoring programme over a 10-month period (December 2016 to September 2017). Clinicians collected anonymous sociodemographic and clinical data. The sample included 490 patients (54.9% female and 45.1% male) for 554 episodes of self-harm, showing a higher proportion of patients aged 18&ndash;34 (49.2%) than older age groups (35&ndash;49, 33.7% and 50&ndash;65, 17.1%). Patients were mostly single (56.1%) and in problematic socioeconomic situations (65.7%). Self-poisoning was the most commonly used method (58.2%) and was preferred by women (71% of females and 42.5% of males, Fisher&rsquo;s exact test, p &lt;0.001) and the majority of patients (53.3%) had experienced at least one previous episode of self-harm. The self-harm rate was 220 per 100,000 inhabitants in Lausanne and 140 in Neuch&acirc;tel. Suicidal intent was clear for 50.6% of the overall sample, unclear for 25.1% and absent for 24.3%. It differed significantly between sites (&chi;2(2) = 9.068, p = 0.011) as Lausanne reported more incidents of unclear intent (27.7% versus 17.4% in Neuch&acirc;tel) and Neuch&acirc;tel more incidents with absence of intent (33.1% versus 21.3% in Lausanne). In Lausanne, patients more frequently resorted to methods such as jumping from a height (11.4%) and hanging (9%) than in Neuch&acirc;tel (1.6% and 4.9%, Fisher&rsquo;s exact test, p = 0.006). Our results are globally consistent with previous research on self-harm. We found significant inter-site differences in methods, suicidal intent and self-harm rates. Our findings highlight the importance of implementing local self-harm monitoring to identify specific at-risk groups and develop targeted preventive intervention.

Te role of disturbances of the psychosexual spherein schizophrenia in diagnosing of paraphilias

Te article is concerned with the study of disturbances in psychosexual sphere, which are specifc for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Te results of a comparison of two groups are presented: 29 people were diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder and a comparison group of 34 people without endogenous pathology. Te study outcomes of their gender self-consciousness with methods «MF», «CTAT», «Coding» are shown that the presence of endogenous disorder changes the psychosexual profle of patients on a number of signs. Persons with schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder, regardless of their comorbide diagnosis of paraphilia are characterized by lower value of masculinity, high distinction with the male role, absence of intention to line up with the man-image, in some cases instability of identity, altered emotional attitudes to sex-role stereotypes, emotional ambivalence.

Compulsive Bodies, Creative Bodies: Beckett'sQuadand Agency in the 21stCentury

Lying in ditches, tromping through mud, wedged in urns, trash bins, buried in earth, bodies in Beckett appear anything but capable of acting meaningfully on their environments. Bodies in Beckett seem, rather, synonymous with abjection, brokenness, and passivity—as if the human were overcome by its materiality: odours, pain, foot sores, decreased mobility. To the extent that Beckett's personae act, they act vaguely (wandering) or engage in quasi-obsessive, repetitive tasks: maniacal rocking, rotating sucking stones and biscuits, uttering words evacuated of sense, ceaseless pacing. Perhaps the most vivid dramatization of bodies compelled to meaningless, repetitive movement is Quad (1981), Beckett's ‘ballet’ for television, in which four bodies in hooded robes repeat their series ad infinitum. By 1981, has all possibility for intentional action in Beckett been foreclosed? Are we doomed, as Hamm puts it, to an eternal repetition of the same? (‘Moments for nothing, now as always, time was never and time is over, reckoning closed and story ended.’)This article proposes an alternative reading of bodily abjection, passivity and compulsivity in Beckett, a reading that implies a version of agency more capacious than voluntarism. Focusing on Quad as an illustrative case, I show how, if we shift our focus from the body's diminished possibilities for movement to the imbrication of Beckett's personae in environments (a mound of earth), things, and objects, a different story emerges: rather than dramatizing the impossibility of action, Beckett's work may sketch plans for a more ecological, post-human version of agency, a more collaborative mode of ‘acting’ that eases the divide between the human, the world of inanimate objects, and the earth.Movements such as new materialism and object-oriented ontology challenge hierarchies among subjects, objects and environments, questioning the rigid distinction between animate and inanimate, and the notion of the Anthropocene emphasizes the influence of human activity on social and geological space. A major theoretical challenge that arises from such discourses (including 20th-century challenges to the idea of an autonomous, willing, subject) is to arrive at an account of agency robust enough to survive if not the ‘death of the subject’ then its imbrication in the material and social environment it acts upon. Beckett's treatment of the human body suggests a version of agency that draws strength from a body's interaction with its environment, such that meaning is formed in the nexus between body and world. Using the example of Quad, I show how representations of the body in Beckett disturb the opposition between compulsivity (when a body is driven to move or speak in the absence of intention) and creative invention. In Quad, serial repetition works to create an interface between body and world that is receptive to meanings outside the control of a human will. Paradoxically, compulsive repetition in Beckett, despite its uncomfortable closeness to addiction, harnesses a loss of individual control that proposes a more versatile and ecologically mindful understanding of human action.

181. The Phenomenological Construct of Self, Voices, and Other Extreme States

Abstract Traditionally, hallucinations have been understood as abnormalities of perception and delusions as abnormalities of cognition. However, descriptive psychopathologists have long noted the presence of “silent” or thought-like AVHs as well as AVHs with ambiguous perceptual and cognitive qualities. Some researchers have proposed that delusions of reference, control, and communication may at times overlap with or even be indistinguishable from AVHs. This study reports the analyses into the intercept of AVHs and forms of delusions. Ninety-two participants experiencing psychosis participated in the study. Inclusion criteria for the study included participants between the ages of 21–60 who met criteria for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder/psychosis and were currently experiencing AVHs. To advance the area of phenomenology of voices and their interrelatedness to forms of delusions, this study investigated the prevalence and interrelatedness of co-occurring auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) and delusions. Additionally, we explored the characterization of distinct subcategories/clusters of AVHs and delusions. Group comparisons of prevalence of co-occurring AVHs and delusions show a significant increased prevalence within the schizophrenia group (χ(1, N = 92) = 11.47, < .001). To identify specific subtypes, we conducted 2-step cluster analysis of preclustering and standard hierarchical clustering algorithm of SCID items pertaining to voices and delusions. The analysis yielded 2 distinct cluster groups. Cluster One: Voices and Thought Delusions and Cluster Two: Voices and Thematic Delusions. The primary cluster predictor algorithm show that delusions of control, thought insertion, thought withdrawal, and thought broadcasting are more discrete variables in identifying cluster subtypes. An independent sample t-test was conducted to compare PANSS 5-factor subscale items between cluster groups. These results show that, participants in the Voices and Thought Delusions cluster experienced increased positive, cognitive, and depressive factor scores. Our analyses provisionally support a reframing of AVHs and thought delusions as endpoints on a shared continuum of attenuated sense of basic self (ipseity). Within this disturbance of ipseity, aspects of agency, authorship, and mineness are experienced as foreign, not self-generated, and with absence of intentionality. These cluster groups begin to disentangle the intrasubjectivity of voices and delusion by characterizing Cluster One: AVH and Thought Delusions as a structure that centers on alterations of basic ipseity and internal/external boundaries, while Cluster Two: AVH and Thematic Delusions centers on exaggerated processes of social internalization (guilt) or externalization (jealousy/delusions of infidelity).

Information seeking and searching strategies as plans and patterns of action

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to elaborate the picture of strategies for information searching and seeking by reviewing the conceptualizations on this topic in the field of library and information science (LIS).Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on Henry Mintzberg’s idea of strategy as plan and strategy as pattern in a stream of actions. Conceptual analysis of 57 LIS investigations was conducted to find out how researchers have approached the above aspects in the characterizations of information search and seeking strategies.FindingsIn the conceptualizations of information search and information seeking strategies, the aspect of strategy as plan is explicated most clearly in text-book approaches describing the steps of rational web searching. Most conceptualizations focus on the aspect of strategy as pattern in a stream of actions. This approach places the main emphasis on realized strategies, either deliberate or emergent. Deliberate strategies indicate how information search or information seeking processes were oriented by intentions that existed previously. Emergent strategies indicate how patterns in information seeking and seeking developed in the absence of intentions, or despite them.Research limitations/implicationsThe conceptualizations of the shifts in information seeking and searching strategies were excluded from the study. Similarly, conceptualizations of information search or information retrieval tactics were not examined.Originality/valueThe study pioneers by providing an in-depth analysis of the ways in which the key aspects of strategy are conceptualized in the classifications and typologies of information seeking and searching strategies. The findings contribute to the elaboration of the conceptual space of information behaviour research.

‘Just and lawful war’ as genocidal war in the (United States) Northwest Ordinance and Northwest Territory, 1787–1832

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the United States Northwest Ordinance of 1787's profession of ‘utmost good faith’ towards Indians and its provision for ‘just and lawful wars’ against them. As interpreted by US officials as they authorized and practised war against native communities in the Northwest Territory from 1787 to 1832, the ‘just and lawful wars’ clause legalized wars of ‘extirpation’ or ‘extermination’, terms synonymous with genocide by most definitions, against native people who resisted US demands that they cede their lands. Although US military operations seldom achieved extirpation, this was due to their ineptness and the success of indigenous strategies rather than an absence of intention. When US military forces did succeed in achieving their objective, the result was massacre, as revealed in the Black Hawk War of 1832. US policy did not call for genocide in the first instance, preferring that Indians embrace the gift of civilization in exchange for their lands. Should Indians reject this display of ‘utmost good faith’, however, US policy legalized genocidal war against them.

Counterfactuals, control, and causation: why knowledgeable people get blamed more.

Legal and prescriptive theories of blame generally propose that judgments about an actor's mental state (e.g., her knowledge or intent) should remain separate from judgments about whether the actor caused an outcome. Three experiments, however, show that, even in the absence of intent or immorality, actors who have knowledge relevant to a potential outcome will be rated more causal of that outcome than their ignorant counterparts, even when their actions were identical. Additional analysis revealed that this effect was mediated by counterfactual thinking--that is, by imagining ways the outcome could have been prevented. Specifically, when actors had knowledge, participants generated more counterfactuals about ways the outcome could have been different that the actor could control, which in turn increased causal assignment to the actor. These results are consistent with the Crediting Causality Model, but conflict with some legal and moral theories of blame.

Sadism, Penetration, and the Negotiation of Desire: Commentary on Paper by Csillag

The author takes up Csillag’s idea of sadism as the wish to penetrate in the context of a patient who withholds from his analyst. With such a patient, the analyst has to bear the strain stemming from a lack of both satisfaction and recognition–the feeling of not having an impact. The defenses against sadism are examined along with the absence of intentionality in both clinical cases presented, an absence that places sadism in the realm of something that is unconscious or preconscious. Alternative views are offered on the enactment between Csillag and her patient with a focus on the unspoken negotiation of desire and (drawing on Fairbairn) the analyst’s attempt to breach her patient’s closed system of internal objects.

Is eye gaze direction always determined without intent?

It is widely assumed that processing of gaze direction occurs "automatically," in the sense that it is reflexive (unfolds in the absence of intention). We assessed this view in a task in which participants saw a schematic face in which the eyes were gazing left or right, along with a second directional target (an arrow in Experiment 1; a directional word in Experiment 2). The eyes and other directional target were sometimes congruent and other times incongruent. On each trial, participants were cued with a tone to respond to either the direction the eyes were gazing, or the direction the noneye target indicated. The time between the onset of the task cue and the onset of the face was manipulated so that on half the trials the face and the cue were presented at the same time. Regardless of the type of target, the congruency effect was the same size at the zero SOA as it was at the 750 SOA, suggesting that eyes were not processed until participants knew what task to perform. These results are consistent with the claim that processing of gaze direction is, at least some of the time, secondary to an intent (i.e., it is not reflexive).