Defensive Reasons Research Articles

Motives matter: The psychological experience of ostracizing among sources.

Individuals ostracize others for myriad reasons, yet the influence of those reasons on the psychological experience of ostracizing is yet unknown. Two studies aimed to determine the emotional and behavioral sequelae of ostracizing for different motives, directly comparing punitive to defensive motives. We focused our examination on a suite of emotions expected to arise as a function of (1) the situations that give rise to ostracizing for punitive and defensive reasons (anger, fear, anxiety, and sadness) and (2) the act of ostracizing itself (i.e., pride and guilt). The research employed a novel paradigm to induce the experience of ostracizing for defensive or punitive motives. Study 1 (N = 372) investigated sources' experienced emotion as a function of motive. Study 2 (N = 743) expanded consideration to behavioral intentions, including intentions to continue ostracizing and to recruit others to join in ostracizing the target. Across both studies and supported by an internal meta-analysis, ostracizing for defensive reasons was associated with higher levels of guilt, fear, and anxiety, and lower levels of anger, compared to ostracizing for punitive reasons. Neither sadness nor positive emotion (pride or happiness) differed significantly according to motive in either study. Moreover, guilt and anger mediated the impact of motive on intentions to continue ostracizing and recruit others to join them in ostracizing. To the extent that punitive sources experienced anger relative to defensive sources, they expressed greater intentions to continue ostracizing the target and to recruit others to join in ostracizing the target. To the extent that defensive sources experienced guilt relative to punitive sources, they reported reduced intentions to continue ostracizing the target. Findings add to a growing literature on ostracism sources, and highlight the mediating role of sources' emotion in guiding future actions.

Cyberwarfare between the United States and China 2014 -2022: in Retrospect

<p>The development of security in the context of international politics and international relations has developed from time to time. Nowadays, the practice of security done by a country's government can be imbued with the advancement of technological innovation, dubbed cyber-influenced. Hence the term cyber-security is often used to indicate the association of information technology with security. The United States and China, as two competing big-power countries, also actively utilize cyber-security over the years. This article will describe the cyberwarfare between The United States and China, focusing from 2014 until 2022. A qualitative descriptive method is used, complemented by cyber security and state sovereignty concepts to analyze the case. Results indicate that both countries are involved in cyberwarfare based on defensive reasoning. The fact that both countries are referred to as great powers in international politics also complicates the case, as they have a high-tension nature of the relationship.</p>

Conditional donation: Is it justifiable to have different policies for different kinds of tissue?

The question of whether donors should be able to set conditions on who can receive their tissue has been discussed by bioethicists, but so far there has been little consideration of whether the answer to this question should be different depending on the type of tissue under discussion. In this article, we compare the donation of organs with the donation of reproductive material such as sperm, eggs, and embryos, exploring possible arguments for allowing donors to set conditions in one case but not the other. After considering arguments from procreative liberty, special parental obligations, and donors meeting their genetic offspring, we find that there is no ethically defensible reason to have different policies between these two cases. As a consequence, we conclude that jurisdictions operating with this inconsistency should consider moving their policies into better alignment. We also make some recommendations for the standardisation of the terminology around conditional donation.

The Revised Child-to-Parent Aggressions Questionnaire: an Examination During the Covid-19 Pandemic

PurposeChild-to-parent violence (CPV) is an important type of family violence that has been relatively understudied. This study examined the main psychometric properties of the revised Child-to-Parent Aggression Questionnaire (CPAQ-R), which examines both violent behaviors against parents and reasons for these behaviors. The aims included identifying the dimensions of CPV and examining the magnitude of CPV during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA sample of 1,244 adolescents (aged from 12 to 17) from several schools in the Basque Country completed the CPAQ-R. Several confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, including exploratory, confirmatory, exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), and bifactor analyses.ResultsThe data supported a bifactor ESEM model in which a general factor of violence against parents explained aggressions against both mothers and fathers. In addition, three reasons for the violence emerged: instrumental, reactive, and defensive reasons. Rates of CPV during the COVID-19 pandemic were high, with 16.5% of adolescents reporting reiterative aggressions against their parents. There were no differences between aggressions against mothers and fathers.ConclusionsThe CPAQ-R is an adequate questionnaire for assessing CPV in adolescents. The confinement and restrictions placed on families during the COVID-19 pandemic may explain the high prevalence of CPV and shed light on possible differences related to the sex of the parents.

Pro-Con Debate: Should Code Sharing Be Mandatory for Publication?

In this Pro-Con commentary article, we discuss whether or not code sharing should be mandatory for scientific publications. Scientific programming is an increasingly prevalent tool in research. However, there are not unified guidelines for code availability requirements. Some journals require code sharing. Others require code descriptions. Yet others have no policies around code sharing. The Pro side presented here argues that code sharing should be mandatory for all scientific publications involving code. This Pro argument comes in 2 parts. First, any defensible reason for not sharing code is an equally valid a reason for the manuscript itself not being published. Second, lack of code sharing requirements creates 2 tiers of science: one where reproducibility is required and one where it is not. Additionally, the Pro authors suggest that a debate over code sharing is itself a decade out-of-date due to the emerging availability of containerization and virtual environment sharing software. The Pro argument concludes with an appeal that authors release code to make their work more understandable by other researchers. The Con side presented here argues that computer source codes of medical technology equipment should not be subject to mandatory public disclosure. The source code is a crucial part of what makes a particular device unique and allows that device to outperform its competition. The Con authors believe that public disclosure of this proprietary information would destroy all incentives for businesses to develop new and improved technologies. Competition in the free marketplace is what drives companies to constantly improve their products, to develop new and better medical devices. The open disclosure of these "trade secret" details would effectively end that competitive drive. Why invest time, money, and energy developing a "better mousetrap" if your competitors can copy it and produce it the next day?

Co-Constructing Defensive Discourses of Service-Learning in Psychology: A Psychosocial Understanding of Anxiety and Service-Learning, and the Implications for Social Justice

Background This paper describes findings from research conducted on students who participated in a service-learning course in South Africa. Objective The study aimed to understand how participants constructed their experiences of service-learning and to interrogate their emotional investments in these constructions. Method Data were collected and analyzed using a psychosocial methodology, consisting of discursive and psychoanalytic readings of interview transcripts, reflective journal entries, and researcher field notes. Results The discursive findings focus on how participants employed liberal traditional learning discourses to construct service-learning as linear resulting in subject positions that reinforced prejudices and the power structures supporting these. A psychoanalytic reading of the data suggests that participants invested in these constructions to defend against their own anxiety related to uncertainty and guilt about privilege in an unfamiliar context. Conclusion Students invest in liberal traditional discourses of service-learning for defensive reasons, which can be understood as arising from the intersubjective and social context in which the service-learning takes place. Teaching Implications Recognizing prejudice as emanating from anxiety generated by the affective work required for service-learning means thinking creatively about how to both contain and allow this affective work to take place in service-learning activities.

Мотивация олимпийских волонтеров в России и Китае

The research objective was to study the motivation of Russian and Chinese volunteers at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2014 and 2022. Mega-sport events attract public attention worldwide and require a lot of volunteers. Based on the international scope of Olympic volunteer community, a cross-country analysis of volunteering experience is a relevant topic. The Russian program for training of Olympic volunteers was the first of its kind. It was funded by the state on the basis of educational institutions, non-profit and commercial organizations. China is currently developing its own Olympic volunteer program, which relies mainly on government organizations. The study relied on an online survey of Olympic volunteers. Chinese volunteers appeared to have been motivated by value and defensive reasons, while Russian volunteers were attracted by the informational and professional opportunities that Olympic volunteering has to offer. The research results can help to develop volunteer programs, as well as to improve their effectiveness and popularity.

Hercule Poirot and the Tricky Performers of Stereotypes in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express

Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express (1934) remains well-read, and its hero Hercule Poirot continues to enjoy popular currency. Yet the text has not aged well due to some of its now clichéd plot developments and dialogue, as well as Christie’s depiction of class, ethnic and national prejudices in it and her other novels. This study hopes to re-energize discussion on Murder by finding defensible reasons for its apparent flaws. Not only do the stereotypical behaviors of the passengers narratively distract Poirot and the reader from a solution, but their flaws serve as foils against which Poirot’s heroic gravitas and cultural values are positively contrasted. Further, criticism often misses the point that the passengers are performing their behaviors, and if so, the deployment of stereotypes as only acted performances destabilizes them as permanent aspects of national or ethnic identity. Can Murder then be read as an anti-racist text?

Linking good counter-knowledge with bad counter knowledge: the impact of evasive knowledge hiding and defensive reasoning

PurposeCounter-knowledge is knowledge learned from unverified sources and can be classified as good (i.e. harmful, for instance, funny jokes) or bad (for example, lies to manipulate others’ decisions). The purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between these two elements and on the possible reactions they can induce on people and institutions.Design/methodology/approachThe relationships between good and bad counter-knowledge and the induced reactions – namely, evasive knowledge hiding and defensive reasoning – are analysed through an empirical study among 151 Spanish citizens belonging to a knowledge-intensive organization during the COVID-19 pandemic. A two-step procedure has been established to assess a causal model with SmartPLS 3.2.9.FindingsResults show that good counter-knowledge can lead to bad counter-knowledge. In addition, counter-knowledge can trigger evasive knowledge hiding, which, in turn, fosters defensive reasoning, in a vicious circle, which can negatively affect decision-making and also cause distrust in public institutions. This was evidenced during the covid-19 pandemic in relation to the measures taken by governments.Originality/valueThis study raises the awareness that counter-knowledge is a complex phenomenon, especially in a situation of serious crisis like a pandemic. In particular, it highlights that even good counter-knowledge can turn into bad and affect people’s decisional capability negatively. In addition, it signals that not all reactions to the proliferation of counter-knowledge by public institutions are positive. For instance, censorship and lack of transparency (i.e. evasive knowledge hiding) can trigger defensive reasoning, which can, in turn, affect people’s decisions and attitudes negatively.

Flooding the Zone: How Exposure to Implausible Statements Shapes Subsequent Belief Judgments

Abstract Much scholarly attention has been paid to the effects of misinformation on beliefs and attitudes, but rarely have studies investigated potential downstream effects of misinformation exposure on belief judgments involving subsequent factual statements. Drawing from work on anchoring-and-adjustment and defensive reasoning, this study examines how exposure to initial falsehoods that vary in terms of their plausibility shapes subsequent belief judgments. Across two survey experiments, we find that initial exposure to a less plausible statement decreases belief in subsequent statements, whether true or false. This order effect has implications for misinformation research, as studies examining audience responses to a single falsehood may fail to capture the full range of misinformation effects. Other implications are discussed in this article.

Acts and distance—a commentary on Brummett's ‘when conscientious objection runs amok’

In his ‘When conscientious objection runs amok: A physician refusing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) preventative to a bisexual patient’, Brummett has argued that Catholic physicians (or indeed any other healthcare practitioner) should not be able to raise conscientious objections to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis for bisexual patients, as this constitutes discrimination. Brummett argues that such a conscientious objection represents an instance of conscience creep, which he argues is undesirable. Here I re-analyse the case presented by Brummett using a teleological framework and making reference to Catholic teaching on cooperation with evil. While I agree with Brummett that in this case the physician should not have had the right to conscientiously object, I argue that the teleological framework offers advantages over the argument Brummett has presented. I also comment on why only considering empirically measurable harm as a publicly defensible reason for one to hold a conscientious objection is problematic, as well as on the difficulties associated with cases of discrimination in a pluralistic society.

Corporate disclosures on curbing bribery and the UK Bribery Act 2010: evidence from UK companies

PurposeThis study aims to investigate whether United Kingdom (UK)-based companies have changed their voluntary disclosures on curbing the bribery of foreign officials in response to the UK Bribery Act 2010, and if so whether and how such disclosure changes substantively reflected allegations of bribery of foreign officials by news media.Design/methodology/approachBy using the notions of institutional pressure and decoupling and applying content and thematic analysis, the authors examined, in particular, disclosures on curbing bribery by the largest 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange in periods before and after the Bribery Act (2007–2012). News media reports covering incidents of bribery of foreign officials and related corporate disclosures before and after the Act were thoroughly examined to problematise corporate anti-bribery disclosure practices.FindingsThe study finds a significant change in disclosure on curbing bribery before and after the enactment of the UK Bribery Act, consistent with the notion of institutional coercive pressure. However, decoupling is also found: organisations' disclosures did not substantively reflect incidents of bribing foreign public officials, mostly from underprivileged developing nations.Research limitations/implicationsThis study acknowledges a limitation stemming from using media reports that focus on bribery incidents in identifying actual cases or incidents of bribery. As some of the incidents identified from news media reports appeared to be allegations, not convictions for bribery, companies could have defensible reasons for not disclosing some aspects of them.Practical implicationsRegulators should think why new or more regulations without substantive requirement are not helpful to curb corporate decoupling and injustice. The regulators should address the crisis that multinational companies (MNCs) being suppliers of bribery are much more harmful for the underprivileged communities in developing nations. Accordingly, this paper provides practical insights into how stakeholders ought to critically interpret MNCs' accounts of their involvement in bribery.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the accounting literature by problematising MNCs' operations in underprivileged countries. The findings suggest that not only public officials in developing countries as creators of bribery but also Western-based MNCs as the suppliers of bribery contribute to perpetuating unethical practices and injustices to the underprivileged communities in developing countries. This research is imperative as this is one of the first known studies that provides evidence of the actions including disclosure-related actions companies have taken in response to the UK Bribery Act.

Promoting the Progress and Ensuring Patent Quality Through Rigorous Policy Evaluation and Piloting

Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, of the United States Constitution grants Congress the power promote the progress of science and useful arts.” The core function of the US Patent and Trademark Office is to determine what inventions truly represent progress in view of the prior art. While to date most conversations about patent quality have centered on back-end measures, like inter partes review, or the use of weak patents over abstract ideas to get injunctions, in this testimony I make three arguments. First, more attention should be paid to the most important, front-end tool that the patent office has to issue valid patents: prior art vetting. While 11%-15% of office actions involve section 101, over 90% of patents are subject to a prior art rejection and my research suggests that there is a gap between the USPTO examiners and others and that this gap is correlated with outcomes. Second, the USPTO should use rigorous pilots to create hard evidence for hard decisions: There are many unknowns with respect to patent quality, and it would be premature to adopt wholesale some of the suggestions being made. However, the USPTO can fill these gaps in knowledge by being much more rigorous and deliberate in its evaluation of past and future policy pilots, using causal inference and other statistical tools to estimate, when it rolls out or pilots changes or interventions, their impact. Third, consider not only time, but team, fee and other quality levers: the USPTO and Congress should take an expansive view of rigorous piloting to ensure patent quality looking at a variety of levers including: a) Time: The USPTO already has tried giving examiners more time, for example, when it implemented various Second Pair of Eyes programs over the years, and more counts were given to examiners. It also tried and is currently trying a number of different approaches to improving access to prior art. These should be evaluated rigorously. b) Team: The USPTO has smartly worked to provide not just more time but more “team” to Examiners, with foreign examiners (through the Global Dossier), applicants and industry (through programs like STEPP, PETTP, SEE and the Crowdsourcing prior art, 3P prior art submission, Track One, Prior Art Partnerships), other US examiners (through collaborative search efforts). We must use rigor to learn from these interventions. c) Prior Art Curation/IDS Policies: Examiners need context and curation, not just references. Though both contain prior art, large IDS are much less useful than carefully crafted international search reports and PTAB petitions. More rigorous policy attention should be paid here. d) Defensive Only Patents/Maintenance Fees: Most patents are held for defensive reasons and don’t need to be “litigation grade.” It’s not always known upfront which patents these are, making front-end gold-plating proposals challenging to the point of being unworkable. As described in my Article, Opening the Patent System, the USPTO should pilot offering a “back-end lead plating” option, what I call a “defensive only” patent option. Though this idea may sound novel, it’s not, it’s a version of the License on Right patent option that Germany and England offer, in the form of a discount on maintenance fees in exchange for a disclosure that the patent is being held for defensive reasons only. We can learn from prior sector commitments like OIN and LOT to perfect the US version for piloting. e) Continuations Practice: The USPTO examination process has a high tolerance for examiner mistakes, because it allows applicants to refile their rejected applications, and in many cases, get these cases allowed. While the practice limits the negative consequences associated with any bad Examiner decision, it makes Examiner inconsistency and mistakes tolerable, in turn, driving lower patent quality and satisfaction. Let’s test out ways to not only encourage but compel compact prosecution, for example by publishing grant rates on continued applications or making sure information on repeat filings is available to examiners. f) Inclusion Pilots: The applications of women and small and micro entity inventors have a lower success rate, with perverse distributional consequences including the higher application, lower grant rates to discounted entities and a higher grant rate to Asian female vs. US female inventors, my research suggests (see figures below). My paper, Rigorous Policy Pilots the Patent Office Could Try, suggests pilots to get at the root causes of these issues.

Research - A Way of Social Life

The goal of research is to create or modify knowledge. But whose knowledge? It isn’t productive to do research and then keep the outcomes to yourself; part of the aim is to make others aware of what you have found. The purpose of research can be viewed as being intended to have impact, that is, to change the minds of others. Successful research influences people to behave differently and undertake new activities. Do not be daunted by the task of “writing up”. Work on the text as your PhD takes shape, remember that all writers need editing, and help yourself by using these basic tips to make life easier. Read what great writers say about how to write before you start, and take their advice to heart. There is no dark art to clear, concise work; it is mostly a result of editing, and editing again. Thesis must demonstrate logical, structured, and defensible reasoning based on credible and verifiable evidence presented in such a way that it makes an original contribution to knowledge, as judged by experts in the field. The dissertation or project should demonstrate knowledge of the relevant literature; show that the student has executed a substantial piece of advanced individual work and should bring together the independent work with the knowledge gained in the literature and theory. Where creative work is involved this should be informed by and be related to the theoretical aspect of the work. Recognize your own motivation for carrying out research Identify your belief system that underpins your view of knowledge. Appreciate the broad nature of the research process within a research community.

Using algal biomass-phosphorus (P) relationships and nutrient limitation theory to evaluate the adequacy of P water quality criteria for regulated monsoon rivers and reservoirs

ABSTRACTDifferent P criteria have been set for lotic and lentic waters where the latter had stricter criteria than the former. The binary P criteria have been developed due to differences in limnological features and this helps avoid unneeded costs with stricter criteria for flowing waters that normally have lower potential of algal blooms. However, if different criteria are warranted, the responses of Chl a to TP and TN:TP ratio should vary distinctively between rivers and reservoirs. Contrary to these predictions, inconsistent and statistically indistinguishable variations have been observed between the two types of waterbody in Chl a yield per unit TP. Additionally, there was no significant difference in the strength of relationship between Chl a and TN:TP ratio between waterbody types, although the mass ratio of TN to TP was significantly higher in reservoirs than in rivers. Hence, the data suggest that there is no scientifically defensible reason that lotic and lentic waters require different TP standards and specifically that lentic waters do not necessarily require stricter P criteria. A more holistic and nuanced approach would aid in developing revised or new TP criteria in which water quality issues can be addressed scientifically as well as pragmatically.

Ethical Sex: Sexual Choices and Their Nature and Meaning by Anthony McCarthy

Reviewed by: Ethical Sex: Sexual Choices and Their Nature and Meaning by Anthony McCarthy Kevin E. O'Reilly O.P. Ethical Sex: Sexual Choices and Their Nature and Meaning by Anthony McCarthy (South Bend, IN: Fidelity, 2016), 326 pp. A dominant contemporary attitude toward the human body might be said to be totalitarian in nature. This attitude embraces not simply the physical members of the human body; it extends its reach even to the natural inclinations. It treats human bodily reality "as a raw datum" that is "devoid of any meaning and moral values until freedom has shaped it in accordance with its design" (Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor [1993], §48). According to this view, the human body is external to the human person and, as such, simply furnishes the material condition for the exercise of free choice. The anthropology in question is dualistic in that it divorces human person-hood from human embodiment. Reason is thus left free to manipulate the bodily conditions of human being, all too often in ways contrary to the indications inscribed within those very conditions themselves. [End Page 287] The recent significant trend in Western countries to legislate for homosexual "marriage"—or even, in the case of Ireland, to enshrine this "right" within the constitution—renders even more important the intellectual engagement with the inclination to the procreation and education of offspring, as St. Thomas puts it (Summa theologia [ST] I-II, q. 94, a. 2)—which is to say, sexual ethics. One reason for a rational defense of Catholic sexual ethics is precisely the fact that recent developments are the political expression of a dualistic anthropology and are, as such, as I have intimated, totalitarian in character. Anthony McCarthy's book, which offers such a defense, engages with a wide array of authors philosophical, theological, and literary. Included in this array are figures such as Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, John Paul II, Aurel Kolnai, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Josef Pieper, Roger Scruton, Janet Smith, Bernard Williams, William Shakespeare, Robert Sokolowski, Michel Foucault, and Peter Singer, just to mention a selection. Manifold arguments are adduced in support of what ultimately constitutes a Catholic sexual ethic, and countervailing arguments are rebutted in analytic style. The first chapter of the book offers a sustained critique of the contention on the part of "new natural law" theorists that contraception is contralife. The author then proceeds in the next chapter to look at natural law, functions, and teleology. Arguments are adduced in defense of teleology and of the idea that any particular organism has a function. This chapter proceeds to sustain the intimate link between the functioning proper to human beings and human flourishing. In this regard, the author remains alert to the demands that attend the hylomorphic structure of human being, albeit with an exception noted below. The importance of embodiment and teleology carry over into McCarthy's discussion of marriage and meaning. The notions of embodiment and teleology ground the objective reality of the conjugal act. Indeed, for McCarthy, "it is marriage which is that standard with respect to which sexual activity is judged to be good or not" (107). I would have to disagree with this formulation, however. Heterosexual marriage, rather, is a necessary but not sufficient condition for sexual activity to be good, a point the author would no doubt accept. Teleological considerations flow over into the discussion of sexual desire. In this regard, McCarthy offers some useful reflections concerning pornography and fantasy. Thus, for example, with regard to the latter, he observes that "the moral demands of the real world are not being adequately met when an effect is deliberately produced which properly belongs to a different cause" (160). Teleological considerations also enter into the final chapter, on love, virtue, and vice, as also does the notion of [End Page 288] embodiment. McCarthy builds on Karol Wojtyła's / John Paul II's observations that the human body in itself is not shameful and that neither are sensual reactions and sensuality in general. Thus, writes McCarthy, "it cannot be objectifying simply to appreciate or be aroused by the bodily features of (in particular) one's spouse, which surely constitute the valuable...

Deep Time and Secular Time: A Critique of the Environmental ‘Long View’

The Anthropocene concept allows human history to be imagined within the temporal framework of planetary processes. Accordingly, some environmentalists increasingly favour massively lengthening the temporal horizons of moral concern. Whilst there are defensible reasons for doing so, I wish to take issue with the ‘secular time’ perspective underlying some such approaches. To make my case, I present, in the first section, two recent manifestations of the long view perspective: a) ‘deep future’ narratives in popular climate science and futurism; b) the ideas behind the Long Now Foundation. In the second section, I apply a critical lens to these perspectives via classic analyses of secular time by Charles Taylor, Hannah Arendt and Giorgio Agamben. I conclude by suggesting that these post-secular critiques should be considered alongside recent approaches to the Anthropocene and the ‘geological turn’ from new materialist perspectives.

Conscience, Compromise, and Complicity

Debate over whether health care institutions or individual providers should have a legally protected right to conscientiously refuse to offer legal services to patients who request them has grown exponentially due to the increasing legalization of morally contested services. This debate is particularly acute for Catholic health care providers. We elucidate Catholic teaching regarding the nature of conscience and the intrinsic value of being free to act in accord with one’s conscience. We then outline the primary positions defended in this debate and respond to critics of Catholic teaching. In so doing, we show how Catholic health care providers’ claims to conscientiously refuse to offer specific health care services are not essentially faith-based, but are founded upon publicly defensible reasons. We also address the question of whether conscientiously refusing health care providers may become complicit in moral wrongdoing or potentially cause scandal by means of disclosure or referral to another provider.

The Palgrave Handbook of Society, Culture, and Outer Space

The Palgrave Handbook of Society, Culture, and Outer Space

Booters: can anything justify distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks for hire?

PurposeThis paper aims to examine whether there are morally defensible reasons for using or operating websites (called ‘booters’) that offer distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on a specified target to users for a price. Booters have been linked to some of the most powerful DDoS attacks in recent years.Design/methodology/approachThe authors identify the various parties associated with booter websites and the means through which booters operate. Then, the authors present and evaluate the two arguments that they claim may be used to justify operating and using booters: that they are a useful tool for testing the ability of networks and servers to handle heavy traffic, and that they may be used to perform DDoS attacks as a form of civil disobedience on the internet.FindingsThe authors argue that the characteristics of existing booters disqualify them from being morally justified as network stress testing tools or as a means of performing civil disobedience. The use of botnets that include systems without the permission of their owners undermines the legitimacy of both justifications. While a booter that does not use any third-party systems without permission might in principle be justified under certain conditions, the authors argue that it is unlikely that any existing booters meet these requirements.Practical/implicationsLaw enforcement agencies may use the arguments presented here to justify shutting down the operation of booters, and so reduce the number of DDoS attacks on the internet.Originality/valueThe value of this work is in critically examining the potential justifications for using and operating booter websites and in further exploring the ethical aspects of using DDoS attacks as a form of civil disobedience.