Folk Explanations Research Articles

Akratic and beneficial intentional self-deception

ABSTRACT The folk explanation of self-deception is that one mental subsystem deceives another. Deflationists appeal to motivated irrationality rather than deceptive subsystems to offer nifty accounts of many sorts of self-deception. However, I shall show that deflationists cannot explain the self-deception embedded within (1) impulsive, (2) vacillating, or (3) long-term akrasia. These akratic actions are respectively too short, too variable, or too long for motivated irrationality to do its dirty work. Nor can deflationists explain the self-deception required for motivating oneself to (4) suspend disbelief and lose oneself in fiction, (5) bother to make negligible contributions to very large projects, (6) accomplish daunting tasks by taking them one day at a time, or (7) cope with psychologically traumatic truths. In these four cases, the truth is undeniable, yet agents must also hold contravening false beliefs. Thus, the folk explanation of self-deception is preferable, despite its invocation of deceptive mental subsystems.

The Vampire as the Mythological Creature in the Cinematography of South Slavic Countries: Vampire in Films “Leptirica” and “Holy Place” - Folkloric Juxtaposition

Mythological creatures have enchanted and intrigued human beings for ages, and humans unconsciously stimulated their fears and insecurities. People have created a vampire-paranormal obsession that is reflected in everything that human creativity has touched, especially in film adaptations. In this article, readers will see the representation of the mythological creature Vampire on the Serbian film screen. The article dissects two selected films, “She-Butterfly” and “The Holy Place” from the vampire-induced horrors of the South Slavic cinematography. They will representatively be the focus of the study. These examples will reveal how the film of that time conjured up the horror, fear, and general aura of the mythological creature Vampire that has haunted the human race for centuries. In contrast to film representations, the author places a vampire from folklore as a pillar for comparison or a test sample to analyze the similarities, differences, and credibility of the representations in the film. Regarding the supportive material, we will extensively rely on the "Serbian Mythological Dictionary" as it provides a solid collection of various folk explanations and descriptions, which we will use for comparison. The methodological approach includes a description of the film plot with important elements, the analysis of the mentioned elements of interest within separate important parts of the plot, and a comparison with a folklore vampire within the analysis.

Perpetrators’ and Victims’ Folk Explanations of Aggressive Behaviors and Desires for Apologies

After an aggressive interaction, perpetrators most want to offer apologies when they have unintentionally harmed another person and victims most want to receive an apology when another person intentionally harmed them. Perpetrators and victims also explain aggressive behaviors differently—perpetrators often explain their own aggressive behaviors by referring to beliefs they considered that led to their behaviors (i.e., “belief” explanations), whereas victims explain perpetrators’ behaviors by referring to background factors that do not mention the perpetrators’ mental deliberations (i.e., “causal history explanations”). Putting these ideas together, the current Registered Report had participants recall either a time they intentionally harmed another person or a time when they were intentionally harmed by another person. Participants then rated several characteristics of the recalled behavior, explained why the behavior occurred, and reported their desire for an apology. As predicted, we found that perpetrators who gave “belief” explanations wanted to give an apology much less than participants who gave “causal history explanations.” However, and inconsistent with our predictions, victims’ desire to receive an apology was similar regardless of how they explained the perpetrators’ behaviors. These findings underscore how perpetrators’ explanations can emphasize (or de-emphasize) the deliberateness of their harmful behaviors and how these explanations are related to their desire to make amends.

Perpetrators’ folk explanations of their regretted and justified aggressive behaviors

ABSTRACT When people explain why they behaved aggressively, they can refer to their thought process that led to their aggressive behavior – so-called reason explanations – or to other factors that preceded their thought process – so-called causal history of reasons explanations. People’s choice of what mode of explanation they give might be affected by whether they want to distance themselves (or not) from their past aggressive behaviors. To test these ideas, participants in the current study (N = 429) either recalled an aggressive behavior they regret or an aggressive behavior they believe was justified. Participants then explained why they behaved aggressively. Mostly, people gave reason explanations for their aggressive behaviors, which is consistent with past research on how people explain intentional behaviors. Further, and as predicted, participants who explained behaviors they believe were justified gave (relatively) more reason explanations and participants who explained behaviors they regretted gave (relatively) more causal history of reasons explanations. These findings are consistent with the idea that participants adjust their explanations to either provide a rationale for, or to distance themselves from, their past aggressive behaviors.

Perpetrators', Victims', and Witnesses' Folk Explanations of Aggressive Behaviors.

Unsurprisingly, victims and perpetrators often view aggressive behaviors differently. The current study examined whether victims, perpetrators, and witnesses also explained aggressive behaviors differently. The current study included 408 participants who recalled a time when they harmed another person (i.e., perpetrator memory), when another person harmed them (i.e., victim memory), and when they witnessed an aggressive behavior (i.e., witness memory). Replicating past research, participants rated their recalled aggressive behaviors from the victim perspective as being more harmful and less justified than they did for their recalled behaviors from the perpetrator perspective. When examining their explanations for the behaviors, participants most often explained their own aggressive behaviors by referring to their mental deliberations that led to their behavior (i.e., reason explanations). In comparison, they referred to background causal factors (i.e., causal history of reasons explanations)-such as personality traits, demographic factors, cultural norms, etc.-more when explaining others' aggressive behaviors, especially when the explanation was from the victim perspective. These findings show the subtleties in how people communicate about their aggressive interactions: When communicating about their own aggressive behaviors, people use modes of explanations that portray their behaviors as sensible, and when communicating about a time when another person behaved aggressively towards them, people use modes of explanations that omit the thought processes that led to those behaviors.

“Between a Rock and Reclaimed Land:” A Structural Comparison between Singaporean and Mauritian Petrifaction Myths Between a Rock and Reclaimed Land: A Structural Comparison of Si-Tanggang and the Pieter Both Folktale

This paper investigates the folktale motif, "transformation of human into stone," i.e., petrifaction, in two narratives of different oral cultures; the Mauritian myth of the Pieter Both mountain and the Singaporean Malay iteration of Si-Tanggang. While both stories feature a character petrified as punishment for his misdeeds, the Singaporean retelling of Si-Tanggang makes no mention of a specific location nor geographical feature, unlike the Mauritian folktale and other versions of Si-Tanggang recounted elsewhere in the Malay Archipelago. To discover possible reasons for of functionalism as a folk explanation for natural phenomena by the Singaporean narrative, I conduct a comparative analysis of the two, through a lens of form, Propp (1968), field, and function. The comparison reveals divergences between form and field, in that between Singapore and Mauritius, storytelling as a cultural practice differs in its moralistic, nationalistic and ecological functions. The loss of an explicit geographical link in the Singaporean iteration of Si-Tanggang may be explained by how storytelling in Singapore has largely shed its ecological function. These observations also suggest that structural comparisons of folktales can help further our understanding of each individual oral culture, and in particular, how they have been shaped by historical and sociocultural forces.

Competing Explanations of Competing Explanations: Accounting for Conflict Between Scientific and Folk Explanations.

People who hold scientific explanations for natural phenomena also hold folk explanations, and the two types of explanations compete under some circumstances. Here, we explore the question of why folk explanations persist in the face of a well-understood scientific alternative, a phenomenon known as explanatory coexistence. We consider two accounts: an associative account, where coexistence is driven by low-level associations between co-occurring ideas in experience or discourse, and a theory-based account, where coexistence reflects high-level competition between distinct sets of causal expectations. We present data that assess the relative contributions of these two accounts to the cognitive conflict elicited by counterintuitive scientific ideas. Participants (134 college undergraduates) verified scientific statements like "air has weight" and "bacteria have DNA" as quickly as possible, and we examined the speed and accuracy of their verifications in relation to measures of associative information (lexical co-occurrence of the statements' subjects and predicates) and theory-based expectations (ratings of whether the statements' subjects possess theory-relevant attributes). Both measures explained a significant amount of variance in participants' responses, but the theory-based measures explained three to five times more. These data suggest that the cognitive conflict elicited by counterintuitive scientific ideas typically arises from competing theories and that such ideas might be made more intuitive by strengthening scientific theories or weakening folk theories.

“Charming Sorcerers” or “Soldiers of Satan”? Witchcraft and Magic in the Eyes of Protestant/Calvinist Preachers in Early Modern Hungary

The present study is the translation of Chapter 3 of the book of Ildikó Sz. Kristóf, entitled “Ördögi mesterséget nem cselekedtem.” A boszorkányüldözés társadalmi és kulturális háttere a kora újkori Debrecenben és Bihar vármegyében (“I have not done any diabolic deeds.” The Social and Cultural Foundation of Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Debrecen and Bihar County) published in Debrecen, Hungary in 1998. The book examined the witch-hunting in Bihar county and its largest city, the headquarters of the Calvinist church in Eastern Hungary between 1575 and 1766. During this period, 217 trials were conducted against 303 accused, and the book explored the social and religious foundations of the accusations. The witch-hunts in Bihar county were of rather small size (1–3 accused per annum) and intensity. A possible explanation for this relative mildness could be provided by a complex consideration of legal, religious, and local social circumstances. Chapter 3, published here in English, discusses Hungarian Calvinist demonology which remained rather sceptical about the concepts of diabolical witchcraft (e.g., the “covenant” or pact with the devil, the witches’ attendance at regular meetings (sabbath), etc.) throughout the early modern era. The author has studied several Calvinist treatises of theology published between the late 16th and the early 18th century by the printing press of Debrecen, those, for example, of Péter Mélius (1562), Tamás Félegyházi (1579), Péter Margitai Láni (1617), János Kecskeméti Alexis (1621), Mátyás Nógrádi (1651), Johannes Mediomontanus (1656), Pál Csehi (1656), István Diószegi Kis (1679; 1681), Gellért Kabai Bodor (1678) and Imre Pápai Páriz (1719). According to her findings, Calvinist demonology, although regarded the wordly interventions of the devil of limited scope (excepting, perhaps, the Puritans of the 1650s/1680s), urged the expurgation of the various forms of everyday magic from urban and village life. The suspicion of witchcraft fell especially on the practitioners of benevolent magic (popular healers/”wise women”, midwives, fortune-tellers, etc.) who were presumed to challenge and offend divine providence. The official religious considerations sometimes seem to have coincided with folk beliefs and explanations of misfortune concerning, among others, the plague epidemic in which witchcraft played an important role.

Early Familial Experiences With Microtia: Psychosocial Implications for Pediatric Providers.

This study focuses on early experiences of families with a child with microtia to better inform their ongoing care by pediatric providers. Parents and children (n = 62; mean age of 6.9 ± 3.9 years) with isolated microtia participated in semistructured interviews in Spanish (66.1%) or English (33.9%). Qualitative analysis of responses used open coding to identify themes. Parents reported stressful informing experiences of the diagnosis with multiple negative emotions. Parents and children generally reported not understanding microtia etiology, while some families identified medical, religious, and folk explanations. Parental coping included learning about surgeries, normalization, perspective taking, and support from family, providers, religion, and others with microtia. Family communication centered on surgery and reassurance. Pediatricians of children with microtia need to understand families' formative psychosocial experiences to better promote positive family adjustment through clarifying misinformation, educating families about available treatment options, modeling acceptance, psychosocial screening, and providing resources.

What patients think about psychogenic nonepileptic seizures in Buenos Aires, Argentina: A qualitative approach

PurposeTo analyse the methods of reasoning with regard to patients’ experiences of living with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. MethodA qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews was used to gain an in-depth and contextual understanding of the perspectives of five patients with PNES. Data collection and analysis were followed by an inductive and interpretive approach informed by the principles of thematic analysis. ResultsExplanatory models and prototypes were identified from the patients’ narratives. Four patients related their suffering regarding psychosocial causes –family conflicts, sexual harassment, and life changes, among others-. Hereditary and organic hypotheses appeared to be unspecific. Folk explanations were common to all participants (magic, witchcraft, energetic causes). Four patients used the term epilepsy as an illness prototype, focusing on seizures and the use of antiepileptic drugs. Three of them also compared their illness to other people’s “attacks” (heart attacks, panic attacks, nervous breakdown). Only one of them referred to someone who was suspected of having epilepsy. ConclusionPatients’ psychosocial explanatory models are different from the results of previous studies because these studies indicate that most patients support somatic explanations. Patients also use folk explanations related to traditional medicine, which highlights the interpersonal aspects of the disease. Doctor-patient communication is essential for a correct understanding of PNES, resulting in better outcomes. It could also help to reduce the cultural distance between professionals and patients, leading to narrowing inequalities present in multicultural healthcare services.

ОРНИТОНИМ РАКА «ВОРОНА (ВОРОН)» В КОМИ-ПЕРМЯЦКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ. ЛИНГВОКУЛЬТУРОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ АСПЕКТ

The article considers views associated with the ornithonym raka “crow” that are typical of the Komi-Permyak people. The stereotypes related to the crow are identified by means of the functional-semantic research method. The most interesting ones among them are the stereotypes of aesthetic ugliness, absence of mind, financial insolvency. The research involves analysis of folk sayings and superstitions, proverbs and idioms connected with this bird. From a linguoculturological perspective, the ornithonym under study is frequently used in similes and set expressions while in other paroemias this image is rather rare. Folk explanations concerning the environment, beauty and carelessness, prosperity and poverty are often interpreted by the Komi-Permyak people by means of the image of a crow. Based on linguistic data, one can distinguish several metaphorically motivated connotations: status, appearance, physical and emotional state of the subject. It is noteworthy that the image of raka “crow” is referred by the Komi-Permyak people mostly to male characteristics, which is considered by the author to be an exceptionally national feature. It implies the condemnation of the social or financial failure of a man and represents the national family code: a man should own a house, must be successful throughout his life and wear good quality clothes, regarded as the first visual sign of his success.

A Folk Story from Dhofar A Pathway to Indigenous Knowledge

Folktales serve certain aspects and involve meaningful intentions in the society. This paper assess a Dhofari folk story in Oman. The story denotes the significance of folk explanation for the first emergence of poultry in Dhofar. It compares the beautiful coloured bird the Arabian partridge, Alectoris melanocephala in Dhofar’s environment with the common domestic chicken Gallus domesticus. The paper concludes that the folktales target the conservation of the society’s traditions, educating and enlightening the society’s members especially the young generations and most all demonstrates the faculty of folk explanation. Therefore, the paper urges that these folktales must be documented and studied, since they represent a valuable key part in the Omani cultural heritage.

A Folk Story from Dhofar A Pathway to Indigenous Knowledge

Folktales serve certain aspects and involve meaningful intentions in the society. This paper assess a Dhofari folk story in Oman. The story denotes the significance of folk explanation for the first emergence of poultry in Dhofar. It compares the beautiful coloured bird the Arabian partridge, Alectoris melanocephala in Dhofar’s environment with the common domestic chicken Gallus domesticus. The paper concludes that the folktales target the conservation of the society’s traditions, educating and enlightening the society’s members especially the young generations and most all demonstrates the faculty of folk explanation. Therefore, the paper urges that these folktales must be documented and studied, since they represent a valuable key part in the Omani cultural heritage.

Folk Explanations of Behavior

People typically explain others’ behaviors by attributing them to the beliefs and motives of an unobservable mind. Although such attributional inferences are critical for understanding the social world, it is unclear whether they rely on processes distinct from those used to understand the nonsocial world. In the present study, we used functional MRI to identify brain regions associated with making attributions about social and nonsocial situations. Attributions in both domains activated a common set of brain regions, and individual differences in the domain-specific recruitment of one of these regions—the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC)—correlated with attributional accuracy in each domain. Overall, however, the DMPFC showed greater activation for attributions about social than about nonsocial situations, and this selective response to the social domain was greatest in participants who reported the highest levels of social expertise. We conclude that folk explanations of behavior are an expert use of a domain-general cognitive ability.

Folk conceptualizations of racism and antiracism in Brazil and South Africa

Folk conceptualizations of racism can be defined as ordinary people's understandings of the sources and persistence of racism. They function as equalization strategies – by denying the legitimacy of racism – and guide beliefs regarding antiracism strategies. I explore folk explanations of racism among black professionals in Brazil and South Africa by drawing on sixty interviews with members of these groups. In Brazil, racism is understood as an historical lingering, a product of ignorance, which will disappear with time and education. In South Africa, racism is viewed as more resilient, as a part of human nature and as a consequence of the competition for resources. These explanations of racism are closely related to the antiracism narratives that are salient in these two contexts: while Brazilian respondents affirm their belief in racial mixture and moral education, South African respondents are more uncertain about the possibilities of weaker racial boundaries in their country, relying on institutional constraints as their main antiracism strategy.

The Folklore of Dinosaur Trackways in China: Impact on Paleontology

Fossilized footprints made by extinct creatures have captured the attention of humans worldwide. Many different prescientific cultures have attempted to identify the trackmakers and account for the tracks of unfamiliar species. In China, local folklore about dinosaur footprints is preserved in oral traditions of great antiquity, which persist today in at least five regions with conspicuous tracksites. Although folk explanations are expressed in mythological terms, they are based on careful observation over many generations. Ichnological myths often contain details that reveal attention to size, morphology, and sedimentology of tracks. Chinese folklore identified dinosaur tracks as those of divine or fantastic birds of various sizes, legendary large mammals, sacred plants, and deities or heroes. Popular knowledge of dinosaur tracksites and myth-based descriptions of mysterious footprints in stone could serve as a guide for paleontologists in East Asia, leading them to identify new trackways previously unknown to science.

Scientific progress and the prospects for culture-bound syndromes

This paper aims to show that the classification by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) of a distinct listing of disorders known as Culture-Bound Syndromes (CBS) is misguided. I argue that the list of CBS (in Appendix I of the manual) comprises either (a) genuine disorders that should be included within the main body of the DSM; or (b) ersatz-disorders that serve a practical role for psychiatrists dealing with patients from certain cultures but will one day be eliminated or assimilated by bona fide DSM classifications. In support of these views I draw on claims from two key themes in the philosophy of science: (1) the claim that all folk (that is, non-scientific) explanations for phenomena are thoroughly theoretical and therefore fallible; and (2) the occurrence of theoretical elimination in the history of science. I contend that any ersatz-disorders located in the DSM that are judged to be radically false do not differ in kind from eliminated theories in the history of pre-science.

“Enough is enough, I don’t want any audience”: exploring medical students’ explanations of consent-related behaviours

Medical students are often faced with an ethical dilemma within the clinical setting--to learn from as many patients as possible but to learn only with consenting patients. Although studies have examined patients' and students' views about informed consent, none have examined how medical students talk about consent-related behaviours in 'naturalistic' focus group settings. This paper aims to explore medical students' explanations of behaviours relating to patient consent. Thirty-five excerpts across eight focus group discussions were identified using what we call momentum analysis: an identification of where the impetus of the groups' discussions changed noticeably. Ten were related to consent issues, seven of which occurred in focus groups with medical students. Utilising Malle's folk conceptual theory of behavioural explanation (2004. How the mind explains behavior. Folk explanations, meaning, and social interaction. Cambridge Massachusetts: MIT Press) within a narrative framework, we identified seven types of consent-related behaviour across the seven excerpts and 101 explanations for these behaviours by students. We found that students employed less reason explanations but more causal history reason (CHR) and enabling factor explanations than is found in other studies of naturally occurring talk, suggesting that consent-related behaviours were difficult and that our students actively managed others' impressions of them and their behaviours. Although our data is generally supportive of Malle's folk conceptual theory of behavioural explanation we suggest potential developments to this theoretical framework following our analysis with naturally occurring talk. However, further research is needed with larger samples of behavioural explanations to contribute more fully to theoretical development.

Chinese-Australian Women's Beliefs About Cancer

Ethnicity and culture play significant roles in determining how an individual is likely to understand and explain cancer, which, in turn, is posited to have an impact on cancer screening behavior. Chinese women in Western countries are consistently reported to have low participation rates in mammographic screening. This may be related to the fact that women of Chinese ancestry have different images and beliefs about cancer, which can have implications for participation in health promotion programs regarding cancer prevention and early detection. To investigate this issue, a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews with 20 Chinese-Australian women was conducted. Embedded in the women's images of cancer were notions associated with fear, mystery, contagion, and stigma. Based on information provided by the women who participated in this study, 6 domains of folk explanations about the causes of cancer were identified: lifestyle, stress, environment, genes, unknown causes, and destiny. These beliefs should be considered in the design of breast health promotion programs because they are likely to have a bearing on Chinese-Australian women's attitudes regarding the value they perceive of cancer screening.

Overcoming the illusion of will and self‐fabrication: Going beyond naïve subjective personal introspection to an unconscious/conscious theory of behavior explanation

AbstractNaïve subjective personal introspection includes the failure to recognize the confirmability of one's own attitudes and personal meanings learned explicitly from self‐examining such topics and explaining one's own behavior. Unconscious/conscious theory of behavior explanation follows from unifying the research on unintended thought–behavior with folk explanations of behavior. This article describes advances in research confirming own attitudes and personal meaning and suggests the need for applying multiple methods to overcome the fundamental attribution error, inherent cultural prejudices, and the general bias toward self‐fabrication. The discussion is valuable for achieving a deep understanding of how customers think, advancing from subjective to confirmatory personal introspection, and understanding the need to apply research tools useful for enlightening knowledge and overcoming the inherent bias within subjective personal introspection. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.