Immoral Actions Research Articles

Two kinds of failure in joint action: On disrespect and directed duties

Abstract I identify two kinds of failure in joint action. First, we can fail to ‘do our part’, that is, fail to contribute to fulfilling the joint intention. Second, we can fail to respect our collaborators. Recognizing the distinct natures of both normative relations helps us overcome a key challenge to a reductionist theory of collective intentionality posed by Margaret Gilbert. According to this objection, we have obligations towards others even in immoral joint actions – a claim that was recently supported experimentally. Except for a handful of experimental papers, work on the normativity in joint intention has stagnated. I hope the distinction breathes fresh air into the theoretical and empirical debate.

Do Surgeons Experience Moral Dissonance When There Is Misalignment Between Evidence and Action? A Survey and Scenario-based Study.

Moral dissonance is the psychological discomfort associated with a mismatch between our moral values and potentially immoral actions. For instance, to limit moral dissonance, surgeons must develop a rationale that the potential for benefit from performing surgery is meaningfully greater than the inherent harm of surgery. Moral dissonance can also occur when a patient or one's surgeon peers encourage surgery for a given problem, even when the evidence suggests limited or no benefit over other options. Clinicians may not realize the degree to which moral dissonance can be a source of diminished joy in practice. Uncovering potential sources of moral dissonance can help inform efforts to help clinicians enjoy their work. In a scenario-based experiment performed in an online survey format, we exposed musculoskeletal specialists to various types of patient and practice stressors to measure their association with moral dissonance and asked: (1) What factors are associated with the level of pressure surgeons feel to act contrary to the best evidence? (2) What factors are associated with the likelihood of offering surgery? We performed a scenario-based experiment by inviting members of the Science of Variation Group (SOVG; an international collaborative of musculoskeletal surgeons that studies variation in care) to complete an online survey with randomized elements. The use of experimental techniques such as randomization to measure factors associated with specific ratings makes participation rate less important than diversity of opinion within the sample. A total of 114 SOVG musculoskeletal surgeons participated, which represents the typical number of participants from a total of about 200 who tend to participate in at least one experiment per year. Among the 114 participants, 94% (107) were men, 49% (56) practiced in the United States, and 82% (94) supervised trainees. Participants viewed 12 scenarios of upper extremity fractures for which surgery is optional (discretionary) based on consensus and current best evidence. In addition to a representative age, the scenario included randomized patient and practice factors that we posit could be sources of moral distress based on author consensus. Patient factors included potential sources of pressure (such as "The patient is convinced they want a specific treatment and will go to a different surgeon if they don't get it") or experiences of collaboration (such as "The patient is collaborative and involved in decisions"). Practice factors included circumstances of financial or reputational pressure (such as "The practice is putting pressure on you to generate more revenue") and factors of limited pressure (such as "Your income is not tied to revenue"). For each scenario, the participant was asked to rate both of the following statements on a scale from 0 to 100 anchored with "I don't feel it at all" at 0, "I feel it moderately" at 50, and "I feel it strongly" at 100: (1) pressure to act contrary to best evidence and (2) likelihood of offering surgery. Additional explanatory variables included surgeon factors: gender, years in practice, region, subspecialty, supervision of trainees, and practice setting (academic/nonacademic). We sought factors associated with pressure to act contrary to evidence and likelihood of offering surgery, accounting for potential confounding variables in multilevel mixed-effects linear regression models. Accounting for potential confounding variables, greater pressure to act contrary to best evidence was moderately associated with greater patient despair (regression coefficient [RC] 6 [95% confidence interval 2 to 9]; p = 0.001) and stronger patient preference (RC 4 [95% CI 0 to 8]; p = 0.03). Lower pressure to act contrary to evidence was moderately associated with surgeon income independent of revenue (RC -6 [95% CI -9 to -4]; p < 0.001) and no financial benefit to operative treatment (RC -6 [95% CI -8 to -3]; p < 0.001). Marketing concerns were the only factor associated with greater likelihood of offering surgery (RC 6 [95% CI 0 to 11]; p = 0.04). In this scenario-based survey experiment, patient distress and strong preferences and surgeon financial incentives were associated with greater surgeon feelings of moral dissonance when considering discretionary fracture surgery. To support enjoyment of the practice of musculoskeletal surgery, we recommend that surgeons, surgery practices, and surgery professional associations be intentional in both anticipating and developing strategies to ameliorate potential sources of moral dissonance in daily practice.

The Impact of Comparative Moral Superiority on Protagonist Appeal

Four studies examine the appeal of protagonists who are sometimes immoral in real-world (Studies 1 &amp; 2) and fictional (Studies 3 &amp; 4) settings. In both, character appeal is influenced by the combination of moral/immoral behaviors a protagonist performs and their moral/immoral behavior relative to another person’s (i.e., their moral superiority/inferiority). Additionally, Study 2 examines the effect of character behavior (moral/immoral vs. highly self-beneficial) on appeal, finding that if two protagonists are equally immoral, one who elsewise behaves morally at times is more appealing than one who is elsewise self-beneficial. Studies 3 and 4 replicate these findings using a fictional drama and fantasy premise instead of a real-world setting. Findings suggest the effect of characters’ immoral behavior on appeal varies based on the moral behavior of comparison characters regardless of the setting’s fictionality. Discussion considers whether moral superiority alters the likelihood that audiences will emulate an imperfect hero’s immoral actions.

SOSIALISASI PENANAMAN NILAI KARAKTER DAN PENCEGAHAN TINDAKAN BULLYING DI LINGKUNGAN SEKOLAH

This community service aims to highlight the importance of character values in education to prevent bullying. Education is an important foundation in shaping an individual's character. In the context of education, there are three major sins that need to be addressed: immoral actions, violence, and discrimination or bullying. Bullying is a problem that is most commonly encountered in daily interactions, which can become a serious issue that negatively impacts students and the school environment. This socialization discusses the importance of preventing bullying through education. With the implementation of effective preventive measures, it is hoped that a safe and conducive learning environment can be created for all students. This activity is designed in the form of a socialization event lasting 2 hours and involves 30 eighth-grade students from SMP N 2 Cinangka Banten. The methods used are lectures, discussions, and question-and-answer sessions. The outcome of this activity is expected to instill character values in students and prevent bullying in the school environment.

Life narratives in the context of war trauma

The article is devoted to the analysis of life narratives in the context of war trauma. One of the most important tasks of social cognition is to predict the intentions of others towards us and people we care about, this information is best conveyed by a person's moral character, not sociability, and it is also important to predict the probability that a person will do what he is going to do, especially as it relates to the trauma of war and suicidal intentions common in our time. However, we assume that sociability and memories of the self before the war or before the traumatic event determine how effectively a person uses his skills to support his moral or immoral intentions, in fact this information is important from the point of view of adaptation. The purpose of the research is to study the peculiarities of life narratives, in particular those determined by morality, positive or negative attitude towards oneself in the context of war trauma. The objectives of the study are to define the concept of moral trauma, its connection with positive or negative self-attitude, PTSD, autobiographical memories of the events preceding the trauma, including the war in general. Research results: A positive attitude towards morality promotes the emergence of such phenomena as mutual altruism, encouraging cooperation for the common good. A negative attitude toward immorality promotes phenomena such as punishment, discouraging destructive behavior such as cheating, stealing, and free-riding. Therefore, it is critical to determine whether the influence of moral traits on liking and positive attitudes toward self and others is dominant and how it is related to positive autobiographical memories and life narratives, particularly in wartime, when immoral and moral actions are often closely related. and moral trauma has become a common phenomenon not only for the military, but also for civilians in Ukraine.

Personal relative deprivation and moral self-judgments: The moderating role of sense of control

Six studies (total valid N = 1835) examined the impact of personal relative deprivation on moral judgments of one’s own unethical behavior and the moderating role of sense of control. It was found that individuals high (vs. low) on relative deprivation were more likely to endorse lenient moral standards for themselves regarding various imagined transgressions. Moreover, Studies 4–6 also provided evidence for a positive moderation effect of sense of control in the relationship between relative deprivation and the acceptability of one’s own moral transgressions. These findings suggest that individuals, especially those with a high sense of control, may justify their immoral actions to compensate for the hurt feelings of relative deprivation.

PERSPECTIVE ATTITUDES IN CASES OF BULLYING ON SOCIAL MEDIA X: AN APPRAISAL ANALYSIS

This research aims to examine how Indonesian netizens of X consider physical bullying in wider scope, which is social media (cyber-world) through X. Researchers analyze traditional bullying that occurs in Indonesia but is used as discourse on social media (cyber). Therefore a netizen attitude assessment system appears in comments and posts, especially those related to affect, assessment, and appreciation. The method used in this research is Qualitative research under Discourse Analysis methods, with the social media data source "X" with the keywords #bullying and #bullyingcilacap, while the data analyzed is in the form of words or lexis related to the appraisal system. The findings of this research are in the form of a negative judgment attitude followed by an attitude of affect and appreciation in posts about bullying cases that occurred in Indonesia. This shows that the writer or netizen is very angry and worried about the immoral act of bullying. However, a form of positive judgment attitude was also found where netizens sympathized and cared about justice for victims of bullying.

The effect of in-game moral choices and NPCs’ identities on players’ intergroup attitudes

Extant literature suggested that committing immoral actions in video games may elicit feelings of guilt and encourage prosocial outcomes. However, there is a dearth of research that examined how decision-making involving various moral foundations in video games can influence players' intergroup perceptions. Therefore, this study examined how players’ in-game decisions with respect to the six moral foundations and interactions with different non-player characters’ (NPCs’) identities influenced their attitudes toward outgroup foreign immigrants. A 2 (video game scenarios: moral choices vs. non-moral choices) by 3 (NPCs’ nationality: all citizens vs. citizens and foreigners vs. all foreigners) experiment was conducted (N = 300). There was no main interaction effect across conditions. Participants who interacted with only citizen NPCs reported significantly more positive post-game attitudes toward immigrants than those who interacted with both citizen and foreigner characters. Participants who violated the care/harm, ingroup/loyalty, and liberty/oppression foundations experienced higher levels of guilt, but this had no impact on their immigrant attitudes. However, those who violated the fairness/reciprocity and liberty/oppression foundations reported poorer intergroup attitudes. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Who Is Your Biggest Critic? Cultural Variation in Moral Judgments of the Self and Others

People are motivated to punish others who commit immoral actions when they believe the person willingly committed such an act. Compared with European American individuals, East Asian individuals are more punitive of wrongdoings, yet are less likely to attribute actions to the person. Here, we drew on research in cultural psychology to test the prediction that Chinese individuals are more punitive in part because they are more self-critical than European American individuals. This prediction would imply that cultural differences in punishment are most pronounced in judgments of oneself (vs. others) and largely driven by a difference in self-enhancement motives. To test this prediction, we conducted two studies, where 1,563 participants imagined immoral (vs. moral) actions performed by themselves or others. We then measured self-enhancement (how much participants perceived the immoral act impacts self-esteem) and attributions (how much participants perceived the immoral act is due to the person). As predicted, Chinese individuals punished immoral behavior more than European American individuals, which was explained by Chinese individuals being less self-enhancing, as indicated by a greater perception that immoral actions will negatively impact their self-esteem. Dispositional attributions predicted punishment regardless of culture. This work highlights how cultural differences in self-enhancement are key to understanding moral judgments and their cultural variation.

Этические теории Иммануила Канта и Христиана Вольфа: сходства и различия

The article compares the ethical concepts of Christian Wolff and Immanuel Kant and identifies not only coincidences, but also, mainly, their fundamental differences. On the one hand, Wolff denies the possibility of attributing good or evil to an action depending on the will of God. On the other hand, the Creator is the one who actualizes the existing relationship between things, and therefore moral assessment is still inseparable from him. For Kant, the divine will is completely excluded as a source of moral law, but at the same time it is a natural result of the consistent fulfillment of the moral dictates of reason. The concept of freedom is equally important for both thinkers. Wolff insists on its necessity, but hardly justifies its possibility, since he attributes any immoral action not to freedom of choice, but to a lack of knowledge. The philosopher does not assume a mismatch of will and reason. In addition, the thinker assumes a universal determinism of nature, the latter expresses itself in a natural law, which also coincides with the divine law. The basic principle of Wolfian ethics is perfection, which is not strictly defined and which Kant himself considers unclear. Thus, the moral character of an action, according to Wolff, depends not only on these laws, but also on the principle of perfection. At the same time, for Kant, the morality of an action depends on compliance with the moral law, and first of all, the intention preceding the action or inaction is evaluated. In Wolff'’s case, the consequence arising from the act is subject to evaluation, which is the opposite of Kant’s ideas.

Efektivitas Peraturan Daerah Kota Jambi Nomor 2 Tahun 2014 dalam Pemberantasan Pelacuran dan Perbuatan Asusila di Wilayah Kota Jambi

The occurrence of criminal acts of prostitution and immoral acts in the city of Jambi is currently widespread. This can also be proven by the existence of cases of prostitution at OYO accommodation located in the city of Jambi. Even though there is Jambi City Regional Regulation Number 2 of 2014 on the Eradication of Prostitution and Immoral Acts, in reality there is still prostitution in the city of Jambi even though the local area has been closed. The aim of this research is to understand and analyze the factors that influence people to commit prostitution and immoral acts in Jambi City, obstacles in implementing the effectiveness of Jambi City Regional Regulation Number 2 of 2014 in Eradicating Prostitution and Immoral Acts in the Jambi City area and efforts to overcome obstacles in reducing the number of prostitution and immoral acts in the Jambi city area. The research method is an empirical juridical research type with a legal sociology approach and uses data sources, namely primary legal materials and secondary legal materials. The sampling technique was purposeful sampling and data collection techniques were carried out using interviews and document studies and data analysis was carried out using qualitative analysis. The results of his research are that the factors that influence people to commit prostitution and immoral acts in Jambi City are economic and lifestyle factors, a profitable prostitution business, teenagers having broken home family backgrounds and joining the wrong social groups, the existence of hotels and nightclubs or club. The obstacle in carrying out the effectiveness of Jambi City Regional Regulation Number 2 of 2014 in Eradicating Prostitution and Immoral Acts in the Jambi city area is that criminal sanctions are categorized as light and not as a coercive tool to ensnare perpetrators of prostitution, there is no special authority for the police to carry out criminal sanctions in the Regional Regulation. , there was a leak of information during the raid, the condition of the Youth and Women's Social Home in Talang Bakung was still worrying as it could become a rehabilitation place for prostitutes, there was resistance from the community around the prostitution localization to close the prostitution localization, there was foreign culture coming in such as promiscuity. An effort to overcome obstacles in reducing the number of prostitution and immoral acts in the Jambi city area is that the Jambi City Government closes down the localization of prostitution in the city of Jambi, then carries out socialization of Regional Regulation Number 2 of 2014 to the people of Jambi city, the Jambi city government and the Jambi City Civil Service Police Unit. coordinating with the TNI and Polri in carrying out raids as well as the role of the community or parents in supervising their children when using cellphones.

Memory control immediately improves unpleasant emotions associated with autobiographical memories of past immoral actions

ABSTRACT The ability to stop unwanted memories from coming to mind is theorised to be essential for maintaining good mental health. People can employ intentional strategies to prevent conscious intrusions of negative memories, and repeated attempts to stop retrieval both reduces the frequency of intrusions and improves subsequent emotions elicited by those memories. However, it is still unknown whether memory control can improve negative emotions immediately, at the time control is attempted. It is also not clear which strategy is most beneficial for emotion regulation; clearing the mind of any thoughts of negative memories via direct suppression, or substituting memory recall with alternative thoughts. Here, we provide novel evidence that memory control immediately regulates negative emotions associated with autobiographical memories of morally wrong actions. Repeated control significantly improved negative emotions over time, regardless of the strategy used to implement control. Thought substitution involving either positive diversionary thinking or counterfactual thinking both induced positive feelings, whereas direct suppression neutralised emotions, regardless of whether memories were positive or negative. These empirical findings have implications for clinical practice as they indicate that memory control strategies could be effective emotion regulation methods for real-world intrusive memories.

Образ роду Ґалаґанів в історіографії кінця ХІХ – початку ХХ ст.

The purpose of the study is to conduct an analytical assessment of the Galagan noble-foreman family image formation and evolution process in historiography of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The methodological basis of the work was formed by the basic principles of the historiographic image theory, aimed at identifying genesis, formation and evolution of understanding of the Galagans’ role in historiography. The following methods are also used in the work: historical, analytical, genetic, comparative, biographical, method of studying the products of activity.The scientific novelty is the fact that the Galagan family is first considered through the prism of the theory of the historiographical image. Conclusions. Through the efforts of a small but very active constellation of Ukrainian scientists, Galagan family was included in the scientific circulation. For three decades, their image has undergone significant transformations. Although Alexander Lazarevsky was quite critical of the Galagans, especially representatives of the first generations, the pages of the magazine «Kievskaia starina», on the contrary, showed mainly positive aspects of their activities, special attention was paid to the last representative of the family, Grigory Galagan Jr. The publication of Andronik Stepovych had a specific structure and was based on sources of various genres: from memoirs to an unpublished article authored by Grigory Galagan Jr., which was devoted to the history of his family. The publisher allowed the reader to see how Gregory Galahan Jr. assessed his ancestors and get acquainted with the memories of his son Paul. The chapter on Gregory Galahan Jr., which Stepovich wrote personally, is evidence of the author’s extremely respectful attitude towards his hero. The images of the father and son of the Galagans, which are idealistic in their content, are significantly different against the background of less emotional and ambiguous assessments of their ancestors. Vadim Modzalevsky in his work depersonalized Galaganov and equated them to ordinary representatives of the nobility of Left-Bank Ukraine. But this is due to the restrictions imposed on the genre of his work, a genealogical essay, which was supposed to contain only basic information about members of noble families and the connections between them. The most complete, multifaceted images had the first and penultimate male members of the genus. The image of Ignat Galagan in all works is mostly negative, his immoral actions, greed, low intellectual level are brought to the fore, although evidence of personal courage and the ability to «make his way in life» also take place. Grigory Galagan Jr., on the contrary, receives an extremely positive assessment, his image is used as a symbol of Ukrainian patriotism and a role model. Other members of the family are presented in a much less vivid form. We can say that they are presented as authoritative, but typical Ukrainian landowners having both positive and negative features.

Analysis of the Place of Ethical Behavior in the Fictional Works of Yaqub Yad Ali ased on the Doctrine of Jacques Marie Émile Lacan

Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was one of the thinkers who reread the category of ethics based on psychoanalytical doctrine. He considered adherence to the sign of desire as a criterion for ethical behavior. In this research, we have tried to evaluate the actions of the characters in Yaqoub Yad Ali's fictional works according to the psychoanalytic teachings of Lacan. Based on this, it is necessary to explain the relationship between the place of desire as a psychological matter and ethic. One of the goals of the authors in this research is to explain the distinction between the desire of the subject and The Other as an irreconcilable divergence. In this regard, the question has been answered that based on Lakan's psychoanalytical teachings, which one of Yad Ali's fictional characters had an ethical action, and which one had an immoral action? This research has been done by qualitative analysis based on the teachings of Lacan and the collection of fiction works of Yaqub Yad Ali. The findings of the research show that the establishment of the desire suppression mechanism causes the subject to encounter the phenomenon of loss or deprivation. The subject identifies the signifier of The Other’s desire as the signifier of his desire and fulfills it. According to Lakan, the ethical behavior becomes possible when the subject always remains faithful to the signifier of his true desire. The ethical subject in Lakan's view is the one who, in the face of the law, always transgresses it through the sign of joesance

DEEPFAKE FACE RECOGNITION THROUGH MODIFIED AND IMPORVED DEEP TRANSFER LEARNING

The manipulation of photo, audio, and video content has been a topic of interest for many years, as people uses fake faces to indulge in various immoral act like pornography, fraud, and defamation. In the early days, classification of real and fake faces was done using traditional methods such as editing frames by frame or using chroma keying, this traditional approach is time consuming and lacks enough editors that have the technical skills to do the frame-by-frame edition or use the chroma keying. With technological advancement, new techniques have been developed that allow for much more sophisticated and realistic manipulations, one such technique is deepfakes. Deepfakes are created using deep learning algorithms to swap or replace faces in videos or images. This can be done with a high degree of realism, making it difficult to distinguish between real and fake content. This research aims to develop a deep fake detection system using deep transfer learning (modified VGG19 and ResNet50 models), these two models were chosen over other CNN architectures due to their proven better performance, faster recognition time and lesser memory usage. The research modified the original VGG19 and ResNet architectures by replacing the last five layer with a customized dense layers that will help with faster and accurate recognition of faces. A balanced dataset comprising 70,000 real faces from the Flickr dataset and 70,000 fake faces generated by StyleGAN was utilized. This research employed hold-out evaluation method. VGG19 gave an accuracy, f1score of 91.59% and 91.47% respectively while RestNet50 gave an average accuracy and F1score of 96.61% and 96.59% respectively on the testing dataset. This shows that ResNet 50 gave the best performance both on the training, validation and testing dataset. The developed system was also compared with other state-of-art methods and they were all outperformed.

Buddhist Approach to the Ethical Analysis of Premeditated Murder

The purpose of the research is to explicate the Buddhist principles of ethical analysis of premeditated murder as an immoral act. The author solves this problem through the method of case study of exegetical treatises of outstanding Buddhist thinkers Vasubandhu (4th-5th centuries) and Yašomitra (8th century). It is shown that the ethical analysis of premeditated murder is based on a religious anthropological concept (the Buddhist doctrine of human action producing karmic retribution). Sinful intent is interpreted as an immoral mental urge that generated a verbal intention to take the life of a certain person or a certain animal. According to the canonical point of view, there are three mental roots of immoral acts - greed, hatred, ignorance. The ethnical analysis of sinful intent is aimed at determining the connection of intent with any of these three mental phenomena. In accordance with this principle, Buddhist thinkers have identified three types of premeditated murder. All of them produce a “black” (unfavorable) karmic fruit, i.e. an unfortunate form of rebirth, exacerbating physical suffering. Great attention is paid by the author to the problem of the karmic responsibility of individuals ordering murders and the executors of such orders. In the considered sources, the verbal order to kill and its physical execution are interpreted as equally immoral actions that produce collective karmic responsibility. The author of the research examines in detail a special class of premeditated murder, fraught with inevitable infernal retribution. This class includes murders of benefactors (mother, father, arhat) and Buddhist ascetics practicing asceticism. These malicious sins were interpreted as an insurmountable obstacle to achieving a soteriological goal, even in the distant transcendental future. It is shown that Buddhist exegetes have developed principles for diagnosing these sins and characterized the immoral personal characteristics of sinners (disrespect towards parents, Buddhist preachers and religious ascetics, heretical denial of spiritual values, shamelessness, arrogance, ignorant self-will, misanthropy).

UNVERIFIED INFORMATION IN SOCIAL NETWORKS: ANALYSIS FROM AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE

In contemporary society, social media has evolved into an indispensable and pervasive tool, impacting individuals worldwide across various dimensions, including the personal, social, economic, and political spheres. The basic expectation from social networks is to serve the people and society by providing important, authentic information and verified news. Unfortunately, false news, rumours and fabricated information on social networks have become a threat to individuals, and a destructive tool for peace and societal harmony. The unregulated proliferation of hoaxes on social networks can lead to a myriad of societal disruptions and issues, thereby intensifying the need for harmonious and peaceful coexistence as advocated by both individuals and society at large. This is a qualitative descriptive article that explores the Islamic understanding and rulings on the spread of unverified information in social networks intentionally for gaining personal interest or political advantages. The article also recommends some ethical and moral precepts of revealed knowledge to ensure the proper use of social networks for the benefit of individuals and community, and to avoid unethical violation and immoral actions.

Incentivized fake reviews: When cognitive reappraisal paves the way for an immoral journey

AbstractRecent studies explain how to detect fake reviews and their impacts on consumers and businesses. Despite the prevalence and significance of fake reviews, prior research has yet to fully explore the motivations and psychological mechanisms behind voluntary participation in writing fake reviews, especially in incentivized campaigns. This paper explains why consumers engage in the immoral act of writing fake reviews in return for free products. We investigate the interactive role of individuals' self‐focused motivations and cognitive reappraisal ability in diminishing consumers' moral emotions of guilt, subsequently influencing their intention to write incentivized reviews. Built on three studies, the findings reveal that customers' self‐focused motivations coupled with their ability to regulate emotions dissuade their feelings of guilt. Consequently, customers who experience downregulated emotions of guilt show a higher intention to write incentivized fake reviews. This study contributes to the existing literature by illustrating the driving factors toward writing incentivized fake reviews, especially by depicting the negative role of cognitive reappraisal. The study also has managerial implications indicating that such customer behavior can be avoided by fostering a sense of consideration toward others by making them aware about the impact of their actions.

Would God Really Send Me to Hell for Stealing a Wispa Bar?

This paper discusses the problem of Hell, defending the Aquinas-Anselm-Edwards response that any immoral act deserves eternal punishment because it offends against God. I argue that the response is more defensible than one might at first think, but nevertheless faces a serious objection. If we differentiate two different problems of Hell—the logical problem and the evidential problem—we see that, in light of this objection, the Aquinas-Anselm-Edwards response only solves the logical problem of Hell.

Predicting automobile insurance fraud using classical and machine learning models

Insurance fraud claims have become a major problem in the insurance industry. Several investigations have been carried out to eliminate negative impacts on the insurance industry as this immoral act has caused the loss of billions of dollars. In this paper, a comparative study was carried out to assess the performance of various classification models, namely logistic regression, neural network (NN), support vector machine (SVM), tree augmented naïve Bayes (NB), decision tree (DT), random forest (RF) and AdaBoost with different model settings for predicting automobile insurance fraud claims. Results reveal that the tree augmented NB outperformed other models based on several performance metrics with accuracy (79.35%), sensitivity (44.70%), misclassification rate (20.65%), area under curve (0.81) and Gini (0.62). In addition, the result shows that the AdaBoost algorithm can improve the classification performance of the decision tree. These findings are useful for insurance professionals to identify potential insurance fraud claim cases.