Slippery Slope Research Articles

On the Highway to Hell: Slippery Slope Perceptions in Judgments of Moral Character.

Across four studies, we test the hypothesis that people exhibit "slippery slope" thinking in their judgments of moral character-that is, do observers judge that a person who behaves immorally will become increasingly immoral over time? In Study 1, we find that a person who commits an immoral act is judged as more likely to behave immorally and as having a worse character in the future than in the past. In Study 2, we find that it is the commission of an immoral act specifically-rather than merely attempting an immoral act-that drives this slippery slope effect. In Study 3, we demonstrate that observers judge the moral agent as more likely to commit acts of greater severity further in time after the initial immoral act. In Study 4, we find that this effect is driven by an anticipated corrupting of moral character, related to perceptions of the agent's guilt.

Holocaust Distortion During the Global Pandemic: An Exercise in Anti-Democratic Demagoguery

Far-right demagogues, including Thomas Massie (R-KY), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) have compared COVID related mandates to Nazi-era policies that restricted the movement of Jewish peoples, have repeatedly evoked the image of the concentration camp tattoo, and have referenced the Nazi’s T4 programme that mandated the forced sterilisation of people with disabilities. This rhetorical strategy is a form of Holocaust distortion, the active excusing, minimisation, or misrepresentation of the Holocaust for political purposes. This essay explores how right-wing politicians use Holocaust distortion as a rhetorical strategy during the global pandemic, to the detriment of democratic deliberation. Our analysis focuses on the tactics of Holocaust distortion: hyperbole, comparison, argument by analogy, and the slippery slope fallacy. We suggest that COVID-19 era related Holocaust distortion has grave consequences for democratic life in the United States. We recommend adaptations in our cultural and scholarly communication practices that may help resist the demagogic logics of Holocaust denial.

Nationwide initiation of cardiovascular risk treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic in France: Women on a slippery slope?

Nationwide initiation of cardiovascular risk treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic in France: Women on a slippery slope?

“The Narrow edge of the wedge?” Assessing the Legality of the Killing of Qasem Soleimani in International Law

“The Narrow edge of the wedge?” Assessing the Legality of the Killing of Qasem Soleimani in International Law

Periodic system of rigid inclusions in a spatial elastic wedge

A periodic contact problem (tangential contact) on a chain of thin rigid inclusions located along the edge of a three-dimensional elastic wedge of a dihedral angle in its middle half-plane (rigid sealing of the wedge faces, the axis of the chain of inclusions is parallel to the edge of the wedge) is considered. To derive the integral equation, the previously obtained fundamental solution of the problem of the action of a concentrated force inside a three-dimensional elastic wedge is used. The nucleus has latent symmetry, then it is reduced to a form with explicit symmetry. To solve the integral equation, a regular asymptotic method is used, which is effective for relatively sparse and far from the edge chains of inclusions in a three-dimensional elastic wedge. Contact characteristics are calculated for different values of dimensionless geometric parameters. Previously, similar problems were considered about one inclusion (stringer) in a strip [1] and a three-dimensional wedge [2], as well as in an unbounded elastic body [1].

Effects of teleworkers' perceptions of superiors' power and trust on their working behaviour: an application of the slippery slope model

Effects of teleworkers' perceptions of superiors' power and trust on their working behaviour: an application of the slippery slope model

APAF Receives Grant to Expand Diversity Leadership Fellowship

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article APA & MeetingsFull AccessAPAF Receives Grant to Expand Diversity Leadership FellowshipKatie O'ConnorKatie O'ConnorSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:28 Dec 2022https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2023.01.1.41AbstractThe Sozosei Foundation awarded the APA Foundation a $230,000, two-year grant to expand the APA/APAF Diversity Leadership Fellowship, allowing 10 additional fellows to participate in field placements where they can receive hands-on experience in delivering culturally competent psychiatric care.Many trainees start their residencies harboring hopes of the good they will do as psychiatrists but become disheartened over time, said Muniza Majoka, M.B.B.S. Yet the APA/APA Foundation (APAF) Diversity Leadership Fellowship reminds them of what a huge difference they can make, inspiring them to do even more, said Majoka, who was the 2021-2022 APA/APAF SAMHSA/Diversity Leadership Fellowship Program chair. Now, 10 new fellowship slots will be available for trainees interested in getting hands-on experience serving communities that are all-too-often overlooked, thanks to a $230,000, two-year grant from the Sozosei Foundation. The philanthropic arm of Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, the Sozosei Foundation has a primary focus on eliminating the criminalization of mental illness. The grant will be used to create the Community Diversity Fellowship so 10 fellows can participate in a field component, as well as the other Diversity Leadership fellowship offerings, said APAF Executive Director Rawle Andrews Jr., Esq. “A lot of our patients face problems with incarceration, not having appropriate access to care and facing various social determinants of mental health,” Majoka said. “Grants like this, which increase the availability of training for the new generation of psychiatrists to provide better care for underserved populations, are extremely encouraging.” APA/APAF’s Diversity Leadership Fellowships provide mentorship to fellows; provides stipends to attend professional meetings; and provide opportunities to gain leadership experience serving on APA’s councils, committees, and workgroups. They also allow fellows to develop relationships with a diverse group of peers who have similar career interests and goals. “This new funding opportunity for the APA Foundation moves the needle toward destigmatizing mental illness and appreciating mental health as a central element of all health and well-being,” says Petros Levounis, M.D., M.A.“We are doing something right whenever we capitalize on an opportunity to encourage the next generation of psychiatrists to get involved with APA and advocate for our patients,” said APA President-elect Petros Levounis, M.D., M.A. “Fellows will sharpen their skills in research, public speaking, and administration—skills that will help them become the leaders of our future. But beyond that, the experience will also instill in them a deeper love for psychiatry as they work closely with people who have dedicated their lives to our patients and our profession.” Fellows will be matched with a host site where they can receive hands-on experience in psychiatry in a community-based setting, providing culturally competent care to underrepresented populations. APAF is in the process of selecting host sites, such as the HOPE Center in Harlem, which seeks to minimize the stigma around communities of color when seeking mental health services (“Partnership Between Psychiatrists, Faith Leaders Untapped Key to Expanding Reach of MH Care”). Levounis was awarded an APA Minority Fellowship while he trained in addiction psychiatry at New York University. He conducted a research project on homeless people who have substance use disorders and other severe psychiatric disorders. “I can say that this experience was the springboard for my engagement both with academic psychiatry as well as advocacy,” he said. “People with mental illness have been discriminated against, disenfranchised, and stigmatized,” he continued. “Just by being a psychiatrist, we have the added responsibility to fight for our patients.”“For many people, adverse childhood experiences [ACEs] create a slippery slope,” Andrews said. “They find themselves trapped as they grow up, and they cannot break what has become a vicious cycle of overincarceration. We also know that instances of depression and anxiety continue to rise at alarming rates. When mental health problems arise, many families don’t know what to do or they are leery about the financial costs, so they suffer in silence. We believe that our community psychiatrists have a more complete, holistic view of what is happening inside the homes in our communities, and grants like these grow the capacity to help many more community members take the first step toward well-being.” ■“APA Foundation Receives $230,000 Grant from the Sozosei Foundation to Support Diversity Leadership Fellowships” ISSUES NewArchived

Effects of teleworkers' perceptions of superiors' power and trust on their working behaviour: an application of the slippery slope model

Effects of teleworkers' perceptions of superiors' power and trust on their working behaviour: an application of the slippery slope model

Home Address Exemptions are the Wrong Approach in Protecting Privacy

This commentary lays out six reasons why broad exemptions for home addresses in public records laws do little to protect people's privacy and hinder the ability for journalists, businesses and others to serve society. These exemptions are based on fear-inspiring anecdotes, provide the public a false sense of security, ignore the fact home addresses are available elsewhere to those with means and motivation, lead to a slippery slope toward crimininalization of publication, restrict legitimate use of home addresses, and do not pass intermediate scrutiny that one might apply to other restrictions on information gathering. Instead of restricting valuable information, policy makers should focus their efforts on the actual harmful acts intended to be addressed, such as identity theft, doxing, harassment and assault.

Genes drive organisms and slippery slopes

ABSTRACT The bioethical debate about using gene drives to alter or eradicate wild populations has focused mostly on issues concerning short-term risk assessment and management, governance and oversight, and public and community engagement, but has not examined big-picture— ‘where is this going?’—questions in great depth. In other areas of bioethical controversy, big-picture questions often enter the public forum via slippery slope arguments. Given the incredible potential of gene drive organisms to alter the Earth’s biota, it is somewhat surprising that slippery slope arguments have not played a more prominent role in ethical and policy debates about these emerging technologies. In this article, we examine a type of slippery slope argument against using gene drives to alter or suppress wild pest populations and consider whether it has a role to play in ethical and policy debates. Although we conclude that this argument does not provide compelling reasons for banning the use of gene drives in wild pest populations, we believe that it still has value as a morally instructive cautionary narrative that can motivate scientists, ethicists, and members of the public to think more clearly about appropriate vs. inappropriate uses of gene drive technologies, the long-term and cumulative and emergent risks of using gene drives in wild populations, and steps that can be taken to manage these risks, such as protecting wilderness areas where people can enjoy life forms that have not been genetically engineered.

Moral Injury, Moral Identity, and "Dirty Hands" in War Fighting and Police Work.

In this article, I undertake three main tasks. First, I argue that, contrary to the standard view, moral injury is not a species of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) but rather, on the most coherent conception of moral injury, PTSD is (in effect) a species of moral injury. In doing so, I make use of the notion of caring deeply about something or someone worthy of being cared deeply about. Second, I consider so-called "dirty hands" actions in police work and in war, and distinguish these from the morally legitimate, but harmful, actions of police officers and of war fighters, such as the morally legitimate use of coercive force and lethal force (respectively). While the morally legitimate use of harmful methods is constitutive of these occupational roles, "dirty hands" methods are not. Roughly speaking, a "dirty hands" action is one that is morally wrong and (typically) unlawful but done for the sake of a good outcome. Both categories of action are conducive to moral injury, but "dirty hands" actions much more so, especially given the slippery moral slope from "dirty hands" actions to egregious moral wrongdoing. Third, I offer some recommendations for reducing moral injury among police officers and war fighters.

The Buhari State and the Origins of Banditry in Nigeria

Although the origin of banditry in Nigeria is far beyond the Buhari State, he was voted into power largely on the premonition that he had the capacity to tame the scourge of terrorism, banditry and insurgency that became incipient immediately after the military handover of the reins of power to civilians in 1990. But from 1990 up to 2015, the nation began a fall down a slippery slope and by 2022 the nation had gone down the valley of conflicts of all hews. This paper which adopts doctrinal method, attempts a critical survey of the social problem of insecurity in Nigeria particularly in the nature of terrorism, banditry and insurgency, relating the survey to the role of the Buhari State which has been widely complicit in the conflict even though the administration had persistently claimed that its patriotism is deep and un-wavered. The paper further interrogates the administration in the face of the violent activities of Islamic militant groups in the north and separatist agitations in the east and west of Nigeria and against the background of their propulsion of the herder-farmer conflicts all over the country. The study finds that the Buhari State is indictable as it is shown to be partisan; and had largely reneged on the ideological vortex upon which it was propelled to power leaving the ship of state adrift perilously towards the 2023 vacation date of the administration.

Coercive and legitimate power in the sharing economy: Examining consumers’ cooperative behavior and trust

• Coercive and legitimate power are used in the sharing economy. • Legitimate power has an impact on cooperative consumer behavior and trust. • Coercive power has an impact depending on the form of organization. • Sharing economy should invest in legitimate power but be careful with coercive power. Sharing economy organizations depend on customer cooperation. According to the existing theory, namely, the extended slippery slope framework, coercive and legitimate power are two means of achieving cooperation and trust. Based on this theory, we examine the role of coercive and legitimate power in the sharing economy in four studies. Study 1 has examined the extent of existing sharing organizations’ coercive and legitimate power (B2C, P2P, and communities) by employing website analysis. In Study 2, consumers have discussed which forms of power (coercive or legitimate) were perceived by sharing organizations in focus groups. Study 3 has investigated the impact of coercive and legitimate power on consumer cooperation in a laboratory experiment using a give-or-take-some (GOTS) game. Study 4 has examined the impact of coercive and legitimate power on cooperation using an experimental online questionnaire. We find that providers of sharing economy services highlight coercive measures on their websites, whereas consumers in the focus group discussions highlight the importance of legitimate power, as is evident in the experiments. Thus, while sharing organizations could increase their use of legitimate power, they should apply coercive power carefully.

A self-employed taxpayer experimental study on trust, power, and tax compliance in eleven countries

The slippery slope framework explains tax compliance along two main dimensions, trust in authorities and power of authorities, which influence taxpayers’ compliance attitudes. Through frequentist and Bayesian analyses, we investigated the framework’s assumptions on a sample of 2786 self-employed taxpayers from eleven post-communist and non-post-communist countries doing business in five economic branches. After using scenarios that experimentally manipulated trust and power, our results confirmed the framework’s assumptions regarding the attitudes of the self-employed taxpayers; trust and power fostered intended tax compliance and diminished tax evasion, trust boosted voluntary tax compliance, whereas power increased enforced tax compliance. Additionally, self-employed taxpayers from post-communist countries reported higher intended tax compliance and lower tax evasion than those from non-post-communist countries. Our results offer tax authorities insights into how trust and power may contribute to obtaining and maintaining high tax compliance levels amid global economic challenges, downturns, and increasing tax compliance costs.

A slippery slope: early learning and equity in rural India

ABSTRACT There is near consensus that early childhood education and care (ECEC) is essential to children’s early development. A common corollary is that early learning will be pivotal to helping redress inequities in educational outcomes. We examine whether this is true among rural communities in the Indian states of Assam, Rajasthan, and Telangana. Specifically, we assess whether learning gains for the most disadvantaged are retained in comparison to more advantaged children who had lower initial learning levels. We find that lower-achieving, more advantaged children (as measured by mother’s education) soon overtake higher-achieving but less advantaged children. In contrast, higher-achieving girls remain ahead of lower-achieving boys in Assam and Telangana, although they are caught up in Rajasthan. Given the differing patterns across the states, we explore the extent to which these may be shaped by their respective social and policy contexts.

Trust, Power, and Tax Risk into the “Slippery Slope”: A Corporate Tax Compliance Model

(1) Background: There are still few studies that discuss corporate tax risk, especially those related to tax compliance and the Slippery Slope Framework. Meanwhile, in practice, tax risk, which is tax uncertainty, is essential in corporate tax compliance. Tax risk has not been discussed in the Slippery Slope Framework in previous research, which has become a reference in various tax compliance studies. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the effect of tax risk induced into the slippery slope framework at corporate taxpayer compliance. Dynamic interactions between power, trust, and tax risk (TPR) in one framework are essential to see the tax compliance model’s determinants comprehensively; (2) Methods: We defined our model using a mathematical and economic approach with a Likert scale, as well as geometrical inferences based on the Slippery Slope Framework. (3) Results: This study found that tax risk affects the effort and tendency of corporate taxpayers to comply. The level of tax risk will make it easier or more difficult for corporate taxpayers to comply. Tax risk will affect the level of tax compliance regardless of the quality of trust and existing power; (4) Conclusions: This research’s theoretical contributions are that trust and power are determinants of tax compliance and that tax risk influences companies to be more compliant. This model is to complete the conceptual gap of the determinants of tax compliance from the perspective of the Slippery Slope Framework. The practical implication is that corporate taxpayers should manage tax risk to avoid unexpected tax outcomes in the future and be more compliant. Therefore, the government needs to help companies reduce compliance risks that cannot be controlled by companies but can be influenced by tax authorities.

A Qualitative Content Analysis of Comments on Press Articles on Deemed Consent for Organ Donation in Canada.

In 2019, two Canadian provinces became the first jurisdictions in North America to pass deemed consent legislation to increase deceased organ donation and transplantation rates. We sought to explore the perspectives of the deemed consent legislation for organ donation in Canada from the viewpoint of individuals commenting on press articles. In this qualitative descriptive study, we extracted public comments regarding deemed consent from online articles published by four major Canadian news outlets between January 2019 and July 2020. A total of 4357 comments were extracted from 35 eligible news articles. Comments were independently analyzed by two research team members using a conventional content analysis approach. Commenters' perceptions of the deemed consent legislation for organ donation in Canada predominantly fit within three organizational groups: perceived positive implications of the bills, perceived negative implications of the bills, and key considerations. Three themes emerged within each group that summarized perspectives of the proposed legislation. Themes regarding the perceived positive implications of the bills included majority rules, societal effect, and prioritizing donation. Themes regarding the perceived negative implications of the bills were a right to choose, the potential for abuse and errors, and a possible slippery slope. Improving government transparency and communication, clarifying questions and addressing concerns, and providing evidence for the bills were identified as key considerations. If deemed consent legislation is meant to increase organ donation and transplantation, addressing public concerns will be important to ensure successful implementation.

Dynamics of the capillary rise in tilted Taylor-Hauksbee cells

In this work, we theoretically and experimentally study the issue of the spontaneous capillary rise of a viscous liquid in wedge-shaped tilted cells, with very short angles of aperture, α. We provide the equilibrium profiles yse and, by means of the Reynolds lubrication equations, we find the time-dependent profiles and the dynamic evolution of the meniscus close to the edge of the wedge, as a function of time, which follow power laws of the form ys ∼ t 1/3 . Experiments performed at various inclinations are consistent with our theoretical results.

Time geodesics on a slippery slope under gravitational wind

By introducing the concept of a slippery slope we generalize and interlink Matsumoto’s slope-of-a-mountain problem with Zermelo’s navigation problem on Riemannian manifolds under the influence of a weak gravitational wind. The purely geometric solutions for time-minimal navigation on a slippery slope are discussed by means of Finsler geometry. This includes the study of strong convexity conditions for the slippery slope metric, which belongs to the class of the general (α,β)-metrics and the related time geodesics, controlled by a traction coefficient. Several relevant examples demonstrate this new application of the developed theory, while explaining in particular the evolution of the indicatrices (time fronts) and behaviour of time-minimal paths on the slippery slopes, depending on the gravitational wind force and traction.

Perceptions of trust and power are associated with tax compliance: A cross-cultural study

The slippery slope framework (SSF) of tax compliance postulates that taxpayers’ compliance behaviour depends on the two dimensions: trust in authorities and power of authorities. In an attempt to overcome common-method biases, the present study tests the main assumptions of the SSF with a sample of 44 countries/regions. Country/region-level trust and power indices are calculated based on experimental data involving 14,509 participants and related to shadow economy estimates and – as an alternative indicator of non-compliance – corruption indices. The results indicate that both trust and power are negatively related to the size of the shadow economy and the extent of corruption. These results emphasise the importance of both SSF dimensions in combating tax evasion and counterproductive behaviour within a society in general.