Theory Of Judgment Research Articles

Bain's Theory of Moral Judgment and the Development of Mill's Utilitarianism

AbstractIn Utilitarianism, Mill defers to Alexander Bain's expertise on the subject of moral judgment to answer common criticisms of the creed. First, we do not blame people or label them immoral when they are less than ideal. Judgments of immorality are commonly reserved for substandard behavior, not suboptimal comportment. Second, we do not commonly insist on full neutrality in benevolence. Indeed, some philosophers argue that we are obliged to exhibit partiality, insofar as it is demanded by our roles as friends, parents, or children. My primary aim in this essay is to explicate Bain's theory of moral judgment and explain how Mill used Bain's psychological doctrines to inform his development of an indirect utilitarian moral philosophy, immune to the criticisms described above.

Thinking Structurally: A Cognitive Framework for Understanding How People Attribute Inequality to Structural Causes

To make accurate causal inferences about social-group inequalities, people must consider structural causes. Structural causes are a distinct type of extrinsic cause—they are stable, interconnected societal forces that systematically advantage some social groups and disadvantage others. We propose a new cognitive framework to specify how people attribute inequality to structural causes. This framework is rooted in counterfactual theories of causal judgment and suggests that people will recognize structural factors as causal when they are perceived as “difference-making” for inequality above and beyond any intrinsic causes. Building on this foundation, our framework makes the following contributions. First, we propose specific types of evidence that support difference-making inferences about structural factors: within-group change (i.e., observing that disadvantaged groups’ outcomes improve under better societal conditions) and well-matched between-group comparisons (i.e., observing that advantaged group members, who have similar baseline traits to the disadvantaged group, experience more favorable societal conditions and life outcomes). Second, we consider contextual, cognitive, and motivational barriers that may complicate the availability and acceptance of this evidence. We conclude by exploring how the framework might be applied in future research examining people’s causal inferences about inequality.

What’s in a Name? CEO Foreignness and Government Inspections of MNCs

Government inspections, such as workplace compliance with local tax or safety regulations, are ubiquitous and represent a significant proportion of time that managers of multinational firms spend on interacting with government stakeholders in host markets. Disadvantaged by the information asymmetry about firms’ non-compliance with regulations, how do boundedly rational inspectors select inspection targets? Drawing on the theory of social judgments, we propose that inspectors treat CEO foreignness, that is, whether a CEO of a firm is local or foreign, as a marker of potential organizational non-compliance with local institutional demands, therefore, prompting them to select MNC subsidiaries with foreign CEOs for inspections more often. We further explore four boundary conditions, which we argue weaken the association between CEO foreignness and the perception of potential non-compliance. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 2,259 foreign subsidiaries that operated in Russia between 2015 and 2018 and find evidence supporting most of the hypotheses. Our primary contribution is to the liability of foreignness research, specifically, the mechanisms underpinning the discrimination hazard, as well as MNCs’ subnational location in host markets and nonmarket strategy.

Practical judgment as reflective judgment: On moral salience and Kantian particularist universalism

AbstractMoral particularists and generalists alike have struggled over how to incorporate the role of moral salience in ethical reasoning. In this paper, I point to neglected resources in Kant to account for the role of moral salience in maxim formation: Kant's theory of reflective judgment. Kant tasks reflective judgment with picking out salient empirical particulars for formation into maxims, associating it with purposiveness, or intentional activity (action on ends). The unexpected resources in Kantian reflective judgment suggest the possibility of a particularist universalism, where recalcitrant particulars directly inform, and in some cases revise, moral principles. Such an account improves on particularist accounts of moral salience and moral perception: rather than deriving moral sensitivity solely from an agent's upbringing or cultural resources, the reflective dimension is situated alongside the universalist dimension of moral principles typically identified with Kantian ethics, allowing for a critical approach both to moral universals and to the reception of moral particulars.

An interaction effect of norm violations on causal judgment

Existing research has shown that norm violations influence causal judg- ments, and a number of different models have been developed to explain these effects. One such model, the necessity/sufficiency model, predicts an interac- tion pattern in people's judgments. Specifically, it predicts that when people are judging the degree to which a particular factor is a cause, there should be an interaction between (a) the degree to which that factor violates a norm and (b) the degree to which another factor in the situation violates norms. A study of moral norms (N=1000) and norms of proper functioning (N=3000) revealed robust evidence for the predicted interaction effect. The implications of these patterns for existing theories of causal judgments is discussed.

A Communication of Persuasion in the Management of Character Emotions through Hikayat Nakhoda Muda

Emotions play an essential role in human life because emotions affect a large part of life. Emotions are God's gift to humans that will give a variety of reactions, response, and behaviours. Emotions will guide and colour the path of human life. The construction of positive and negative emotions depend on the acceptance and interpretation of the individual towards an event experienced. Positive emotions will lead to positive life and thoughts. On the other hand, negative emotions will lead to an unmanageable life with no emotional control and rowdy behaviour. If a human being is emotionally negative, the individual will have emotional disorder. Emotional disorder needs to be controlled and dealt with promptly without being protracted and prolonged. Communication is one of the steps in dealing with emotional problems. In this case, this study will analyse the persuasive communication strategy in managing character emotions through the Hikayat Nakhoda Muda used as study data. The research also use the Social Judgement Theory to strengthen the arguments of discussion. The results found that the persuasive communication strategy is divided into two: persuasive verbal communication and persuasive non-verbal communication. Therefore, this study proves that the implementation of persuasive communication successfully controls and manages disturbed and unstable emotions.

Publics’ Views of Corporate Social Advocacy Initiatives: Exploring Prior Issue Stance, Attitude Toward a Company, and News Credibility

Corporate social advocacy (CSA) has emerged to promote change on social issues in response to publics’ expectations and demands, but how different publics might respond to CSA differently is little understood. Grounded in Du et al.’s (2010) corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication framework, social judgment theory (SJT), and the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we conducted an online survey ( N = 505) to examine whether publics perceived CSA differently depending on their existing stance on an issue and whether the existing stance interacted with their attitude toward the company and news credibility. The results showed that individuals’ reaction to the CSA differed in light of their existing stance on an issue. Furthermore, when an individual's stance was undecided, attitude toward the company and news credibility were significantly related to change in issue stance, attitude toward the CSA campaign, and skepticism toward the company’s motives. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications.

Johann Reinhold Grube’s Opposing Remarks on Kant’s Nova dilucidatio

Abstract This paper presents a transcription of a handwritten Latin text, along with its translation into English, that was identified only very recently in the Kongelige Bibliothek in Copenhagen while preparing the new critical edition of Kant’s Nova dilucidatio (PND). The text consists of remarks by Johann Reinhold Grube, composed in his role as opponent at Kant’s disputation for the venia legendi on 27 September 1755. Grube’s interleaved opposing remarks on Kant’s dissertatio metaphysica pro receptione contain precious starting points for new lines of research, since they vividly exemplify the point of view of one of the participants in the debate, a perspective that is rarely documented. In addition to informing us about how the disputation itself was carried out and which traditional rhetorical techniques were used, these remarks offer a compelling glimpse into the immediate reception of Kant’s first thoughts on logic and metaphysics, giving scholars access to an ingenious reaction to Kant’s stance on the theory of judgment.

Why do good deeds go unnoticed? A perspective on the legitimacy Judgment of social entrepreneurship in China

ABSTRACT The support of entrepreneurial partners is key to social entrepreneurship and the continuous creation of social value. However, social entrepreneurship in China does not receive sufficient support from venture partners, contrary to the moral spirit of benevolence advocated by traditional Chinese Confucianism. From the perspective of the legitimacy judgement of entrepreneurial partners and using information processing theory, we construct a theoretical model of the interaction between uncertainty and entrepreneurial passion in entrepreneurial engagement and test hypotheses with data from 325 questionnaires completed in China. The results show that uncertainty negatively affects social entrepreneurial engagement, entrepreneurial passion positively affects social entrepreneurial engagement, and legitimacy judgement plays a mediating role in the relationship among uncertainty, entrepreneurial passion, and entrepreneurial engagement. The interaction between uncertainty and entrepreneurial passion affects entrepreneurial engagement through pragmatic legitimacy judgements and moral legitimacy judgements but not through relational legitimacy judgements. We examine why it is difficult for meritorious Chinese social entrepreneurial activities to obtain sufficient support from the perspective of entrepreneurial partners’ judgements, extending the legitimacy judgement theory of social entrepreneurship from the perspective of interaction between individuals and the context.

Double Prevention, Causal Judgments, and Counterfactuals.

Mike accidentally knocked against a bottle. Seeing that the bottle was about to fall, Jack was just about to catch it when Peter accidentally knocked against him, making Jack unable to catch it. Jack did not grab the bottle, and it fell to the ground and spilled. In double-prevention cases like these, philosophers and nonphilosophers alike tend to judge that Mike knocking into the bottle caused the beer to spill and that Peter knocking into Jack did not cause the beer to spill. This difference in causal judgment is a difficult puzzle for counterfactual theories of causal judgment; if each event had not happened, the outcome would not have, yet there is a difference in people's causal judgments. In four experiments and three supplemental experiments, we confirm this difference in causal judgments. We also show that differences in people's counterfactual thinking can explain this difference in their causal judgments and that recent counterfactual models of causal judgment can account for these patterns. We discuss these results in relation to work on counterfactual thinking and causal modeling.

INFLUENCE OF STRATEGIC REBRANDING ON PERFORMANCE SUSTAINABILITY OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN KENYA

Purpose: The general objective of the study was establishing the influence of strategic rebranding on performance sustainability of commercial banks. The study specifically focused on establishing the influence of brand identity, brand name, brand personality and brand element on performance sustainability of commercial banks in Kenya.
 Methodology: The study was anchored on Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) Theory, Planned Change Theory, Evolution Theory and Social Judgement Theory. A descriptive survey research design was adopted in the study. The target population comprised of a list of commercial banks that had undergone rebranding between 2015 and 2020. The unit of observation comprised of operational and direct marketing participants comprising of product and brand managers, sales managers, marketing service managers, and promotional managers. Census approach was employed. The study used both primary and secondary data where a five-point Likert scale questionnaire was used in gathering primary data while a secondary data collection sheet was used to collect secondary data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed in analyzing the collected data with the help of SPSS and Ms Excel. The results of the study were displayed in form of tables and figures. Prior collection of data, a pilot study was conducted in one commercial bank to test the reliability and validity of the data collection instrument.
 Findings: The study established that strategic rebranding such as brand identity and brand personality positively and significantly influences performance sustainability of commercial bank. Brand name and brand identity were found to positively but insignificantly influence performance sustainability of the commercial banks. The results imply that increasing each of the variable with one-unit results to an increase in the levels of performance sustainability of the commercial banks with the respective beta values.
 Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommended the commercial banks in Kenya to enhance their strategic rebranding aspects in areas of brand identity, brand name, brand personality as well as brand element since the practices bears a positive influence on the levels of performance sustainability of the institutions.

To differ is human: A reflective commentary on “Noise. A Flaw in Human Judgment”, by D. Kahneman, O. Sibony & C.R. Sunstein (2021). London: William Collins

AbstractInconsistency in real‐world judgments can cause random unfairness, injustice and misallocation of resources. In their recent monograph Kahneman, Sibony, and Sunstein (2021) analyse judgment inconsistency or “Noise,” examine its sources and propose remedies. In this commentary on Kahneman et al., we reflect on the major concepts (such as “judgment,” “noise,” “error,” and “bias”) used in analysing inconsistency. We place this work in the broader context of applied cognitive psychology, relating it to error typologies and to dual‐systems views of thinking. We also compare Kahneman et al.'s heuristics based approach to the linear combination of attributes based approach of Social Judgment Theory (SJT), with particular reference to judgment noise. We conclude that the main contributions of Kahneman et al.'s book are (a) to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of judgment noise across a range of important real‐world areas, (b) to provide a taxonomy of types of noise in terms of system noise versus occasion noise, and level noise versus pattern noise, and (c) to outline useful ways of reducing noise, and thus overall levels of error.

Study on Evaluation Theory of Bridge Damage State and Methodology on Early Warning of Danger

When evaluating and prewarning the damage state of bridges, the observation equation and state equation of bridge systems are not constructed in the existing methods, which would cause the evaluation results to be inconsistent with the actual damage state of bridges. Therefore, the existing methods have the problems of low evaluation accuracy, high false alarm rate, and poor real-time performance. In order to solve the above problems, this paper proposes a novel evaluation and judgment theory of bridge damage state and methodology on early warning of danger. The wavelet packet analysis method is used to construct the observation equation and state equation of bridge systems, which could provide a relevant basis for evaluating the damage state of bridges. Then, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is used to construct the fuzzy evaluation model of the bridge damage state to evaluate and judge the damage state of bridges. According to the evaluation results, combined with mathematical-statistical analysis methods and principal component analysis methods, the methodology on early warning of danger for bridge structures can be realized. The experimental results showed that the proposed method has high evaluation and judgment accuracy, low false alarm rate, and good real-time performance and reliability.

Brain structures associated with individual differences in decisional and emotional forgiveness

In responding to interpersonal conflicts, forgiveness goes a long way. Past brain imaging studies have examined the activation patterns of forgiving responses. However, the individual differences in brain structures associated with decisional forgiveness and emotional forgiveness are not well understood. In this voxel-based morphometry study, participants (85 men, 210 women) completed the Decisional Forgiveness Scale (DFS) and the Emotional Forgiveness Scale (EFS) and underwent an anatomical magnetic resonance imaging scan. Higher DFS scores were associated with larger GM volumes in a cluster that included regions in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Higher EFS scores were associated with larger GM volumes in a cluster that included regions in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the superior frontal gyrus (SFG), which were also associated with smaller GM volumes in a cluster that included regions in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL). The associations between the identified regions and DFS scores and EFS scores were supported by the cross-validation test. In addition, the GMV of OFC, mPFC and SFG partially mediated the relationship between DFS and EFS. These results provide direct neuroanatomical evidence for an association between decisional and emotional forgiveness and brain regions which are critical for cognitive control, theory of mind and moral judgment.

A limitation on agency in judgment

To many, judgment has seemed a locus of cognitive agency, a kind of cognitive mental act. In one minimal sense, judgment is something one does. I consider whether judgment is more robustly agential: is it a kind of action done with an aim? The most attractive version of this sort of position takes judging that p to affirming that p with an alethic aim, an aim such as affirming truly. I argue that such views have unacceptable consequences. Acts done with aims, in general, can be based only indirectly on evidence that one would attain the aim in so acting. It follows that if alethic aims theories of judgment were correct, a judgment that p could be based only indirectly on evidence for p. This itself would be problematic. But the problems extend further. Given the connection between judgment and belief-formation, it would follow, further, that the beliefs we form through judgment could at best be only indirectly based on evidence for p. On these theories, the direct bases for a judgment that p would have to be either a belief that p or a belief that it’s likely that p. The former cannot support belief-formation and the latter supports at best epistemically inappropriate belief-formation. I conclude that there is a hard limit on how robustly agential judgment can be.

Brains, trains, and ethical claims: Reassessing the normative implications of moral dilemma research

ABSTRACT Joshua Greene has argued that the empirical findings of cognitive science have implications for ethics. In particular, he has argued (1) that people’s deontological judgments in response to trolley problems are strongly influenced by at least one morally irrelevant factor, personal force, and are therefore at least somewhat unreliable, and (2) that we ought to trust our consequentialist judgments more than our deontological judgments when making decisions about unfamiliar moral problems. While many cognitive scientists have rejected Greene’s dual-process theory of moral judgment on empirical grounds, philosophers have mostly taken issue with his normative assertions. For the most part, these two discussions have occurred separately. The current analysis aims to remedy this situation by philosophically analyzing the implications of moral dilemma research using the CNI model of moral decision-making – a formalized, mathematical model that decomposes three distinct aspects of moral-dilemma judgments. In particular, we show how research guided by the CNI model reveals significant conceptual, empirical, and theoretical problems with Greene’s dual-process theory, thereby questioning the foundations of his normative conclusions.

On the Information Obtainable from Comparative Judgments

Personality tests employing comparative judgments have been proposed as an alternative to Likert-type rating scales. One of the main advantages of a comparative format is that it can reduce faking of responses in high-stakes situations. However, previous research has shown that it is highly difficult to obtain trait score estimates that are both faking resistant and sufficiently accurate for individual-level diagnostic decisions. With the goal of contributing to a solution, I study the information obtainable from comparative judgments analyzed by means of Thurstonian IRT models. First, I extend the mathematical theory of ordinal comparative judgments and corresponding models. Second, I provide optimal test designs for Thurstonian IRT models that maximize the accuracy of people’s trait score estimates from both frequentist and Bayesian statistical perspectives. Third, I derive analytic upper bounds for the accuracy of these trait estimates achievable through ordinal Thurstonian IRT models. Fourth, I perform numerical experiments that complement results obtained in earlier simulation studies. The combined analytical and numerical results suggest that it is indeed possible to design personality tests using comparative judgments that yield trait scores estimates sufficiently accurate for individual-level diagnostic decisions, while reducing faking in high-stakes situations. Recommendations for the practical application of comparative judgments for the measurement of personality, specifically in high-stakes situations, are given.

Theories of Attitude: Implications for Head Teachers

The basic assumption of the consistencies theories is that there must be consistency between attitude and behaviours. On another side, the functional theories explain that changing attitudes requires understanding the motivations or their function to individuals. The functional attitude theories also provide an explanation of why attitudes change. The social judgment theory of attitude change is based on the study of research literature and by practice. It shows the importance of people's previous attitudes. Most of the other approaches are just mild with the previous attitudes.

Voice Contributes to Creativity via Leaders' Endorsement Especially When Proposed by Extraverted High Performance Employees.

PurposeDrawing on social judgement theory and the self-determination theory, this study aims to test the moderating roles of employees’ extraversion and task performance in the effects of employees’ voice on leaders’ endorsement, as well as the mediating role of leaders’ voice endorsement in the relationship between employees’ voice and creativity, and more importantly, the moderated mediation model.MethodsA total of 250 employees and their direct leaders participated in the two-wave multi-source survey. To examine the hypotheses, we conducted the hierarchical regression and bootstrapping analyses on the basis of Hayes PROCESS Model.ResultsFindings revealed that both extraversion and task performance serve as moderators in the effects of employees’ voice on leaders’ voice endorsement. Leaders’ voice endorsement significantly mediates the relationship between employees’ voice and creativity. More importantly, the results indicated that the indirect effect of leaders’ voice endorsement on the association of employees’ voice and creativity is significantly positive only when the employees are extraverted high performers, that is, there is a significant moderated mediation.ConclusionThe present study extends the current literature by exploring the moderated mediation mechanism between employees’ voice, extraversion, task performance, leaders’ voice endorsement, and employees’ creativity. Our findings recommend leaders to be aware of the mediating role of their endorsement of employees’ voice and the moderating roles of employees’ extraversion and performance in linking employees’ voice to their creativity.

Combatting Mis/Disinformation: Combining Predictive Modeling and Machine Learning with Persuasion Science to Understand COVID-19 Vaccine Online Discourse

Health mis/disinformation can negatively impact health decisions and ultimately, health outcomes. Mis/disinformation related to COVID-19 vaccines has influenced vaccine hesitancy during a very critical time during the pandemic when globally, the vaccine was needed to attenuate the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This paper examines persuasive strategies used in Twitter posts, particular those with antivaccine sentiment. The authors developed a predictive model using variables based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model, Social Judgement Theory and the Extended Parallel Process Model to determine which persuasive tactics resulted in antivaccine, provaccine and neutral sentiment. The study also used machine learning to validate the persuasion variable algorithm to detect persuasion tactics in COVID-19 vaccine online discourse on Twitter. Understanding persuasive tactics used in antivaccine messaging can inform the development of a data-driven counter-response strategy.