In today's societies relationships between near relatives and friends appear to be somewhat paradoxical. Some accounts present them as the social ideal, exalting the solidarity and altruism represented by proximal relationships. By contrast, others point to the social dangers in such relationships when they are conducted in the public sphere. In order to grasp the coexistence of these opposite views, this article attempts to place proximal relationships in the explanatory context of a gift economy, a concept with a long history (...) in anthropology and which has lately been the focus of interest of a significant group of social thinkers. (shrink)

Psychological research shows that our emotions and feelings often guide the moral decisions we make about our own lives and the social groups to which we belong. But should we be concerned that out important moral judgments can be swayed by "hot" passions, such as anger, disgust, guilt, shame and sympathy? Aren't these feelings irrational and counterproductive? Using a functional conflict theory of emotions (FCT), Giner-Sorolla proposes that each emotion serves a number of different functions, sometimes inappropriately, and that (...) moral emotions in particular are intimately tied to problems faced by the individuals in a group, and by groups interacting with each other. Specifically, the author suggests that these emotions help us, as individuals and group members, to: Appraise developments in the environment Learn through association Regulate our own behavior Communicate convincingly with others. Drawing on extensive research, including many studies from the author's own lab, this book shows why emotions work to encourage reasonable moral behaviour, and why they sometimes fail. This is the first single-authored volume in the field of psychology dedicated to a separate examination of the major moral and positive emotions. As such, the book is ideal reading for researchers, postgraduates and undergraduates of social psychology, sociology, philosophy and politics. (shrink)

This article provides an analysis of the ethical behavior of managers making goodwill impairment decisions following the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standard 3 on Business Combinations. Replacing the systematic amortization of goodwill with the impairment-only approach has been a highly controversial step. Although the aim of IFRS 3 was to provide users with more value-relevant information regarding the underlying economics of the business, it has been criticized for the potential earnings management inherent in impairment testing. This study is (...) based on a sample of Spanish-listed companies between 2005 and 2011, a period that embraces the economic crisis. After controlling for the underlying economic factors of the firms, the results suggest that managers are exercising discretion in the reporting of goodwill impairment losses, and big bath and smoothing strategies are influencing the decisions, whether or not to impair goodwill and about the magnitude of the impairment. Firm size is an attribute that appears significant in the analysis, suggesting that the cost and complexity of running the impairment test affect managers’ decisions. Additional analyses suggest that the macroeconomic environment influences opportunistic and unethical behaviors. (shrink)

To propose a clear psychological definition of morality is no easy task, and Dahl (2023) is to be commended here for not only doing so, but leaving an explicit paper trail of traits deemed desirable for any such proposal. However, while a rationale for calling phenomena “moral” would be useful, is it really as vital for the conduct of research as Dahl presumes? We instead argue that the definition of the term “morality” is not always a task of scientific definition (...) similar to defining “cell” or “attitude”, but rather can be seen as a meta-scientific task for organising research. When morality itself is a construct that figures in theories and hypotheses, this construct usually depends on lay views of whether the moral realm is involved. This insight, in our view, argues for a broader rather than narrower approach to defining morality, which we explain in the final section. (shrink)

Are verbal reports of disgust in moral situations specific indicators of the concept of disgust, or are they used metaphorically to refer to anger? In this experiment, participants read scenarios describing a violation of a norm either about the use of the body (bodily moral) or about harm and rights (socio-moral). They then expressed disgust and anger on verbal scales, and through facial expression endorsement measures. The use of disgust words in the socio-moral condition was largely predicted by anger words (...) and only secondarily by disgust faces, whereas in the bodily moral condition the use of disgust words was predicted to a similar extent by disgust faces and anger words. Angry faces, however, never predicted disgust words independently of anger words. These results support a middle-ground position in which disgust words concerning socio-moral violations are not entirely a metaphor for anger, but bear some relationship to other representations of disgust. In the case of socio-moral violations, however, the use of disgust language is more strongly related to anger language, and less strongly to facial representations of disgust than in the case of bodily moral violations. (shrink)

Threads, ropes and textiles are elements of everyday life, which have reached a high technical level of development early in human history. The spinning of the yarn, one of the oldest forms of knowledge, seems to be, like the origin of every form of art, inseparable from a particular mythology. Besides their practical use, threads, nodes and tissues must have been quickly charged with symbolic meanings. This article examines the symbolism of the thread, the node and the tissue as metaphors (...) that are sometimes connected with life and sometimes with death. (shrink)

Women in Classical Video Games, coordonné par Kate Cook et Jane Draycott, est un ouvrage qui se trouve au croisement des études classiques, des études des jeux vidéo et des études de genre. En effet, l’ouvrage est issu de l’engouement certain du jeu vidéo pour l’exploration de mondes antiques ainsi que de leurs mythologies. Les coordinatrices ont réuni un ensemble de spécialistes issus de diverses disciplines consacrées à l’étude de l’Antiquité. Les auteurs et autrices posent l’hypothèse que,...

While philosophers have discussed the emotion of contempt from antiquity to the present day, contempt has received less attention in psychological research. We review the defining features of contempt, both as a short-term emotion and as a more long-lasting sentiment. Contempt is similar to anger in that it may occur after social or moral transgressions, but it differs from anger in its appraisals, actions, and emotivational goals. Unlike anger, contempt arises when a person’s or group’s character is appraised as bad (...) and unresponsive to change, leading to attempts to socially exclude the target. We discuss associative, self-regulatory, and social distancing functions of contempt and present a dynamic social model of contempt versus anger. (shrink)

We design a project funding contract that provides optimal incentives to agents, in a setting where both principal and agent enjoy the benefits of the project in a non-rival form once completed but may differ in their valuation. To do so, we study optimal incentive payments in a dynamic principal-agent framework in which the principal cannot observe the agent’s investment, but only completed projects, and faces a Samaritan’s Dilemma: he cannot commit to terminate the contract before completion of the project. (...) The agent decides whether to undertake a investment or consume all received funds. We find that the optimal contract is stationary, and that either transfers equal to investment cost are incentive compatible or the cost of the contract is decreasing with the agent’s valuation of the projects. Given the intrinsic valuation of the project by the agent, he is always better off signing the contract in contraposition with the general moral hazard result. (shrink)

We agree with Fitouchi et al. that self-denial is sometimes moralized to signal capacity for cooperation, but propose that a person's cooperative character is more precisely judged by willingness to follow cultural, group, and interpersonal goals, for which many rules can serve as proxies, including rules about abstention. But asceticism is not a moral signal if its aims are destructive, while indulging impulses in a culturally approved way can also signal cooperation.

Partiendo de las categorías de ‘autoafirmación’ y ‘animal laborans’ propuestas por Blumenberg y Arendt, se dirime si el transhumanismo tiene alguna relación con el humanismo. Su contextualización permite encuadrar este movimiento dentro de la lógica del capitalismo de consumo, y definirlo como un paso más hacia la mercantilización de las distintas esferas de la vida. Se concluye que el transhumanismo es efectivamente un más allá del humanismo, si atendemos a las condiciones culturales y existenciales heredadas del proyecto emancipatorio moderno y (...) sus consecuencias en el desarrollo e innovación tecnológicos. (shrink)

-Este artículo se centra en el análisis de los estudios teóricos y empíricos sobre la sociología del cómic durante los siglos XX y XXI. Aunque en la actualidad el cómic está ampliamente aceptado en el ámbito académico, tanto en publicaciones periódicas como en monografías especializadas, esto no ha sido lo habitual en el pasado. Los primeros estudios fueron excepciones en el ámbito más amplio de la sociología de la comunicación, y no será hasta los años 50 cuando se popularicen en (...) la academia. Uno de los catalizadores de la sociología del cómic fue la obra de Umberto Eco (1968), a partir de la cual llegarían estudios más profundos como los de Dorfman y Mattelart (1971) o Luc Boltanski (1975). Finalmente, se analizan trabajos empíricos que toman como base el lenguaje del cómic. (shrink)

Fäden, Seile und Textilien sind Elemente des Alltagslebens, die bereits früh in der Menschheitsgeschichte einen hohen technischen Entwicklungsstand erreicht haben. Das Spinnen des Fadens, eine der ältesten Formen des Wissens, scheint wie der Ursprung jeder Form der Technik untrennbar mit einer besonderen Mythologie verbunden zu sein. So müssen sich auch Fäden, Knoten und Gewebe, neben ihrer praktischen Anwendung, rasch mit symbolischen Bedeutungen aufgeladen haben. In diesem Beitrag sollen die Symboliken des Fadens, des Knotens und des Gewebes als Metaphern analysiert werden, (...) die bisweilen mit dem Leben, bisweilen mit dem Tod in Verbindung stehen. Threads, ropes and textiles are elements of everyday life, which have reached a high technical level of development early in human history. The spinning of the yarn, one of the oldest forms of knowledge, seems to be, like the origin of every form of art, inseparable from a particular mythology. Besides their practical use, threads, nodes and tissues must have been quickly charged with symbolic meanings. This article examines the symbolism of the thread, the node and the tissue as metaphors that are sometimes connected with life and sometimes with death. (shrink)

Historical re-enactment is an emerging social practice in the knowledge society, and it helps us better understand aspects of the past and heritage. The knowledge gained through historical recreation contributes to the construction of quality citizenship. The deepening of democratic values requires that educational systems commit to the promotion of critical citizenship. Service-learning constructively develops experiences that connect science, education and society. Our research describes a systematized praxis of historical recreation. It has been developed by university students, and it has (...) been carried out from the perspective of service-learning, in a manner consistent with the concepts of public history and public archaeology, to contribute to the promotion and defense of heritage history and the preservation of historical memory. (shrink)

Sul concetto di scienza della pittura nel Trattato della Pittura di Leonardo da Vinci.

Contra quienes suponen que no existe hoy una moral universal válida, o bien que ésta se genera sólo cómo un proceso de transacciones sociales, económicas o políticas asimétricas, este ensayo sostiene que tales transacciones generan unas estructura (en la modernidad) que su vez fomentan el universalismo moral. Se argumenta que hay una sociogénesis de la moral en las sociedades pluralistas de nuestro tiempo, pero es indirecta. En efecto, la urdimbre moral de la modernidad está basada en la estructura social de (...) la libertad y en el hecho de que la naturaleza humana es universal, a pesar de las variaciones locales, culturales y económicas, por un lado, y el surgimiento de un interés común mundializado basado en principios de fraternidad, igualdad de género y sostenibilidad ambiental, por otro. La incipiente aparición de una sociedad civil mundial y de derechos civiles transnacionales es señal de ello. Por consiguiente, el ensayo se presenta como alternativa tanto a las concepciones comunitaristas (relativistas) y a la sociologización de la ética, como a los desmanes del utilitarismo y del consecuencialismo contemporáneos. (shrink)

ABSTRACTTo deny others’ humanity is one of the most heinous forms of intergroup prejudice. Given evidence that perceiving various forms of complexity in outgroup members reduces intergroup prejudice, we investigated across three experiments whether the novel dimension of emotional complexity, or outgroup members’ joint experience of mixed-valence emotions, would also reduce their dehumanisation. Experiment 1 found that perceiving fictitious aliens’ experience of the same primary emotions presented in mixed vs. non-mixed valence pairs led to reduced prejudice via attenuated dehumanisation, i.e. (...) attribution of uniquely human emotions. Experiment 2 confirmed these results, using an unfamiliar real-world group as an outgroup target. Experiment 3 used a familiar outgroup and found generally similar effects, reducing social distance through reduced dehumanisation. These processes suggest that an alternate route to reduced dehumanising of outgroups might involve presenting mixed valence emotions. (shrink)

This article proposes distinctions between guilt and two forms of shame: Guilt arises from a violated norm and is characterized by a focus on specific behavior; shame can be characterized by a threatened social image (Image Shame) or a threatened moral essence (Moral Shame). Applying this analysis to group-based emotions, three correlational studies are reported, set in the context of atrocities committed by (British) ingroup members during the Iraq war (Ns = 147, 256, 399). Results showed that the two forms (...) of shame could be distinguished. Moreover, once the other form of shame was controlled for, they were differentially related to orientations toward the outgroup: Image Shame was associated with negative orientations, whereas Moral Shame had associations with positive outgroup orientations. These associations were distinct from the associations of guilt and rejection. Study 3 used a longitudinal design and provided evidence suggestive of a causal direction from emotions to outgroup orientation. (shrink)

Previous research has found a rich lexicon of shame and guilt terms in Chinese, but how comparable these terms are to “shame” or “guilt” in English remains a question. We identified eight commonly used Chinese terms translated as “shame” and “guilt”. Study 1 assessed the Chinese terms’ intensities, social characteristics, and action tendencies among 40 Chinese speakers. Testing term production in the reverse direction, Study 2 asked another Chinese-speaking sample (N = 85) to endorse emotion terms in response to eight (...) eliciting scenarios generated using each term’s social characteristics from Study 1. A native English-speaking sample (N = 83) was also included to examine the production of English emotion terms and compare motivational tendencies cross-culturally. Using this cross-referencing method, we found that some of the Chinese terms shared similar social-functional characteristics to their English translation, but some had distinct profiles. The two large shame-like and guilt-like term categories yielded in Study 1 were replicated in Study 2’s Chinese term-production task where larger-scale correspondences between categorised elicitors and term clusters were found. Meanwhile, English speakers’ term use provided further evidence for the equivalence between some Chinese terms and “shame” or “guilt” both in terms of their social and motivational characteristics. (shrink)

Exposición del pensamiento político del filósofo krausista español Giner de los Ríos , que se mueve dentro del liberalismo, y de su concepción de la educación, ambas tratadas bajo el enfoque de su visión liberalista. El trabajo incide en el debate de un momento histórico peculiar de la cultura española apuntando a diversos aspectos del pensamiento radicalista .Explanation of the political thought of the philosopher Spanish Krausist Giner de los Ríos , who moves himself inside the liberalism, and (...) of his conception of the education, both treated under the approach of his vision "liberalista". The work affects in the debate of a historical peculiar moment of the Spanish culture pointing at diverse aspects of the thought "radicalista". (shrink)

Este libro reúne cinco ensayos originales sobre distintas facetas de la empresa intelectual de Francisco Giner de los Ríos (1839-1915). Se trata de hacer justicia a la variedad y enjundia de sus intereses, como ponen de relieve sus títulos: El concepto de estado individual y su relevancia biopolítica, La idea de arte en F. Giner de los Ríos y sus implicaciones en la vida social, El pensamiento pedagógico-musical de Francisco Giner de los Ríos, El krausismo gineriano y (...) la cuestión de América. Encabezado por un jugoso prólogo acerca de ciertos avatares de la investigación krausológica, este libro quiere contribuir a dilatar y ahondar nuestra imagen del pensador krausista español. El trasfondo de su concepción ética del derecho, el encaje del institucionismo en su teoría de la sociedad, su estimación de la función social del arte, su dedicación a la estética y a la pedagogía musicales, o la repercusión americanista de su cosmopolitismo, constituyen algunas de su claves principales. (shrink)