In general, dreams are a novel but realistic simulation of waking social life, with a mixture of characters, motivations, scenarios, and positive and negative emotions. We propose that the sharing of dreams has an empathic effect on the dreamer and on significant others who hear and engage with the telling of the dream. Study 1 tests three correlations that are predicted by the theory of dream sharing and empathy: that trait empathy will be correlated with frequency of telling dreams to (...) others, with frequency of listening to others’ dreams, and with trait attitude towards dreams (for which higher scores indicate positive attitude). 160 participants completed online the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire and the Mannheim Dream Questionnaire. Pearson partial correlations were conducted, with age and sex partialled out. Trait empathy was found to be significantly associated with the frequency of listening to the dreams of others, frequency of telling one’s own dreams to others, and attitude towards dreams. Study 2 tests the effects of discussing dreams on state empathy, using an adapted version of the Shen (2010) state empathy scale, for 27 pairs of dream sharers and discussers. Dream discussion followed the stages of the Ullman (1996) dream appreciation technique. State empathy of the dream discusser towards the dream sharer was found to increase significantly as a result of the dream discussion, with a medium effect size, whereas the dream sharer had a small decrease in empathy towards the discusser. A proposed mechanism for these associations and effects is taken from the robust findings in the literature that engagement with literary fiction can induce empathy towards others. We suggest that the dream acts as a piece of fiction that can be explored by the dreamer together with other people, and can thus induce empathy about the life circumstances of the dreamer. We discuss the speculation that the story-like characteristics of adult human dreams may have been selected for in human evolution, including in sexual selection, as part of the selection for emotional intelligence, empathy, and social bonding. (shrink)

The results of numerous research studies have revealed that the style in which people deliver their speech impacts on the way they are perceived by others. This is particularly so in the adversarial courtroom, where witnesses' credibility is crucial for winning a case. When witnesses do not speak the language of the courtroom, interpreters are employed to interpret the proceedings accurately. The meaning of `accuracy', however, may not be fully understood by all involved. This article presents the results of a (...) data-based study of Spanish—English court proceedings where it was found that interpreters tend to accurately interpret only the content of witnesses' answers, but constantly alter the style of testimony, either favourably or detrimentally, thus potentially changing the outcome of the case. (shrink)

We investigate the causal uncertainty surrounding the flash crash in the U.S. Treasury bond market on October 15, 2014, and the unresolved concern that no clear link has been identified between the start of the flash crash at 9:33 and the opening of the U.S. equity market at 9:30. We consider the contributory effect of mini flash crashes in equity markets, and find that the number of equity mini flash crashes in the three-minute window between market open and the Treasury (...) Flash Crash was 2.6 times larger than the number experienced in any other three-minute window in the prior ten weekdays. We argue that (a) this statistically significant finding suggests that mini flash crashes in equity markets both predicted and contributed to the October 2014 U.S. Treasury Bond Flash Crash, and (b) mini-flash crashes are important phenomena with negative externalities that deserve much greater scholarly attention. (shrink)

We argue that Horgan's program for nominalizing science fails, because its translation of quantitative statements destroys the inferential structures of explanations, predictions and retrodictions of nonquantitative scientific facts.

Remote interpreting via video-link is increasingly being employed in investigative interviews chiefly due to its apparent increased accessibility and efficiency. However, risks of miscommunication have been shown to be magnified in remote interpreting and empirical research specifically on video-link remote interpreting is in its infancy which greatly limits the evidence base available to inform and direct evidence-based policy and best practice, particularly in the identification of the optimal mode of interpreting to be used, namely consecutive and simultaneous. Consecutive interpreting refers (...) to a process in which the interpreter transfers short segments of speech from one language into the other as each person speaks in managed turn-taking, while simultaneous interpreting refers to the transfer of natural speech from one language into another in a concurrent manner without the need for speakers to segment their speech. This study provides novel empirical evidence by using eye tracking to compare the overt visual attention of interpreters working in a remote setting in which an English-speaking Interviewer interacts with a non-English-speaking Suspect in person, for whom interpretation is provided via video-link in real time. Using a within-subject design, we analyze eye-movement data from 28 professionally accredited interpreters who interpreted via video-link an investigative interview in which consecutive and simultaneous interpreting modes were counterbalanced. Taking interpreting performance into account, our results showed that, the consecutive mode yielded significantly less gaze time and therefore significantly less on-screen overt visual attention due to off-screen notetaking, an essential component of the consecutive interpreting mode. Relative to gaze time, the consecutive mode also resulted in significantly more and longer fixations and shifts of attention. Participants also allocated significantly more overt visual attention to the Interviewer than the Suspect, particularly in the consecutive mode. Furthermore, we found informative significant correlations between eye tracking measures and interpreting performance: accuracy, verbal rapport, and management. Finally, we found no significant differences between the three language pairs tested. We conclude with a discussion of limitations and the contributions of the study and an outline for future work on this topic of growing importance. (shrink)

I point out that conceptions of particles as mathematical, or quasi mathematical, entities have a longer history than Resnik notices. I argue that Resnik's attack on the distinction between mathematical and physical entities is not deep enough. The crucial problem for this distinction finds its locus in the numerical indeterminancy of elementary particles. This problem, traced by Heisenberg, emerges from the discovery of antimatter.

While it represents a common form of gender-based violence, misogyny is an often-overlooked concept within academia and the queer community. Drawing on queer and feminist scholarship on gay male misogyny, this article presents a theoretical challenge to the myth that the oppressed cannot oppress, arguing that specific forms of gay male subjectivities can be proponents of misogyny in ways that are unrecognised because of their sexually marginalised status. The authors’ interest in the doing of misogyny, and its effects on specific (...) bodies and subjectivities, leads them to discuss the extent to which white gay male misogyny can function to reinforce a particular gender and racial hierarchy that continually confines queer femininities to the status of the abject other, for failing to exhibit their feminine credentials and for making gender trouble. The study also addresses how specific markers of femininity are depoliticised through the workings of this misogyny, exploring what femininity does when it is conceptualised outside a heteronormative framework. To address these ideas, the authors firstly propose a theoretical account of misogyny in order to understand its analytical status as a cultural mechanism within the psychic economy of patriarchy. Secondly, they use queer approaches to effeminacy and subject formation for making the case for gay male misogyny and its connections to femininity within white gay cultures, asking how misogyny might become an essential component of the performance of hegemonic masculinity. The article concludes with a discussion of the ways in which gay male misogyny reinforces white male dominance over women and queer femininities specifically, advocating for resistance to the reproduction of such patriarchal arrangements. (shrink)