On the adaptive advantage of always being right (even when one is not)

We propose another positive illusion – overconfidence in the generalisability of one’s theory – that fits with McKay & Dennett’s (M&D’s) criteria for adaptive misbeliefs. This illusion is pervasive in adult reasoning but we focus on its prevalence in children’s developing theories. It is a strongly held conviction arising from normal functioning of the doxastic system that confers adaptive advantage on the individual

Real-time virtual collaborative environment designed for risk management training : communication and decision making

Les facteurs humains figurent parmi les causes originelles de trop nombreux accidents, dans les transports, l'industrie ou encore dans les parcours de soins. Dans ces contextes sociotechniques complexes et dynamiques, le risque de survenue d'incidents est permanent. La formation des équipes interprofessionnelles à la gestion des risques dans un environnement reproduisant fidèlement le contexte professionnel est un enjeu majeur. La motivation de cette thèse est de proposer un environnement virtuel multi-joueurs destiné à la formation à la gestion des risques liés à des défauts de communication ou de prises de décision. Pour cela, une méthode de création de scénarios interactifs destinés à la formation à la gestion des risques a été présentée. Un système de communication, un système collaboratif de prise de décision et un modèle de description d'objectifs complexes composés d'actions, de communications et de décisions sont présentés. L'environnement multi-joueurs interactif s'appuie sur cet ensemble cohérent. Ces systèmes et modèles proposés octroient une relative liberté aux équipes pour gérer la situation professionnelle présentée au sein de l'environnement virtuel. Ils permettent aussi le contrôle de la situation pédagogique dans son ensemble. Une méthode à forte valeur d'innovation a aussi été proposée pour structurer le débriefing d'une formation à la gestion des risques. Cela permet notamment d'automatiser la production de débriefing personnalisé, individuel et collectif à l'issu des séances de formation.Many accidents in transport, industry or healthcare result from a causal chain of events where inadvertent human errors have not been corrected in time. In such socio-technical and dynamic systems where complexity and unpredictability widespread, training teams to risk management in real-life like situations is crucial. This thesis aims to provide a virtual multi-player environment designed for inter-professional team training to risk management. To that end, a method to design risk management interactive and controlled scenario has been described. A communication system, a group decision making system and a team tracing model have been created. They all together enable the virtual team to be free enough to manage the educational situations. These coherent and innovative environment allows us to control the team activity and automate the edition of a personalized, individual and corporate debriefing at the end of a team training session

Uncertain Bioethics

Uncertain Bioethics makes a significant and distinctive contribution to the bioethics literature by culling the insights from contemporary moral psychology to highlight the epistemic pitfalls and distorting influences on our apprehension of value. Stephen Napier also incorporates research from epistemology addressing pragmatic encroachment and the significance of peer disagreement to justify what he refers to as epistemic diffidence when one is considering harming or killing human beings. Napier extends these developments to the traditional bioethical notion of dignity and argues that beliefs subject to epistemic diffidence should not be acted upon. He proceeds to apply this framework to traditional and developing issues in bioethics including abortion, stem cell research, euthanasia, decision-making for patients in a minimally conscious state, and risky research on competent human subjects

False beliefs and naive beliefs: They can be good for you

Naive physics beliefs can be systematically mistaken. They provide a useful test-bed because they are common, and also because their existence must rely on some adaptive advantage, within a given context. In the second part of the commentary we ask questions about when a whole family of misbeliefs should be considered together as a single phenomenon

The evolution of misbelief

From an evolutionary standpoint, a default presumption is that true beliefs are adaptive and misbeliefs maladaptive. But if humans are biologically engineered to appraise the world accurately and to form true beliefs, how are we to explain the routine exceptions to this rule? How can we account for mistaken beliefs, bizarre delusions, and instances of self-deception? We explore this question in some detail. We begin by articulating a distinction between two general types of misbelief: those resulting from a breakdown in the normal functioning of the belief formation system (e.g., delusions) and those arising in the normal course of that system's operations (e.g., beliefs based on incomplete or inaccurate information). The former are instances of biological dysfunction or pathology, reflecting "culpable” limitations of evolutionary design. Although the latter category includes undesirable (but tolerable) by-products of "forgivably” limited design, our quarry is a contentious subclass of this category: misbeliefs best conceived as design features. Such misbeliefs, unlike occasional lucky falsehoods, would have been systematically adaptive in the evolutionary past. Such misbeliefs, furthermore, would not be reducible to judicious - but doxastically1 noncommittal - action policies. Finally, such misbeliefs would have been adaptive in themselves, constituting more than mere by-products of adaptively biased misbelief-producing systems. We explore a range of potential candidates for evolved misbelief, and conclude that, of those surveyed, only positive illusions meet our criteri

Quality Control in Criminal Investigation

Edited by Xabier Agirre Aranburu, Morten Bergsmo, Simon De Smet and Carsten Stahn, this 1,108-page book offers detailed analyses on how the investigation and preparation of fact-rich cases can be improved, both in national and international jurisdictions. Twenty-four chapters organized in five parts address, inter alia, evidence and analysis, systemic challenges in case-preparation, investigation plans as instruments of quality control, and judicial and prosecutorial participation in investigation and case-preparation. The authors include Antonio Angotti, Devasheesh Bais, Olympia Bekou, Gilbert Bitti, Leïla Bourguiba, Thijs B. Bouwknegt, Ewan Brown, Eleni Chaitidou, Cale Davis, Markus Eikel, Shreeyash Uday Lalit, Moa Lidén, Tor-Geir Myhrer, Trond Myklebust, Matthias Neuner, Christian Axboe Nielsen, Gilad Noam, Gavin Oxburgh, David Re, Alf Butenschøn Skre, Usha Tandon, William Webster and William H. Wiley, in addition to the four co-editors. There are also forewords by Fatou Bensouda and Manoj Kumar Sinha, and a prologue by Gregory S. Gordon.The book follows from a conference at the Indian Law Institute in New Delhi, and is the main outcome of the third leg of a research project of the Centre for International Law Research and Policy (CILRAP) known as the 'Quality Control Project'. Other books produced by the project are Quality Control in Fact-Finding (Second Edition, 2020) and Quality Control in Preliminary Examination: Volumes 1 and 2 (2018). Covering three distinct phases - documentation, preliminary examination and investigation - the volumes consider how the quality of each phase can be improved. Emphasis is placed on the nourishment of an individual mindset and institutional culture of quality control.bookExploring the Frontiers of International La

Managing Fish or Governing Fisheries? An Historical Recount of Marine Resources Governance in the Context of Latin America – The Ecuadorian Case

The narratives and images about ocean and its resources governance, their use and value have deep roots in human history. Traditionally, the contemporary images of fish and fisheries have been shaped under the cultural construction of power, wealth and exclusion, and also as one of poverty and marginalization. This perception was formed on early notions of natural (marine) resources access and use that were born within the colonial machinery that ruled the world from the Middle Ages until late XVII. This research explores the historical overview of marine resources usage and governance in Latin America, from a ‘critical approach to development’ perspective, by following a narrative description based on a ‘three acts’ format. It illustrates how and to what extent politics, power and knowledge have deeply influenced policies and practices at exploring the marine and terrestrial resources and at managing fish and seafood, historically, and how the fisheries resources’ management practices are influenced by principles of appropriation, regulation and usage, put in place already in the XV century that were imposed at the conquering and colonization of the Americas, disregarded previous governance practices. This article argues that fisheries governance cannot be improved without some appreciation for the social, historical, geopolitical, and cultural significance of the fishing resources themselves, of the perceptions of them by humans, and of the interactions Global North-Global South. The analysis also opens the dialogue about what kind of ocean and governance “science” we want, to support decisions, policies and practices regarding fisheries governance. Final thoughts highlight a reflection about whose knowledge is created and used to support decision and policy making in Ecuador