Spotting prejudice with nonverbal behaviours

Despite prejudice cannot be directly observed, nonverbal behaviours provide profound hints on people inclinations. In this paper, we use recent sensing technologies and machine learning techniques to automatically infer the results of psychological questionnaires frequently used to assess implicit prejudice. In particular, we recorded 32 students discussing with both white and black collaborators. Then, we identified a set of features allowing automatic extraction and measured their degree of correlation with psychological scores. Results confirmed that automated analysis of nonverbal behaviour is actually possible thus paving the way for innovative clinical tools and eventually more secure societies

Exploring the effects of sexual prejudice on dyadic interactions through an automated analysis of nonverbal behaviours

Nonverbal behaviours (NVB) are a fundamental part of the communication process: especially indicative of individuals\u2019 inner states such as attitudes and motivations, NVBs can deeply shape the perceived quality of the interaction. Despite their practical importance and theoretical value, NVBs in intergroup interactions (i.e. intergroup nonverbal behaviours; INVB) are an understudied topic. So far, they have been mainly investigated within interethnic contexts (i.e., White and Black people) and by employing invasive or time-consuming procedures, mainly involving subjective evaluations of video-recorded interactions by external coders. The present work aimed at extending previous literature by exploring NVB and its relationship with prejudice within gay/straight dyadic interactions, a relevant but still partially unexplored intergroup context within this field of research. Differently from ethnicity, sexual orientation is less identifiable and cannot be ascertained from visible markers such as the skin colour, but requires self-disclosure. Further and most importantly, we assessed patterns of NVBs through an RGB-depth camera \u2013 the Microsoft Kinect V.2 Sensor \u2013 that allowed us to obtain exact quantitative measures of body movements in a fully automatic and continuous way. In doing so, we conducted three experimental studies in which heterosexual participants (total N = 284) were first administered measures of implicit bias and explicit prejudice towards gay men (Study 1 & 3) or lesbians (Study 2), and then asked to interact with a gay (vs. straight; Study 1 & 3) or lesbian (vs. straight) confederate (Study 2), whose sexual orientation was manipulated (Studies 1 & 2) or disclosed (Study 3). A fake Facebook profile, shown to the participant before the interaction, revealed the confederates\u2019 sexual orientation. In all the studies, we considered the pattern of results on two main NVBs, one concerning proxemics (i.e., interpersonal volume between interactants) and the other concerning kinesics (i.e., amount of upper body motions). We selected these NVBs because previous research revealed that they are particularly meaningful for the comprehension of the psychological immediacy between interactants (i.e., interpersonal volume) and their comfort (or discomfort; amount of upper body motions) during a dyadic interaction. Overall, our work revealed a relevant (and unexpected) pattern of findings concerning interpersonal distance. Unlike previous literature, Study 1 revealed that high (vs. low) implicitly biased participants, instead of keeping a larger distance, tended to stay closer to the confederate presented as gay (vs. straight), especially when discussing a topic concerning the intergroup relation (i.e., the situation of the gay community in Italy) than a neutral one. This result was importantly extended in Study 3: high (vs. low) implicitly biased participants that stood closer to the gay (vs. straight) confederate revealed greater cognitive depletion (i.e., lower performance on a Stroop colour-naming task) after the conversation. This latter result suggests that, at least within gay/straight men interactions, interpersonal distance is an NVB that (high implicitly biased) people can control to manage their self-presentation, with consequent greater impairment of their cognitive resources. This main finding was not replicated in Study 2, in which we focused on dyadic interactions between heterosexual participants and lesbian women, by confirming how heterosexual people\u2019s attitudes (and their consequent INVBs) towards this minority group is distinct from those towards gay men and, presumably, people\u2019s gender plays a more predominant role than their implicit or explicit attitudes. Further, across our studies, we found inconsistent or non-significant results concerning the participants\u2019 upper body motion as an outcome variable. A possible explanation for these inconsistent results could be due to the relatively coarse algorithmic index that we used for this INVB. Theoretical and methodological implications of this work are discussed in the General Discussion section, together with its limitations and indications for future research

Should Autism Spectrum Conditions Be Characterised in a More Positive Way in Our Modern World?

In a special issue that focuses on complex presentations related to Autism, we ask the question in this editorial whether an Autism Spectrum Condition without complexity is a disorder, or whether it represents human diversity? Much research into Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASCs) over the years has focused on comparisons between neuro-typical people and people with Autism Spectrum Conditions. These comparisons have tended to draw attention to ‘deficits’ in cognitive abilities and descriptions of behaviours that are characterised as unwanted. Not surprisingly, this is reflected in the classification systems from the World Health Organisation and the American Psychiatric Association. Public opinion about ASC may be influenced by presentations in the media of those with ASC who also have intellectual disability. Given that diagnostic systems are intended to help us better understand conditions in order to seek improved outcomes, we propose a more constructive approach to descriptions that uses more positive language, and balances descriptions of deficits with research finding of strengths and differences. We propose that this will be more helpful to individuals on the Autism Spectrum, both in terms of individual self-view, but also in terms of how society views Autism Spectrum Conditions more positively. Commentary has also been made on guidance that has been adjusted for people with ASC in relation to the current COVID-19 pandemic

Spotting the liar in the witness box – how valuable is demeanour evidence really? (2)

In the previous part of this contribution I discussed the history of so-called “demeanour evidence” and its current role in the law of evidence. I furthermore examined the extensive empirical evidence that shows that demeanour – as a means of accurate and reliable credibility assessment and decision-making in litigation – essentially is worthless. Human lie detection is fraught with difficulty. It is predicated upon a multitude of misconceptions about how liars behave, including specific verbal and nonverbal cues commonly believed to indicate dishonesty. Below I continue with an analysis of the social science research data on veracity judgments based on demeanour in order to attempt to answer the question: Why are human beings such poor lie detectors? Next I expound upon the reasons why lie detection in court might actually be more difficult than in a laboratory setting. I then explore the potential impact of empirical findings upon the principle of appellate deference to credibility findings of first instance. I conclude by addressing the question regarding the appropriate response of the legal system in the face of the overwhelming research data on the lack of reliability of so-called “demeanour evidence”.http://www.lexisnexis.co.zaam2019Procedural LawProcedural La

Desc(ART) or the 21st Century Cartesian Meditator

In this paper I argue that the continued relevance of Descartes\u27 philosophy for present-day concerns can be demonstrated by bringing to bear on his Meditations state-of-the-art developments in Informal logic and Argumentation theory, specifically Leo Groarke’s approach to multimodal arguments. I show that the meditative exercises that Descartes viewed as preconditions of establishing the metaphysical tenets of his system can be recast in present-day form using technological tools and media that we are familiar with. We will see that, due to the different historical and cultural contexts, the 21st century Cartesian meditating process can be: 1) technology-enhanced (a customizable, multimodal process using images and nonverbal sounds alongside verbal claims) and 2) interdisciplinary (sensitive to and informed by the history of philosophy, of ideas and of art). Reformulated and practised in this way, Descartes’ meditative exercises can serve as tools for honing much-needed critical thinking skills and dispositions, as well as for promoting autonomous decision-making. After providing examples of this contemporary Cartesian meditation, I suggest that Groarke’s multimodal approach can be extended to reconstructing the arguments of other philosophers thus supplying a way of doing history of philosophy that is both novel and has personal benefits for its practitioners

Could There Ever be an App for that? Consent Apps and the Problem of Sexual Assault

Rape and sexual assault are major problems. In the majority of sexual assault cases consent is the central issue. Consent is, to borrow a phrase, the ‘moral magic’ that converts an impermissible act into a permissible one. In recent years, a handful of companies have tried to launch consent apps which aim to educate young people about the nature of sexual consent and allow them to record signals of consent for future verification. Although ostensibly aimed at addressing the problems of rape and sexual assault on university campuses, these apps have attracted a number of critics. In this paper, I subject the phenomenon of consent apps to philosophical scrutiny. I argue that the consent apps that have been launched to date are unhelpful because they fail to address the landscape of ethical and epistemic problems that arise in the typical rape or sexual assault case: they produce distorted and decontextualised records of consent which may in turn exacerbate the other problems associated with rape and sexual assault. Furthermore, because of the tradeoffs involved, it is unlikely that app-based technologies could ever be created that would significantly address the problems of rape and sexual assault

Lie detection: Cognitive Processes

How do we make decisions when we are uncertain? In more real-world settings there is often a vast array of information available to guide the decision, from an understanding of the social situation, to prior beliefs and experience, to information available in the current environment. Yet much of the research into uncertain decision-making has typically studied the process by isolating it from this rich source of information that decision-makers usually have available to them. This thesis takes a different approach. To explore how decisions are made under uncertainty in more real-world settings, this thesis considers how raters decide if someone is lying or telling the truth. Because people are skilled liars, there is little information available to make a definitive decision. How do raters negotiate the ambiguous environment to reach a decision? Raters show a truth bias, which is to say they judge statements as truthful more often than they are so. Recent research has begun to consider dual process theories, suggesting there are two routes for processing information. They claim the truth bias results from an error-prone processing route, but that a more effortful and analytical processing route may overcome it. I will generate a set of testable hypotheses that arise from the dual process position and show that the theory does not stand up to the test. The truth bias can be better explained as resulting from a single process that attempts to make the most 3 informed guess despite being uncertain. To make the informed guess, raters come to rely on context-relevant information when the behaviour of the speaker is not sufficiently diagnostic. An adaptive decision maker position is advocated. I propose the truth bias is an emergent property of making the best guess. That is, in a different context where speakers may be expected to lie, a bias towards disbelieving should be seen. I argue context-dependency is key to understanding decision-making under uncertainty

Spotting lies and reading minds: development of mentalizing and deception in autistic and non-autistic individuals

Deception is ever-present in day-to-day life. One cognitive process underlying deception, which has been observed to evolve throughout development, is mentalizing i.e. the ability to attribute mental-states to others. Autistic individuals have been found to struggle with mentalizing even in adulthood, so it is possible that they show difficulties in detecting deception as well. The main aims of this PhD were to investigate how mentalizing and deception develop in autistic and non-autistic individuals from pre-adolescence to early adulthood, and to investigate other factors that may affect deception judgement, specifically intergroup bias. In my first study, I collected deception stimuli for two novel deception detection tasks, and investigated if mentalizing ability and autistic traits in a non-autistic sample were related to how successful one is at deceiving. I found that, contrary to expectations, deception production success did not correlate with either mentalizing or autistic traits. For my second study, I tested 11-30 years old autistic and non-autistic participants, using a well-established detection paradigm as well as two novel deception detection tasks, and found that autistic individuals were weaker at detecting deception than non-autistic individuals. While both mentalizing and deception detection abilities improved with age in non-autistic individuals, neither were affected by age in autistic individuals. Furthermore, deception detection was found to predict peer-victimization, and through peer-victimization effect psychological distress. For my final study, I investigated neurotype-based intergroup bias in the context of deception and found that, instead of better deception detection for the in-group (vs out-group) that was expected, both autistic and non-autistic adults were better at detecting deception from other autistic adults. I discuss the theoretical implications of these finding in terms of our understanding of the cognitive underpinnings of deception, the implications this has for autistic individuals’ quality of life, and future avenues for deception and autism research

Subtitling for the Deaf and the Hard-of-hearing: A Reception Study in the Turkish Context

This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of subtitling for people with hearing impairments and to improve the accessibility to audiovisual material for hearing-impaired viewers in Turkey. It starts by providing a detailed general overview of the current state of accessibility and includes a detailed discussion on existing legislation, an outline of the limited practice of subtitling for the deaf and the hard-of-hearing (SDH) in Turkish and a profile of the assumed target audience. The ultimate goal of this research is to create a set of guidelines that can be used in the production of quality SDH in Turkey. In order to achieve these aims, the study adopts a product-oriented descriptive approach and first investigates the guidelines applied in countries where SDH has long been established as a professional practice in an attempt to reveal some of the shared values of good practice as well as potential divergences. Following this descriptive analysis, some of the key contradicting practices in the guidelines – speaker identification, reading speed, indication of sound and paralinguistic information – are tested on an audience of (37) Turkish hearing-impaired viewers so as to unveil their needs and preferences within the framework of Audience Reception Theory. Quantitative data on the preferences of Turkish viewers was collected by means of questionnaires filled in by the participants after they had watched different sets of subtitles, each of them testing a different feature. Further qualitative data was obtained through interviews conducted with four participants who took part in the experiment so as to generate more in-depth information regarding their preferences. The results yielded by the statistical analysis of the quantitative data and the interpretive phenomenological analysis of the qualitative data culminated in the drafting of a set of guidelines that can be used in the production of SDH in Turkey