Counterfactual reasoning for regretted situations involving controllable versus uncontrollable events: The modulating role of contingent self-esteem

We report a study that examined the modulating impact of contingent self-esteem on regret intensity for regretted outcomes associated with controllable versus uncontrollable events. The Contingent Self-Esteem Scale (e.g., Kernis & Goldman, 2006) was used to assess the extent to which a person’s sense of self-worth is based on self and others’ expectations. We found that there was an influence of self-esteem contingency for controllable but not for uncontrollable regret types. For controllable regret types individuals with a high contingent (i.e., unstable) self-esteem reported greater regret intensity than those with a low contingent (i.e., stable) self-esteem. We interpret this finding as reflecting a functional and adaptive role of high contingent self-esteem in terms of mobilizing the application of counterfactual reasoning and planning mechanisms that can enable personal expectations to be achieved in the future

The Social Role Theory of Unethical Leadership

Challenging the standard reasoning regarding leaders’ ethical failures, we argue that a potent contributor to these failures is the social role expectations of leaders. We maintain that leaders’ central role expectation of goal achievement contributes to the over-valuing of group goals and greater moral permissibility of the means used to achieve these goals. In studies 1 and 2 we demonstrated that the role of leader, relative to group member, is associated with an increased appraisal of group goals which is predicted by the leaders’ role expectations and not driven by the psychological effects of power. Next, we experimentally demonstrated the importance of both role expectations of leadership and group goal importance in leaders’ justification to engage in morally questionable behavior to achieve group goals. Finally, we supported the social role predictions in a laboratory experiment by assigning people to roles and assessing goal importance and unethical decision-making and behaviors

Age related changes in social reasoning regarding parental domestic roles

The present study investigated age related changes in individuals' understanding of the parental role of caretaker from a social reasoning perspective. The methodology involved administering surveys to children, adolescents, and young adults (N = 300). Four hypothetical scenarios were described, in which the amount of caretaking tasks completed and time spent at work varied by gender of the parent, and individuals' evaluations and reasoning about the situations were assessed. Three additional factors that influence social reasoning about the caretaker were investigated, including, participants' gender attitudes, their perceptions of their parents' working status and division of caretaking, and their expectations for their own future family life. Results showed that individuals' judgments and reasoning about the caretaker role vary based on both the family arrangement and the gender of the parent in the caretaker role. Overall, participants' judged that the better arrangement is for one parent to spend less time at work in order to be the primary caretaker. However, it was also found that regardless of work arrangement, it would be better if the mother was the primary caretaker. There were age related changes in social reasoning about the caretaker role, with an overall increase in recognizing the complexity of family situations and reasoning from a moral perspective. In addition, gender attitudes, perception of parental work status and division of caretaking and expectations for future balance of work and family influenced social reasoning. Those individuals with more egalitarian attitudes, perceptions, and expectations were aware of societal expectations of parents' roles, but were accepting of arrangements that did not match with expectations. Thus, the present study addressed issues about the developmental origins of individuals' understanding of gender equity, gender development, and developmental social cognition. Understanding developmental changes in social reasoning about gender roles is important because it affects choice of future career and educational goals and opportunities

Cooperation and Deception Recruit Different Subsets of the Theory-of-Mind Network

The term “theory of mind” (ToM) describes an evolved psychological mechanism that is necessary to represent intentions and expectations in social interaction. It is thus involved in determining the proclivity of others to cooperate or defect. While in cooperative settings between two parties the intentions and expectations of the protagonists match, they diverge in deceptive scenarios, in which one protagonist is intentionally manipulated to hold a false belief about the intention of the other. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm using cartoons showing social interactions (including the outcome of the interaction) between two or three story characters, respectively, we sought to determine those brain areas of the ToM network involved in reasoning about cooperative versus deceptive interactions. Healthy volunteers were asked to reflect upon the protagonists' intentions and expectations in cartoons depicting cooperation, deception or a combination of both, where two characters cooperated to deceive a third. Reasoning about the mental states of the story characters yielded substantial differences in activation patterns: both deception and cooperation activated bilateral temporoparietal junction, parietal and cingulate regions, while deception alone additionally recruited orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal regions. These results indicate an important role for prefrontal cortex in processing a mismatch between a character's intention and another's expectations as required in complex social interactions

Importance and implementation of explanation in expert systems

Explanation is crucial in persuading others of the correctness of our beliefs to gain acceptance of our conclusion. Early research into expert systems focused on methods for reasoning. However it became apparent that the ultimate success lay in the ability to gain user acceptance by explaining the reasoning behind the conclusion. This study examines explanation from a social and an implementation standpoint. The social aspects of explanation provide insight into the role of naturally occurring explanations and listener expectations. Examination of research expert systems with explanation facilities and modifications of a simple Prolog expert system shell demonstrate the techniques required to simulate naturally occurring text. The modified shell produces improved explanations over the original shell, clearly indicating the desirability of natural appearance for gaining user acceptance

Concept-Driven Visual Analytics: an Exploratory Study of Model- and Hypothesis-Based Reasoning with Visualizations

Visualization tools facilitate exploratory data analysis, but fall short at supporting hypothesis-based reasoning. We conducted an exploratory study to investigate how visualizations might support a concept-driven analysis style, where users can optionally share their hypotheses and conceptual models in natural language, and receive customized plots depicting the fit of their models to the data. We report on how participants leveraged these unique affordances for visual analysis. We found that a majority of participants articulated meaningful models and predictions, utilizing them as entry points to sensemaking. We contribute an abstract typology representing the types of models participants held and externalized as data expectations. Our findings suggest ways for rearchitecting visual analytics tools to better support hypothesis- and model-based reasoning, in addition to their traditional role in exploratory analysis. We discuss the design implications and reflect on the potential benefits and challenges involved.National Science Foundation award #175561

Data-based scientific reasoning: Uncovering perceptual and interpretational processes involved in responses to anomalous data in science education

In der Dissertation wird der Frage nachgegangen, welche kognitiven Prozesse der Informationsverarbeitung von wissenschaftlichen Daten beim konzeptuellen Lernen von biologischen Inhalten eine Rolle spielen. Dafür wird ein theoriebasiertes Modell des data-based scientific reasoning beschrieben, welches ebenfalls Aspekte der visuellen Wahrnehmung einbezieht. Dabei kann eine Synthese sogenannter bottom-up- und top-down-Effekte die visuelle Wahrnehmung der dargestellten Daten beeinflussen. Von Interesse sind hierbei Charakteristika der Repräsentation der Daten, sowie die individuellen Vorstellungen zum Kontext und ob, die Daten diese stützen oder widerlegen (anomale Daten). Weiterhin wird in der Arbeit die Rolle von data-based scientific reasoning auf wissenschaftliche Modellierungsprozesse untersucht, da Modellieren als übergreifende wissenschaftliche Praxis gesehen werden kann. In vier empirischen Studien wurden kognitive Prozesse beim Umgang mit Daten bei angehenden Biologielehrkräften, mit Fragebögen, Eye Tracking und lautem Denken untersucht. Die Ergebnisse der durchgeführten Studien heben die Rolle der visuellen Wahrnehmung als entscheidenden Schritt beim data-based scientific reasoning hervor. In Bezug auf Charakteristika der Repräsentation erscheint es notwendig, die visuelle Aufmerksamkeit der Lernenden auf spezifische Merkmale zu lenken und mit entsprechendem konzeptuellem Wissen zu verknüpfen. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass anomale Daten zwar mit wissenschaftlich adäquatem Wissen erklärt werden, dies aber nicht automatisch zur Änderung ursprünglicher Vorstellungen bezüglich des Kontexts führt. Diese Tendenz scheint mit Unsicherheit gegenüber den Daten verbunden zu sein. Darüber hinaus spielen anomale Daten eine zentrale Rolle in wissenschaftlichen Modellierungsprozessen. Die Ergebnisse der entsprechenden Studie deuten darauf hin, dass hoch ausgeprägte Kompetenzen des data-based scientific reasoning mit elaborierten Modellierungsprozessen zusammenhängen.The thesis focusses on the relevance of reasoning with scientific data for conceptual learning in biology. It aims to contribute to the question which cognitive processes are involved when learners encounter data sets that support or contradict their individual expectations. Therefore, a theoretical model of data-based scientific reasoning is described that is grounded on a general model of information processing. In this model, aspects of visual perception are emphasized. However, visual perception is influenced by a synthesis of so-called bottom-up and top-down effects. Furthermore, the theoretical perspective on the role of responses to anomalous data for scientific practices was extended by investigating how learners react and integrate anomalous data during modeling processes. In four empirical studies cognitive processes leading to responses to anomalous data in science education were investigated by applying a mixture of questionnaires, eye tracking techniques, and think aloud. The findings of the conducted studies highlight the role of perceptual processes as a key step during data-based scientific reasoning. Regarding representational characteristics it seems necessary to guide learners´ visual attention and connect specific features with corresponding conceptual knowledge. However, the findings suggest that a use of adequate scientific knowledge for explaining anomalous data does not lead to a change in initial conceptions regarding the context, since participants of the studies still tended to maintain their initial expectations. This tendency seems to be linked to a high need for encompassing information and a connected uncertainty towards the perceived data. Furthermore, anomalous data play a central role during modelling processes. The results of the corresponding study, indicate that sophisticated competencies of data-based reasoning with anomalous data relate to elaborate modeling processes

Children's understanding of mental states as causes of emotions

Theory of Mind studies of emotion usually focus on children?s ability to predict other people's feelings. This study examined children?s spontaneous references to mental states in explaining others? emotions. Children (4-, 6- and 10-year-olds, n = 122) were told stories and asked to explain both typical and atypical emotional reactions of characters. Because atypical emotional reactions are unexpected, we hypothesized that children would be more likely to refer to mental states, such as desires and beliefs, in explaining them than when explaining typical emotions. From the development of lay theories of emotion, derived the prediction that older children would refer more often to mental states than younger children. The developmental shift from a desire-psychology to a belief-psychology led to the expectation that references to desires would increase at an earlier age than references to beliefs. Our findings confirmed these expectations only partly, because the nature of the emotion (happiness, anger, sadness or fear) interacted with these factors. Whereas anger, happiness and sadness mainly evoked desire references, fear evoked more belief references, even in four-year-olds. The fact that other factors besides age can also play an influential role in children?s mental state reasoning is discussed

Legislative hope and utopia

Legislation, inspired by utopian ideals of rationality and justice, has long been experienced as a source of hope but frequently fails in meeting expectations. Current legislation is mainly focused on realising short-term policy goals without offering hope. This contribution aims to investigate how legislation relates to hope and what role utopian thought plays with respect to that and evaluates current legislative policy on its hope-inspiring properties. To this end, this contribution analyses the features of utopias and investigates how these find expression in legislation. It then evaluates to what extent utopianism may inspire hope or may lead to disappointment or even despair. Conceptions of time, knowledge and identity seem of relevance, connected to substantive reasoning and the constitutive function of legislation. The author's contention is that legislative hope hinges on a balance between effectiveness, room for substantive reasoning and the quality of the political aspect of the legislative process

Impact of Islam on socially responsible and ethical behaviour in Middle Eastern organisations

Despite numerous publications on the role of religion on individual and organisational ethical behaviour, academic literature seems to lack a comprehensive understanding of how religion affects the moral reasoning, decision-making and ethical behaviour of organisations. This gap seems to be even more significant with regard to developing countries. By conducting twenty-two interviews with executives and top managers from the private and public sectors and using Grounded Theory approach for data analysis we identified how Islamic moral postulates and ethics impact on individual-level moral and ethical behaviour and thus moral reasoning, decision-making and ethical organisational behaviour. We contribute to the literature by identifying that the repetitive interactions of social actors with religious affiliations create behavioural expectations in the form of religious duties and that these behavioural expectations and religious duties, when repeated and consequently internalized, become a constituent part of the person’s identity and determine how the individual interacts with the surrounding environment. Driven by intrinsic religious motivation, the religious self affects organisational behaviour. We also add to literature by identifying how individual-level ‘ethical behaviour’ and ‘character’ translate to organisational-level ethical operations by providing empirical evidence for the impact of religion on individual-level ethical decision-making