True happiness: The role of morality in the folk concept of happiness

Recent scientific research has settled on a purely descriptive definition of happiness that is focused solely on agents’ psychological states (high positive affect, low negative affect, high life satisfaction). In contrast to this understanding, recent research has suggested that the ordinary concept of happiness is also sensitive to the moral value of agents’ lives. Five studies systematically investigate and explain the impact of morality on ordinary assessments of happiness. Study 1 demonstrates that moral judgments influence assessments of happiness not only for untrained participants, but also for academic researchers and even in those who study happiness specifically. Studies 2 and 3 then respectively ask whether this effect may be explained by general motivational biases or beliefs in a just world. In both cases, we find evidence against these explanations. Study 4 shows that the impact of moral judgments cannot be explained by changes in the perception of descriptive psychological states. Finally, Study 5 compares the impact of moral and non-moral value, and provides evidence that unlike non-moral value, moral value is part of the criteria that govern the ordinary concept of happiness. Taken together, these studies provide a specific explanation of how and why the ordinary concept of happiness deviates from the definition used by researchers studying happiness

Optimality bias in moral judgment

We often make decisions with incomplete knowledge of their consequences. Might people nonetheless expect others to make optimal choices, despite this ignorance? Here, we show that people are sensitive to moral op- timality: that people hold moral agents accountable depending on whether they make optimal choices, even when there is no way that the agent could know which choice was optimal. This result held up whether the outcome was positive, negative, inevitable, or unknown, and across within-subjects and between-subjects de- signs. Participants consistently distinguished between optimal and suboptimal choices, but not between sub- optimal choices of varying quality — a signature pattern of the Efficiency Principle found in other areas of cognition. A mediation analysis revealed that the optimality effect occurs because people find suboptimal choices more difficult to explain and assign harsher blame accordingly, while moderation analyses found that the effect does not depend on tacit inferences about the agent's knowledge or negligence. We argue that this moral optimality bias operates largely out of awareness, reflects broader tendencies in how humans understand one another's behavior, and has real-world implications

Behaviorist thinking in judgments of wrongness, punishment, and blame

Moral judgment depends upon inferences about agents’ beliefs, desires, and intentions. Here, we argue that in addition to these factors, people take into account the moral optimality of an action. Three experiments show that even agents who are ignorant about the nature of their moral decisions are held accountable for the quality of their decision—a kind of behaviorist thinking, in that such reasoning bypasses the agent’s mental states. In particular, whereas optimal choices are seen as more praiseworthy than suboptimal choices, decision quality has no further effect on moral judgments—a highly suboptimal choice is seen as no worse than a marginally suboptimal choice. These effects held up for judgments of wrongness and punishment (Experiment 1), positive and negative outcomes (Experiment 2), and agents with positive and negative intentions (Experiment 3). We argue that these results reflect a broader tendency to irresistibly apply the Efficiency Principle when explaining behavior

Optimality bias in moral judgment

We often make decisions with incomplete knowledge of their consequences. Might people nonetheless expect others to make optimal choices, despite this ignorance? Here, we show that people are sensitive to moral op- timality: that people hold moral agents accountable depending on whether they make optimal choices, even when there is no way that the agent could know which choice was optimal. This result held up whether the outcome was positive, negative, inevitable, or unknown, and across within-subjects and between-subjects de- signs. Participants consistently distinguished between optimal and suboptimal choices, but not between sub- optimal choices of varying quality — a signature pattern of the Efficiency Principle found in other areas of cognition. A mediation analysis revealed that the optimality effect occurs because people find suboptimal choices more difficult to explain and assign harsher blame accordingly, while moderation analyses found that the effect does not depend on tacit inferences about the agent's knowledge or negligence. We argue that this moral optimality bias operates largely out of awareness, reflects broader tendencies in how humans understand one another's behavior, and has real-world implications

Os certames licitatórios no âmbito do Ministério Público de Contas do Estado de Santa Catarina - MPC/SC: perspectivas passadas, presentes e futuras acerca do Pregão enquanto modalidade de licitação

TCC (graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Sócio Econômico, Administração Pública.No presente trabalho de conclusão de curso, que se encontra abrigado na área de concentração da Gestão Pública, buscou-se estudar de que maneira ocorreram e foram realizadas as licitações no Ministério Público de Contas do Estado de Santa Catarina, notadamente ao longo dos últimos anos, e de que maneira a possibilidade da implementação e deflagração de certames licitatórios na modalidade Pregão impactou a indigitada organização pública. Ademais, pesquisou-se o perfil dos integrantes das últimas comissões permanentes de licitações do MPC/SC, bem como verificou-se o modo de escolha das modalidades licitatórias que acabam por ser aplicadas nas contratações do órgão, em especial buscando compreender as circunstâncias que alicerçaram ou fulcraram a (não) utilização da modalidade do Pregão pela entidade. Por derradeiro, restaram apontadas e indicadas potencialidades presentes e futuras originárias da utilização do Pregão, bem como, em sua conclusão, igualmente é levada em consideração a sanção da novel Lei de Licitações e Contratos Administrativos, a saber, Lei no 14.133/2021, que, apesar de ter sido sancionada já na fase final de conclusão deste trabalho, impacta sobremaneira o modo como a modalidade do Pregão deverá ser aplicada e interpretada nas organizações públicas, haja vista que a referida modalidade passou a ser obrigatória para a aquisição de bens e serviços comuns

Behaviorist thinking in judgments of wrongness, punishment, and blame

Moral judgment depends upon inferences about agents’ beliefs, desires, and intentions. Here, we argue that in addition to these factors, people take into account the moral optimality of an action. Three experiments show that even agents who are ignorant about the nature of their moral decisions are held accountable for the quality of their decision—a kind of behaviorist thinking, in that such reasoning bypasses the agent’s mental states. In particular, whereas optimal choices are seen as more praiseworthy than suboptimal choices, decision quality has no further effect on moral judgments—a highly suboptimal choice is seen as no worse than a marginally suboptimal choice. These effects held up for judgments of wrongness and punishment (Experiment 1), positive and negative outcomes (Experiment 2), and agents with positive and negative intentions (Experiment 3). We argue that these results reflect a broader tendency to irresistibly apply the Efficiency Principle when explaining behavio

Monocyte subsets and monocyte-related chemokines in Takayasu arteritis

The pathogenesis of Takayasu arteritis (TAK) is poorly understood and no previous studies have analyzed monocytes in TAK. This study evaluated monocyte subsets and monocyte-related chemokines in the peripheral blood of TAK patients and healthy controls (HC). Monocyte subsets were identified as classical (CD14+CD16−), intermediate (CD14+CD16dim), and non-classical (CD14dimCD16high) in the peripheral blood. The chemokines CCL (C–C chemokine ligand)2, CCL3, CCL4, CCL5, CCL7, CXCL (C-X-C motif ligand)10, and CX3CL (C-X3-C motif ligand)1 were measured in the sera. Thirty-two TAK patients and 30 HC were evaluated. Intermediate monocytes were higher in TAK than HC [25.0 cells ×106/L (16.7–52.0) vs. 17.2 cells ×106/L (9.2–25.3); p = 0.014]. Active disease was associated with monocytosis (p = 0.004), increased classical (p = 0.003), and intermediate (p &lt; 0.001) subsets than HC. Prednisone reduced the percentage of non-classical monocytes (p = 0.011). TAK patients had lower CCL3 (p = 0.033) and CCL4 (p = 0.023) levels than HC, whereas CCL22 levels were higher in active TAK compared to the remission state (p = 0.008). Glucocorticoids were associated with lower CXCL10 levels (p = 0.012). In TAK, CCL4 correlated with total (Rho = 0.489; p = 0.005), classical and intermediate monocytes (Rho = 0.448; p = 0.010 and Rho = 0.412; p = 0.019). In conclusion, TAK is associated with altered counts of monocyte subsets in the peripheral blood compared to HC and CCL22 is the chemokine with the strongest association with active disease in TAK.</p