Defending the Social Good Theory of Punishment

This paper attempts to justify punishment on the grounds that it is a benefit to the person being punished. I accept the basic premise of a previous theory of punishment, the Moral Good Theory (MGT), which states that we cannot harm anyone. Thus, punishment can only be justified if it is not a harm. The MGT claims that punishment is beneficial in that it provides a moral education to the offender. I reject the idea that punishment is morally educational and instead propose a new theory which revises and strengthens the MGT, accounting for its flaws. This new theory, the Social Good Theory, argues instead that punishment is beneficial because it allows a criminal to be reintegrated into society

The Nature Of Natural

In the modern Western world, consumers prefer natural foods, medicines, and personal care products and have a desire to connect with the natural world. Despite evident consumer demand for natural products, little research has been devoted to the psychological underpinnings of the natural preference. The present dissertation will examine the psychology of the natural preference and its implications in three chapters. Chapter 1 will expand the scope of explanations of opposition to genetically modified food by applying established theories about naturalness, sacred values and the law of contagion. Chapter 2 will examine how inferences about safety and efficacy of natural products cause natural to be more strongly preferred when preventing as opposed to curing an ailment. Chapter 3 will explore how naturalness operates as a trustworthiness cue and is more strongly preferred in the absence of other trustworthiness cues (e.g., brand familiarity)

Persistent Fontanelles in Rodent Skulls

Persistent fenestrae occur between frontal or parietal bones in skulls of various rodents, especially species of Andinomys and Ctenomys. The frequency of occurrence and the shape and position of the fenestrae may vary with age or among individuals, populations, and species. Different families and species from both high and low elevations exhibit fenestrae. They have arisen in several different evolutionary lineages. Genetic factors contribute, but no clear functional significance of the fenestrae has been established

Unknown Soil Isolates from Urban Park as Antibiotic Producers

Antibiotics play an important role in combating bacterial infections. Recently, antibiotic resistance has increased which has pushed scientist to find new and effective antibiotic drugs. Students conducted research on potential antibiotic producers from soil samples in the Quad Cities region. The purpose of the study was to find novel antibiotic producers from bacteria in soil and test soil isolates against two strains of bacteria, B. subtilis and E. coli. Two unknown soil isolate strains were found to be potential antibiotic producers against B. subtilis. Future studies are needed to conduct gene sequencing on these two unknown soil isolates.This project is a collaboration with the Tiny Earth Project Initiative (TEPI), which is a global network of educators and students focused on student sourcing antibiotic discovery from soil

Good People Don\u27t Need Medication: How Moral Character Beliefs Affect Medical Decision-Making

How do people make decisions? Prior research focuses on how people\u27s cost-benefit assessments affect which medical treatments they choose. We propose that people also worry about what these health decisions signal about who they are. Across four studies, we find that medication is thought to be the easy way out , signaling a lack of willpower and character. These moral beliefs lower the appeal of medications. Manipulating these beliefs--by framing medication as a signal of superior willpower or by highlighting the idea that treatment choice is just a preference--increases preferences for medication

Why Does the Cognitive Reflection Test (Sometimes) Predict Utilitarian Moral Judgment (and Other Things)?

The Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) is thought to correlate with measures of utilitarian moral judgment because it measures system-2 correction of an initial intuitive response. And some theories of moral judgment hold that the same thing often happens when people arrive a utilitarian judgments. We find, however, that CRT-type items (using logic as well as arithmetic) can work just as well when they do not have obvious intuitive answers at predicting utilitarian moral judgment, assessed with self-report questionnaires as well as with hypothetical scenarios, and also at predicting a measure of actively open-minded thinking (AOT). Moreover, long response times, as well as high accuracy, also predict moral judgment and other outcomes. The CRT might thus be considered a test of reflection-impulsivity (RI). However, RI is only part of AOT, because RI is concerned only with the amount of thinking, not its direction. Tests of AOT also predict utilitarian moral judgments. Individual differences in AOT and moral judgments are both strongly (negatively) associated with belief that morality comes from God and cannot be understood through thought. The correlation of CRT and utilitarian judgment, when found, is thus likely due to the (imperfect) correlation of AOT and CRT. Intuition in these domains is thus not necessarily something that people overcome through additional thinking, but rather what they rely on when they do not think very much

The Price of not Putting a Price on Love

We examine financial challenges of purchasing items that are readily-available yet symbolic of loving relationships. Using weddings and funerals as case studies, we find that people indirectly pay to avoid taboo monetary trade-offs. When purchasing items symbolic of love, respondents chose higher price, higher quality items over equally appealing lower price, lower quality items (Study 1), searched less for lower priced items (Study 2) and were less willing to negotiate prices (Study 3). The effect was present for experienced consumers (Study 1), affectively positive and negative events (Study 2), and more routine purchase events (Study 3). Trade-off avoidance, however, was limited to monetary trade-offs associated with loved ones. When either money or love was omitted from the decision context, people were more likely to engage in trade-off reasoning. By abandoning cost-benefit reasoning in order to avoid painful monetary trade-offs, people spend more money than if they engaged in trade-off based behaviors, such as seeking lower cost options or requesting lower prices