CRIMES AND OFFENSES Offenses Against Public Administration: Increase the Possible Sentences for Prison Escape

The Act doubles the possible sentence for the offense of escape by a person convicted of a felony or misdemeanor, while leaving in place judges\u27 discretion in sentencing

LOCAL GOVERNMENT Urban Redevelopment: Allow County or Municipality to Offset Payment in Condemnation Proceedings by Amount of Existing Municipal or County Tax Liens, Including Special Assessment Tax Liens

The Act permits counties and local municipalities to offset the price they would normally pay for property condemned in an eminent domain proceeding by the amount of any existing special assessment tax liens on the property. The purpose of the Act is to encourage urban development by allowing municipal or county tax liens, including special assessment tax liens to be used to reduce the actual amount the county or municipality pays for the property

LOCAL GOVERNMENT Urban Redevelopment: Allow County or Municipality to Offset Payment in Condemnation Proceedings by Amount of Existing Municipal or County Tax Liens, Including Special Assessment Tax Liens

The Act permits counties and local municipalities to offset the price they would normally pay for property condemned in an eminent domain proceeding by the amount of any existing special assessment tax liens on the property. The purpose of the Act is to encourage urban development by allowing municipal or county tax liens, including special assessment tax liens to be used to reduce the actual amount the county or municipality pays for the property

PROPERTY Acquisition and Loss of Property: Allow Testamentary and Inter Vivos Alienability of All Future Interests

The Act broadens the language of the existing Code section to permit testamentary and inter vivos transfers of all future interests

Do Characteristics of Faces That Convey Trustworthiness and Dominance Underlie Perceptions of Criminality?

BACKGROUND: This study tested whether the 2D face evaluation model proposed by Oosterhof and Todorov can parsimoniously account for why some faces are perceived as more criminal-looking than others. The 2D model proposes that trust and dominance are spontaneously evaluated from features of faces. These evaluations have adaptive significance from an evolutionary standpoint because they indicate whether someone should be approached or avoided. METHOD: Participants rated the emotional state, personality traits, and criminal appearance of faces shown in photographs. The photographs were of males and females taken under naturalistic conditions (i.e., police mugshots) and highly controlled conditions. In the controlled photographs, the emotion display of the actor was systematically varied (happy expression, emotionally neutral expression, or angry expression). RESULTS: Both male and female faces rated high in criminal appearance were perceived as less trustworthy and more dominant in police mugshots as well as in photographs taken under highly controlled conditions. Additionally, emotionally neutral faces were deemed as less trustworthy if they were perceived as angry, and more dominant if they were morphologically mature. Systematically varying emotion displays also affected criminality ratings, with angry faces perceived as the most criminal, followed by neutral faces and then happy faces. CONCLUSION: The 2D model parsimoniously accounts for criminality perceptions. This study extends past research by demonstrating that morphological features that signal high dominance and low trustworthiness can also signal high criminality. Spontaneous evaluations regarding criminal propensity may have adaptive value in that they may help us to avoid someone who is physically threatening. On the other hand, such evaluations could inappropriately influence decision making in criminal identification lineups. Hence, additional research is needed to discover whether and how people can avoid making evaluations regarding criminality from a person's facial appearance

Do facial first impressions reflect a shared social reality?

This work was supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Research Award to CS [DE 190101043], the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders [CE110001021], and an ARC Discovery Award [DP170104602]. The funding sources had no influence on the research.Peer reviewedPostprintPostprin

How do you say ‘hello’? Personality impressions from brief novel voices

On hearing a novel voice, listeners readily form personality impressions of that speaker. Accurate or not, these impressions are known to affect subsequent interactions; yet the underlying psychological and acoustical bases remain poorly understood. Furthermore, hitherto studies have focussed on extended speech as opposed to analysing the instantaneous impressions we obtain from first experience. In this paper, through a mass online rating experiment, 320 participants rated 64 sub-second vocal utterances of the word ‘hello’ on one of 10 personality traits. We show that: (1) personality judgements of brief utterances from unfamiliar speakers are consistent across listeners; (2) a two-dimensional ‘social voice space’ with axes mapping Valence (Trust, Likeability) and Dominance, each driven by differing combinations of vocal acoustics, adequately summarises ratings in both male and female voices; and (3) a positive combination of Valence and Dominance results in increased perceived male vocal Attractiveness, whereas perceived female vocal Attractiveness is largely controlled by increasing Valence. Results are discussed in relation to the rapid evaluation of personality and, in turn, the intent of others, as being driven by survival mechanisms via approach or avoidance behaviours. These findings provide empirical bases for predicting personality impressions from acoustical analyses of short utterances and for generating desired personality impressions in artificial voices

Kandidatų ir vertintojų lyties įtaka sprendimo priėmimui tariamoje įdarbinimo situacijoje

Gender stereotypes have determined that the concepts of management and leadership are more associated with men than women. There are more men working in management positions than women in various countries, including Lithuania. The most widely discussed cause for that is discrimination against women in the labor market. The aim of the study was to examine evaluation differences between personnel specialists and comparison group, depending on their own and candidate‘s gender. Study was based on quasi-experimental strategy which included a hiring simulation. Participants had to evaluate potential candidates, a man and a woman, seeking for a job in management position. Data was collected from 128 people (age range - 19 to 56 years): 48 personnel specialists (M=29,38; SD=7,48), 49 women, who represented other specialties (M=26,29; SD=7,36) and 31 men, who represented other specialties (M=25,39; SD=5,05). Both personnel specialists and comparison group evaluated man and woman-candidate as similar. There were no significant differences between the two candidates on their hireability, reliability, competence, potential salary and promotability. However, results also indicate that personnel specialists and women, representing other specialties, suggested that man was more capable to work in teams than woman. The study gives an insight about the possibility of gender stereotype change.Lyčių stereotipai paprastai apsprendžia, kad vadovavimas ir lyderystė yra labiau siejami su vyrais nei moterimis. Įvairiose pasaulio šalyse, tarp jų ir Lietuvoje, mažesnė dalis moterų dirba vadovaujamose pozicijose lyginant su vyrais. Tokį skirtumą galėtų lemti daugybė priežasčių, tačiau dažniausiai aptariama - moterų diskriminacija darbo rinkoje. Pirmasis žingsnis, kurį atliekame besidarbindami, yra personalo atranka, todėl būtų galima daryti prielaidą, kad moterų diskriminacija atsiranda jau šiame etape. Šio tyrimo metu buvo naudota kvazieksperimentinė tyrimo strategija. Įdarbinimo simuliacijos metu tyrimo dalyviai (personalo specialistai ir palyginamoji grupė) turėjo vertinti potencialius kandidatus vyrą ir moterį, siekiančius įsidarbinti vadovaujamai pozicijai. Tyrimo tikslas buvo nustatyti, kaip skiriasi personalo specialistų ir palyginamosios grupės vertinimai, priklausomai nuo pačių vertintojų ir kandidato lyties, įdarbinant kandidatus vadovaujamai pozicijai. Pagrindiniame tyrime dalyvavo 128 asmenys. Nustatyta, jog tiek personalo specialistės, tiek palyginamoji grupė potencialaus kandidato vyro ir moters įdarbinimo tikimybę, patikimumą, kompetenciją, skiriamą algą bei paaukštinimo tikimybę vertino panašiai.  Rasti skirtumai tarp suvokto kandidatų gebėjimo dirbti komandoje - personalo specialistės ir kitų specialybių atstovės moterys manė, kad vyrui geriau pavyks dirbti komandoje. Tyrimo rezultatai leidžia daryti išvadą, kad lytis neturi  reikšmingos įtakos darbinantis vidutinio lygio vadovo pareigoms

Using composite images to assess accuracy in personality attribution to faces

Several studies have demonstrated some accuracy in personality attribution using only visual appearance. Using composite images of those scoring high and low on a particular trait, the current study shows that judges perform better than chance in guessing others’ personality, particularly for the traits conscientiousness and extraversion. This study also shows that attractiveness, masculinity, and age may all provide cues to accurately assess personality and that accuracy is affected by the sex of both of those judging and being judged. Individuals do perform better than chance at guessing another’s personality from only facial information, providing some support for the popular belief that it is possible to accurately assess personality from faces. However, this accuracy is somewhat limited