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All the participants (undergraduate students) were exposed sequentially (one by one) to 5 brief descriptions of different actions constituting criminal offences according to the Spanish Penal Code. Each description was accompanied by the specific name of the offence, and the range of the jail sentence length (in months) that might be imposed for th...
Citations
... This influence may be explained by the so-called contrast effect, a cognitive bias phenomenon. Contrast effects result from the use of heuristics in order to better process the vast amount of information we are confronted with every day [42][43][44]. Contrast effects are ubiquitous and bias our perception of information. ...
In recent years, intensive pig husbandry has been subject to increasing public criticism, including a clear demand for more animal-friendly housing systems in many countries. However, such systems are associated with trade-offs at the expense of other sustainability domains, which challenges implementation and makes prioritization necessary. Overall, research is scarce that systematically analyses citizens’ evaluation of different pig housing systems and associated trade-offs. Given the ongoing transformation process of future livestock systems that meet social demands, it is crucial to include public attitudes. We therefore assessed how citizens evaluate different pig housing systems and whether they are willing to compromise animal welfare in trade-off situations. We conducted an online survey with 1,038 German citizens using quota and split sampling in a picture-based survey design. Participants were asked to evaluate several housing systems with different animal welfare levels and associated trade-offs based on an either positive (‘free-range’ in split 1) or negative (‘indoor housing with fully slatted floors’ in split 2) reference system. Initial acceptability was highest for the ‘free-range’ system, followed by ‘indoor housing with straw bedding and outdoor access’, ‘indoor housing with straw bedding’, and ‘indoor housing with fully slatted floors’, with only the latter being clearly not acceptable for many. Overall acceptability was higher with a positive rather than a negative reference system. When confronted with several trade-off situations, participants became uncertain and temporarily adjusted their evaluations. Thereby participants were most likely to trade off housing conditions against animal or human health rather than against climate protection or a lower product price. Nevertheless, a final evaluation demonstrated that participants did not fundamentally change their initial attitudes. Our findings provide evidence that citizens’ desire for good housing conditions is relatively stable, but they are willing to compromise at the expense of animal welfare up to a moderate level.
... What counts as a ripe fruit should depend on the other fruits one can see, but what counts as a felony, a field goal, or a tumor should not, and when these things are absent, police officers, referees, and radiologists should not expand their concepts and find them anyway. Modern life often requires people to use concepts that are meant to be held constant and should not be allowed to expand (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). Alas, research suggests that the brain computes the value of most stimuli by comparing them to other relevant stimuli (17)(18)(19); thus, holding concepts constant may be an evolutionarily recent requirement that the brain's standard computational mechanisms are ill equipped to meet (20,21). ...
Perceptual and judgment creep
Do we think that a problem persists even when it has become less frequent? Levari et al. show experimentally that when the “signal” a person is searching for becomes rare, the person naturally responds by broadening his or her definition of the signal—and therefore continues to find it even when it is not there. From low-level perception of color to higher-level judgments of ethics, there is a robust tendency for perceptual and judgmental standards to “creep” when they ought not to. For example, when blue dots become rare, participants start calling purple dots blue, and when threatening faces become rare, participants start calling neutral faces threatening. This phenomenon has broad implications that may help explain why people whose job is to find and eliminate problems in the world often cannot tell when their work is done.
Science , this issue p. 1465
Are the cognitive sciences relevant for law? How do they influence legal theory and practice? Should lawyers become part-time cognitive scientists? The recent advances in the cognitive sciences have reshaped our conceptions of human decision-making and behavior. Many claim, for instance, that we can no longer view ourselves as purely rational agents equipped with free will. This change is vitally important for lawyers, who are forced to rethink the foundations of their theories and the framework of legal practice. Featuring multidisciplinary scholars from around the world, this book offers a comprehensive overview of the emerging field of law and the cognitive sciences. It develops new theories and provides often provocative insights into the relationship between the cognitive sciences and various dimensions of the law including legal philosophy and methodology, doctrinal issues, and evidence.
