Honoring Integrity?

Author(s):  
Shmuel Nili

This chapter examines how the integrity framework bears on political honors, understood as any form of special symbolic recognition accorded by political entities to individuals, to particular social groups, or to particular social causes. Rather than focusing on honorees’ personal integrity, the chapter argues that honors decisions ought to focus on marking and reinforcing appropriate moral commitments of the collective in whose name the honor is being (or has been) awarded. Suggesting that political honors can often fulfill their collectivist functions even when they involve no individual politicians, the chapter also shows how the collectivist approach can account for cases where there is a particularly firm intuition that political leaders should be at the center of political honors. Rejecting an individual desert alternative to the collectivist approach, the chapter ends by showing how the collectivist approach can guide decisions regarding the withdrawal of political honors, without falling back either on individual integrity or on individual desert.

Politics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 500-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Cooke ◽  
Andrew Futter

This article argues that the practice and performance of nuclear deterrence can never be fully representative or democratic due to the particular pressures placed on leaders by the nuclear condition. For nuclear deterrence to be effective – and for nuclear weapons to have any political value – a leader must always convince both their electorate as well as any possible foe, that they are willing to use nuclear weapons in extremis, irrespective of whether this is their true position. In any nuclear-armed state, where politicians privately believe that using nuclear weapons is always wrong, but publicly stress that possessing nuclear weapons to use as a deterrent is right, they are forced to act dishonestly. These tensions are particularly acute in the UK context given the reliance on just one form of nuclear weapons system for deterrence and the concurrent requirement to pre-delegate secret orders through a ‘letter of last resort’. The consequences for democratic nuclear-armed states are troubling; for public morality, the personal integrity of democratic leaders, and for true democratic accountability. This article concludes that public criticism of political leaders, and citizen voting choices, ought to take account of the problem of transparency posed by policies of nuclear deterrence.


Two Homelands ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (54) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Della Puppa ◽  
Fabio Perocco

Deriving from multiple ecological-social causes, the novel coronavirus and, subsequently, the COVID-19 pandemic, has affected all spheres of societies of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered and amplified an economic crisis that existed before the health crisis. The combination of the two crises into a double “ecological-­healthcare” and “socio-economic” crisis has had multiple consequences for everyone on the economic, social, political, and cultural level; however, it has affected social classes, workers, genders, and territories in different ways, deepening social inequalities and worsening the social conditions of disadvantaged social groups: among the most affected social groups, we find migrants.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 219-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bojana M. Dinić ◽  
Tara Bulut Allred ◽  
Boban Petrović ◽  
Anja Wertag

Abstract. The aim of this study was to evaluate psychometric properties of three sadism scales: Short Sadistic Impulse Scale (SSIS), Varieties of Sadistic Tendencies (VAST, which measures direct and vicarious sadism), and Assessment of Sadistic Personality (ASP). Sample included 443 participants (50.1% men) from the general population. Reliability based on internal consistency of all scales was good, and results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) showed that all three scales had acceptable fit indices for the proposed structure. Results of Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis showed that all three scales had higher measurement precision (information) in above-average scores. Validity of the scales was supported through moderate to high positive correlations with the Dark Triad traits, especially psychopathy, as well as positive correlations with aggressiveness and negative with Honesty-Humility. Moreover, results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that all three measures of direct, but not vicarious sadism, contributed significantly above and beyond other Dark Triad traits to the prediction of increased positive attitudes toward dangerous social groups. The profile similarity index showed that the SSIS and the ASP were highly overlapping, while vicarious sadism seems distinct from other sadism scales.


2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 206-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Verónica Sevillano ◽  
Susan T. Fiske

Abstract. Nonhuman animals are typically excluded from the scope of social psychology. This article presents animals as social objects – targets of human social responses – overviewing the similarities and differences with human targets. The focus here is on perceiving animal species as social groups. Reflecting the two fundamental dimensions of humans’ social cognition – perceived warmth (benign or ill intent) and competence (high or low ability), proposed within the Stereotype Content Model ( Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002 ) – animal stereotypes are identified, together with associated prejudices and behavioral tendencies. In line with human intergroup threats, both realistic and symbolic threats associated with animals are reviewed. As a whole, animals appear to be social perception targets within the human sphere of influence and a valid topic for research.


2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Asbrock

The stereotype content model says that warmth and competence are fundamental dimensions of social judgment. This brief report analyzes the cultural stereotypes of relevant social groups in a German student sample (N = 82). In support of the model, stereotypes of 29 societal groups led to five stable clusters of differing warmth and competence evaluations. As expected, clusters cover all four possible combinations of warmth and competence. The study also reports unique findings for the German context, for example, similarities between the perceptions of Turks and other foreigners. Moreover, it points to different stereotypes of lesbians and gay men.


Author(s):  
Pieter Van Dessel ◽  
Jan De Houwer ◽  
Anne Gast ◽  
Colin Tucker Smith

Prior research suggests that repeatedly approaching or avoiding a certain stimulus changes the liking of this stimulus. We investigated whether these effects of approach and avoidance training occur also when participants do not perform these actions but are merely instructed about the stimulus-action contingencies. Stimulus evaluations were registered using both implicit (Implicit Association Test and evaluative priming) and explicit measures (valence ratings). Instruction-based approach-avoidance effects were observed for relatively neutral fictitious social groups (i.e., Niffites and Luupites), but not for clearly valenced well-known social groups (i.e., Blacks and Whites). We conclude that instructions to approach or avoid stimuli can provide sufficient bases for establishing both implicit and explicit evaluations of novel stimuli and discuss several possible reasons for why similar instruction-based approach-avoidance effects were not found for valenced well-known stimuli.


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