Risky Killing

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth Lazar
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Subjective Probabilities ◽  
Innocent Person ◽  
Innocent People

I argue that riskier killings of innocent people are, other things equal, objectively worse than less risky killings. I ground these views in considerations of disrespect and security. Killing someone more riskily shows greater disrespect for him by more grievously undervaluing his standing and interests, and more seriously undermines his security by exposing a disposition to harm him across all counterfactual scenarios in which the probability of killing an innocent person is that high or less. I argue that the salient probabilities are the agent’s sincere, sane, subjective probabilities, and that this thesis is relevant whether your risk-taking pertains to the probability of killing a person or to the probability that the person you kill is not liable to be killed. I then defend the view’s relevance to intentional killing; show how it differs from an account of blameworthiness; and explain its significance for all-things-considered justification and justification under uncertainty.

scholarly journals Does autonomous moral reasoning favor consequentialism?

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caner Turan
Keyword(s):  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Innocent Person ◽  
Moral Intuitions ◽  
Innocent People ◽  
Normative Power ◽  
The Asymmetry ◽  
Joshua Greene ◽  
Personal Harm

This paper addresses an important issue that has been commonly debated in moral psychology, namely the normative and metaethical implications of our differing intuitive responses to morally indistinguishable dilemmas. The prominent example of the asymmetry in our responses is that people often intuitively accept pulling a switch and deny pushing as a morally permissible way of sacrificing an innocent person to save more innocent people. Joshua Greene traces our negative responses to actions involving “up close and personal” harm back to our evolutionary past and argues that this undermines the normative power of deontological judgments. I reject Greene’s argument by arguing that our theoretical moral intuitions, as opposed to concrete and mid-level ones, are independent of direct evolutionary influence because they are the product of autonomous (gene-independent) moral reasoning. I then explain how both consequentialist and deontological theoretical intuitions, which enable us to make important moral distinctions and grasp objective moral facts, are produced by the exercise of autonomous moral reasoning and the process of cultural evolution. My conclusion will be that Greene is not justified in his claim that deontology is normatively inferior to consequentialism.

scholarly journals Should Fingerprint Examiners Make More Erroneous Identifications?

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-75
Author(s):  
Willa Mannering
Keyword(s):  
General Public ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Exclusion Criterion ◽  
Innocent Person ◽  
Decision Criteria ◽  
Latent Fingerprint ◽  
Innocent People ◽  
The Public ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
Similarities And Differences

This study was conducted as a response to the concerns about the consequences of latent fingerprint examinations. The goal is to determine if society’s moral values align with the current bias towards erroneous exclusion decisions over erroneous identification decisions found in latent print examinations. Subjects of this experiment were asked to manipulate a webbased visualization that reflects the tradeoffs between putting guilty people in jail and keeping innocent people out of jail. The results of the experiment were analyzed to determine the similarities and differences between the opinions of fingerprint examiners and the opinions of students and members of the general public. In practice, examiners adopt more conservative decision criteria, because they could lose their job if they put an innocent person in jail. According to the results of this study, examiners seem to have a much more liberal exclusion criterion than they actually do in casework, and the public seems willing to tolerate a higher amount of erroneous identifications in exchange for a lower erroneous exclusion rate based on their average criteria placement in the visualization. The results of this study will help examiners align their responses to those of society, and help all citizens understand the tradeoffs that can occur with shifting decision criteria. If the results of the study indicate the need to shift the decision criteria to put more criminals in jail, additional safeguards may be necessary to guard against innocent people going to jail. Thus this dataset represents a rich framework for measuring, interpreting, and responding to the values and beliefs of what constitutes a just and moral society.

Should We Forgive Wrong Actions?

2019 ◽  
pp. 156-183
Author(s):  
John Kekes
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
The Other ◽  
Innocent Person ◽  
World War ◽  
Innocent People ◽  
Billy Budd ◽  
Reasonable Answers ◽  
War Production ◽  
Military Law ◽  
The One

The question is considered by comparing the reasons for and against forgiving two men whose actions were wrong. Captain Vere in Billy Budd did wrong in the course of discharging his duty to uphold military law. It required him in time of war to hang a morally innocent although legally guilty person. The other was Albert Speer, who was responsible for German war production in the latter part of World War II. His dedication and efficiency prolonged the already lost war for years, during which time millions were killed. Both had reasons for and against their actions. Whether it is right to forgive them depends on how wrong their actions were; whether their actions were isolated episodes in their lives or part of a pattern; whether the war in which they acted was just; whether they regretted their actions; and whether they had reasonable alternatives. This chapter shows that the reasons for and against forgiveness vary with persons, actions, and contexts. If by thinking about these cases we realize that forgiveness is neither always right, nor always wrong, then we see that reasonable answers to this hard question must vary from case to case. Given that, I claim that there are good reasons for forgiving Vere for the one episode of killing of a morally innocent person and against forgiving Speer for the pattern of his actions that led to the deaths of millions of innocent people.

Boys With Epilepsy Are More Susceptible to Risk Taking

2010 ◽  
Vol 44 (10) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
PATRICE WENDLING
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking

The Multiple Faces of Risk-Taking

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Schmitz ◽  
Karsten Manske ◽  
Franzis Preckel ◽  
Oliver Wilhelm
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Formal Models ◽  
Experimental Paradigm ◽  
Nomological Network ◽  
Balloon Analogue Risk Task ◽  
Parameter Recovery ◽  
Task Specificity ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Criterion Variables

Abstract. The Balloon-Analogue Risk Task (BART; Lejuez et al., 2002 ) is one of the most popular behavioral tasks suggested to assess risk-taking in the laboratory. Previous research has shown that the conventionally computed score is predictive, but neglects available information in the data. We suggest a number of alternative scores that are motivated by theories of risk-taking and that exploit more of the available data. These scores can be grouped around (1) risk-taking, (2) task performance, (3) impulsive decision making, and (4) reinforcement sequence modulation. Their theoretical rationale is detailed and their validity is tested within the nomological network of risk-taking, deviance, and scholastic achievement. Two multivariate studies were conducted with youths (n = 435) and with adolescents/young adults (n = 316). Additionally, we tested formal models suggested for the BART that decompose observed behavior into a set of meaningful parameters. A simulation study with parameter recovery was conducted, and the data from the two studies were reanalyzed using the models. Most scores were reliable and differentially predictive of criterion variables and may be used in basic research. However, task specificity and the generally moderate validity do not warrant use of the experimental paradigm for diagnostic purposes.

The Vienna Risk-Taking Test - Traffic

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 198-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Hergovich ◽  
Martin E. Arendasy ◽  
Markus Sommer ◽  
Bettina Bognar
Keyword(s):  
Construct Validity ◽  
Personality Trait ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Personality Test ◽  
Educational Levels ◽  
Item Level ◽  
Degree Of Risk ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Homeostasis Theory

Abstract. The study reports results regarding the dimensionality and construct validity of a newly developed, objective, video-based personality test that assesses the willingness to take risks in traffic situations. On the basis of the theory of risk homeostasis developed by Wilde, different traffic situations with varying degrees of objective danger were filmed. During the test the respondents are asked to indicate at which point the action that is contingent on the described situation will become too dangerous to carry out. Latencies at the item level were recorded as a measure for the subjectively accepted degree of a person's willingness to take risks in the sense of the risk homeostasis theory by Wilde. In a study on 274 people with different educational levels and gender, the unidimensionality of the test as corresponding to the latency model by Scheiblechner was investigated. The results indicate that the Vienna Risk-Taking Test - Traffic assesses a unidimensional, latent personality trait that can be interpreted as subjectively accepted degree of risk (target risk value).

Predicting Stock Market Performance

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Thomas Plieger ◽  
Thomas Grünhage ◽  
Éilish Duke ◽  
Martin Reuter
Keyword(s):  
Stock Market ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Price Volatility ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Financial Behavior ◽  
Market Simulation ◽  
Stock Market Performance ◽  
Risk Taking Behavior

Abstract. Gender and personality traits influence risk proneness in the context of financial decisions. However, most studies on this topic have relied on either self-report data or on artificial measures of financial risk-taking behavior. Our study aimed to identify relevant trading behaviors and personal characteristics related to trading success. N = 108 Caucasians took part in a three-week stock market simulation paradigm, in which they traded shares of eight fictional companies that differed in issue price, volatility, and outcome. Participants also completed questionnaires measuring personality, risk-taking behavior, and life stress. Our model showed that being male and scoring high on self-directedness led to more risky financial behavior, which in turn positively predicted success in the stock market simulation. The total model explained 39% of the variance in trading success, indicating a role for other factors in influencing trading behavior. Future studies should try to enrich our model to get a more accurate impression of the associations between individual characteristics and financially successful behavior in context of stock trading.

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