Does the cowl make the monk? The effect of military and Red Cross uniforms on empathy for pain, sense of agency and moral behaviors

The present study investigated to what extent the clothes we wear influence prosocial behaviors and two related neuro-cognitive processes, namely the sense of agency and empathy for pain. We tested forty participants wearing civilian, military and Red Cross uniforms across three consecutive days. Participants were tested by pairs and were assigned either to the role of the agent or to the role of the ‘victim’. Agents could deliver real electric shocks to the ‘victim’ in exchange for +€0.05, either following their own decision or following the experimenter’s instructions. Our results indicated that wearing a Red Cross uniform increased the amplitude of the neural response to pain when participants witnessed shocks in comparison with wearing civilian or military clothing. Results also revealed that the sense of agency increased when participants wore a military uniform compared to wearing their own civilian clothing in the Free condition. Finally, participants gave less shocks when wearing the Red Cross uniform compared to wearing their civilian clothing. This study highlights the effect of wearing symbolic uniforms on the sense of agency, on the neural empathic response and on prosocial behavior, thus broadening our knowledge on the impact of ‘enclothed cognition’ on cognitive and psychological processes.

Militarization and Perceptions of Law Enforcement in the Developing World: Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment in Mexico

Although a growing body of research suggests that the constabularization of the military for domestic policing is counterproductive, this increasingly prevalent policy has nonetheless enjoyed widespread support in the developing world. This study advances our understanding of the consequences of militarization for perceptions of law enforcement: whether visual features shape perceptions of effectiveness, respect for civil liberties, proclivity for corruption and acceptance of militarization in one's own neighborhood. Based on a nationally representative, image-based, conjoint experiment conducted in Mexico, the authors find that military weapons and uniforms enhance perceptions of effectiveness and respect for civil liberties, and that the effect of military uniform becomes greater with increased military presence. The study also finds that gender shapes perceptions of civil liberties and corruption, but detects no effect for skin color. The findings suggest that a central feature of militarization linked to greater violence – military weapons – is paradoxically a key factor explaining favorable attitudes, and that women can play a crucial role in improving perceptions of law enforcement.

Pengaruh Unsur Military Terhadap Desain Fashion Kalangan Muda di Indonesia

Techwear adalah perpaduan fashion dengan outdoor outfit dengan sentuhan military style, yang berfokus pada fungsi dan mengutamakan aspek aesthetics dan utility. Karakteristik utility tersebut sedikit banyak berdasarkan dari bentuk, siluet dan fungsi dari military uniform atau semua yang berkaitan dengan military. Dalam implementasinya, hasil desain produk dari techwear ini merupakan desain produk yang terinspirasi dari aspek yang ada pada military. Setelah penelitian dilakukan, terdapat beberapa masalah dan peluang dari ruang lingkup sarana bawa techwear ini, yaitu butuhnya desain produk sarana bawa bagi pengguna sepeda fixgear yang beraktifitas sehari-hari menggunakan sepeda fixgear. Dengan karakteristik dari fashion techwear yang optimal, seperti fitur Utility dan Waterproof, muncul peluang baru mengenai sarana bawa techwear ini, yang terinspirasi dari karakteristik fashion techwear dan military look. Didalam aspek tersebut masih banyak ruang untuk di eksplorasi lebih dalam secara desain dan fashion. Dengan adanya fashion techwear yang baru muncul dan berkembang di Indonesia, membuat trend fashion tersebut menarik untuk dibahas lebih dalam lagi. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode Studi Literatur yang menghasilkan sebuah kajian data yang relevan.

“Not Altogether Ridiculous”

Spanning a long literary history, from 1742 to 1934, this essay argues for the military epaulette as an important material signifier through which the arbitrary nature of rank and colonial authority was revealed and challenged. This essay connects the anxieties attending the introduction of epaulettes in newly nationalized European armies to the historical and rhetorical impact of such uniforms on depictions of so-called Black chiefs, including Toussaint Louverture, Lamour Derance, and Nat Turner. In the context of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century slave revolts and imperial and colonial war fronts, this otherwise semiotic feature of the military uniform was a catalyst for a particular kind of confrontation over authority of signification in the tug-of-war between rank and race. This essay tracks a consistent rhetoric of violence and ridicule in these confrontations as they appear in histories, novels, and plays. In the work of Walter Scott, Victor Hugo, William Wells Brown, and Martin Delany, attempts to read epaulettes produce a violent form of colonial desire that is only permitted when couched in the rhetoric of ridicule and the ridiculous. The essay’s final pages turn to the first half of the twentieth century, when the still violent stakes of subverting the uniform persist through an ambivalence stemming from the literal and figural “costuming” of the Black chief.

ԿՈՒՐԱՐԱՔՍՅԱՆ ՄԻՋԱԳԵՏՔԻ ԲՐՈՆԶ-ԵՐԿԱԹԵԴԱՐՅԱՆ ՈՒՍԱԳՈՏԻՆԵՐԸ

An object type characterized as a shoulder strap was found in archaeological sites of the Armenian Highland and the South Caucasus. They served as a strap from which weapons (blade or sword) were mounted. Their purpose was to ensure quick accessibility to the weapon during combats. In ancient societies, shoulder straps symbolized the privileged status of the military aristocracy. The emergence and depiction of the straps on the inventory coincide with a transformation in the social landscape on the one hand and with the early state formation processes on the other hand. Social changes led to the formation of a militarized class of the privileged who, as part of their military uniform, possessed also the shoulder strap. This is evidenced by the multiple images of warrior-predecessors in the form of statuettes-standards and sculptures of the Bronze and Iron Age, as well as on bronze and clay vessels, which show the development of the form and function of the lash.