How Stereotypes Deceive Us

Stereotypes sometimes lead us to make poor judgements of other people, but they also have the potential to facilitate quick, efficient, and accurate judgements. How can we discern whether any individual act of stereotyping will have the positive or negative effect? How Stereotypes Deceive Us addresses this question. It identifies various factors that determine whether or not the application of a stereotype to an individual in a specific context will facilitate or impede correct judgements and perceptions of the individual. It challenges the thought that stereotyping only and always impedes correct judgement when the stereotypes that are applied are inaccurate, failing to reflect social realities. It argues instead that stereotypes that reflect social realities can lead to misperceptions and misjudgements, and that inaccurate but egalitarian social attitudes can facilitate correct judgements and accurate perceptions. The arguments presented in this book have important implications for those who might engage in stereotyping and for those at risk of being stereotyped. They have implications for those who work in healthcare and those who have mental health conditions. How Stereotypes Deceive Us provides a new conceptual framework—evaluative dispositionalism—that captures the epistemic faults of stereotypes and stereotyping, providing conceptual resources that can be used to improve our own thinking by avoiding the pitfalls of stereotyping, and to challenge other people’s stereotyping where it is likely to lead to misperception and misjudgement.

Complexity in Clinical Trials: Blind Spots, Misleading Criteria, Winners and Losers

More than 90% of new potential therapeutic drugs have failed in clinical trials. In this study, the characteristics of failed new drugs for the treatment of seven types of cancer were first examined, followed by a review of the hazard ratios of survival in typical phase III clinical drug trials of these cancers from the last five years. The data suggested that population sizes in most clinical trials were limited to a certain level of detection. Evidently, each drug has its effect only in certain individuals with defined characteristics, and the success and failure of a new drug depend on these characteristics, such as ethnic group, sex, environmental conditions, pathological features, and genotype. Due to the complexity of the influence of multiple factors and the current limitation in understanding them, a large number of subgroups among patients may not have been recognized. Therefore, any decision only based on a few statistical comparisons, may not always provide correct judgement for a new drug. The drugs that are successful in clinical trials are “winners” regardless of how the differences in genotypes or other characteristics' influence on patients as compared to new drugs and placebos, or new and existing drugs. Drugs that are effective on certain characterizations or a specific group of patients are often categorized as a failure in clinical trials based on the current statistical criteria. Thus, previously failed drugs can be reevaluated and reutilized by analyzing whether these drugs have different effects on various genomic populations, or on patients who may emerge as subgroups based on other variables.

Use of radiobiology in medical jurisprudence, with particular reference to delays in diagnosis and therapeutic onset

Objective: This paper considers aspects of radiobiology and cell and tissue kinetics applicable to legal disputations concerned with diagnostic and treatment onset delays. Methods: Various models for tumour volume changes with time are reviewed for estimating volume ranges at earlier times, using ranges of kinetic parameters. Statistical cure probability methods, using Poisson statistics with allowances for parameter heterogeneity, are also described to estimate the significance of treatment delays, as well as biological effective dose (BED) estimations of radiation effectiveness. Results: The use of growth curves, based on parameters in the literature but with extended ranges, can identify a window of earlier times when such tumour volumes would be amenable to a cure based on the literature for curability with stage (and dimensions). Also, where tumour dimensions are not available in a post-operative setting, higher cure probabilities can be achieved if treatment had been given at earlier times. Conclusion: The use of radiobiological modelling can provide useful insights, with quantitative assessments of probable prior conditions and future outcomes, and thus be of assistance to a Court in deciding the most correct judgement. Advances in knowledge: This study collates prior knowledge about aspects of radiobiology that can be useful in the accumulation of sufficient proof within medicolegal claims involving diagnostic and treatment days.

Quantifying metacognitive thresholds using signal-detection theory

How sure are we about what we know? Confidence, measured via self-report, is often interpreted as a subjective probabilistic estimate on having made a correct judgement. The neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the construction of confidence and the information incorporated into these judgements are of increasing interest. Investigating these mechanisms requires principled and practically applicable measures of confidence and metacognition. Unfortunately, current measures of confidence are subject to distortions from decision biases and task performance. Motivated by a recent signal-detection theoretic behavioural measure of metacognitive sensitivity, known as meta-ď, here we present a quantitative behavioural measure of confidence that is invariant to decision bias and task performance. This measure, which we call m-distance, captures in a principled way the propensity to report decisions with high (or low) confidence. Computational simulations demonstrate the robustness of m-distance to decision bias and task performance, as well as its behaviour under conditions of high and low metacognitive sensitivity and under dual-channel and hierarchical models of metacognition. The introduction of the m-distance measure will enhance systematic quantitative studies of the behavioural expression and neurocognitive basis of subjective confidence.

Leadership – Training of Military Specialists in Particular Disciplines Focused on Mathematical Modelling

The primary mission of the Faculty of Military Leadership consists in providing university education for military professionals to become qualified experts, educated in military science and specially trained for the military service, able to fulfil a socially important role in carrying out security and state defence. In accordance with legislation in the students are also prepared for a “second career” after finishing their active service in the Army. This is not an easy goal. A quality commander should be thoroughly trained, able to make right decisions, know tactical and strategic levels of leadership, accomplish correct judgement, vision and planning, implementation and progress…, just a few terms frequently quoted and referred to this problem. Managers must often deal with factors that are beyond their control. Labour force has changed and grown during the past few decades; therefore, personnel managers must develop alternative attitudes in order to face current demands. Personnel directors must be cognizant of the many individual differences that are among employees: there are varying education levels, physical abilities, psychological and behavioural attributes, different levels of motivation, personality characteristics, etc. The paper deals with the situation of military professionals´ education at University of Defence in Brno, Czech Republic. Keywords: Crisis situation; Mathematical modelling; Training of military specialist

Pope Nicholas I and John of Ravenna: The Struggle for Ecclesiastical Rights in the Ninth Century

On 24 February 861 Pope Nicholas I excommunicated and deposed one of Italy's most powerful prelates, John VIII, archbishop of Ravenna. This papal action, prompted by a number of transgressions on the archbishop's part, was taken with the consent of a council of bishops at Rome. John immediately turned for aid to Louis II, king of Italy and emperor in the West. A delegation from Louis, however, failed to deter Nicholas who insisted that John come to Rome for adjudication. Moreover, the pope journeyed to Ravenna at the invitation of its citizens, and there personally rectified the situation which John's abuses had created. As Nicholas advanced, John retreated to seek Louis's intercession at Pavia again, but this time his reception was less cordial. The Pavians, led by their bishop, shunned the excommunicate and his retinue and Louis, who would not even grant John an audience, advised him through an intermediary to “humble himself to such a pontiff to whom we and the entire Church bow.” When a second delegation, gained only by John's repeated pleas, was again unsuccessful in bargaining with the pope, the archbishop had no choice but to submit. At the Roman synod which met from 16 to 18 November 861, John acknowledged the charges against him and was restored to his see on conditions laid down by the synod. According to the Vita Nicolai, the proceedings concluded with a standing ovation for the pope from the bishops who proclaimed three times:The correct judgement of the supreme pontiff, the just ordering of the pastor of the whole Church, the generous settlement of the disciple of Christ is pleasing to all. We are all of one voice, one mind, one judgement.