Paul Thagard
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- March 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190678722
- eISBN:
- 9780190686420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190678722.003.0011
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Models and Architectures
The legal profession is a complex of mental and social mechanisms. Social cognitivism yields new ways of thinking about reasonable doubt, wrongful convictions, and criminal responsibility. Semantic ...
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The legal profession is a complex of mental and social mechanisms. Social cognitivism yields new ways of thinking about reasonable doubt, wrongful convictions, and criminal responsibility. Semantic pointer theories of cognition and emotion explain individual decisions, including defective ones that lead to wrongful convictions. Explanatory coherence shows how people can make judgments of guilt in accord with legal principles, and reasonable doubt based on the value of the presumption of innocence is a legitimate motivated inference. However, illegitimate motivated inferences resulting from emotional coherence with inappropriate values can produce biased and inaccurate verdicts. Moreover, the social interactions that operate in trials and other legal proceedings can naturally be explained using the semantic pointer theory of communication that mingles verbal and nonverbal modes while accommodating the interactions of cognitions and emotions.Less
The legal profession is a complex of mental and social mechanisms. Social cognitivism yields new ways of thinking about reasonable doubt, wrongful convictions, and criminal responsibility. Semantic pointer theories of cognition and emotion explain individual decisions, including defective ones that lead to wrongful convictions. Explanatory coherence shows how people can make judgments of guilt in accord with legal principles, and reasonable doubt based on the value of the presumption of innocence is a legitimate motivated inference. However, illegitimate motivated inferences resulting from emotional coherence with inappropriate values can produce biased and inaccurate verdicts. Moreover, the social interactions that operate in trials and other legal proceedings can naturally be explained using the semantic pointer theory of communication that mingles verbal and nonverbal modes while accommodating the interactions of cognitions and emotions.
Paul Thagard
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- March 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190678722
- eISBN:
- 9780190686420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190678722.003.0007
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Models and Architectures
The irrational exuberance of people in an economic bubble can be contrasted with the panicked despair of people in a crash by identifying their very different concepts, beliefs, rules, analogies, and ...
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The irrational exuberance of people in an economic bubble can be contrasted with the panicked despair of people in a crash by identifying their very different concepts, beliefs, rules, analogies, and emotions. Motivated inference encourages people to think that good times can only continue, whereas fear-driven inference disposes people to dread that bad times will only get worse. In bubbles, motivated inference and molecules such as testosterone and dopamine provide the feedback loop to encourage individuals to remain optimistic. In crashes, fear driven-inference and molecules such as cortisol promote pessimism. Bubbles, crashes, and other economic changes are not just matters of individual psychology because they are also social processes resulting from the communicative interactions of many people.Less
The irrational exuberance of people in an economic bubble can be contrasted with the panicked despair of people in a crash by identifying their very different concepts, beliefs, rules, analogies, and emotions. Motivated inference encourages people to think that good times can only continue, whereas fear-driven inference disposes people to dread that bad times will only get worse. In bubbles, motivated inference and molecules such as testosterone and dopamine provide the feedback loop to encourage individuals to remain optimistic. In crashes, fear driven-inference and molecules such as cortisol promote pessimism. Bubbles, crashes, and other economic changes are not just matters of individual psychology because they are also social processes resulting from the communicative interactions of many people.
