AnlamK comments on Celebrate Trivial Impetuses - Less Wrong

36 Post author: Alicorn 24 July 2009 10:36PM

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Comment author: Alicorn 25 July 2009 01:48:17AM 0 points [-]

There are more examples in a paper authored by Joshua Knobe on moral cognition and blameworthiness but I'm too lazy to get the reference. (Why don't you give ma slight impetus in that direction?)

This sounds like a cool paper and I'd love to read it - can you track down the citation, please? ;)

Comment author: AnlamK 25 July 2009 04:26:33AM 1 point [-]

How many spurious accounts are you going to register to upvote me?

Usually, I do things like this for 3 karma points but since you look nice, I'll give it to you for free.

It wasn't actually Knobe but John Doris, who also works in the so-called experimental philosophy paradigm. The exact reference is:

“From My Lai to Abu Ghraib: The Moral Psychology of Atrocity.” Midwest Studies in Philosophy XXXI: 25-55

Here is the relevant quotation:

"(i) Passersby who had just found a dime were twenty-two times more likely to help a woman who had dropped some papers than passersby who did not find a dime (88% vs. 4%).27 (ii) Passersby not in a hurry were six times more likely to help an unfortunate who appeared to be in significant distress than were passersby in a hurry (63% vs. 10%).28 (iii) Passersby were five times more likely to help an apparently injured man who had dropped some books when ambient noise was at normal levels than they were when a power lawnmower was running nearby (80% vs. 15%).29 (iv) In Zimbardo’s “Stanford Prison Experiment,” subjects role-playing in a simulated prison rapidly descended to Lord of the Flies barbarism.30 (v) In Milgram’s “obedience experiments,” subjects participating in a study purported to test the effects of punishment on learning would repeatedly punish a screaming “learner” with realistic (but simulated) electric shocks at the polite request of an experimenter."

(I can't use stylistic stuff like linking and quoting... Is there a guide to show how you quote?)

Comment author: Alicorn 25 July 2009 04:31:51AM 3 points [-]

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