The authors tested a model in which a group's association with an offender impacts collective imprisonment indirectly via dispositional attribution and blame to the group, culture does so indirectly via blame, and severity of outcome directly determines imprisonment. In two experiments, Easterners and Westerners made dispositional attribution, blame, and imprisonment responses to an offender's group associated with him by commission versus omission and with high versus low severity of outcome for the victim. Commission generated higher responses to the group than did omission. Collective blame and imprisonment responses were higher by Easterners than Westerners. The severity of outcome affected imprisonment in Experiment 1. Results of Experiment 1 suggested merit of the two-route causal-moral model; those of Experiment 2 confirmed the model.

Association, Culture, and Collective Imprisonment: Tests of a Two-Route Causal-Moral Model

Two experimental studies, based on a model using a novel integration of theories, provide evidence that collective blame, the assignment of blame to members of a group besides the member(s) who directly caused a misdeed, in the aftermath of counterproductive work behavior (CWB) is higher when a group of coworkers is perceived as a single entity. Further, the studies consistently show that this relationship is mediated by inferences about both indirect causality and common blameworthy traits among group members. These findings extend prior research, which has not considered mediation in this relationship by dual inferences. Additionally, perceivers’ implicit theories about people's character were found to moderate the inferences they favor, with inferences about indirect causality versus common traits favored by perceivers with implicit theories that people's character is malleable versus fixed, respectively. These findings extend prior research by empirically supporting the notion that the nature of perceivers’ implicit theories about people's character is related to why they perceive a group to be a single entity. The findings, future directions and implications of improved understanding of the assignment of collective blame following CWB are discussed.

How group and perceiver characteristics affect collective blame following counterproductive work behavior

The authors tested a causal–moral model of punishment in which (a) causal attribution and moral responsibility are distinct precursors of punishment, and (b) dispositional attribution leads to blame which, in turn, determines imprisonment. Specifically, whereas severity of outcome impacts punishment directly, circumstances of the crime and the culture of the observers impact punishment through causal attribution and blame, respectively. In an experiment, Singaporeans and Americans read about a crime that (a) was committed intentionally or under an extenuating circumstance and (b) had low or severe outcome for the victim. They made dispositional attribution to, assigned blame to, and recommended imprisonment for the offender. Results supported the hypotheses and the causal–moral path model that specified a direct effect of severity of outcome, an indirect effect of country via blame, and the indirect effects of circumstance via dispositional attribution to blame on imprisonment.

From wrongdoing to imprisonment: Test of a causal–moral model

How do people react to the headline news they receive? According to the model of people as intuitive scientists (Kelley, 1972; Ross, 1977), people—like scientists—make causal explanations (i.e., why did an event take place?) and assign responsibility to the person, the situation, or both. However, a more recently proposed social-functionalist model (Tetlock, 2002) views people less as intuitive scientists trying to understand the world and more as intuitive prosecutors trying to protect a fragile social order. Thus, implicational concerns (i.e., how would it affect people's lives, properties, and liberties?) with the news can also be likely reactions. Given the prescriptions of these models, the present authors tested the hypotheses that news reports evoke both causal explanations and implicational concerns among viewers, and that the degree of the two reactions depends on the valence (positive vs. negative) and theme (whether it is unusual or social order-linked) of the news. Singaporeans (N = 80) read o...

Reacting to headline news: circumstances leading to causal explanations versus implicational concerns.

In responding to wrongdoings, people simultaneously pursue the goals of social control and fairness to the wrongdoer. Social control necessitates stronger weighting of consequences than causes; fairness entails the opposite. The authors hypothesized that the developmental shift from overweighting consequence to overweighting intent when determining levels of punishment illustrates a shift from a default defender of the normative order to a motivated crusader of fairness to the wrongdoer. Thus, punishment should increase slightly for intentional wrongdoings but decrease substantially for accidental wrongdoings as people age. In an experiment on disciplinary action in Singapore, 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds learned about the consequences of and intentions behind wrongdoings by peers and predicted consistency of the same act in the future, assigned blame to the wrongdoers, and recommended punishment for them. Results supported hypotheses derived from a fair-but-biased-yet-correctible model of intuitive prosecutors.

Age-moderated effects of consequence and intent information on punishment: an intuitive prosecutorial interpretation.

Severe, compared to mild, harm results in harsher punishment. According to the model of people as intuitive prosecutors, the severity effect is a deterrence message. The authors tested this hypothesis in two studies in Singapore. In Study 1, participants learnt about the severity of harm arising from an accidental or intentional act, and expressed anger, made attributions, assigned blame, recommended compensation by and imprisonment of the offender, and indicated the degree to which they were guided by the punishment goals of deterrence and retribution. As hypothesized, the prosecutorial mindset was multidimensional, and the deterrence goal mediated the severity effect on punishment. In Study 2, the severity effect held when the punishment goal was unspecified but not when it was experimentally specified as deterrence.

Severity effect on compensation and imprisonment recommendations: Deterrence as a mediator in Singapore

EEG based depression recognition using improved graph convolutional neural network

Objective. Depression is accompanied by abnormalities in large-scale functional brain networks. This paper combined static and dynamic methods to analyze the abnormal topology and changes of functional connectivity network (FCN) of depression. Methods. We collected resting-state EEG recordings from 27 depressed subjects and 28 normal subjects, then obtained 68 regions of interests (ROIs) by source localization. We took ROIs as the nodes and correlations as the edges to build FCNs and analyzed static network based on graph theory. We used a sliding window method followed by k-means clustering, states analyses and trend analysis of network metrics over time to study dynamic connectivity. Results. The clustering coefficient (CC) and local efficiency in depression were increased, the characteristic path length and global efficiency were decreased, and local metrics had different manifestations in different resting state networks (RSNs); Depression had reduced connectivity in most RSNs, but increased connectivity in the default mode network, and there was a decoupling phenomenon between different RSNs; Depressed patients spent more time in sparsely connected states, their FCN's flexibility was less than normal subjects; The trend of CC over time was opposite between two groups. Most metrics in normal showed a relatively stronger correlation with time. Significance. Our research may provide a deeper understanding of neurophysiological mechanisms of depression and new biomarkers for clinical diagnosis of depression.

Xiangbin Lin

Papers

Severity effect on compensation and imprisonment recommendations: Deterrence as a mediator in Singapore

EEG based depression recognition using improved graph convolutional neural network

Aberrant Static and Dynamic Functional Brain Network in Depression Based on EEG Source Localization