Self-defense cases can be as politically controversial as they are physically violent. Their conf... more Self-defense cases can be as politically controversial as they are physically violent. Their conflict-provoking potential is reflected in two icons: the battered woman who shoots her abusive husband in the head as he sleeps, and the beleaguered urban commuter who opens fire on an African-American teenager who solicits him for cash. 1 Behind these figures, however, stand broad, and
In a 1950s social psychology experiment, students from two Ivy League colleges were instructed to... more In a 1950s social psychology experiment, students from two Ivy League colleges were instructed to evaluate a series of controversial officiating calls made during a football game between their respective schools. Researchers found that the students, from both institutions, were much more likely to perceive error in the penalty assessments imposed on their school's team than in those imposed on their rival's.
Can empirical data generate consensus about how to regulate firearms? If so, under what condition... more Can empirical data generate consensus about how to regulate firearms? If so, under what conditions? Previously, we presented evidence that individuals' cultural worldviews explain their positions on gun control more powerfully than any other fact about them, including their race or gender, the type of community or region of the country they live in, and even their political ideology or party affiliation.
The goal of our Article'was to expose the anachronistic picture of political reality that informe... more The goal of our Article'was to expose the anachronistic picture of political reality that informed the Illinois Supreme Court's decision in Chicago v Morales. 2 Relying on civil rights era precedents designed to counteract racist policies aimed at locking minorities out of the community's civic life, the Morales Court's analysis seems to treat Chicago's gang loitering ordinance as if it were indistinguishable from those earlier policies.
This article surveys recent works that seek to enrich criminal law policy analysis by incorporati... more This article surveys recent works that seek to enrich criminal law policy analysis by incorporating social norms. The article does not purport to adduce the" true" or even the" best" definition of" social norms"; rather it breaks that term down into a cluster of related concepts that are frequently subsumed within it, including" social organization,"" social meaning," and" social influence." The motivation for grouping these concepts together, moreover, is as much political as conceptual.
1292 UNIVERSITY OlFPENNSYLVANIA IAWREVEW[Vol. 151: 1291 pose it. Indeed, cultural orientations so... more 1292 UNIVERSITY OlFPENNSYLVANIA IAWREVEW[Vol. 151: 1291 pose it. Indeed, cultural orientations so defined are stronger predictors of individuals' positions than i any other fact about them, including whether they are male or female, white or black, southerners or easterners, urbanites or country dwellers, conservatives or liberals. The role of culture in determining attitudes toward guns suggests that empirical analyses of the effect of gun control on violent crime are unlikely to have much impact.
If you want to know the law and nothing else, you must look at it as a bad man, who cares only fo... more If you want to know the law and nothing else, you must look at it as a bad man, who cares only for the material consequences which such knowledge enables him to predict, not as a good one, who finds his reasons for conduct, whether inside the law or outside of it, in the vaguer sanctions of conscience.
Abstract This paper accepts the unusual invitation to see for yourself issued by the Supreme Cour... more Abstract This paper accepts the unusual invitation to see for yourself issued by the Supreme Court in Scott v. Harris, 127 S. Ct. 1769 (2007). Scott held that a police officer did not violate the Fourth Amendment when he deliberately rammed his car into that of a fleeing motorist who refused to pull over for speeding and instead attempted to evade the police in a high-speed chase.
Abstract: Ought implies can. This paper investigates whether the central moral directives of libe... more Abstract: Ought implies can. This paper investigates whether the central moral directives of liberalism are ones citizens can-as matter of human cognition-be expected to honor. Liberalism obliges the state to disclaim a moral orthodoxy and instead premise legal obligation on secular grounds accessible to persons of diverse cultural persuasions. Studies of the phenomenon of cultural cognition, however, suggest that individuals naturally impute socially harmful consequences to behavior that defies their moral norms.
Abstract: In this article, I renounce my previous defense of shaming penalties. Sort of. In What ... more Abstract: In this article, I renounce my previous defense of shaming penalties. Sort of. In What Do Alternative Sanctions Mean, 63 U. Chi. L. Rev. 591 (1996), I argued that shaming penalties would likely be a politically viable substitute for imprisonment for a range of nonviolent (or relatively nonviolent) offenses because unlike fines, community service, and other alternative sanctions that have encountered decisive resistance, shaming unambiguously expresses moral denunciation of criminal wrongdoers.
Those for and against hate crime laws debate each other in the shadow of John Stuart Mill. Both a... more Those for and against hate crime laws debate each other in the shadow of John Stuart Mill. Both accept the Millian premise that the state is justified in coercing an individual only to prevent harm to others and not to condemn that individual for holding objectionable beliefs, values, or preferences. 1
My objective in this essay—manifesto, might be a better description—is not to take any particular... more My objective in this essay—manifesto, might be a better description—is not to take any particular position on gun control but instead to take issue with the terms in which the gun control debate is cast. That debate, I want to suggest, has been disfigured by two distorting influences on the rhetoric of both sides. I will term one the" tyranny of econometrics" and the other" circumspection of liberalism." Counteracting these influences almost certainly will not dispel Americans' differences of opinion on guns.
I have posted a couple times (here & here) on the" symmetry" question--whether dynamics of motiva... more I have posted a couple times (here & here) on the" symmetry" question--whether dynamics of motivated reasoning generate biased information processing uniformly (more or less) across cultural or ideological styles or are instead confined to one (conservativism or hierarchy-individualism), as proponents of the" asymmetry thesis" argue.
" Dual process" theories of reasoning--which have been around for a long time in social psycholog... more " Dual process" theories of reasoning--which have been around for a long time in social psychology--posit (for the sake of forming and testing hypotheses; positing for any other purpose is obnoxious) that there is an important distinction between two types of mental operations.
Abstract: The phenomenon of cultural cognition refers to the disposition of individuals to adopt ... more Abstract: The phenomenon of cultural cognition refers to the disposition of individuals to adopt factual beliefs about risk that express their cultural evaluations of putatively dangerous activities. In a previous review essay (119 Harv. L. Rev.
I've read a number of your papers regarding how people's cultural biases influence their percepti... more I've read a number of your papers regarding how people's cultural biases influence their perception of expertise. I was wondering if you were aware of any research on the converse of this process–where people read material from a single expert and, in the absence of any further evidence, infer their cultural affinities.
I've read a number of your papers regarding how people's cultural biases influence their percepti... more I've read a number of your papers regarding how people's cultural biases influence their perception of expertise. I was wondering if you were aware of any research on the converse of this process–where people read material from a single expert and, in the absence of any further evidence, infer their cultural affinities.
Self-defense cases can be as politically controversial as they are physically violent. Their conf... more Self-defense cases can be as politically controversial as they are physically violent. Their conflict-provoking potential is reflected in two icons: the battered woman who shoots her abusive husband in the head as he sleeps, and the beleaguered urban commuter who opens fire on an African-American teenager who solicits him for cash. 1 Behind these figures, however, stand broad, and
In a 1950s social psychology experiment, students from two Ivy League colleges were instructed to... more In a 1950s social psychology experiment, students from two Ivy League colleges were instructed to evaluate a series of controversial officiating calls made during a football game between their respective schools. Researchers found that the students, from both institutions, were much more likely to perceive error in the penalty assessments imposed on their school's team than in those imposed on their rival's.
Can empirical data generate consensus about how to regulate firearms? If so, under what condition... more Can empirical data generate consensus about how to regulate firearms? If so, under what conditions? Previously, we presented evidence that individuals' cultural worldviews explain their positions on gun control more powerfully than any other fact about them, including their race or gender, the type of community or region of the country they live in, and even their political ideology or party affiliation.
The goal of our Article'was to expose the anachronistic picture of political reality that informe... more The goal of our Article'was to expose the anachronistic picture of political reality that informed the Illinois Supreme Court's decision in Chicago v Morales. 2 Relying on civil rights era precedents designed to counteract racist policies aimed at locking minorities out of the community's civic life, the Morales Court's analysis seems to treat Chicago's gang loitering ordinance as if it were indistinguishable from those earlier policies.
This article surveys recent works that seek to enrich criminal law policy analysis by incorporati... more This article surveys recent works that seek to enrich criminal law policy analysis by incorporating social norms. The article does not purport to adduce the" true" or even the" best" definition of" social norms"; rather it breaks that term down into a cluster of related concepts that are frequently subsumed within it, including" social organization,"" social meaning," and" social influence." The motivation for grouping these concepts together, moreover, is as much political as conceptual.
1292 UNIVERSITY OlFPENNSYLVANIA IAWREVEW[Vol. 151: 1291 pose it. Indeed, cultural orientations so... more 1292 UNIVERSITY OlFPENNSYLVANIA IAWREVEW[Vol. 151: 1291 pose it. Indeed, cultural orientations so defined are stronger predictors of individuals' positions than i any other fact about them, including whether they are male or female, white or black, southerners or easterners, urbanites or country dwellers, conservatives or liberals. The role of culture in determining attitudes toward guns suggests that empirical analyses of the effect of gun control on violent crime are unlikely to have much impact.
If you want to know the law and nothing else, you must look at it as a bad man, who cares only fo... more If you want to know the law and nothing else, you must look at it as a bad man, who cares only for the material consequences which such knowledge enables him to predict, not as a good one, who finds his reasons for conduct, whether inside the law or outside of it, in the vaguer sanctions of conscience.
Abstract This paper accepts the unusual invitation to see for yourself issued by the Supreme Cour... more Abstract This paper accepts the unusual invitation to see for yourself issued by the Supreme Court in Scott v. Harris, 127 S. Ct. 1769 (2007). Scott held that a police officer did not violate the Fourth Amendment when he deliberately rammed his car into that of a fleeing motorist who refused to pull over for speeding and instead attempted to evade the police in a high-speed chase.
Abstract: Ought implies can. This paper investigates whether the central moral directives of libe... more Abstract: Ought implies can. This paper investigates whether the central moral directives of liberalism are ones citizens can-as matter of human cognition-be expected to honor. Liberalism obliges the state to disclaim a moral orthodoxy and instead premise legal obligation on secular grounds accessible to persons of diverse cultural persuasions. Studies of the phenomenon of cultural cognition, however, suggest that individuals naturally impute socially harmful consequences to behavior that defies their moral norms.
Abstract: In this article, I renounce my previous defense of shaming penalties. Sort of. In What ... more Abstract: In this article, I renounce my previous defense of shaming penalties. Sort of. In What Do Alternative Sanctions Mean, 63 U. Chi. L. Rev. 591 (1996), I argued that shaming penalties would likely be a politically viable substitute for imprisonment for a range of nonviolent (or relatively nonviolent) offenses because unlike fines, community service, and other alternative sanctions that have encountered decisive resistance, shaming unambiguously expresses moral denunciation of criminal wrongdoers.
Those for and against hate crime laws debate each other in the shadow of John Stuart Mill. Both a... more Those for and against hate crime laws debate each other in the shadow of John Stuart Mill. Both accept the Millian premise that the state is justified in coercing an individual only to prevent harm to others and not to condemn that individual for holding objectionable beliefs, values, or preferences. 1
My objective in this essay—manifesto, might be a better description—is not to take any particular... more My objective in this essay—manifesto, might be a better description—is not to take any particular position on gun control but instead to take issue with the terms in which the gun control debate is cast. That debate, I want to suggest, has been disfigured by two distorting influences on the rhetoric of both sides. I will term one the" tyranny of econometrics" and the other" circumspection of liberalism." Counteracting these influences almost certainly will not dispel Americans' differences of opinion on guns.
I have posted a couple times (here & here) on the" symmetry" question--whether dynamics of motiva... more I have posted a couple times (here & here) on the" symmetry" question--whether dynamics of motivated reasoning generate biased information processing uniformly (more or less) across cultural or ideological styles or are instead confined to one (conservativism or hierarchy-individualism), as proponents of the" asymmetry thesis" argue.
" Dual process" theories of reasoning--which have been around for a long time in social psycholog... more " Dual process" theories of reasoning--which have been around for a long time in social psychology--posit (for the sake of forming and testing hypotheses; positing for any other purpose is obnoxious) that there is an important distinction between two types of mental operations.
Abstract: The phenomenon of cultural cognition refers to the disposition of individuals to adopt ... more Abstract: The phenomenon of cultural cognition refers to the disposition of individuals to adopt factual beliefs about risk that express their cultural evaluations of putatively dangerous activities. In a previous review essay (119 Harv. L. Rev.
I've read a number of your papers regarding how people's cultural biases influence their percepti... more I've read a number of your papers regarding how people's cultural biases influence their perception of expertise. I was wondering if you were aware of any research on the converse of this process–where people read material from a single expert and, in the absence of any further evidence, infer their cultural affinities.
I've read a number of your papers regarding how people's cultural biases influence their percepti... more I've read a number of your papers regarding how people's cultural biases influence their perception of expertise. I was wondering if you were aware of any research on the converse of this process–where people read material from a single expert and, in the absence of any further evidence, infer their cultural affinities.
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