Archive Electronique - Institut Jean Nicod
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Desire, moral evaluation or sense of duty: The modal framing of stated preference elicitation
No full textInternational audienceContingent valuation surveys generally elicit stated preferences by asking how much a respondent would be willing to pay for an environmental improvement. By drawing on linguistic theory, we propose that the modal phrasing of this question establishes a particular type of commitment towards a hypothetical payment, namely a subjective want or desire. Based on the idea that beyond subjective desires, considerations about what is morally adequate may guide expressed values and that elicitation of these can be linguistically facilitated, we employ an experimental framework to investigate the effects of different modals ( willing, should and appropriate) in the elicitation question on stated preferences. We find that elicited amounts with appropriate are higher than those elicited with willing and should for environmental improvements more associated with use values, while differences are non-significant for environmental improvements more associated with non-use values. We discuss the implications of our findings for stated preference studies, as well as the potential broader theoretical implications that our study entails regarding linguistic representations of the moral entrenchment of environmental values
Make Love or War? Monitoring the Thematic Evolution of Medieval French Narratives
No full textInternational audienceIn this paper, we test a famous conjecture in literary history put forward by Seignobos and de Rougemont according to which the French central medieval period (12-13th centuries) is characterized by an important increase in the cultural importance of love. To do that, we focus on the large and culturally important body of manuscripts containing medieval French long narrative fictions, in particular epics (chansons de geste, of the Matter of France) and romances (chiefly romans on the Matters of Britain and of Rome), both in verse and in prose, from the 12th to the 15th century. We introduce the largest available corpus of these texts, the Corpus of Medieval French Epics and Romances, composed of digitised manuscripts drawn from Gallica, and processed through layout analysis and handwritten text recognition. We then use semantic representations based on embeddings to monitor the place given to love and violence in this corpus, through time. We observe that themes (such as the relation between love and death) and emblematic works well identified by literary history do indeed play a central part in the representation of love in the corpus, but our modelling also points to the characteristic nature of more overlooked works. Variation in time seems to show that there is indeed an phase of expansion of love in these fictions, in the 13th and early 14th century, followed by a period of contraction, that seem to correlate with the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages
Associations between Early Life Adversity, Reproduction-Oriented Life Strategy, and Borderline Personality Disorder
No full textInternational audienceImportance Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is often accompanied by a history of high-risk sexual behavior and somatic comorbidities. Yet, these features are most often considered in isolation and little is known about their underlying developmental pathways. Life history theory, a leading framework in evolutionary developmental biology, can help make sense of the wide range of behaviors and health issues found in BPD.Objective To examine whether the emergence of BPD is associated with the prioritization of immediate reproductive goals over longer-term somatic maintenance goals, a life strategy that can be viewed as a developmental response to adverse early life experiences, providing rapid reproductive benefits despite costs to health and well-being.Design, Setting, and Participants This study used cross-sectional data from the second wave of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions in 2004-2005 (n = 34 653). Civilian, noninstitutionalized individuals in the US, 18 years or older, and those with and without a DSM-IV diagnosis of BPD were included. Analysis took place between August 2020 and June 2021.Main Outcomes and Measures Structural equation models were used to examine whether early life adversity was associated with the likelihood of a BPD diagnosis, either directly or indirectly through a life strategy whereby individuals trade somatic maintenance for immediate reproduction.Results Analyses were performed on a sample of 30 149 participants (females: 17 042 [52%]; mean [SE] age, 48.5 [0.09]; males: 12 747 [48%]; mean [SE] age, 47 [0.08]). Of these, 892 (2.7%) had a diagnosis of BPD and 29 257 (97.3%) did not have BPD. Mean early life adversity, metabolic disorder score, and body mass index were significantly higher among participants with a diagnosis of BPD. In an analysis adjusted for age, individuals with BPD reported having significantly more children than those without BPD (b =0.06; SE, 0.01; t = 4.09; P < .001). Having experienced greater levels of adversity in early life was significantly associated with a greater risk of being diagnosed with BPD later in life (direct relative risk = 0.268; SE, 0.067; P < .001). Importantly, this risk was further increased by 56.5% among respondents who prioritized short-term reproductive goals over somatic maintenance (indirect relative risk = 0.565; SE, 0.056; P < .001). Similar patterns of associations were found in male and female individuals.Conclusions and Relevance The hypothesis of a reproduction/maintenance life history trade-off mediating the association between early life adversity and BPD helps make sense of the high dimensionality that characterizes the physiological and behavioral correlates of BPD. Additional studies are needed to confirm these results using longitudinal data
Can the ‘downward spiral’ of material conditions, mental health and faith in government be stopped? Evidence from surveys in ‘red wall’ constituencies
No full textInternational audienceIf policy preferences follow material interests, the experience of socioeconomic disadvantage ought to increase support for redistributive policies. However, experiencing disadvantage might also reduce faith in government’s ability to make things better, indirectly reducing support for redistributive action, and leading to a spiral of widening disadvantage and increasing political disengagement. Indeed, disadvantaged communities sometimes favour right-wing platforms over those offering redistribution, as in the taking of ‘red wall’ constituencies in the North and Midlands of England by the UK Conservative party in 2019. This article uses quantitative data from a survey of ‘red wall’ voters (n = 805) to examine the bases of people’s perceptions of redistributive policies. We find that even a radical redistributive policy, Universal Basic Income (UBI), receives consistently high levels of support (69.45 SD 27.24). Lower socioeconomic status, greater financial distress and greater risk of destitution all increase support. These effects are partly mediated by mental distress, which is markedly higher among the less well off. However, the same socioeconomic factors also reduce faith in government, which in turn is associated with lower support. Thus, those who stand to benefit most from redistribution are aware of their material interests, but are also the least confident in the ability of government to improve their lives. As such, there is a clear political challenge for progressive politicians: those whose support they depend upon require a significant redistributive offer, but also need to be persuaded of the viability of reform to support progressive change
Negativity bias in the spread of voter fraud conspiracy theory tweets during the 2020 US election
No full textInternational audienceAbstract During the 2020 US presidential election, conspiracy theories about large-scale voter fraud were widely circulated on social media platforms. Given their scale, persistence, and impact, it is critically important to understand the mechanisms that caused these theories to spread. The aim of this preregistered study was to investigate whether retweet frequencies among proponents of voter fraud conspiracy theories on Twitter during the 2020 US election are consistent with frequency bias and/or content bias. To do this, we conducted generative inference using an agent-based model of cultural transmission on Twitter and the VoterFraud2020 dataset. The results show that the observed retweet distribution is consistent with a strong content bias causing users to preferentially retweet tweets with negative emotional valence. Frequency information appears to be largely irrelevant to future retweet count. Follower count strongly predicts retweet count in a simpler linear model but does not appear to drive the overall retweet distribution after temporal dynamics are accounted for. Future studies could apply our methodology in a comparative framework to assess whether content bias for emotional valence in conspiracy theory messages differs from other forms of information on social media
Puzzling out graphic codes
No full textInternational audienceThis response takes advantage of a diverse and wide-ranging series of comments to clarify some aspects of the target paper, and flesh out other aspects. My central point is a plea to take graphic codes seriously as codes, rather than as a kind of visual art or as a by-product of spoken language; only in this way can the puzzle of ideography be identified and solved. In this perspective, I argue that graphic codes do not derive their expressive power from iconicity alone (unlike visual arts), and I clarify the peculiar relationship that ties writing to spoken language. I then discuss three possible solutions to the puzzle of ideography. I argue that a learning account still cannot explain why ideographies fail to evolve, even if we emancipate the learning account from the version that Liberman put forward; I develop my preferred solution, the "standardization account", and contrast it with a third solution suggested by some comments, which says that ideographies do not evolve because they would make communication too costly. I consider, by way of conclusion, the consequences of these views for the future evolution of ideography
Formalizing theories of child development: Introduction to the special section
No full textInternational audienceTheories in "soft" areas of psychology lack the cumulative character of scientific knowledge. They tend neither to be refuted nor corroborated, but instead merely fade away as people lose interest. (Meehl, 1978, p. 806) In the wake of the replication crisis, there have been numerous initiatives to increase transparency in empirical research, such as preregistration, sharing materials, data, and code, and Registered Reports (Syed et al., 2023). These initiatives promote more reliable and reproducible findings (Pennington, 2023), which are essential for cumulative developmental science (Roisman, 2021). However, solid bricks are not enough; we need solid theory to build the house (Muthukrishna & Henrich, 2019). At the present time, few theories are clear and precise enough to cement findings into larger wholes. Most theories are stated in natural language, which is ambiguous-open to multiple interpretations-even if carefully crafted (Frankenhuis et al., 202
The piecemeal evolution of writing
No full textInternational audienceThis paper argues that writing evolved gradually and in piecemeal fashion. Literacy as we know and use it is made up of at least three distinct features: it is a glottography (a notation of language), it is a generalist code that can note down anything we can say, and it is a form of asynchronous communication-a way of conveying information to other people across space and across time. This combination of features is uniquely powerful; but this does not mean the three features evolved together, or for the same reasons. Glottography, generality, and asynchronous use evolved out of pace with one another. Two huge lags separate, first, the invention of glottography from its generalisation beyond proper names, second, the existence of writing as a generalist tool from the routinisation of its asynchronous use. At each step the inventors of writing responded to distinct and specific pressures. The originators of glottography were not necessarily aware of their invention's potential beyond the notation of proper names. Those who developed writing into a generalist tool, capable of encoding anything that can be said, were unlikely to anticipate that the code they were using as an accompaniment to oral recitations, or as a reminder of the transactions they took part in, would come to be used in a quite different way-to store information for the benefit of distant recipients to whom the information would be new
Individualistic and holistic models of collective beliefs and the role of rhetoric and argumentation: The example of religious and political beliefs
No full textInternational audienceThe specific problem I address in this paper is the following: as numerous sociologists and anthropologists have noticed (notably Bourdieu), most people, in general, are not very much interested in the specific content of the collective beliefs of their group and do not spend much time evaluating the logical or empirical rationality of, or engaging in discussion about them. These data seem to limit the relevance of any research program focused either on the reconstruction of plausible reasons or on the effective role of reasoning, argumentation and rhetoric in the emergence, transformation and disappearance of collective beliefs (e.g. Raymond Boudon’s and Jon Elster’s programs). Of course, these latter programs have been adapted in order to grasp the complexity of collective beliefs. However, they remain individualistic: they may introduce relations of interaction (or of interdependence) among individuals as well as system of relations or social structures, but they do not take groups in themselves into account (except in cases groups can be viewed as acting as individual units of action). Currently, new holistic and allegedly holistic models of collective beliefs are the center of many debates, especially in social philosophy but also increasingly in social psychology, political sciences and economics, in continuity, in particular, with the work of Raimo Tuomela, Philip Pettit and Margaret Gilbert. I will argue a) that certain recent allegedly holistic models – distinct from the classical models of interiorized social pressure – provide fruitful hypotheses for the understanding of collective beliefs because they are focused on the specific properties of groups; and b) that they are nevertheless compatible with individualist assumptions in Max Weber’s – or Vilfredo Pareto’s – sense and that they should be used in conjunction with a range of various individualistic models. I will also argue that all these models make sense as long as one focuses on effective argumentative and rhetoric procedures as Vilfredo Pareto did one century ag
