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7Personality and Its Partisan Political Correlates Predict U.S. State Differences in Covid-19 Policies and Mask Wearing PercentagesFrontiers in Psychology 12. 2021.A central feature of the Covid-19 pandemic is state differences. Some state Governors closed all but essential businesses, others did not. In some states, most of the population wore face coverings when in public; in other states, <50% wore face coverings. According to journalists, these differences were symptomatic of a politically polarized America. The Big 5 personality factors also cluster at the state level. For example, residents of Utah score high on Conscientiousness and low on Neurotici…Read more
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10Aspiration fuels willpower: Evidence from the addiction literatureBehavioral and Brain Sciences 44. 2021.Ainslie identifies two possible motivational sources for resolve: “thinking categorically” and “intertemporal bargaining.” Ainslie opts for intertemporal bargaining, adding that thinking categorically has no motivational power. The most researched instance of willpower is remission from addiction. This literature shows that aspirations for a more desirable identity and comfortable lifestyle motivate remission. In other words, “thinking categorically” drives willpower.
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26Dissociating Attention and Eye Movements in a Quantitative Analysis of Attention AllocationFrontiers in Psychology 8. 2017.
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21The case of the “redundant” donor: Neither egoistic nor altruisticBehavioral and Brain Sciences 12 (4): 708-709. 1989.
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37The sense of conscious willBehavioral and Brain Sciences 27 (5): 663-664. 2004.Wegner's conclusion that conscious will is an illusion follows from a key omission in his analysis. Although he describes conscious will as an experience, akin to one of the senses, he omits its objective correlate. The degree to which behavior can be influenced by its consequences (voluntariness) provides an objective correlate for conscious will. With conscious will anchored to voluntariness, the illusion disappears.
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836Addiction: An Emergent Consequence of Elementary Choice PrinciplesInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 56 (5). 2013.ABSTRACT Clinicians, researchers and the informed public have come to view addiction as a brain disease. However, in nature even extreme events often reflect normal processes, for instance the principles of plate tectonics explain earthquakes as well as the gradual changes in the face of the earth. In the same way, excessive drug use is predicted by general principles of choice. One of the implications of this result is that drugs do not turn addicts into compulsive drug users; they retain the c…Read more
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19Which behavioral consequences matter? The importance of frame of reference in explaining addictionBehavioral and Brain Sciences 19 (4): 599-610. 1996.The target article emphasizes the relationship between a matching law-based theory of addiction and the disease model of addiction. In contrast, this response emphasizes the relationship between the matching law theory and other behavioral approaches to addiction. The basic difference, I argue, is that the matching law specifies that choice is governed by local reinforcement rates. In contrast, economics says that overall reinforcement rate controls choice, and for other approaches there are oth…Read more
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44Resolving the contradictions of addictionBehavioral and Brain Sciences 19 (4): 561-574. 1996.Research findings on addiction are contradictory. According to biographical records and widely used diagnostic manuals, addicts use drugs compulsively, meaning that drug use is out of control and independent of its aversive consequences. This account is supported by studies that show significant heritabilities for alcoholism and other addictions and by laboratory experiments in which repeated administration of addictive drugs caused changes in neural substrates associated with reward. Epidemiolo…Read more
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Boston CollegeRegular Faculty
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Action |
Philosophy of Mind |