A perpetrator’s mental state – whether she had mens rea or a “guilty mind” – typically plays an important role in evaluating wrongness and assigning punishment. In two experiments, we find that this role for mental states is weaker in evaluating conventional violations relative to moral violations. We also find that this diminished role for mental states may be associated with the fact that con...

Artikkelen diskuterer narrativers betydning for befolkningens tillit til politikere etter terror, med utgangspunkt i angrepene Oslo og på Utøya, Barcelona Nice. I Norge så man 22.juli 2011 en sterk økning politisk tillit, mens bildet de to andre casene er mer sammensatt. Også angrepet 2017 steg den politiske tilliten, svekket seg fra et allerede lavt nivå Nice 2016. Mens myndighetene ser ut å h...

Various philosophical definitions of free will are first considered. The compatibilist definition, which says simply that acts are freely willed if they are not subject to constraints, is identified as much used in the legal system and essentially impervious to scientific investigation. A middle-ground "incompatibilist" definition, which requires that freely willed acts be consciously initiated...

Disorders of impulse control are commonly induced by alcohol. As Lady Macbeth said, “That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; What hath quenched them hath given me fire” (Ref. 1, p 1231). The report by van Oorsouw et al. from The Netherlands re-emphasizes the prevalence of alcohol-induced blackouts in a community sample and suggests that the claim of amnesia during a criminal event ma...