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Crossing the Line: What Constitutes Torture?
Torture. The United Nations defines it as the “infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering.” But how severe is severe? That judgment determines whether or not the law classifies an interrogation practice as
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Emotions drive us to do the right or wrong
The Times of India: A new study has shown that it’s our emotions that drive us to do a right or wrong thing. A study by Rimma Teper, Michael Inzlicht, and Elizabeth Page-Gould of the
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Autism, Moral Decision-Making and the Mind
PsychCentral: A new study suggests high-functioning autistic adults appear to have trouble making moral judgments in certain situations. Specifically, the researchers found that autistic adults were more likely than non-autistic subjects to blame someone for
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The ‘flagellation effect’: Can pain compensate for immorality?
Many religious traditions have pain rituals, and some of them are grotesque. Some Shia Muslims whip themselves with zangirs, whips made of knife blades, until their backs are red with blood. In the Hindu ritual
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Dirty Hands, Dirty Mouths: U-M Study Finds a Need to Clean the Body Part That Lies
Apparently your mom had it right when she threatened to wash your mouth out with soap if you talked dirty. Lying really does create a desire to clean the “dirty” body part, according to a
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Darkness Increases Dishonest Behavior
Darkness can conceal identity and encourage moral transgressions; thus Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in “Worship” in The Conduct of Life (1860), “as gaslight is the best nocturnal police, so the universe protects itself by pitiless
