hastings
Tom Mueller
I am a free-lance writer of non-fiction and fiction. I studied at Oxford (DPhil, Rhodes Scholar), Harvard (BA, summa cum laude), and Alief Hastings High School in rural east Texas. After that, I worke
Appropriateness ratings of everyday behaviors in the United States now and 50 years ago
Frontiers of Psychology vol. 14, 2023 Abstract Introduction:A crucial aspect of social norms pertains to determining which behaviors are considered appropriate. Here we consider everyday behaviors. Some
Uncivil speech in the social media: Democracy, Political liberalism, and the virtue of Public Reason
Constellations Introduction Initial hopes of the democratizing potential of the internet are increasingly replaced by fear that a fragmented and unedited public sphere unleashes the destructive forces o
Is there a rating bias of job candidates based on gender and parenthood? A laboratory experiment on hiring for an accounting job
Acta Sociologica Abstract Biased practices by employers have been suggested as one possible cause for the observed gender disparities in labor market outcomes. While US-based laboratory experiments show
When is it appropriate to reprimand a norm violation? The roles of anger, behavioral consequences, violation severity, and social distance
Judgment and Decision Making, Vol. 12, No. 4, July 2017, pp. 396–407. Abstract Experiments on economic games typically fail to find positive reputational effects of using peer punishment of selfish behav
Perceptions of the appropriate response to norm violation in 57 societies
in: Nature Communications 12, 1481. AbstractNorm enforcement may be important for resolving conflicts and promoting cooperation. However, little is known about how preferred responses to norm violation
Democratizing the Corporation - Conference 27-29 January
On the 27-29:th of January we are hosting the conference Democratizing the Corporation in collaboration with the Havens-Wright Center for Social Justice, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The conference
Reactions on a seminar on ethics and e-cigarettes
In 2016 dozens of prominent researchers from around the world came to our institute to work on the ambitious research report "Rethinking society for the 21st century" by the International Panel on Soci. One of the many interesting researchers we had the pleasure of hosting was Daniel Wikler, Professor of Ethics and Population Health.
Still heating: Unfolding a typology of climate obstruction
In N. Marschner, C. Richter, J. Patz, & A. Salheiser (Eds.), Contested climate justice – Challenged democracy: International perspectives (pp. 59-71). Campus Verlag GmbH Abstract Earth is on a catastryet, there is little sign of halting the rise of global greenhouse gas emissions orstopping the extraction of fossil fuels. Against this background, in this articlewe re-engage with a recently proposed typology supposed to cover three modesthrough which effective climate action has been obstructed. These are, first,primary obstruction, that is, the spread of disinformation and/or denying the veryexistence of anthropogenic climate change. Second, secondary obstruction concernsmore or less deliberate obstruction via opposition to climate action and policiesvia, for example, reference to “the threat of deindustrialisation”. Finally, tertiaryobstruction denotes modes of living which, while not necessarily obstructingeffective climate change intentionally, concerns “living in denial”. Drawing onrecent research and examples, we revisit this typology.

Ambivalence: A new unified theory about its nature, grounds, and application to normative conflicts
Having mixed feelings about something can help us to deal with conflicts. Since this view on ambivalence challenges traditional approaches that see ambivalence as a flaw, this project aims to develop a new theory of ambivalence.