Age trends in eye-witness suggestibility and compliance

Abstract

This paper addresses two issues: whether there is a developmental trend in suggestibility to misleading post-event information, and whether suggestibility can be reduced by use of part of the cognitive interview. Twenty participants from each of three age groups (four-to-five year olds, eight-to-nine year olds and adults) watched a filmed event, and half of the participants in each age group were subsequently asked to recall everything they had seen using a method derived from the cognitive interview procedure. Following this, all participants were asked questions about the filmed event, some of which incorporated misleading information. Twenty four hours later the witnesses were interviewed again, this time critical questions were included about the truth of the presuppositions introduced in the initial questionnaire. It was found that although the eight-to-nine year olds were more suggestible than adults, the apparent greater suggestibility of very young children (four-to-five years) could potentially be explained in terms of heightened compliance to the perceived demands of the interviewer. The 'be complete' part of the cognitive interview only produced an improvement in performance for the eight-to-nine year olds.     

Academic freedom and the occupation of Germany and Japan

Abstract

In the years 1948-54, New York University suffered an anticommunist “purge” of its faculty which was extreme even in its day. That the “McCarthyite” period at NYU was so vicious is at first puzzling. National hysteria about atomic secrets notwithstanding, it remains true that some universities with greater prestige (and hence seemingly of greater political importance) and others with more conservative administrations stopped far short of the suspension of academic freedom experienced at Washington Square and University Heights. Further, the “purges” seem to have been the product of a minority movement of anticommunist activists, and not a rebellion on the part of libertarian-minded faculty or students. A politically conformist and usually passive campus had to be convinced of the need for an ideological crusade.     

Neoliberalism and the future world

The persistence of illiberal or predatory systems of political and social power in circumstances where neoliberal market economies have advanced rapidly is often explained in terms of the last-ditch resistance of vested interests, weak institutions, or an absence of social capital. In contrast, this study argues that these seeming paradoxes are often integral to a process of neoliberal reform in that they enable the expropriation of public assets and policy agendas necessary for the emergence and consolidation of powerful private interests. At another level, the rise of neoconservative policy agendas and the blurring of state-business relations within the neoliberal camp itself may be seen to undermine the epoch of neoliberalism. This article argues that the shift toward various manifestations of empire is a political response to crises designed to preserve those hegemonic relations established by neoliberal agendas. These various mutations of markets' predatory oligarchies, illiberal politics, and empire possess a substantial internal coherence.     

The effects of common medications on volumetric phallometry

Abstract

Phallometry is a physiological measure of sexual response widely used for the assessment of paedophilia among sexual offenders. Although many medications decrease penile response sufficiently to interfere with sexual intercourse, it is unknown to what extent such medications might interfere with phallometric testing. In the current study, we utilized a naturalistic convenience sample of 1078 men who attended a clinic for assessment of sexual preferences, mostly related to sexual offence convictions. In the present analyses, we quantified the differences in penile response during phallometric assessment associated with taking a range of common medications. Participants on medication typically showed less penile output than participants not taking medications; however, differences were largely accounted for by age rather than by medication status. Though most medications were associated with decreases in penile responsivity during volumetric phallometric testing, such changes were small in absolute terms and appeared to be associated with ageing rather than with the medications themselves.     

Politics and Mass Media: A Response to John Street

This short article is a response to an overview of research on media-political relations written by John Street and published in the Political Studies Review in 2005. The usefulness of the exercise is recognised but issue is taken both with the organising concepts of Street's account and the way he excludes a significant body of research from his assessment, raising questions about his characterisation of the field under scrutiny. A case is made for assessing the tensions and the varieties of work in this broad area by the use of other categories, including the play-off between media-centric and politics-centric accounts, the continuing strand of work informed by critical theory and the sheer variety of the topics upon which researchers have chosen to focus as a way into a broader agenda. The importance of work engaging with issues at an international level is emphasised together with the value of new comparative studies. In conclusion, the state of the area is judged more positively than in Street's assessment. Questions of power are argued to be the principal point at issue in comparing research approaches and the need for further explicitness and clarity here is noted.     

Operation Restore Hope and the Illusion of a News Media Driven Intervention

US intervention in Somalia (1992) and Iraq (1991) are held as evidence for a more powerful media in the post Cold War era and the thesis that media coverage of suffering people is a major cause of humanitarian intervention. This paper investigates the role of mass media during the 1992 decision to deploy ground troops in Somalia. A media influence model is outlined and then applied to the decision to intervene in Somalia. The research indicates that significant levels of media attention actually followed the intervention decision and that this coverage was framed in a way that built support for the intervention. I conclude there is little evidence to support the claim that media coverage compelled policy makers to intervene or that media coverage was a major factor in policy deliberations. Overall, the role of media in causing intervention in Somalia has been substantially overplayed, instead other factors are likely to have had a far greater effect in causing the intervention. This finding challenges both the thesis that media coverage is a major cause of the deployment of ground troops during humanitarian crisis and suggests caution be exercised with regard to post-Cold War claims of a more powerful and influential media.     

The Politics of Russia's Partial Democracy

This review looks at the failure of Russia to consolidate democracy over the past decade. Most explanations of this failure concentrate on the role of institutions, particularly the influence of the presidency. The design of Russian democracy has undermined democratic governance and lessened the chance of democratic consolidation in the future by weakening two preconditions for democratic maturity in Russia, the development of a common legal and political space through the improvement of the federal system and the construction of a national market economy. The review concludes by asking whether, and in what dimensions, Russia's partial democratic system can be stable.