A Mind to Blame: New Views on Involuntary Acts

Denno, Deborah W.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.458980

Cited by 14 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Determining whether an act was premeditated is considered to be one of the principle tasks, if not the primary task, of modern legal systems (Denno, 2003). When a person is tried for a crime, juries are asked to determine the fulfillment of two criteria: Actus reus and mens rea.…”

Section: Premeditation Engenders False Perceptions Of Personal Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Perish the Forethought: Premeditation Engenders Misperceptions of Personal Control

Morewedge

Wegner²

2010

SSRN Journal

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People are normally encouraged to engage in premeditation-to think about the potential consequences of their behavior before acting. Indeed, planning, considering, and studying can be important precursors to decision making, and often seem to be essential to effective action. This view of premeditation is shared by most humans, a kind of universal ideal, and it carries an additional interesting implication: Even the hint that premeditation occurred can serve as a potent cue indicating voluntary action, both to actors and observers. In legal and moral contexts, for example, actors are seen as especially culpable for the consequences of their actions if those consequences were premeditated, whether or not the premeditation influenced the decision. In this chapter, we review evidence indicating that the perception of premeditation itself can lead people to think that an action's consequences are under personal control, and that this occurs even when the premeditation is irrelevant to the production of the consequences. We present research exploring how various forms of perceived premeditation-including foresight, effortful forethought, wishful thinking, and the consideration of multiple possible outcomes of action-may lead actors to prefer and feel responsible for action outcomes even when this premeditation has no causal relation to the outcomes.Premeditation Engenders False Perceptions of Personal Control 3 "Except only the defendant's intention to produce a given result, no other consideration has affected our feeling that it is or is not just to hold him responsible for the result as its foreseeability." -Edgerton, (1929, p. 1134). Legal Cause. Harper and James. (cited by Hart & Honoré, 1959/2002 It feels necessary to think carefully before making important decisions. Whether buying a house, picking a spouse, or deciding to have children, it seems unwise to make a decision quickly, or to simply pick the first option we considered. Even relatively inconsequential choices are preceded by significant forethought. When buying a new digital camera, for example, we might read Consumer Reports, compare features such as lenses and weight, and try to imagine which would be better suited for our next family gathering or vacation. We engage in such forethought because premeditated decisionschoices guided by prior conscious deliberation of alternatives and their consequencesare considered superior to decisions made on the fly or in its absence.1 Our parents, teachers, and peers continually advise us to "Look before you leap," and "Think before you speak," and when we make poor choices, they are often attributed to errors committed during premeditation ("What on Earth was I thinking?"). Premeditated decisions appear to determine the behavior most under our control, and behavior we control is presumed to be better than behavior we do not. Furthermore, both the legal system and society at large view the presence of premeditation as the most important indicator of rational action (Denno, 2003). Premeditation Engender...

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Section: Premeditation Engenders False Perceptions Of Personal Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Premeditated decisions appear to determine the behavior most under our control, and behavior we control is presumed to be better than behavior we do not. Furthermore, both the legal system and society at large view the presence of premeditation as the most important indicator of rational action (Denno, 2003). …”

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confidence: 99%

Perish the Forethought: Premeditation Engenders Misperceptions of Personal Control

Morewedge

Wegner²

2010

SSRN Journal

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“…As some judges and legal scholars have noted (e.g. McHugh J [32][33][34][35] ) "consciousness is not like light that is on or off" and likewise the line between wake and sleep is blurry. Although there will always be line drawing dilemmas in the law, it should be a goal that the lines should be established based on the most scientific and objective basis that is possible.…”

Section: Mens Reamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A third possible structure for a fatigue related law is to adopt for fatigued driving a version of the suggestion of McSherry 33) and Denno 34,35) whose work focuses on voluntariness and insanity and such medical conditions as epilepsy. They propose the creation of an intermediate category of awareness, between voluntary and involuntary, and between intended and unintended.…”

Section: A Way Forward?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fatigue and the Criminal Law

2005

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Fatigue is an increasingly recognised risk factor for transportation accidents. In light of this, there is the question of whether driving whilst fatigued should be a criminal offence. This paper discusses the current legal position, including the problems of voluntary conduct and self awareness. Three models for reform are proposed. The manner in which scientific research can inform legal consideration and future directions for research are discussed.

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“…It should be made clear from the outset that in this paper I am primarily concerned with the harms that occur as a result of unconscious behavior that is over-practiced (e.g., driving to work whilst undergoing somnambulism), rather than unconscious behavior that is unpracticed (e.g., killing a family member whilst undergoing somnambulism). There is an increasing body of literature that is engaged with novel behavior that occurs during somnambulism (e.g., Denno, 2003;Levy & Bayne, 2004;McSherry, 1998;Schopp, 1991;Yeo, 2002). Here, however, I shall be focusing on the harms that arise because of the non-adaptive nature of routinized unconscious behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automaticity, Consciousness and Moral Responsibility

Wigley¹

2007

Philosophical Psychology

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Cognitive scientists have long noted that automated behavior is the rule, while conscious acts of self-regulation are the exception to the rule. On the face of it, automated actions appear to be immune to moral appraisal because they are not subject to conscious control. Conventional wisdom suggests that sleepwalking exculpates, while the mere fact that a person is performing a well-versed task unthinkingly does not. However, our apparent lack of conscious control while we are undergoing automaticity challenges the idea that there is a relevant moral difference between these two forms of unconscious behavior. In both cases the agent lacks access to information that might help them guide their actions so as to avoid harms. In response, it is argued that the crucial distinction between the automatic agent and the agent undergoing an automatism, such as somnambulism or petit mal epilepsy, lies in the fact that the former can preprogram the activation and interruption of automatic behavior. Given that, it is argued that there is elbowroom for attributing responsibility to automated agents based on the quality of their will.

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A Mind to Blame: New Views on Involuntary Acts

Cited by 14 publications

References 15 publications

Perish the Forethought: Premeditation Engenders Misperceptions of Personal Control

Perish the Forethought: Premeditation Engenders Misperceptions of Personal Control

Fatigue and the Criminal Law

Automaticity, Consciousness and Moral Responsibility

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