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{
    "pk": 49970,
    "title": "The Folk Ethics of Self-Defense: An Emprical Study on the Moral Permissibility of Killing Apparent Threats",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "Philosophers of self-defense debate whether it can be morally \npermissible to kill an aggressor who only appears to threaten \nyou. In developing moral theories of self-defense, these \nphilosophers  sometimes  make  (untested)  conjectures  about \nwhat most people believe about self-defense. This paper aims \nto explore lay judgments on this issue. To do so, we conduct \nthree pre-registered experiments manipulating the actuality of \na  threat.  Across  abstract  and  concrete  scenarios  as  well  as \nwithin-subjects and between-subjects designs, results \nconsistently  show  that  laypeople  judge  certain  self-defensive \nkillings morally permissible regardless of whether the \naggressor  poses  a  genuine  threat  or  a  merely  apparent  threat. \nThese findings oppose Objectivist views on self-defense, \nwhich hold that self-defense is only permissible when facing a \ngenuine threat. Instead, they support Subjectivism and what we \ncall  the  \"It's  Complicated  View\",  both  of  which  hold  that \napparent  threats  can  justify  lethal  self-defense  (albeit  with \npossible variation in permissibility ratings).",
    "language": "eng",
    "license": {
        "name": "",
        "short_name": "",
        "text": null,
        "url": ""
    },
    "keywords": [
        {
            "word": "Philosophy; Psychology; Sociology; Other; Statistics; Survey"
        }
    ],
    "section": "Papers with Poster Presentation",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1cd4v38q",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "August",
            "middle_name": "Renbo",
            "last_name": "Olsen",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "Lund University",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Jan",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Garc’a Olier",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "University of Zurich",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Pascale",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Willemsen",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "University of Zurich",
            "department": ""
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": null,
    "date_accepted": null,
    "date_published": "2025-01-01T18:00:00Z",
    "render_galley": null,
    "galleys": [
        {
            "label": "PDF",
            "type": "pdf",
            "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/49970/galley/37932/download/"
        }
    ]
}