mouse-tracking rules
We use process-tracing methods to examine how people enforce rules
Stemming from the philosophical debate on how to interpret laws, this study aims at investigating the temporal unfolding of rules’ interpretation by taking advantage of knowledge and methodologies coming from different fields of research.
In detail, the project will adopt the tracking of mouse movements as a proxy of cognitive processes, coupled with an online approach to data collection and the use of innovative techniques of data analysis, to disentangle the different weight of a rule’s literal text and of its moral purpose in determining laypeople’s judgments of whether it has been infringed or not. Hence, the questions that we will address have the potential of informing everyday legal practices as well as our general understanding of dynamics taking place in the court, with fundamental implications for society at large, bridging what happens in the lab and what occurs in everyday life by in turn narrowing the divide between experimental philosophy and cognitive sciences.
