For their research, Yudkin et al. compiled a dataset of nearly 370,000 AITA posts, along with more than 11 million comments, posted between 2018 and 2021. They used machine learning to analyze the language used to enter all those posts. sort different categories. They relied on an existing taxonomy that identified six basic areas of moral concern: fairness/proportionality, feelings, harm/offense, honesty, relational obligations, and social norms.
Yudkin et al. identified 29 of the most common dilemmas in the AITA dataset and grouped them by moral theme. Two of the most common were relational transgressions and relational omissions (not doing what was expected), followed by behavioral overreactions and unintended harm. Deception and intentional misrepresentation/dishonesty were the moral dilemmas rated most negatively in the dataset – even more so than intentional harm. Being judgmental was also viewed very negatively, as it was often perceived as self-righteous or hypocritical. The least negatively evaluated dilemmas were relational omissions.
In terms of the relational context, dilemmas about cheating and breaking promises typically involved romantic partners such as boyfriends rather than, for example, the mother, while mother-related dilemmas were more likely to fall under relational neglect. Essentially, “people tend to disappoint their mothers but be disappointed by their boyfriends,” the authors wrote. Less close relationships, on the other hand, are often governed by 'norms of civility and procedural fairness'. Hence, Yudkin et al. prefer to view morality “less as a set of abstract principles and more as a 'relational toolkit', which guides and constrains behavior in accordance with the demands of the social situation.”
DOI: PsyArXiv, 2024. 10.31234/osf.io/5pcew (About DOIs).
Fractal scaling of trees in art
The gray tree (Grey tree) by Piet Mondriaan, 1911.
Credit: Public domain
Leonardo da Vinci famously invented a so-called 'tree rule' as a guide to realistically depicting trees in artistic representations based on their geometric proportions. If you were to fold and compress all the branches of a given tree into something resembling a trunk, that trunk would be the same thickness from top to bottom. That rule in turn implies a fractal branching pattern, with a scaling exponent of about 2 describing the ratios between the diameters of nearby branches and the number of branches with a given diameter.
