More Dead than Dead? Attributing Mentality to Vegetative State Patients

TY - JOUR

T1 - More Dead than Dead?

T2 - Attributing Mentality to Vegetative State Patients

AU - Gomes, Anil

AU - Parrott, Matthew

AU - Shepherd, Joshua

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - In a recent paper, Gray, Knickman and Wegner (2011) present three experiments which they take to show that people perceive patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) to have less mentality than the dead. Following on from Gomes and Parrott (2014), we provide evidence to show participants' responses in the initial experiments are an artefact of the questions posed. Results from two experiments show that, once the questions have been clarified, people do not ascribe more mental capacity to the dead than to PVS patients. There is no reason to think that people perceive PVS patients as more dead than dead.

AB - In a recent paper, Gray, Knickman and Wegner (2011) present three experiments which they take to show that people perceive patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) to have less mentality than the dead. Following on from Gomes and Parrott (2014), we provide evidence to show participants' responses in the initial experiments are an artefact of the questions posed. Results from two experiments show that, once the questions have been clarified, people do not ascribe more mental capacity to the dead than to PVS patients. There is no reason to think that people perceive PVS patients as more dead than dead.

U2 - 10.1080/09515089.2015.1048328

DO - 10.1080/09515089.2015.1048328

M3 - Article

SN - 0951-5089

VL - 29

SP - 84

EP - 95

JO - PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY

JF - PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY

IS - 1

ER -