Positive Emotional Language in the Final Words Spoken Directly Before Execution

Mindsets of suicide trajectories: An Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count analysis of suicide hotline conversations

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to explore the psychological characteristics of the individuals with various suicide risks using computerized text analysis, in the hopes of a better understanding of suicide trajectories.

METHODS

627 first-time callers' records were randomly selected from Taiwan An-Shin Hotline database between 2013 and 2018. The voice records were evaluated by two psychologists to determine the levels of suicide risk (156 with uncertainty of risk, 177 with low suicidal ideation, 157 with high suicidal ideation, and 137 with suicide preparation/attempt) and transcribed into text. The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count 2015 (LIWC2015) program combined with Chinese dictionary were then used to calculate the frequency of word categories.

RESULTS

Exploratory factor analysis identified four mindsets of language characteristics, named "opposition and questioning", "active engagement", "negative rumination", and "focus on death". Psychological descriptions of the mindsets were also obtained through correlation analysis with the LIWC2015 categories and indicators. The four mindsets effectively distinguished the callers with different levels of suicide risk.

CONCLUSION

The psychological characteristics of people with various suicide risks can be described and differentiated via the closed-word categories and composite indicators. These results provide useful information for practitioners and researchers.

Age-related variability in decision-making: Insights from neurochemistry

Despite dopamine's significant role in models of value-based decision-making and findings demonstrating loss of dopamine function in aging, evidence of systematic changes in decision-making over the life span remains elusive. Previous studies attempting to resolve the neural basis of age-related alteration in decision-making have typically focused on physical age, which can be a poor proxy for age-related effects on neural systems. There is growing appreciation that aging has heterogeneous effects on distinct components of the dopamine system within subject in addition to substantial variability between subjects. We propose that some of the conflicting findings in age-related effects on decision-making may be reconciled if we can observe the underlying dopamine components within individuals. This can be achieved by incorporating in vivo imaging techniques including positron emission tomography (PET) and neuromelanin-sensitive MR. Further, we discuss how affective factors may contribute to individual differences in decision-making performance among older adults. Specifically, we propose that age-related shifts in affective attention ("positivity effect") can, in some cases, counteract the impact of altered dopamine function on specific decision-making processes, contributing to variability in findings. In an effort to provide clarity to the field and advance productive hypothesis testing, we propose ways in which in vivo dopamine imaging can be leveraged to disambiguate dopaminergic influences on decision-making, and suggest strategies for assessing individual differences in the contribution of affective attentional focus.

Forgiveness, spirituality and love: thematic analysis of last statements from Death Row, Texas (2002-17)

BACKGROUND

Psychological features associated with execution are not fully understood.

AIMS

To analyse demographics of individuals executed in Texas and investigate whether there has been any change in common themes and psychological factors evident in last statements before execution between 2002 and 2017.

DESIGN

Analysis of last statements from Death Row, Texas.

METHODS

We (a) studied themes and psychological factors in last statements in Texas between August 2011 and May 2017; and (b) combined our 2011-17 data with our previous data (2002-06 and 2006-11) to present an overall analysis of last statements from 2002 to 2017.

RESULTS

Between April 2002 and May 2017 (279 executions; 240 last statements), the execution rate in Texas fell from 25 per year to 12; median time on death row increased from 108.5 months to 149.5; median age at execution increased from 38 years to 40.5; and the proportion of offences involving multiple victims rose from 28.4% to 47.1%. The most common themes in last statements were love (78%), spirituality (58%), regret (35%) and apology (35%). The most common psychological factors were identification-egression (51%), unbearable psychological pain (47%) and rejection-aggression (40%). Two themes (forgiveness, use of poetry/literature) and three psychological factors (inability to adjust, interpersonal relations, identification-egression) became less common.

CONCLUSIONS

Between 2002 and 2017, executed prisoners in Texas became fewer and older, spent longer on death row and had committed more serious offences. Themes of love and spirituality were constants, but requests for forgiveness declined.

A Focused Review of Language Use Preceding Death by Execution

Executions are one form of death that can be assumed to be maximally anxiety provoking. Words spoken by death row inmates moments before their execution can provide valuable insights into people's end-of-life communication needs and themes, conveying what individuals choose to express to others in the face of imminent death. In this focused review, we describe findings from quantitative and qualitative text analysis studies that have analyzed affective experiences and meaning-making attempts in transcriptions of actual statements made by Texas death row inmates. Overall, the most prevalent content themes identified in these final acts of verbal communication in the reviewed studies consisted of a strong predominance of emotional positivity, messages to relevant social others, and spiritual references. We subsequently view the reviewed findings in the light of additional research in which people's conceptions of death and dying were explored and language studies in which people's communication before other forms of death was analyzed. Finally, we describe open questions and directions for future analyses of death row inmates' final statements, and we outline practical implications.

How Will We React to the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life?

How will humanity react to the discovery of extraterrestrial life? Speculation on this topic abounds, but empirical research is practically non-existent. We report the results of three empirical studies assessing psychological reactions to the discovery of extraterrestrial life using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) text analysis software. We examined language use in media coverage of past discovery announcements of this nature, with a focus on extraterrestrial microbial life (Pilot Study). A large online sample (N = 501) was asked to write about their own and humanity's reaction to a hypothetical announcement of such a discovery (Study 1), and an independent, large online sample (N = 256) was asked to read and respond to a newspaper story about the claim that fossilized extraterrestrial microbial life had been found in a meteorite of Martian origin (Study 2). Across these studies, we found that reactions were significantly more positive than negative, and more reward vs. risk oriented. A mini-meta-analysis revealed large overall effect sizes (positive vs. negative affect language: g = 0.98; reward vs. risk language: g = 0.81). We also found that people's forecasts of their own reactions showed a greater positivity bias than their forecasts of humanity's reactions (Study 1), and that responses to reading an actual announcement of the discovery of extraterrestrial microbial life showed a greater positivity bias than responses to reading an actual announcement of the creation of man-made synthetic life (Study 2). Taken together, this work suggests that our reactions to a future confirmed discovery of microbial extraterrestrial life are likely to be fairly positive.

Dying Is Unexpectedly Positive

In people's imagination, dying seems dreadful; however, these perceptions may not reflect reality. In two studies, we compared the affective experience of people facing imminent death with that of people imagining imminent death. Study 1 revealed that blog posts of near-death patients with cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis were more positive and less negative than the simulated blog posts of nonpatients-and also that the patients' blog posts became more positive as death neared. Study 2 revealed that the last words of death-row inmates were more positive and less negative than the simulated last words of noninmates-and also that these last words were less negative than poetry written by death-row inmates. Together, these results suggest that the experience of dying-even because of terminal illness or execution-may be more pleasant than one imagines.