Leviathan: Interdisciplinary Journal in English

What Is Creepiness, and What Makes ChatGPT Creepy?

Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen — 2024-03-22

ChatGPT and other AI chatbots and models are often experienced as creepy by their users. This Perspective attempts to explain why. I start by reviewing studies into the psychology of creepiness, including a recent integrative account of the phenomenon. This account proposes that the experience of being “creeped out” arises from threatening difficulties in understanding other minds. Accordingly, I examine how ChatGPT and other AIs can give their users a sense that they are interacting with a thinking and feeling entity that may be malicious, referencing many well-documented cases in the process. These cases share a psychoanalytic theme in that it is only through creative and persistent prompting that the AI will come to acknowledge and share what it really thinks and feels. I end by discussing how various popular conceptions and representations of AIs may contribute to their perceived creepiness.

The Unjustified Decision of Roe v. Wade and the Equal Protection Clause

Mathilde Andersen — 2024-03-22

In the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, abortion rights were secured in the United States by use of the argument that the U.S. Constitution provided an implicit right to privacy, which could be found in various amendments. This article aims to show how the right to privacy was not a solid foundation for securing abortion rights. Instead, this article will focus on how Roe v. Wade could have strengthened its position by emphasizing the explicit Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The use of the Equal Protection Clause could potentially have served as a justification for asserting the right to abortion on the basis of gender equality.

“The Sorriest Prime Minister”

Freja Kjærby — 2024-03-22

In contemporary political discourse, political apologies have emerged as a critical linguistic tool allowing politicians to sway and manipulate public perception. Especially the act of historical apology has been on the rise. This article examines the apology strategies of Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and how Trudeau modifies his apologies when apologizing for personal offenses versus historical transgressions. Drawing on politeness theory, the article suggests that Trudeau apologizes differently when apologizing for personal offenses than for historical transgressions. The article asserts that Trudeau’s personal apologies are marked by non-apology and face-saving strategies, whereas his historical apologies are more performative. This contrast underlines a strategic approach to apologizing, suggesting that Trudeau strategically leverages historical apologies to bolster his image as a progressive politician and minority ally. The article claims that, through these linguistic tactics, historical apologies, particularly historical apologies, serve as powerful means for shaping and perpetuating a desired political identity.

Chernobyl as Pandemic Practice

Mulle Olsen — 2024-03-22

This article seeks to explain the appeal of the HBO miniseries Chernobyl during the COVID-19 pandemic by using simulation theory and morbid curiosity. Chernobyl’s main appeal is that it offers viewers a better source of negative emotions compared to the nebulous anxiety caused by the pandemic. Chernobyl achieves this by simulating a threat with certain similarities to a virus but which is made less unknown and, in turn, less anxiety-inducing. The threat is made less unknown mainly through the use of visual and auditory threat cues. Furthermore, morbid imagery and information appeal to morbidly curious viewers by providing salient knowledge about the effects of an invisible, airborne threat on the human body. The inclusion of authentic phone calls and a newscast further adds to the morbid appeal of the miniseries. Lastly, the fact that Chernobyl aired just before the pandemic in an increasingly post-truth world only made it more relevant.

Sex Differences in Recreational Fear

Ida Johannesen — 2024-03-22

In this article I examine sex differences related to recreational fear, including theory on the evolved fear system, morbid curiosity, and disgust sensitivity. I use an evolutionary framework to argue that recreational fear can appeal specifically to women, with a focus on media preferences. Through an analysis of the true crime podcast My Favorite Murder and the slasher movie Halloween, I argue that both examples are popular with women, because they provide recreational fear in a way that aligns with women’s fears, curiosity, and threshold for disgust. They are relatively less scary than many other forms of frightening media. They also center around the fear of hostile conspecifics, which is common for women to experience. Because of this, they appeal to women’s morbid curiosity towards dangerous people and their motives. Lastly, they are careful to avoid excessive disgusting stimuli that could discourage a female audience from engaging.

Comparing Comparatives

Peter Katballe-Kristensen — 2024-03-22

This article explores the acceptability of constructions with double comparative elements in Danish and English. First, a brief introduction to theoretical assumptions for adjective phrases and degree phrases is given. After this, the methodology and challenges of setting up an empirical study are laid out. The results of the acceptability study were that native speakers of Danish and English evaluated double comparative constructions as being rather unacceptable when compared with control sentences and standard comparative constructions.

Communication Is Key

Sara Lorensen — 2024-03-22

The relationship between language and communication has engaged researchers for more than a century. Studies have compared human language with animal communication systems, discussing to what degree the complex features and mechanisms that constitute human language have parallels and precursors in animal communication systems. This article discusses the characteristic design features of human language and concludes that language is a uniquely human feature, even if some aspects can also be identified in animal communication systems. The discussion of experiments aiming towards teaching human language to animals leads to the observation that there is a difference between understanding a language and using it to communicate. Human language, however, is effective as a means in interspecies relations pertaining to human-animal communication.

Apocalypse Memories and the Continuing Relevance of Apocalyptic Literature in the Modern World

Nadia Schalipp — 2024-03-22

This article examines the continuing popularity and popularisation of apocalyptic texts in modern literature, taking as a case study the novel Apocalypse Memories based on the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This text seeks to demonstrate that a spoofy-horror-teen novella such as Apocalypse Memories can be examined and questioned in a way that tells us a lot about the evolution and fundamental appeal of eschatological texts and humanity’s constant fascination with the idea of the End. To do so this article investigates Frank Kermode’s theories on apocalyptic literature as set out in his seminal work The Sense of an Ending while examining elements from the Book of Revelation which introduces the ancient religious concept of the apocalypse. I argue that the eschatological inspiration illustrates the continual appeal for the apocalypse and reveals something fundamental about human nature.

Inclusion as Revolution?

Ida Krarup — 2024-03-22

This article examines the inclusion and exclusion of disabled women in pop music by conducting a sociolinguistic article. Mintz (2020) argued that disabled women will always be excluded from pop music because they cannot conform to the postfeminist ideal of the strong independent woman or the normative postfeminist body. In my analyses of three music videos, I examine the validity of this thesis. As my analysis of Run the World (Girls) shows, disability is often erased from postfeminist media due to the ableism inherent in postfeminism. However, as I show in my analysis of Prototype disabled women can be portrayed as strong independent women, but this involves accepting the stigmatization of dependency and perpetuating ableism. Finally, in my analysis of Running Underwater, I argue that non-ableist representations of disabled women in pop music are possible, but it must involve deconstructing ableist ideas such as the paradigm of a normative body.