Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Dual character concepts received significant attention from experimental philosophers. They are defined as possessing two independent criteria for categorization, each associated with a distinct sense of the concept. One of these criteria is descriptive, the other is normative. Almost all examples discussed in the literature involve a positively valenced normative element. For instance: the normative criterion associated with the concept of scientist is the pursuit of empirical truth and knowledge. Presumably, pursuing empirical truth and knowledge is a good thing. But can dual character concepts also involve negatively valenced elements? For instance: there is a sense in which someone who betrays another's confidence without nurturing ill-will towards them is not a true traitor. In this paper, we report data suggesting that negatively-valenced concepts such as enemy and traitor behave very similarly, but not identically, to positively-valenced dual character concepts such as friend or a loyal person.