Moral judgment of theft, charity, and third-party transfers that increase or decrease equality.

1975 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Brickman ◽  
James H. Bryan
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Third Party

Lifespan Differences in Adult Thinking about Hypothetical and Personal Moral Issues: Reflection or Regression?

1987 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. Pratt ◽  
Gail Golding ◽  
Patricia Kerig
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Moral Dilemma ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Role Taking ◽  
Older Subjects

Recent work on aging and moral judgment has investigated the claim that older adults may show a regression in their average stage level of moral judgment, compared with younger groups. A second line of work has suggested that at least some elderly adults may be more reflective in their thinking regarding moral and ethical issues (e.g. Kohlberg, 1973). The present research was designed to investigate these issues with respect to hypothetical and real-life moral judgment. Subjects were 60 adults in three age groups: 18-24 years, 30-45 years, and 60-75 years. Each responded to the Kohlberg Moral Judgment Interview and to the personal moral dilemma task of Gilligan. Measures of stage level and of reported use of perspectivetaking processes, as well as analyses of the content of personal dilemmas, were obtained. Results showed no average stage level differences between the age or sex groups. Hypothetical stage scores were significantly higher than real-life scores overall. There were no age differences in reported role-taking processes on hypothetical dilemmas, though there were sex differences, with men more likely to report adopting a third-party, observer role. Finally, older subjects produced significantly more varied reflections on their personal dilemmas.

scholarly journals Moral Development of Preschooler’s Rewarding and Punishment Behavior to Environmental Actions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenhao Hu ◽  
Zhen Wu
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Environmental Harm ◽  
Environmental Actions ◽  
Environmental Good ◽  
Personal Sacrifice ◽  
And Behavior

There is a growing concern for environmental issues and urgent need to understand interaction between human behavior and nature. Rewarding environmental protection and punishing harm can be the behavioral consequence of the moral judgment to environmental actions. Two studies (N = 211) were designed to understand the early development of such moral behaviors. In Study 1 and the follow-up conceptual replication Study 2, we performed 4- to 6-year-old children with both environmental protection and harm. Three tasks measured children’s behavioral responses toward environmental actions: reward the action that they think is good or punish the action that they think is bad even at a cost. Results demonstrated that children differentiate environmental actions and depicted an age-increase preference to environmental protection. Preschoolers, as a third-party bystander, actively punish environmental harm; with age, they become more consistently and steadily willing to be punitive even with a personal sacrifice. Together, young children are pro-environmental; from early in development children show a behavioral capacity to promote environmental good. The research fills the gap between moral judgment and behavior and contributes to applied implications.

scholarly journals Ambiguity under scrutiny: Moral judgment of microaggressions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Korman ◽  
Boyoung Kim
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
False Belief ◽  
Third Party ◽  
State Information ◽  
Similar Profile ◽  
Group Members

Microaggressions are subtle, offensive comments directed at minority group members that are characteristically ambiguous in meaning. In two studies, we explored how observers interpret such ambiguous statements by comparing microaggressions to faux pas, offenses caused by the speaker having an incidental false belief. In Study 1, we compared third-party observers’ blame and intentionality judgments of microaggressions with those for social faux pas. Despite judging both offenses not to be caused intentionally, participants judged microaggressions as more blameworthy. In Study 2 microaggressions without explicit mental state information exhibited a similar profile of judgments as those accompanied by explicit prejudiced or ignorant beliefs. Although they are, like faux pas, judged not to cause harm intentionally, microaggressive comments appear to be judged as more blameworthy on account of enduring prejudice thought to be lurking behind a speaker’s false or incorrect beliefs. Our studies demonstrate a distinctive profile of moral judgment for microaggressions.

scholarly journals Elevated moral condemnation of third-party violations in multiple sclerosis patients

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Indrajeet Patil ◽  
Liane Young ◽  
Vladimiro Sinay ◽  
Ezequiel Gleichgerrcht
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Moral Condemnation ◽  
Severe Punishment ◽  
Multiple Sclerosis Patients ◽  
Judg Ments

Recent research has demonstrated impairments in social cognition associated with multiple sclerosis (MS). The present work asks whether these impairments are associated with atypical moral judgment. Specifically, we assessed whether MS patients are able to integrate information about intentions and outcomes for moral judgment (i.e., appropriateness and punishment judg- ments) in the case of third-party acts. We found a complex pattern of moral judgments in MS patients: although their moral judgments were comparable to controls’ for specific types of acts (e.g., accidental or intentional harms), they nevertheless judged behaviors to be less appropriate and endorsed more severe punishment across the board, and they were also more likely to report that others’ responses would be congruent with theirs. Further analyses suggested that elevated levels of externally oriented cognition in MS (due to co-occurring alexithymia) explain these effects. Additionally, we found that the distinction between appropriateness and punishment judgments, whereby harmful outcomes influence punishment judgments to a greater extent than appropriateness judgments, was preserved in MS despite the observed disruptions in the affective and motivational components of empathy. The current results inform the two-process model for intent-based moral judgments as well as possible strategies for improving the quality of life in MS patients.

scholarly journals Too rich to be forgiven? Economic resources shape moral judgment of accidental harm

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flora Schwartz ◽  
Hakim Djeriouat ◽  
Bastien Trémolière
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Just World ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Socio Economic Factors

When judging a perpetrator who harmed someone accidentally, humans rely on distinct cognitive processes: one that focuses on the victim’s harm, and another one that examines the perpetrator’s intention. The present study investigates how moral judgment of accidental harm is influenced by information about the protagonists’ economic resources. In two preregistered online experiments, participants completed a moral judgment task consisting of short narratives which depicted the interaction between a perpetrator and a victim. We manipulated the victim’s economic resources (rich vs. poor victim) in experiment 1, and both the victim’s and perpetrator’s economic resources in experiment 2. We additionally tested whether participants’ income and socio-political attitudes were associated with individual differences in moral judgment of the perpetrator. We found that economic resources influenced moral judgment and interacted with participants’ income and socio-political preferences when information about both the perpetrator’s and victim’s economic resources was available. Participants were overall harsher toward rich perpetrators and just world views predicted forgiveness of the perpetrator depending on the resource asymmetry between the perpetrator and the victim. These findings extend previous work documenting the effect of socio-economic factors on moral judgment and suggest that third-party moral judgment of accident may be sensitive to the agent’s level of economic resources.

The development of intent-based moral judgment and moral behavior in the context of indirect reciprocity: A cross-cultural study

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 525-533
Author(s):  
Jing Li ◽  
Wenwen Hou ◽  
Liqi Zhu ◽  
Michael Tomasello
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Moral Behavior ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Chinese Children ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Developmental Origins ◽  
Indirect Reciprocity ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
German Children

The current study aimed to investigate the cultural differences in the developmental origins of children’s intent-based moral judgment and moral behavior in the context of indirect reciprocity. To this end, we compared how German and Chinese children interpret and react to antisocial and prosocial interactions between puppets. An actor puppet performed either a positive or negative act toward a prosocial or antisocial target puppet with the intention to cause harm or not; 197 three and five-year-old children participated as a third party and were asked to judge the actor puppet’s behavior and to distribute stickers. Results showed that 3-year-old Chinese children were able to take intention and context into account when making moral judgments and distributing resources, whereas German children did not show sensitivity to intention until the age of 5. These findings suggest that culture may mediate children’s intent-based moral judgment and moral behavior in the context of indirect reciprocity.

scholarly journals The association between personality traits and third-party moral judgment: A preregistered study

2021 ◽  
Vol 219 ◽  
pp. 103392
Author(s):  
Flora Schwartz ◽  
Hakim Djeriouat ◽  
Bastien Trémolière
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Third Party

scholarly journals Agents’ moral character shapes people’s moral evaluations of accidental harm transgressions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flora Schwartz ◽  
Hakim Djeriouat ◽  
Bastien Trémolière
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Moral Character ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Online Experiments ◽  
Two Factors

Previous research has documented that judging someone responsible for an accident mainly relies on considerations about the outcome endured by the victim and the intention to cause harm. Yet, we question how these two factors may be influenced by the morality ascribed to the agent, independently of the action itself. In two online experiments, we determined whether information about the moral character of agents influenced moral judgment of accidental harm. Participants were presented with short narratives depicting accidental harm scenarios and were asked to report their judgment of the perpetrator. In experiment 1 (N = 337), we manipulated the perpetrator’s morality and warmth orthogonally. In experiment 2 (N = 271), we focused on morality and simultaneously manipulated the perpetrator’s and victim’s moral character. In both experiments, we found that the perpetrator’s moral character influenced judgments of acceptability, blame, punishment and compensation. Participants were more forgiving toward perpetrators of high morality relative to low morality, and the effect of the moral character was greater than the effect of warmth (experiment 1). The victim’s moral character also influenced moral judgments but to a lesser extent than that of the perpetrator and did not interact with the moral character of the perpetrator (experiment 2). Participants were harsher toward the perpetrator when the victim was described as having high morality as compared to low morality, and compensation for the victim also aligned with the victim’s morality. These results show that third-party moral judgment is influenced by the moral character of agents despite information implying that harm was unintended.

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