A Psychophysiological Investigation of Moral Judgment after Ventromedial Prefrontal Damage

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 1888-1899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanna Moretto ◽  
Elisabetta Làdavas ◽  
Flavia Mattioli ◽  
Giuseppe di Pellegrino
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Emotion Processing ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Direct Support ◽  
Psychophysiological Investigation ◽  
And Control ◽  
Somatic Index ◽  
Normal Controls

Converging evidence suggests that emotion processing mediated by ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is necessary to prevent personal moral violations. In moral dilemmas, for example, patients with lesions in vmPFC are more willing than normal controls to approve harmful actions that maximize good consequences (e.g., utilitarian moral judgments). Yet, none of the existing studies has measured subjects' emotional responses while they considered moral dilemmas. Therefore, a direct link between emotion processing and moral judgment is still lacking. Here, vmPFC patients and control participants considered moral dilemmas while skin conductance response (SCR) was measured as a somatic index of affective state. Replicating previous evidence, vmPFC patients approved more personal moral violations than did controls. Critically, we found that, unlike control participants, vmPFC patients failed to generate SCRs before endorsing personal moral violations. In addition, such anticipatory SCRs correlated negatively with the frequency of utilitarian judgments in normal participants. These findings provide direct support to the hypothesis that the vmPFC promotes moral behavior by mediating the anticipation of the emotional consequences of personal moral violations.

scholarly journals Priming intuition disfavors instrumental harm but not impartial beneficence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerio Capraro ◽  
Jim Albert Charlton Everett ◽  
Brian D. Earp
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Dimensional Model ◽  
Total N ◽  
Two Dimensional Model ◽  
Do So

Understanding the cognitive underpinnings of moral judgment is one of most pressing problems in psychological science. Some highly-cited studies suggest that reliance on intuition decreases utilitarian (expected welfare maximizing) judgments in sacrificial moral dilemmas in which one has to decide whether to instrumentally harm (IH) one person to save a greater number of people. However, recent work suggests that such dilemmas are limited in that they fail to capture the positive, defining core of utilitarianism: commitment to impartial beneficence (IB). Accordingly, a new two-dimensional model of utilitarian judgment has been proposed that distinguishes IH and IB components. The role of intuition on this new model has not been studied. Does relying on intuition disfavor utilitarian choices only along the dimension of instrumental harm or does it also do so along the dimension of impartial beneficence? To answer this question, we conducted three studies (total N = 970, two preregistered) using conceptual priming of intuition versus deliberation on moral judgments. Our evidence converges on an interaction effect, with intuition decreasing utilitarian judgments in IH—as suggested by previous work—but failing to do so in IB. These findings bolster the recently proposed two-dimensional model of utilitarian moral judgment, and point to new avenues for future research.

scholarly journals Do High Psychopaths Care More about Moral Consequences than Low Psychopaths in Chinese Culture? An Exploration Using the CNI Model

Healthcare ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 505
Author(s):  
Shenglan Li ◽  
Daoqun Ding ◽  
Zhihui Wu ◽  
Liangliang Yi ◽  
Ji Lai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Action Model ◽  
Psychological Mechanism ◽  
General Preference ◽  
Chinese Subjects

Purpose: Fewer studies are about the influence of psychopath traits on moral judgment and the underlying psychological mechanism in Chinese cultural background. In this paper, we use the creative CNI (Consequences, Norms, Inaction versus action) model to quantify the subject’s reaction to moral dilemmas. Method: In this research, the Chinese version of the Levenson Psychopathic Scale, CNI model materials, and a multinomial model to further analyze the associations among the psychopathy characteristics and utilitarian moral judgment are applied. The CNI model is proposed by Gawronski et al., which can quantify the subjects’ sensitivity to moral consequence, sensitivity to moral norms, and the general preference for inaction or action in moral dilemmas. Result: This study finds that there were significant differences in the utilitarian moral judgment between the groups, t (360) = 3.24, p = 0.001, and Cohen’s d = 0.36. The analysis results of the CNI model show that the high psychopathy group on the N parameter was significantly lower than the group of low psychopathy, ΔG2 (2) = 79.70, p = 0.001. In terms of the C parameter, we found no significant distinctions between the two groups, ΔG2 (2) = 1.356, p = 0.244. For the I parameter, the two groups also have no significant differences, ΔG2 (2) = 0.093, p = 0.76. Conclusion: Persons with high psychopathy traits prefer to make more utilitarian moral judgments and have a weak sensitivity to moral norms (N). The sensitivity to consequences (C) of the two groups is no significant difference. The general preference for inaction versus action (I) also has no significant differences between those two groups. Moreover, the CNI model fits well in Chinese subjects.

Moral Judgment in Middle and Late Adulthood: The Effects of Age-Appropriate Moral Dilemmas and Spontaneous Role Taking

1986 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Blum Chap
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Moral Dilemma ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Age Difference ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Role Taking ◽  
Age Appropriate

This was a cross-sectional study of the effects of age, sex, and moral dilemma content on adult moral reasoning. Hypothetical dilemmas were presented to sixty men and women, thirty of whom were elderly and thirty in early middle age. With education controlled there were no age or sex differences in moral maturity. Dilemma content had a significant effect on moral judgment, with a tendency for each age group to use a higher level of judgment when the situation described was age-appropriate, i.e., relevant to that group's stage of life. There was a significant age difference on a measure of spontaneous role taking: old persons made more definitive moral judgments than the younger adults, who attempted to reconcile the various points of view represented in a dilemma.

scholarly journals The Effects of Social Perception on Moral Judgment

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Ying Jin ◽  
Ming Peng
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
College Student ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Social Perception ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Interpersonal Process ◽  
Personal Involvement

When people express a moral judgment, others make inferences about their personality, such as whether they are warm or competent. People may use this interpersonal process to present themselves in a way that is socially acceptable in the current circumstances. Across four studies, we investigated this hypothesis in Chinese culture and showed that college student participants tended to associate others’ deontological moral judgments with warmth and utilitarian moral judgments with competence (Study 1, Mage = 21.1, SD = 2.45; Study 2, Mage = 20.53, SD = 1.87). In addition, participants made more deontological judgments after preparing to be interviewed for a job requiring them to be in a warm social role, and more utilitarian judgments after preparing for a job requiring them to be in a competent social role (Study 3, Mage = 19.5, SD = 1.63). This effect held true in moral dilemmas involving different degrees of hypothetical personal involvement, and appeared to be mediated by the perception of others’ expectations (Study 4, Mage = 19.92, SD = 1.97). The results suggest an important role for social cognition as an influence on moral judgments in Chinese culture.

scholarly journals Moral thinking across the world: Exploring the influence of personal force and intention in moral dilemma judgments

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bence Bago ◽  
Balazs Aczel ◽  
Zoltan Kekecs ◽  
John Protzko ◽  
Marton Kovacs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Moral Dilemma ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Physical Contact ◽  
Moral Decisions ◽  
Large N ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

Much research on moral judgment is centered on moral dilemmas in which deontological perspectives (i.e., emphasizing rules, individual rights and duties) are in conflict with utilitarian judgements (i.e., following the greater good defined through consequences). A central finding of this field Greene et al. showed that psychological and situational factors (e.g., the intent of the agent, or physical contact between the agent and the victim) play an important role in people’s use of deontological versus utilitarian considerations when making moral decisions. As their study was conducted with US samples, our knowledge is limited concerning the universality of this effect, in general, and the impact of culture on the situational and psychological factors of moral judgments, in particular. Here, we empirically test the universality of deontological and utilitarian judgments by replicating Greene et al.’s experiments on a large (N = X,XXX) and diverse (WEIRD and non-WEIRD) sample across the world to explore the influence of culture on moral judgment. The relevance of this exploration to a broad range of policy-making problems is discussed.

scholarly journals POLITIK PEMAAFAN

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Hayati
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
And Control

Forgiveness is often understood as an attitude to overcome negative things and judgment of a guilty person by not denying the pain itself, but with compassion, empathy, and love for those who hurt. Some things to know from forgiveness are what and how forgiveness, stages of forgiveness and forgiveness elements. In the political context, forgiveness is not just 'forgetting' the past, but instead remembers it again and then forgives. In this process it is necessary to try to remember past facts and make honest moral judgments about past mistakes, injustices, and injuries. Forgiveness in the context of action politics does not mean freeing punishment against perpetrators of past crimes, but means free from acts of revenge . Forgiveness starts from an encouragement of 'moral judgment' and control of revenge.

Do People Believe That They Are More Deontological Than Others?

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (8) ◽  
pp. 1308-1320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming-Hui Li ◽  
Li-Lin Rao
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Social Exchange ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Construal Level Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Protective Mechanism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Protected Values

The question of how we decide that someone else has done something wrong is at the heart of moral psychology. Little work has been done to investigate whether people believe that others’ moral judgment differs from their own in moral dilemmas. We conducted four experiments using various measures and diverse samples to demonstrate the self–other discrepancy in moral judgment. We found that (a) people were more deontological when they made moral judgments themselves than when they judged a stranger (Studies 1-4) and (b) a protected values (PVs) account outperformed an emotion account and a construal-level theory account in explaining this self–other discrepancy (Studies 3 and 4). We argued that the self–other discrepancy in moral judgment may serve as a protective mechanism co-evolving alongside the social exchange mechanism and may contribute to better understanding the obstacles preventing people from cooperation.

Reid and Moral Emotions

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Roeser
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Moral Emotions ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Thomas Reid ◽  
Moral Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Control

The name of Thomas Reid rarely appears in discussions of the history of moral thought. This is a pity, since Reid has a lot of interesting ideas that can contribute to the current discussions in meta-ethics. Reid can be understood as an ethical intuitionist. What makes his account especially interesting is the role affective states play in his intuitionist theory. Reid defends a cognitive theory of moral emotions. According to Reid, there are moral feelings that are the result of a moral judgment made by reason. The judgment and the feeling together constitute what Reid calls sentiments. Reid thinks that affective states (feelings and sentiments) play the role of helping reason to guide and control the egoistic feelings and passions. The affective states are particularly important, in Reid's view, because the motivating force of reason is often defeated by the stronger motivating force of the passions. So without affective states, we would often not be able to do what is morally good or right. In this paper, I will argue that the role of the affective states is still too limited in Reid's approach. He takes affective states to have a merely motivational function, namely, to help reason to control the passions and motivate to action where reason is too weak. Reid thinks that in making moral judgments we do not need to have feelings, feelings are at most a result of a judgment. Instead, I will argue that affective states also play an epistemological role.

scholarly journals Moral Hindsight

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Fleischhut ◽  
Björn Meder ◽  
Gerd Gigerenzer
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Evaluation ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Negative Side ◽  
Probability Estimates ◽  
Negative Side Effects

Abstract. How are judgments in moral dilemmas affected by uncertainty, as opposed to certainty? We tested the predictions of a consequentialist and deontological account using a hindsight paradigm. The key result is a hindsight effect in moral judgment. Participants in foresight, for whom the occurrence of negative side effects was uncertain, judged actions to be morally more permissible than participants in hindsight, who knew that negative side effects occurred. Conversely, when hindsight participants knew that no negative side effects occurred, they judged actions to be more permissible than participants in foresight. The second finding was a classical hindsight effect in probability estimates and a systematic relation between moral judgments and probability estimates. Importantly, while the hindsight effect in probability estimates was always present, a corresponding hindsight effect in moral judgments was only observed among “consequentialist” participants who indicated a cost-benefit trade-off as most important for their moral evaluation.

Development of an Instrument to Measure the Moral Judgments of Sport Managers

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Rudd ◽  
Susan Mullane ◽  
Sharon Stoll
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Sport Management ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Primary Methods ◽  
Pilot Studies ◽  
Unidimensional Construct

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure the moral judgments of sport managers called the Moral Judgments of Sport Managers Instrument (MJSMI). More specifically, our intention was to measure moral judgment on a unidimensional level given past research suggesting moral judgment is a unidimensional construct (Hahm, Beller, & Stoll, 1989; Kohlberg, 1984; Piaget, 1932; Rest, 1979, 1986). The MJSMI contains 8 moral dilemmas/stories in the context of sport management. Sport managers respond to the dilemmas on a four-point Likert scale. Three pilot studies were undertaken to develop the MJSMI. Exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency analysis were the primary methods for assaying reliability and validity. Results consistently showed that sport managers’ responses vary depending on the nature of the moral scenario and thus do not indicate a unidimensional construct. The reasons for inconsistent responses are thoroughly discussed.

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