Sacred versus Pseudo-Sacred Values: How People Cope with Taboo Trade-Offs

Psychologists have documented widespread public deference to “sacred values” that communities, formally or informally, exempt from tradeoffs with secular limits, like money. This work has, however, been largely confined to low-stakes settings. As the stakes rise, deference must decline because people can't write blank checks for every “sacred” cause. Shadow pricing is inevitable which sets the stage for political blame-games of varying sophistication. In a rational world, citizens would accept the necessity of such tradeoffs, but the attraction to moral absolutes is strong--perhaps even essential for social cohesion.

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The Effects of Decision Time on Perceptions of Decisions and Decision Makers in (Moral) Trade-Off Scenarios

10.31234/osf.io/37t2r ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Anna Katharina Spälti ◽

Mark John Brandt ◽

Marcel Zeelenberg

Keyword(s):

Decision Process ◽

Decision Time ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Process Information ◽

Total N ◽

Trade Off ◽

Financial Gain ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Sacred Values ◽

Moral Context

People often have to make trade-offs. We study three types of trade-offs: 1) "secular trade-offs" where no moral or sacred values are at stake, 2) "taboo trade-offs" where sacred values are pitted against financial gain, and 3) "tragic trade-offs" where sacred values are pitted against other sacred values. Previous research (Critcher et al., 2011; Tetlock et al., 2000) demonstrated that tragic and taboo trade-offs are not only evaluated by their outcomes, but are also evaluated based on the time it took to make the choice. We investigate two outstanding questions: 1) whether the effect of decision time differs for evaluations of decisions compared to decision makers and 2) whether moral contexts are unique in their ability to influence character evaluations through decision process information. In two experiments (total N = 1434) we find that decision time affects character evaluations, but not evaluations of the decision itself. There were no significant differences between tragic trade-offs and secular trade-offs, suggesting that the decisions structure may be more important in evaluations than moral context. Additionally, the magnitude of the effect of decision time shows us that decision time, may be of less practical use than expected. We thus urge, to take a closer examination of the processes underlying decision time and its perception.

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Neuroimaging ‘will to fight’ for sacred values: an empirical case study with supporters of an Al Qaeda associate

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.181585 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 (6) ◽

pp. 181585 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Nafees Hamid ◽

Clara Pretus ◽

Scott Atran ◽

Molly J. Crockett ◽

Jeremy Ginges ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Peer Influence ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Sacred Values ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽

Intergroup Conflicts ◽

The Brain

Violent intergroup conflicts are often motivated by commitments to abstract ideals such as god or nation, so-called ‘sacred’ values that are insensitive to material trade-offs. There is scant knowledge of how the brain processes costly sacrifices for such cherished causes. We studied willingness to fight and die for sacred values using fMRI in Barcelona, Spain, among supporters of a radical Islamist group. We measured brain activity in radicalized individuals as they indicated their willingness to fight and die for sacred and non-sacred values, and as they reacted to peers' ratings for the same values. We observed diminished activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), inferior frontal gyrus, and parietal cortex while conveying willingness to fight and die for sacred relative to non-sacred values—regions that have previously been implicated in calculating costs and consequences. An overlapping region of the dlPFC was active when viewing conflicting ratings of sacred values from peers, to the extent participants were sensitive to peer influence, suggesting that it is possible to induce flexibility in the way people defend sacred values. Our results cohere with a view that ‘devoted actors’ motivated by an extreme commitment towards sacred values rely on distinctive neurocognitve processes that can be identified.

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Protected Values and Other Types of Values

Analyse & Kritik ◽

10.1515/auk-2017-0005 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 39 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jonathan Baron

Keyword(s):

Second Order ◽

The Political ◽

Social Consensus ◽

Political Situation ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Sacred Values ◽

Protected Values ◽

The World

AbstractProtected values (PVs) are values protected from trade-offs with other values. They are absolute in this sense. People hold these values even when they do not necessarily abide by them in their behavior. I suggest that most of these values are a subset of deontological rules, defined by their absoluteness. Their origin may be understood by looking at the origin of deontological rules more generally, which includes religious (hence sacred) values among others. But PVs are usually maintained by lack of reflection of the sort that would see counterexamples to their absoluteness. PVs often have other characteristics that would lead to classification into other types of values: they are often moralistic (imposed on others regardless of the willingness of others to accept them); they are about morality rather than convention and thus independent of authority or social consensus; and they often concern second-order preferences (values for values). Especially in combination with these other properties, PVs can be harmful in the domain of politics. Education in the sort of reflection that would lead people to question them could improve the political situation around the world.

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Shadow Pricing Trade-Offs between Timber Supply and Environmental Quality

Assessment of Biodiversity for Improved Forest Planning - Forestry Sciences ◽

10.1007/978-94-015-9006-8_11 ◽

1998 ◽

pp. 111-119 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dietmar W. Rose ◽

Syed A. Husain

Keyword(s):

Environmental Quality ◽

Timber Supply ◽

Shadow Pricing ◽

Trade Offs

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Novel players fine-tune plant trade-offs

Essays in Biochemistry ◽

10.1042/bse0580083 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 58 ◽

pp. 83-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Selena Gimenez-Ibanez ◽

Marta Boter ◽

Roberto Solano

Keyword(s):

Ubiquitin Ligase ◽

Feedback Loop ◽

Molecular Level ◽

26S Proteasome ◽

Signalling Molecules ◽

Transcriptional Reprogramming ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Jaz Proteins ◽

Regulatory Feedback Loop ◽

Fine Tune

Jasmonates (JAs) are essential signalling molecules that co-ordinate the plant response to biotic and abiotic challenges, as well as co-ordinating several developmental processes. Huge progress has been made over the last decade in understanding the components and mechanisms that govern JA perception and signalling. The bioactive form of the hormone, (+)-7-iso-jasmonyl-l-isoleucine (JA-Ile), is perceived by the COI1–JAZ co-receptor complex. JASMONATE ZIM DOMAIN (JAZ) proteins also act as direct repressors of transcriptional activators such as MYC2. In the emerging picture of JA-Ile perception and signalling, COI1 operates as an E3 ubiquitin ligase that upon binding of JA-Ile targets JAZ repressors for degradation by the 26S proteasome, thereby derepressing transcription factors such as MYC2, which in turn activate JA-Ile-dependent transcriptional reprogramming. It is noteworthy that MYCs and different spliced variants of the JAZ proteins are involved in a negative regulatory feedback loop, which suggests a model that rapidly turns the transcriptional JA-Ile responses on and off and thereby avoids a detrimental overactivation of the pathway. This chapter highlights the most recent advances in our understanding of JA-Ile signalling, focusing on the latest repertoire of new targets of JAZ proteins to control different sets of JA-Ile-mediated responses, novel mechanisms of negative regulation of JA-Ile signalling, and hormonal cross-talk at the molecular level that ultimately determines plant adaptability and survival.

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Dual Goals for Speed and Accuracy on the Same Performance Task

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000063 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 118-126 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Olive Emil Wetter ◽

Jürgen Wegge ◽

Klaus Jonas ◽

Klaus-Helmut Schmidt

Keyword(s):

Memory Scanning ◽

Performance Task ◽

Performance Tasks ◽

Trade Off ◽

Test Experiment ◽

Trade Offs ◽

New Finding ◽

Sternberg Paradigm ◽

Speed Accuracy ◽

Speed And Accuracy

In most work contexts, several performance goals coexist, and conflicts between them and trade-offs can occur. Our paper is the first to contrast a dual goal for speed and accuracy with a single goal for speed on the same task. The Sternberg paradigm (Experiment 1, n = 57) and the d2 test (Experiment 2, n = 19) were used as performance tasks. Speed measures and errors revealed in both experiments that dual as well as single goals increase performance by enhancing memory scanning. However, the single speed goal triggered a speed-accuracy trade-off, favoring speed over accuracy, whereas this was not the case with the dual goal. In difficult trials, dual goals slowed down scanning processes again so that errors could be prevented. This new finding is particularly relevant for security domains, where both aspects have to be managed simultaneously.

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