(A)morally Demanding Game? An Exploration of Moral Decision-Making in a Purpose-Made Video Game

A purpose-made video game was used to measure response time and moral alignment of in-game moral decisions, which were made by 115 undergraduate students. Overall, moral decisions took between 4–6 seconds and were mostly pro-social. Previous gameplay, in-game, and post-game experiences predicted in-game moral alignment. Real-life moral salience was not related to in-game decision-making. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of the demands of video games and in-game moral decision-making models.

Download Full-text

Players’ Moral Decisions in Virtual Worlds

The Oxford Handbook of Entertainment Theory ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190072216.013.35 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 670-689

Author(s):

André Melzer ◽

Elisabeth Holl

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Video Games ◽

Virtual Worlds ◽

Real Life ◽

Personal Characteristics ◽

Integrative Model ◽

Moral Decision ◽

Moral Decision Making ◽

Related Factors ◽

Moral Decisions

Video games and their expressive and interactive potential may fulfill simple needs for hedonic pleasure, but they are also suited for generating meaningful interaction and eudaimonic experiences. As moral actors, players can make their own decisions in a safe “as-if” space without direct real-life consequences. Not surprisingly, implementing meaningful eudaimonic elements based on moral decision-making has become increasingly popular. This chapter describes the role of morality in video games, together with an overview of current theories on psychological processing of moral decision-making in video games. It suggests a novel integrating approach that comprises game-related factors, personal characteristics, and moral decision-making processes and their effects on the player. The integrative model unites leading theoretical assumptions of morality in video games, but also allows for predictions when players make moral decisions or suppress their moral concerns, and how this may affect their entertainment outcome.

Download Full-text

Fear Deciding Fate: How Fear Influences Moral Decision-Making

10.26686/wgtn.17144318 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Sophia Strojny

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Moral Dilemmas ◽

Thinking Styles ◽

Moral Decision ◽

Moral Decision Making ◽

Moral Choice ◽

Moral Decisions ◽

Moral Choices ◽

The Impact

<p>Moral dilemmas require individuals to make a life-altering choice. Due to the severity of the choice, we argue that there is a degree of fear in moral decision-making. We aimed to see how prevailing fears in each individual predicts moral decision-making habits. We looked into the emotional and physical divisions of fear to deem which dimension of fear is more dominant in each participant. Then analysed these results against reported deontological or utilitarian moral inclinations to see if higher reports of fear impact moral decision-making. Additionally, we included two secondary variables that are most prevalent in fear research (gender and thinking styles) as well as the impact of burden on moral choice. We found that our research was supported; fear tendencies are linked to individual behaviours and burden of moral decisions was influenced by what we fear and affected moral choices.</p>

Download Full-text

Education for Loneliness as a Consequence of Moral Decision-Making: An Issue of Moral Virtues

Studies in Philosophy and Education ◽

10.1007/s11217-020-09728-7 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 39 (6) ◽

pp. 591-605

Author(s):

Jarosław Horowski

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Moral Evil ◽

Character Traits ◽

Moral Decision ◽

Moral Decision Making ◽

Moral Good ◽

Cardinal Virtues ◽

Moral Virtues ◽

Point Of Interest ◽

Moral Decisions

Abstract The direct reference point for these analyses is the process of making moral decisions, but a particular point of interest is the difficulty associated with making decisions when acting subjects are aware that their choice of moral good can lead to the breakdown of relationships with those close to them (family members or friends) or to their exclusion from the group(s) that have been most important to them so far in their lives, consequently causing them to experience loneliness. This difficulty is a challenge for education, which in supporting the moral development of a maturing person should prepare her/him for choosing moral good even if this requires personal sacrifices. In these analyses, assuming that knowledge of moral good is not sufficient for morally good actions, I refer mainly to the virtues of character that facilitate making morally good decisions and I seek the answer to the question: what character traits (moral virtues) should be shaped in maturing persons, so that as adults they can resist moral evil, even when this will clearly lead to the experience of loneliness? I propose these character traits as expressing moral virtues—especially the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude (neo-Thomistic approach). In this way, I join in the discussion relating to the teleology of education. I do not touch on the methodology of education, however. The argument is presented in two parts. In the first, I introduce the problem of decision-making implying consent to loneliness. In the second, I reflect on the characteristics of a person who is capable of making such a decision.

Download Full-text

Humanity Educating Philosophy

The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy ◽

10.5840/wcp20-paideia199844817 ◽

1998 ◽

pp. 15-22

Author(s):

Jeffrey W. Bulger

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Equilibrium Model ◽

Reflective Equilibrium ◽

Theory Model ◽

Moral Decision ◽

Moral Pluralism ◽

Moral Decision Making ◽

Moral Systems ◽

Moral Decisions ◽

New Discovery

This treatise is a contribution towards the understanding of why humankind cannot agree on the foundation of morality and why moral pluralism is the logical constitution of moral reality. The synergistic-reflective-equilibrium model is the model that will describe how persons can make moral decisions as pluralistic agents. If this model is correct, then it will not be a new discovery, rather, it will be a new description of how pluralistic agents do in fact make moral decisions. This synergistic-reflective-equilibrium description should then be useful not only in giving a fuller understanding of how moral decisions ought to be made, but also how moral philosophy can be united into a pluralistic collective whole. The first part of this paper defines the synergistic-reflective-equilibrium mode. It briefly explains how it is a combination of both the theory model of moral decision-making and the intuition model of moral decision-making. The second part of this paper defines mid-level principles and explains how they are a natural development of the synergistic-reflective-equilibrium method. It will then be shown that both Mill and Kant used this method in their own moral theories. Lastly, it will be shown how "weighing and balancing" and "specification" are integral components in this model and were also practiced by Mill and Kant in their moral systems.

Download Full-text

Moral judgment is important in COVID-19 pandemic

The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries ◽

10.3855/jidc.13915 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 (05) ◽

pp. 615-617

Author(s):

Turki Abualait ◽

Shahid Bashir

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Moral Judgment ◽

Scientific Understanding ◽

Moral Decision ◽

Moral Decision Making ◽

Moral Decisions ◽

Practical Concern

The nature of moral judgment is not only of longstanding philosophical interest, but also it is a matter of immediate practical concern. Currently, when the information, the advice, even the science and the sequela of the pandemic COVID-19 are all consistently and rapidly changing, it creates inconsistency in our decision making. Nevertheless, we lack of a detailed scientific understanding of how people make moral decisions. The letter is an effort aimed at understanding moral decision-making during the present pandemic of COVID-19.

Download Full-text

Political Dogma Stroll’s non political moral decision making

Politikon IAPSS Journal of Political Science ◽

10.22151/politikon.19.4 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 19 ◽

pp. 33-44

Author(s):

Ibrahim Noorani ◽

Khurram Shakir ◽

Muddasir Hussain

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Western Europe ◽

Moral Dilemmas ◽

Preliminary Evidence ◽

Emotional Reactions ◽

Affective Responses ◽

Moral Judgments ◽

Moral Decision ◽

Moral Decision Making ◽

Moral Decisions

Ethical enigma kernelling concerns about actions against concerns about consequences have been dealt by philosophers and psychologists to measure “universal” moral intuitions. Although these enigmas contain no evident political content, we decipher that liberals are more likely than conservatives to be concerned about consequences, whereas conservatives are more likely than liberals to be concerned about actions. This denouement is exhibited in two large, heterogeneous samples and across several different moral dilemmas. In addition, manipulations of dilemma averseness and order of presentation suggest that this political difference is due in part to different sensitivities to emotional reactions in moral decision-making: Conservatives are very much inclined to “go with the gut” and let affective responses guide moral judgments, while liberals are more likely to deliberate about optimal consequences. In this article, extracting a sample from Western Europe, we report evidence that political differences can be found in moral decisions about issues that have no evident political content. In particular, we find that conservatives are more likely than liberals to attend to the action itself when deciding whether something is right or wrong, whereas liberals are more likely than conservatives to attend to the consequences of the action. Further, we report preliminary evidence that this is partly explained by the kernel of truth from the parodies – conservatives are more likely than liberals to “go with the gut” by using their affective responses to guide moral judgment.

Download Full-text

MORAL DECISION-MAKING DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Moscow University Psychology Bulletin ◽

10.11621/vsp.2020.04.02 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 22-43

Author(s):

Sergey N. Enikolopov ◽

Tatina I. Medvedeva ◽

Olga M. Boyko ◽

Oksana Yu. Vorontsova ◽

Olga Yu. Kazmina

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Common Good ◽

Online Survey ◽

Moral Dilemmas ◽

Moral Decision ◽

Moral Decision Making ◽

Psychopathological Symptoms ◽

Moral Decisions ◽

Moral Choices ◽

High Level

Relevance. The COVID-19 pandemic reveals the problem of moral choices for a large number of people: who should be treated first; who can be considered as a subject for urgent vaccines and drugs testing; choice between personal convenience and observation of restrictions for the sake of the “common good.” The objective of the study was to evaluate whether the stress experienced by people during the COVID-19 pandemic can change moral decision making. Materials and methods. The data of an online survey conducted from March 30 to May 31 (311 people) were analyzed. The survey included sociodemographic questions, questions about assessing one’s current condition, the Simptom Check List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), and the Moral Dilemmas Test, consisting of 30 dilemmas. The relationship of a number of utilitarian choices in personal moral dilemmas with sociodemographic characteristics, respondents’ assessments of their state and psychopathological characteristics was analyzed. Solving personal moral dilemmas was considered within subgroups of respondents with a high level of somatization and a high level of psychopathological symptoms and it was reviewed separately. Results. The results showed a high level of distress throughout the survey and an increase of utilitarian choices in personal moral dilemmas by the end of the survey. The number of choices in personal dilemmas was lower among older respondents, higher among men, and positively correlated with psychopathological symptoms. In the subgroup with a high level of somatization, personal choices slightly decreased by the end of the survey. On the contrary, in the subgroup with high levels of psychopathological symptoms, the number of personal choices significantly increased. Conclusions. Against the background of quarantine, assessments of moral standards change. The level of stress ambiguously affects moral decisions. A high level of somatization leads to a decrease in utilitarian personal choices, and a higher level of psychopathological symptoms leads to an increase in utilitarianш choices. Utilitarian personal choices are more often made by men and younger people

Download Full-text

Between Real World and Thought Experiment: Framing Moral Decision-Making in Self-Driving Car Dilemmas

Humanistic Management Journal ◽

10.1007/s41463-020-00101-x ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Vanessa Schäffner

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Thought Experiment ◽

Real Life ◽

Moral Decision ◽

Moral Decision Making ◽

Business World ◽

Autonomous Cars ◽

On The Road ◽

Self Driving Cars ◽

Trolley Cases

AbstractHow should driverless vehicles respond to situations of unavoidable personal harm? This paper takes up the case of self-driving cars as a prominent example of algorithmic moral decision-making, an emergent type of morality that is evolving at a high pace in a digitised business world. As its main contribution, it juxtaposes dilemma decision situations relating to ethical crash algorithms for autonomous cars to two edge cases: the case of manually driven cars facing real-life, mundane accidents, on the one hand, and the dilemmatic situation in theoretically constructed trolley cases, on the other. The paper identifies analogies and disanalogies between the three cases with regard to decision makers, decision design, and decision outcomes. The findings are discussed from the angle of three perspectives: aspects where analogies could be found, those where the case of self-driving cars has turned out to lie in between both edge cases, and those where it entirely departs from either edge case. As a main result, the paper argues that manual driving as well as trolley cases are suitable points of reference for the issue of designing ethical crash algorithms only to a limited extent. Instead, a fundamental epistemic and conceptual divergence of dilemma decision situations in the context of self-driving cars and the used edge cases is substantiated. Finally, the areas of specific need for regulation on the road to introducing autonomous cars are pointed out and related thoughts are sketched through the lens of the humanistic paradigm.

Download Full-text