Recently, researchers have proposed a polynomial model called the “consequences, norms, generalized inaction” (CNI) model for researching moral judgment. However, it is unclear whether the model can be used to explore cultural differences in moral judgment. In this study, we investigated the applicability of the CNI model of moral judgment to East Asian groups, and subsequently explored cultural and gender differences in moral judgment between East Asian (i.e., Japan, n = 211; China, n = 200) and Western (i.e., USA, n = 201) groups. The CNI model was proposed by Gawronski et al., and it can quantify individuals’ sensitivity to moral consequence, sensitivity to moral norms, and their general preference for inaction or action in moral dilemmas. Our results indicate that the CNI model fits well for Japanese and Chinese individuals. Both East Asian women and Western women were significantly more sensitive to moral norms than men in their respective countries. In the international comparison, Westerners were more sensitive to moral norms. The Japanese groups, for both men and women, were most biased towards inaction. Regarding sensitivity towards consequences, no differences were observed in the comparison between Eastern and Western male groups, whereas poor sensitivity was observed among women. By using this new model, this study provides new insights into the differences of cultural and gender in moral judgment. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04662-6.

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Several factors influence people's ability to make moral judgments. Apart from manipulating experimental conditions, this association can be explored in terms of socio-demographic attributes such as the social status and background of individuals. This study aimed to investigate the impact of marital status, parental status, income level, and the type of work on people's tendency to make moral judgments. This study recruited participants from across Japan, who completed 60 moral dilemma tasks, personal moral dilemmas (22 questions), impersonal moral dilemmas (19 questions), and non-moral dilemmas (19 questions) used in Greene et al. (2001).This study found that marital status, parenthood, annual personal income, and work status only influenced moral judgments during personal moral dilemmas. However, this difference was not observed for impersonal moral dilemmas and non-moral dilemmas. This study suggests that individual socio-demographic attributes affect moral judgments during personal dilemmas since people experiencing them are strongly influenced by emotions. This result also supports the applicability of the dual-process model in Japanese culture.