Derailing the trolley: Everyday utilitarian judgments in groups high versus low in psychopathic traits or autistic traits

Vyas, Karishma; Jameel, Leila; Bellesi, Giulia; Crawford, Sarah; Channon, Shelley

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2017.01.054

Cited by 21 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Given the social and affective deficits of psychopaths, researchers found that psychopathy in western culture can make more utilitarian judgments. [21][22][23][24] Koenigs found that primary psychopaths endorse more personal utilitarian choices in comparison with secondary psychopaths and non-psychopaths. 25 Balash and Falkenbach (2018) investigated the relationship between psychopathic traits and utilitarian endorsement in a college sample and found that individuals with a high level of psychopathic traits willingly accept harmful actions in accidental harm scenarios.…”

Section: Utilitarian Judgment Is Associated With the Reason-mentioning

confidence: 99%

<p>The Characteristics of Moral Judgment of Psychopaths: The Mediating Effect of the Deontological Tendency</p>

Li¹,

Ding²,

Lai³

et al. 2020

PRBM

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Purpose: Many studies explore the relationship between moral judgment and psychopathy in western culture, but the mechanism underlying this relationship remains unclear. By far, no research about this topic in the background of Chinese culture exists. In the current study, we adopt one of the creative process-dissociation approaches to explore the relationship between the psychopath and moral judgment. Methods: Adopt the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathic Scale, the Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity and Process-dissociation approach to explore the relationship between the psychopath and moral judgment. Results: Traditional utilitarian moral score of the high psychopathy group are significantly higher than that of low psychopathy group (t= 2.97, p<0.05), people with high psychopathy utilitarian tendency U factor score and people with low psychopathy have no significant difference (F= 0.85, p = 0.36). Conclusion: Individuals with high psychopathy tend to make fewer deontological moral judgments because of their decreased deontological tendencies rather than their increased utilitarian tendencies. They may make more acceptance choices not to increase the wellbeing of the majority of people, but because of their increased acceptance of hurting others in the moral dilemma.

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Section: Utilitarian Judgment Is Associated With the Reason-mentioning

confidence: 99%

<p>The Characteristics of Moral Judgment of Psychopaths: The Mediating Effect of the Deontological Tendency</p>

Li¹,

Ding²,

Lai³

et al. 2020

PRBM

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show abstract

“…In other studies, however, individuals with ASCs exhibited impaired trait-empathic concern (Hirvelä and Helkama, 2011; Adler et al, 2015; Chung et al, 2016) and intact trait-cognitive empathy (Senland and Higgins-D'Alessandro, 2013; Althaus et al, 2015; Chung et al, 2016). Meanwhile, although autistic individuals reported significantly higher empathic accuracy ability than the empathic accuracy ability of neurotypical individuals in most studies (Hirvelä and Helkama, 2011; Senland and Higgins-D'Alessandro, 2013, 2016; Adler et al, 2015; Althaus et al, 2015; De Coster et al, 2017; Murray et al, 2017; Vyas et al, 2017), some ASC individuals had the same empathic accuracy ability as typically developing individuals (Pouw et al, 2013; Chung et al, 2016; Mul et al, 2018; Thaler et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, this “established fact” is challenged if the multiple levels and components of empathy are discussed in detail. Many studies have found that ASC individuals show intact trait-affective empathy (Mazza et al, 2014; Rueda et al, 2015; Senland and Higgins-D'Alessandro, 2016; De Coster et al, 2017; Vyas et al, 2017; Bos and Stokes, 2018; Mul et al, 2018) and impaired trait-cognitive empathy (Mazza et al, 2014; Rueda et al, 2015; Senland and Higgins-D'Alessandro, 2016; De Coster et al, 2017; Vyas et al, 2017; Bos and Stokes, 2018; Mul et al, 2018) when measured separately. In other studies, however, individuals with ASCs exhibited impaired trait-empathic concern (Hirvelä and Helkama, 2011; Adler et al, 2015; Chung et al, 2016) and intact trait-cognitive empathy (Senland and Higgins-D'Alessandro, 2013; Althaus et al, 2015; Chung et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathy Impairment in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Conditions From a Multidimensional Perspective: A Meta-Analysis

et al. 2019

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Background: Although empathy has always been considered to be impaired in individuals with autism spectrum conditions (ASCs), the relevant findings have been inconsistent. The present meta-analysis aims to determine which empathy components are impaired and how culture, gender, and age moderate such empathy impairment.Methods: By using “Autism,” “Asperger Syndrome,” “Empathy,” and related Chinese synonyms as keywords, we searched the databases of Weipu, Wanfang, CNKI, Web of Science, Science Direct, SpringerLink, and Elsevier through “subject” and “keyword” searches. We also conducted a manual search according to the references. In total, 51 studies from Eastern and Western countries were included in this meta-analysis, which comprised 144 independent effects, 2,095 individuals with ASCs and 2,869 controls without ASCs. For the retrieved data, Hedge's g was taken as the quantitative measure of effect, and CMA V2.0 software was used for publication bias tests (by using Rosenthal's Classic Failsafe-N and Egger's methods), heterogeneity tests (by using a Q-test, I2-test, and H-test) and a moderating effect test (by using a univariate regression model).Results: The results showed that the empathy impairment evident in individuals with ASCs is component specific; that is, trait-cognitive empathy, trait-empathic concern, state-cognitive empathy, and state-empathic concern are impaired, whereas state-empathic accuracy remains intact, and trait-empathic accuracy is superior to the trait-empathic accuracy in neurotypical individuals. The univariate regression model showed that gender moderates the impairment of the trait-empathic concern, trait-empathic accuracy, and state-cognitive empathy in autistic individuals and that age moderates the impairment of the trait-cognitive empathy, trait-empathic accuracy, state-empathic concern, and state-empathic accuracy in autistic individuals. However, culture does not moderate any empathy components (trait-cognitive empathy, trait-empathic concern, or state-cognitive empathy) involved in the present meta-analysis.Conclusions: These findings contribute to ending the controversy over the empathic integrity of individuals with ASCs and shed some light on future research about the empathy impairment of autistic individuals. More specifically, subsequent studies should distinguish specific empathy components and consider the role of gender and age when demonstrating empathy impairment in individuals with ASCs. Moreover, related studies based on Asian collectivist cultural samples and female samples should be further enriched.

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“…In contrast to studies focusing on moral judgment, those that test moral decision-making use first-person scenarios in which participants are asked what they would do if faced with a moral dilemma. Some have found no differences in the type of moral decisions made by individuals with high ASD traits ( Vyas et al, 2017 ), or those with formal ASD diagnoses, and typically developing individuals ( Patil et al, 2016 ). However, Gleichgerrcht et al (2012) demonstrated that ASD is associated with a greater proportion of utilitarian responses (i.e., that aim to maximize well-being for the greatest number of people) on moral dilemmas, even if ASD and control participants have a similar understanding of moral issues and conceptions of right and wrong.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the utility of some traditional tasks is limited when addressing questions about everyday moral reasoning. The type of stimuli used (written stories, simple cartoons) and the situations depicted (life and death scenarios, dilemmas unlikely to happen in real life, Vyas et al, 2017 ) limit ecological validity ( Kahane, 2015 ). Confounding variables, such as reading skills may also be problematic, as written scenarios may favor individuals with ASD in whom verbal abilities surpass non-verbal abilities ( Chiang et al, 2014 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Encoding of Social Cues Contributes to Moral Reasoning in Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Study

Garon

d’Arc

Lavallée

et al. 2018

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Eye-tracking studies suggest that visual encoding is important for social processes such as socio-moral reasoning. Alterations to the visual encoding of faces, for example, have been linked to the social phenotype of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and are associated with social and communication impairments. Yet, people with ASD often perform similarly to neurotypical participants on measures of moral reasoning, supporting the hypothesis of differential mechanisms of moral reasoning in ASD. The objective of this study was to document visual encoding and moral reasoning in ASD and neurotypical individuals using a visual, ecological, sociomoral reasoning paradigm paired with eye-tracking. Two groups (ASD, Control) matched for age and IQ completed the SoMoral task, a set of picture situations describing everyday moral dilemmas, while their eye movements and pupil dilation were recorded. Moral understanding, decision-making, and justification were recorded. Participants with ASD presented a longer time to first fixation on faces. They also understood fewer dilemmas and produced fewer socially adaptive responses. Despite a similar average level of moral maturity, the justifications produced by participants with ASD were not distributed in the same way as the neurotypical participants. Visual encoding was a significant predictor of moral decision-making and moral justification for both groups. The results are discussed in the context of alternative mechanisms of moral reasoning in ASD.

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Derailing the trolley: Everyday utilitarian judgments in groups high versus low in psychopathic traits or autistic traits

Cited by 21 publications

References 32 publications

<p>The Characteristics of Moral Judgment of Psychopaths: The Mediating Effect of the Deontological Tendency</p>

<p>The Characteristics of Moral Judgment of Psychopaths: The Mediating Effect of the Deontological Tendency</p>

Empathy Impairment in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Conditions From a Multidimensional Perspective: A Meta-Analysis

Visual Encoding of Social Cues Contributes to Moral Reasoning in Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Study

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