Protected Values and Omission Bias

Abstract

Protected values (PVs) are those that people think should not be traded off. Baron and Spranca (1997) proposed that such values result from rules concerning actions (as opposed to values for outcomes). This proposal implies that PVs should show a particularly large bias against harmful acts that undermine the value in question, as opposed to harmful omissions (omission bias). We found this correlation between PVs and omission bias in 3 experiments, using stimuli of the sort that we used before to demonstrate omission bias. In 2 experiments, we also found a weak tendency for PVs to be associated with lack of concern for the number of acts involved, which is analogous to earlier results showing an association with lack of concern for the quantity of outcomes. Finally, 1 experiment showed that some people are willing to sacrifice values to prevent losses more than they are willing to sacrifice these values for gains. ᭧

How Do We Assign Punishment? The Impact of Minimal and Maximal Standards on the Evaluation of Deviants

“…This line of research is consistent with our notion of maximal standards and the graded structure of assigned Minimal vs. Maximal Standards 26 punishment. We believe that incorporating minimal standards will broaden our understanding of punishment (see Ritov & Baron, 1999).…”

MoralDM: A Computational Model of Moral Decision-Making

“…The second experiment contains the 12 scenarios from Ritov and Baron's (1999) paper. In all these decision-making scenarios, traditional utility theories fail to predict the subjects' responses.…”

“…In this experiment, all 12 moral decision-making scenarios from Ritov and Baron (1999) were used as inputs. These scenarios cover a wide range of topics such as civil rights, nature preserves, combating traffic accidents, Jewish settlements, Arab villages, etc.…”

“…A similar trade-off blockage was proposed by Tetlock (2000), who defined sacred values as "those values that a moral community treats as possessing transcendental significance that precludes comparisons, trade-offs, or indeed any mingling with secular values". Consider the traffic scenario (from Ritov & Baron 1999) below:…”

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“…This can be observed in most religious systems: they forbid acts that result in death, but do not condemn failing to act for preventing a death. Ritov and Baron (1999) presented evidence that protected values show stronger omission bias than do other values.…”