The Effects of Intent, Outcome, and Causality on Moral Judgments and Decision Processes

Abstract

Over the past decade, moral judgments and their underlying decision processes have more frequently been considered from a dynamic and multi-factorial perspective rather than a binary approach (e.g., dual-system processes). The agent's intent and his or her causal role in the outcome-as well as the outcome importance-are key psychological factors that influence moral decisions, especially judgments of punishment. The current research aimed to study the influence of intent, outcome, and causality variations on moral decisions, and to identify their interaction during the decision process by embedding the moral scenarios within an adapted mouse-tracking paradigm. Findings of the preregistered study (final n = 80) revealed main effects for intent, outcome, and causality on judgments of punishment, and an interaction between the effects of intent and causality. We furthermore explored the dynamics of these effects during the decision process via the analysis of mouse trajectories in the course of time. It allowed detecting when these factors intervened during the trial time course. The present findings thus both replicate and extend previous research on moral judgment, and evidence that, despite some ongoing challenges, mousetracking represents a promising tool to investigate moral decision-making.

Sibling Relationship Dynamics in Families with a Child Diagnosed with a Chronic Mental Disorder versus a Somatic Condition

“…From the Piaget’s Theory publishment to the present literature, the understanding of moral physiology has been enriched with a new aspect, with moral judgement no longer being considered only the ability to choose between wright and wrong under favorable conditions [ 26 ]. In the last few years, psychological theories have presented a substantial diversity in terms of moral judgement, classifying this concept into four theoretical categories [ 27 , 28 ]: Blame judgements: reproach/blame Wrongness judgement: morally wrong/immoral Norm judgement: permissible/obligatory/forbidden Evaluations: bad/negative.…”