The Influence of Fit Between Regulatory Focus and Decision-Making Strategies on Moral Judgment

Abstract

Using a 2 (regulatory focus: promotion/prevention-focused) × 2 (decision-making strategies: intuitive/rational strategies) experimental design, the current study explored the influence of regulatory focus and decision-making strategies on moral judgment. The results are as follows: (a) The main influencing effect of regulatory focus was statistically significant. Specifically, participants that were promotion-focused tended to make utilitarian moral judgments while participants that were prevention-focused tended to make deontological moral judgments. (b) The interaction effect of regulatory focus and decision-making strategies was also statistically significant. Specifically, moral judgement scores from participants that were promotion-focused were higher when they adopted intuitive rather than rational strategies while the scores of participants that were prevention-focused were higher when they adopted rational rather than intuitive strategies. These results suggest that the fit between regulatory focus and decision-making strategies can influence moral judgment.