Agents' moral character shapes people's moral evaluations of accidental harm transgressions

Abstract

Previous research has documented that judging an agent causing an accident mainly relies on considerations about the outcome endured by the victim and the intention to cause harm. In this study, we investigate how these two factors may be influenced by the morality ascribed to the agent, independently of the action itself. In three online experiments, we determined whether information about the moral character of agents influenced moral judgment of accidental harm. Participants were presented with short narratives depicting accidental harm scenarios and were asked to report their judgment of the perpetrator. In experiment 1 and 3 (N = 683), we manipulated the perpetrator's morality and warmth orthogonally. In experiment 2 (N = 271), we focused on morality and simultaneously manipulated the perpetrator's and victim's moral character. In both experiments, we found that the perpetrator's moral character influenced judgments. Participants were more forgiving toward perpetrators of high morality relative to low morality, and the effect of the moral character was greater than the effect of warmth (experiment 1). The victim's moral character also influenced moral judgments but to a lesser extent than that of the perpetrator and did not interact with the moral character of the perpetrator (experiment 2). Participants were harsher toward the perpetrator when the victim was described as having high morality as compared to low morality. In experiment 3 (N = 346), we replicated the effect of morality and warmth and further found that perceived intentionality mediated the effect of the perpetrator's moral character (but not warmth) on moral judgment. These results show that information about the moral character -not directly related to the moral transgression – shapes third-party moral judgment through perceived intentionality, even in the case of accidental harm transgressions.