Abstract
Do individuals intuitively favor certain moral actions over others? This study explores the role of intuitive thinking—induced by time pressure and cognitive load—in moral judgment and behavior. We conduct experiments in three different countries (Sweden, Austria, and the United States) involving over 1,400 subjects. All subjects responded to four trolley type dilemmas and four dictator games involving different charitable causes. Decisions were made under time pressure/time delay or while experiencing cognitive load or control. Overall we find converging evidence that intuitive states do not influence moral decisions. Neither time-pressure nor cognitive load had any effect on moral judgments or altruistic behavior. Thus we find no supporting evidence for the claim that intuitive moral judgments and dictator game giving differ from more reflectively taken decisions. Across all samples and decision tasks men were more likely to make utilitarian moral judgments and act selfishly compared to women, providing further evidence that there are robust gender differences in moral decision-making. However, there were no significant interactions between gender and the treatment manipulations of intuitive versus reflective decision-making.
Highlights
A key issue in moral psychology is to what extent moral decisions are governed by fast, automatic, and intuitive “system 1” processes or by slower, more controlled, and reflective “system 2” processes [1,2,3,4]
The main objective of this study is to explore if intuitive thinking—induced by time pressure and cognitive load—influences moral judgment and altruistic behavior
Do individuals intuitively favor certain moral actions over others? Building on sequential dualprocess theories, claims have been made that intuition should lead to more deontological moral judgments where overall consequences are disregarded
Summary
A key issue in moral psychology is to what extent moral decisions are governed by fast, automatic, and intuitive “system 1” processes or by slower, more controlled, and reflective “system 2” processes [1,2,3,4]. Utilitarianism and its behavioral offspring Homo Economicus are founded.
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