Abstract
Research indicates that moral violations are judged less wrong when the violation results from omission as opposed to commission, and when the violation is a byproduct as opposed to a means to an end. Previous work examined these effects mainly for violent offenses such as killing. Here we investigate the generality of these effects across a range of moral violations including sexuality, food, property, and group loyalty. In Experiment 1, we observed omission effects in wrongness ratings for all of the twelve offenses investigated. In Experiments 2 and 3, we observed byproduct effects in wrongness ratings for seven and eight offenses (out of twelve), respectively, and we observed byproduct effects in forced-choice responses for all twelve offenses. Our results address an ongoing debate about whether different cognitive systems compute moral wrongness for different types of behaviors (surrounding violence, sexuality, food, etc.), or, alternatively, a common cognitive architecture computes wrongness for a variety of behaviors.
Highlights
The moral status of omissions and byproducts has been discussed and debated throughout history
The results of Experiment 1 indicate that the omission effect is not specific to violent offenses but occurs across a range of moral violations
The heavy weight is an object on the track, but there is a man standing in front of it who will be killed
Summary
The moral status of omissions and byproducts has been discussed and debated throughout history. Previous research on omissions and byproducts has tended to focus on violent moral offenses such as killing a victim in order to save other people. Some researchers have emphasized that morality encompasses a diverse set of content domains. The diversity of moral phenomena raises questions about the generality of omission and byproduct effects. Several previous studies suggest that omission and byproduct effects might occur widely across moral domains. Lying by omission is judged as less wrong than lying by commission [7,15,16] (for similar findings in children, see [17]). No previous study has examined omissions and byproducts across a diversity of moral offenses, including major moral categories such as sexuality, property, loyalty, and food taboos
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