Reflecting on God's will: Reflective processing contributes to religious peoples' deontological dilemma responses

Abstract

Religious people tend to reject harm on moral dilemmas where causing harm maximizes outcomes, which is consistent with deontological but not utilitarian philosophy. Past research suggests that non-reflective processes drive deontological judgments, such as affective reactions to harm or heuristic application of moral rules. Yet, for religious people, reflective processes may also play a role in driving deontological judgments. We examined this possibility in three studies. Unlike most research, which treats deontological and utilitarian responses as diametric opposites, we employed process dissociation to assess them independently. Religiosity was associated with increased deontological and reduced utilitarian response tendencies—but time pressure (Study 1) and cognitive load (Study 2) reduced deontological tendencies among religious people. Increasing the salience of religious values attenuated this effect, without impacting utilitarian tendencies or the responses of less-religious people (Study 3). Thus, reflective consideration of religious values may contribute to deontological response tendencies among religious people.