Moral Character & Identity Flashcards
Do we assume people are good?
In general, we have a people = good bias
Defining ‘human’
Dehumanization
Separate “the people” from “their groups”
Social animals
People’s “true self” is good
What is the situationist perspective?
Moral behavior is determined by the situation
The standard approach in social psychology; supported by a lot
of research:
• The “watched people are good people” studies
• Participants who find money are more likely to help another person (happiness → helping)
• The Good Samaritan study (being religious - even after a religion prime - could not override the situation)
• Dan Ariely’s work on sexual arousal and (dis)honesty…
What are situational influences? (DIAMONDS)
Duty: A job must be done
Intellect: Opportunity to demonstrate intellect
Adversity: Another person (present or discussed) is under threat
Mating: Potential romantic partners are present
Positivity: Situation is potentially enjoyable
Negativity: Situation is potentially unenjoyable or anxiety-provoking
Deception: It is possible to deceive someone
Sociality: Social interaction is possible
What is the personist perspective?
Moral behavior is determined by the person
The personality approach to moral psychology; supported by
evidence showing…
• The ease of differentiating “good” and “bad” people
• Morality as a core to one’s identity
• Aggregate vs. Specific events
• Certain traits predict moral tendencies
• E.g., Propriety
• Not everyone reacts to the same situation in the same way
What are the big 5 personality traits? (OCEAN)
Openness ((+) moral identity)
Conscientiousness ((+) moral identity/moral courage)
Extraversion ((-) moral identity)
Agreeableness ((+) moral sensitivity/moral identity)
Neuroticism ((-) moral courage)
What is the interactionsist approach?
Moral behavior due to the characteristics of both the person and the situation
Some people act differently in different situations
Moral salience may be highlighted in some situations depending on individual differences
Competing pressures
• Person vs. Situation
• Moral dilemmas
What was the milgram study?
Studied obedience following the Adolf Eichmann trial
Participants were 40 ”everyday” men (later studies
expanded samples)
“Effects of punishment on learning”
• Teacher and “learner”
• Shocks for wrong (incl. no) answers
• “Learner” mentions heart problems and then goes silent
• If participants tried to quit, the experimenter would tell them to
continue
65% administered up to 450v
Variations to the situation change the results
What are the 2 competing moral values?
- Sometimes we are in situations
where more than one moral value is relevant
• Moral foundations as an example of
multiple moral values: Care, Fairness,
Loyalty, Authority, and Sanctity
• Moral dilemmas
VS
- Various factors may influence what wins out
• Person factors
• Situational factors
• Interactionism
What is Hollander 2 forms of resistance (seen in the milgram study)?
- Implicit resistance
• Silence/hesitations
• Imprecations (spoken curses)
• Laughter - Explicit resistance
• Addressing the learner
• Prompting the experimenter
• Stop tries
Practical wisdom?
What is the DSM-5 criteria for antipersonal disorder?
A. Disregard for and violation of others’ rights since age 15, as indicated by ≥ 3 of the seven sub features:
- Failure to obey laws and norms by engaging in behavior which results in criminal arrest, or would warrant criminal arrest
- Lying, deception, and manipulation, for profit or self-amusement
- Impulsive behavior
- Irritability and aggression, manifested as frequently assaults others, or engages in fighting
- Blatantly disregards safety of self and others
- A pattern of irresponsibility and
- Lack of remorse for actions
B. The person is at least age 18,
C. A conduct disorder was present by history before age 15
D. The person does not have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder
What is antisocial personality disorder?
Behavioral pattern of contempt and
disregard for the safety and rights of other
people, with no feelings of regret, guilt,
remorse, or compassion (~3% of pop)
Glenn et al. (2009): Negatively predicts harm
and fairness, positively predicts ingroup
loyalty
• No relationship to authority
• Very small negative relationship with purity
• Empathy mediates harm and fairness; Social
dominance orientation mediates ingroup loyalty
What is the dark triad?
Psychopathy: A set of personality traits and behaviors frequently
associated with lack of emotional sensitivity and empathy, impulsiveness, superficial charm and insensitivity to punishing
consequences
Narcissism: Excessive self-
love or egocentrism
Machiavellianism: A personality trait marked by
a calculating attitude toward human relationships
and a belief that ends justify means, however ruthless
The dark triad can predict…?
Enjoyment of trolling behaviour on the internet
Different cheating behaviours
- psychopathy —> exam copying
- Machiavellianism —> essay plagiarism
Can rise to success fairly quickly BUT derails at some point
Predicts prejudice/discrimination/social dominance orientation
Predicts mate poaching (short-term reproductive strategy)
**PSYCHOPATHY
Predicts more strategic regulating mating style
**MACH.
Predicts higher likelihood of encountering the justice system than mach. and narciss.
***PSYCHOPATHY
What is zero-negative type P?
Simon Baron-Cohen
✓Preoccupation with oneself
✓Willingness to do whatever it takes to satisfy their desires
✓Will often respond to thwarted goals or insults to the self
with rage/violence or cold/calculated cruelty
✓Enjoy watching others suffer (schadenfreude)
***SCIENCE OF EVIL BOOK
What is psychopathy?
~1% of pop; but a spectrum
Not a personality disorder (ASPD is) but a personality type
Characterized by…
• Superficial (instrumental) charm
• Lack of anxiety or guilt (+ increased risk taking; drug abuse)
• Undependability and dishonesty
• Egocentricity
• Inability to form lasting relationships (+ short-term mating strategies/mate-poaching)
• Failure to learn from punishment (low BIS)
• Poverty of emotions
• Lack of insight into the impact of their behavior
• Failure to plan ahead
Can be high or low functioning (if low functioning, often also ASPD)
Psychopaths tend to be high in cognitive empathy (ToM), but low in emotional and motivational empathy
What is the anatomy of empathy?
The prefrontal cortex is active = more empathy
The amygdala has more neural activity = extremely altruistic people
Need to…
- recognize others pain
- comparing ones perspective w/ others
- understanding social cues and physical pain
- registering facial emotion
- comprehending the intentions of others
How is the empathy circuit suppressed?
Biological:
- 70% psychopathic traits are genetic
- brain injury/stress
Psychological:
- temp states like drunkness, fear or hunger
- childhood trauma = long-term
Social:
- when entire group conforms to ideology of aggression/superiority (war)
How is the empathy circuit activated?
Biological:
- genetic variations = allow ppl recognize facial better than others
Psychological:
- nurturing childhood
Social:
- watching a friend cry/hearing dig whimper = evoke empathy = percieved shared suffering
How can the empathy circuit be measured?
Empathy Quotient (EQ) Tests
Psychopathy is “_________” related to self-reported fear & empathy
What else are they worse at?
Negatively
Pictures of individuals in distress lead to less galvanic skin
response among people scoring high in psychopathy
High psychopathy individuals show little to no increased GSR in
response to shock threats
They are also worse at naming/recognizing fearful facial
expressions
Why are there psychopaths?
What is the James Bond Hypothesis?
Perhaps they have remained in the gene pool because:
1) It has been beneficial for groups to have a small
proportion of people with this particular emotional
and cognitive toolset (e.g., smothering babies)
2) People with psychopathic tendencies can take
advantage of our people = good bias and end up being
hyper-successful (e.g., short-term mating)
➢ ~1-4% of children are not genetically related to the
father who thinks the kid is his
Psychopaths tend to be able to judge the morality of actions from the outside – they know what people think is right and wrong and can say so…
But what is the problem with this?
However, knowing what the moral action is doesn’t sway them to act morally
And they often cannot distinguish between moral rules and social rules (social-cognitive domain theory)
What are 3 factors that influence our judgments of moral character?
- Ingroup members (shared morally)
- Religious signals (distrust of atheists)
- Attractiveness (the halo effect)
What is the halo effect?
What is some evidence for this?
We view attractive people as more kind, moral, competent, intelligent and deserving of help…
Jurors are less likely to believe attractive people are guilty of crimes…
In the 31 presidential elections to date, 21 (68%) of the winning candidates have been taller than their opponents (perceptions of moral character is one of the strongest predictors of candidate choice
Good looking, taller soldiers are seen as having better character and leadership potential
How do quick moral decisions illuminate moral character?
Actors who made a quick (vs. slow) immoral decision were
evaluated more harshly
Conversely, actors who arrived at a moral (“good”) decision
quickly (vs. slowly) received more positive evaluations
***quickness predicted perceived certainty, which in turn mediated the relationship between speed and moral evaluations
***We view speed of decision as a signal of unambiguous motives to do good or bad
We are social animals, do we care and focus more on the character of others?
Yes
Virtue ethics —> persons global morality
What is the knobe effect?
AKA side-effect effect
Moral actions do not always lead to evaluations of the actor as moral
- Harm Condition: The vice-president of a company went to the chairman of the board and said, ‘We are
thinking of starting a new program. It will help us increase profits, but it will also harm the environment.’
The chairman of the board answered, ‘I don’t care at all about harming the environment. I just want to
make as much profit as I can. Let’s start the new program.’ They started the new program. Sure enough, the
environment was harmed.
➢ Did the chairman intentionally hurt the environment and deserve blame?
- Help Condition: The vice-president of a company went to the chairman of the board and said, ‘We are
thinking of starting a new program. It will help us increase profits, and it will also help the environment.’
The chairman of the board answered, ‘I don’t care at all about helping the environment. I just want to make
as much profit as I can. Let’s start the new program.’ They started the new program. Sure enough, the environment was helped.
➢ Did the chairman intentionally help the environment and deserve credit?
Most importantly…
When judging ACTS, we are “___________”
When judging PEOPLE, we are “_________ _______”
Utilitarians
Virtue ethicists
