Task 6 - Morality

Question 1

Moral Reasoning

Answer 1

Conscious mental activity evaluating a moral judgment for its (in)consistency with other moral commitments

Question 2

Social Intuitionist Model

Answer 2

invented by Haidt

• consists of intuition, judgment and reasoning
• judgment primarily driven by intuitions
• reasoning primarily driven by judgment
• > according to theory: not possible to influence views of somebody by appealing to reasoning (intuition prevails)

Question 3

Dual-process model of moral judgment

Answer 3

Deontological moral judgment
-> concerns for rights and duties driven by emotional intuitive responses
Utilitarian/consequentialist judgments
-> aimed at promoting greater good driven by cognitive processes
-> suggests changeability of others opinion by targetting system for controlled cognititon

Question 4

Action principle

Answer 4

Harm caused by an action less morally acceptable than harm caused by an omission

Question 5

Utilitarian vs deontological judgments

Answer 5

Cognitive load slows down utilitarian judgment, not deontological
-people with greater working memory tend to use utilitarian judgment more

Question 6

WEIRD Moral reasoning

Answer 6

Endorse moral codes emphasizing individual rights and independence
-personal actions seen as personal right

Question 7

Non-WEIRD Moral reasoning

Answer 7

• more strongly moralized duty-based communal obligations and spiritual purity
• personal actions seen as collective moral concern (e.g. sexual behavior not seen as personal choice)

Question 8

Sacrificing dilemma

Answer 8

Individualistic: will sacrifice
Collectivist: more likely to consider additional contextual information
-> less judgment of others who wouldnt sacrifice

Question 9

Factors for cultural differences

Answer 9

• Differences in social institutions (e.g. kinship structures, economic markets)
• Ecological factors (e.g. pathogen prevalence)
• Religion: e.g. differing views on pure vs. impure actions

Question 10

Cultural differences within societies

Answer 10

Higher socioeconomic status: make more utilitarian decisions

• political ideology: left: more built on care and fairness, conservative: more built on loyalty, authority and purity
• poor people more cooperative less likely to cheat,
• rich people greater acceptance of greed

Question 11

Moral identity

Answer 11

Network of moral trait associations collectively defining a person’s moral character

• dimensions:
  1. internalization
  2. symbolization
• > private and public moral self

Question 12

Internalization

Answer 12

Chronic accessibility of person’s moral self-schema

-> indicative of subjective experience of moral identity

Question 13

Symbolization

Answer 13

Importance a person places on exhibiting a public moral self to affirm their morality
-> partly driven by impression management and self-verification motives

Question 14

Prescriptive moral regulation

Answer 14

Performance of good deeds, helping others by lessening their suffering or improving their welfare

• > immoral to not do them when having the chance
• high internalizers more likely to engage
• high symbolizers motivated by situational cues (e.g. has to be public)

Question 15

Proscriptive moral regulation

Answer 15

Inhibiting motivations to commit harmful or immoral acts

• > high internalizers: more moral restraint
  symbolizers: more receptive to retaliatory and punitive reactions (more aware of status)

Question 16

Internalization primary principle (IPP)

Answer 16

Moral identity internalization has stronger impact on individual’s reactions to cues in social environment when thinking about prescriptive moral behaviors

• > symbolizers only engage when it promotes reputation
• > for prescriptive moral outcomes

Question 17

Internalization-symbolization equality principle (ISEP)

Answer 17

Internalization and symbolization equally important in regulating reaction to situational cues when faced with temptation to act immorally
-internalization: personality and relational cues (e.g. power)
-symbolization: relevant for reactive
proscriptive moral behavior
-> for proscriptive moral outcomes

Question 18

Licensing effect

Answer 18

If environment doesn’t sanction immoral behavior, high symbolizers are likely to engage in it

Question 19

Components of Moral reasoning

Answer 19

Arises from coordinated activity between domain-general capacities:

• perspective-taking
• salience processing
• executive control
• valuation
• social norm compliance

Question 20

Mutualistic perspective

Answer 20

Assumption that it is evolutionarily adaptive to prefer some kinds of moral outcomes because it helps to maintain cooperation

Question 21

Humean idea

Answer 21

Moral judgments arise from immediate aversive reaction to perceived or imagined harm to victims
-> judgments because of initial reaction

Question 22

Justice motivation

Answer 22

We are more likely to morally agree with someone when we can identify with them

• > prosecutors: try to make out defendant as out-group
• > defense attorneys: try to humanize their clients

Question 23

Sleep and moral awareness

Answer 23

Lack of sleep leads to lack of moral awareness

-> decrease of 2 hours of sleep per night, 10% decrease in moral awareness

Question 24

Western moral theory

Answer 24

Only criminal behavior classified as immoral (US)

Question 25

Chinese moral theory (Eastern)

Answer 25

Chinese also classify uncivil behavior as immoral (e.g. spitting on street)

Question 26

Moral dumbfounding

Answer 26

Intuition “believed” more by humans than reasoning

-> will not agree even though they cannot produce any arguments against something anymore