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Moral appraisals affect doing/allowing judgments.

Fiery Cushman1, Joshua Knobe, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

  • 1Department of Psychology, Harvard University, William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. cushman@wjh.harvard.edu

Cognition
|April 2, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Moral judgments influence our perception of actions. We found that people are more likely to see bad behavior as actively "doing" rather than passively "allowing." This highlights how morality shapes our understanding of actions.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Moral Psychology
  • Social Cognition

Background:

  • The distinction between doing and allowing is crucial for moral judgments.
  • Previous research indicates moral appraisals shape concepts like causation and intentionality.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether moral appraisals influence judgments about doing versus allowing.
  • To determine if negative moral evaluations bias perceptions of action versus inaction.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments were conducted to examine the relationship between moral appraisals and doing/allowing judgments.
  • Participants evaluated scenarios involving morally charged actions and inaction.

Main Results:

  • Morally bad behavior was more frequently categorized as 'doing' compared to 'allowing'.

Related Experiment Videos

  • This suggests a bias in construing negative actions as active rather than passive.

    • Conclusions:

    • Moral appraisals significantly impact how individuals distinguish between doing and allowing.
    • This finding supports the pervasive influence of moral cognition on various cognitive domains.