Mortality salience and morality: thinking about death makes people less utilitarian

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Moral Psychology

Background:

• Dual-process models suggest utilitarian moral judgments require cognitive resources.
• Terror Management Theory posits mortality salience mobilizes resources to suppress death thoughts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if mortality salience decreases utilitarian moral judgments.
• To compare the effect of mortality salience to cognitive load on moral judgments.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis.
• Participants were exposed to mortality salience or a control condition.
• Moral conflict judgments were assessed, including utilitarian responses.

Main Results:

• Mortality salience significantly reduced utilitarian responses to moral conflicts.
• The effect of mortality salience was comparable to extreme cognitive load.
• This suggests mortality salience taxes the cognitive resources needed for utilitarian judgments.

Conclusions:

• Mortality salience impairs utilitarian moral judgment, likely by consuming cognitive resources.
• Findings suggest mortality salience may influence public and private discourse on life-and-death moral issues.