Mind attributions about moral actors: intentionality is greater given coherent cues

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Social perception involves attributing intentionality and agency to actors.
• Coherence perspectives posit that perceivers construct meaningful explanations of actions using actor motives, traits, and outcomes.
• Typecasting theory suggests intentionality and agency attributions are linked to an individual's role in a moral dyad.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate attributions of intentionality and agency from coherence perspectives.
• To examine the relationship between intentionality and agency attributions based on typecasting theory.
• To test whether an actor's role in a moral dyad predicts intentionality and agency attributions.

Main Methods:

• Four studies were conducted with varying operational definitions of moral dyads and agency.
• Participants' judgments of intentionality and agency were analyzed.
• The influence of mental states, character, and behavioral cues on judgments was assessed.

Main Results:

• Evidence supported coherence perspectives in social perception.
• Social perceivers utilized mental states, character, and behavioral cues for intentionality judgments.
• Intentionality attributions were found to be unrelated to agency inferences.

Conclusions:

• Coherent explanation plays a crucial role in moral judgment.
• Intentionality and agency attributions may be distinct processes in social cognition.
• Findings underscore the importance of coherence in understanding how people make sense of others' actions.