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The Intention-Outcome Asymmetry Effect.

Arunima Sarin1, David A Lagnado2, Paul W Burgess3

  • 11 Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Experimental Psychology
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

People judge agents more responsible for bad outcomes with good intentions than for good outcomes with bad intentions. This intention-outcome asymmetry reveals a bias in moral judgment.

Keywords:
blame-praisecausalityintentionmoral judgmentsoutcomeresponsibility

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Moral Psychology
  • Social Psychology

Background:

  • Judgments of responsibility, blame, and causality rely on understanding intention and outcome.
  • The impact of conflicting intentions and outcomes on these judgments is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the effect of incongruent intentions and outcomes on moral judgments.
  • To explore the asymmetry in responsibility, causality, and blame when intentions and outcomes conflict.

Main Methods:

  • Four experiments were conducted using everyday moral scenarios.
  • Scenarios combined good and bad intentions with positive and negative outcomes.
  • Participants made judgments of responsibility, causality, and blame.

Main Results:

  • A significant asymmetry was found in moral judgments for incongruent intention-outcome conditions.
  • Well-intentioned agents were held more responsible for negative outcomes than ill-intentioned agents were for positive outcomes.
  • This asymmetry was partially explained by additional inferences about the agent's actions.

Conclusions:

  • An intention-outcome asymmetry influences moral judgments, responsibility, causality, and blame.
  • This asymmetry highlights an unexplored facet of moral cognition.
  • Further research is needed to fully understand the inferential processes involved.