Utilitarian Moral Judgment Exclusively Coheres with Inference from Is to Ought.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Moral Philosophy
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Moral judgments are categorized as deontological (obligation-based) or utilitarian (consequence-based).
• Deontic introduction, the inference of 'ought' from 'is,' is a proposed cognitive mechanism.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between deontic introduction and moral judgment types.
• To determine if deontic introduction is selectively associated with utilitarian or deontological reasoning.

Main Methods:

• Participants evaluated moral vignettes presenting deontological or utilitarian choices.
• Participants inferred deontic conclusions and judged moral rightness.
• Manipulations targeted the suppression of deontic introduction.

Main Results:

• A selective defeasibility pattern was observed.
• Suppression of deontic introduction impaired utilitarian judgment but not deontological judgment.
• Deontic introduction strongly correlates with utilitarian moral judgment.

Conclusions:

• Deontic introduction is a cognitive mechanism underlying utilitarian moral judgment.
• This suggests a shared inferential basis for norm generation in utilitarian reasoning and informal inference.
• Calls for integrating research on moral judgment with deontic reasoning and informal inference.