Sacrificing Oneself or Another: The Difference Between Prescriptive and Normative Judgments in Moral Evaluation

Area of Science:

• Moral Psychology
• Decision-Making Science

Background:

• Individuals often face dilemmas involving self-sacrifice versus sacrificing others.
• Previous research predominantly indicated a self-serving bias, where people favor sacrificing others.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if an other-serving bias emerges based on the type of moral judgment.
• To explore the influence of prescriptive versus normative judgments on sacrifice preferences.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments utilized trolley-like dilemmas.
• Participants made either prescriptive judgments (should/should not be done) or normative judgments (right/wrong).

Main Results:

• An other-serving bias (preferring self-sacrifice) was observed only when judgments were normative and negatively framed (i.e., judging sacrifice as 'wrong').
• In other conditions, participants generally showed a self-serving bias, approving the sacrifice of others more readily.

Conclusions:

• The framing of moral questions significantly impacts judgments about self- vs. other-sacrifice.
• Moral judgment outcomes are sensitive to the type of judgment requested (prescriptive vs. normative) and its valence.