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The pervasive impact of ignorance
Lara Kirfel1, Jonathan Phillips2
1Department of Psychology, Stanford University, 450 Jane Stanford Way, Building 420, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Cognition
|November 19, 2022
Summary
Ignorance of norm violations significantly alters judgments about actions and intentions. When people don't know they broke a rule, the impact of norm violations on judgments is greatly reduced.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Moral Psychology
- Social Cognition
Background:
- Norm violations influence judgments of freedom, intentionality, causality, and happiness.
- Explanations for this effect are debated, focusing on action features or agent mental states.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of an agent's knowledge of norm violation in shaping judgments.
- To replicate and extend previous findings on the impact of norm violations.
Main Methods:
- Two large-scale experiments were conducted.
- Existing experimental paradigms were adapted to manipulate agent awareness of norm violations.
- Actions performed were held constant across conditions.
Main Results:
- The impact of norm violations on judgments is largely dependent on the agent's awareness of the violation.
- Ignorance of norm violations significantly reduces their impact on judgments.
- This reduction is linked to counterfactual reasoning, with less consideration of alternatives when agents are ignorant.
Conclusions:
- Agent awareness is a critical factor in how norm violations affect judgments.
- Counterfactual reasoning plays a key role in mediating the impact of ignorance on norm violation judgments.
- Findings contribute to the understanding of normality's role in human reasoning.
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