Applying process dissociation to self-sacrificial moral dilemmas: Extending the dual-process model

Area of Science:

• Moral Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Cognitive reflection is linked to utilitarian judgments in other-sacrificial dilemmas.
• Evidence is mixed regarding cognitive reflection's association with self-sacrificial utilitarian judgments.
• Existing measures may not fully capture distinct utilitarian moral tendencies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate measures for self-sacrificial utilitarian (SU) and other-sacrificial utilitarian (OU) moral judgments.
• To investigate the relationship between cognitive reflection and these distinct utilitarian tendencies.
• To provide behavioral validation for SU and OU as genuine moral tendencies.

Main Methods:

• Employed process dissociation to derive SU, altruism (A), OU, and deontology (D) parameters.
• Administered the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT).
• Used behavioral tasks, including the public goods game, for validation.

Main Results:

• The CRT positively correlated with both SU and OU parameters across multiple studies.
• Instructing participants to rely on reason increased both SU and OU.
• SU and OU positively correlated with cooperative behavior in the public goods game, validating them as moral tendencies.

Conclusions:

• Self-sacrificial utilitarian and other-sacrificial utilitarian judgments are distinct moral tendencies.
• Both SU and OU are reliably associated with cognitive reflection.
• These findings provide cumulative evidence for the validity of SU and OU measures and their link to cognitive processing.