The trolley that got away: Do moral judgments in sacrificial dilemmas resemble moral behavior in an economic setting?

TY - CONF

T1 - The trolley that got away: Do moral judgments in sacrificial dilemmas resemble moral behavior in an economic setting?

AU - Elbæk, Christian T.

AU - Daniel Dores Cruz, Terence

AU - Ayal, Shahar

AU - Conway, Paul

PY - 2023/3/10

Y1 - 2023/3/10

N2 - Sacrificial dilemmas entail decisions where causing harm maximizes utility, thereby pitting concerns about harmful action against concerns regarding outcomes. For example, the classic trolley dilemma involves diverting a trolley that would kill five people to kill one person instead. Decisions to reject vs. accept such sacrificial harm align with deontological vs. utilitarian ethics, respectively, but reflect a combination of psychological mechanisms, the study of which forms a cornerstone of social psychological research into moral reasoning. Yet, the majority of this work relies on self-reported hypothetical judgments rather than behavior. To address this, we designed the fungible trolley dilemma (FTD), which resembles the inherent structure of sacrificial dilemmas in a realistic economic setting. In two studies (Total N = 944), we investigated how people’s behavior in this task resembled judgments in classic moral dilemmas. We find robust evidence suggesting that multiple FTD decisions of different monetary values directly predict judgments in hypothetical moral dilemmas. Furthermore, such decisions are correlated with individual differences in cognitive reflection and financial literacy; similar to hypothetical moral dilemmas. These results provide new insights on how moral reasoning translates to economic behavior and how the intention-behavior gap between moral judgment and decision-making might be smaller than previously expected.

AB - Sacrificial dilemmas entail decisions where causing harm maximizes utility, thereby pitting concerns about harmful action against concerns regarding outcomes. For example, the classic trolley dilemma involves diverting a trolley that would kill five people to kill one person instead. Decisions to reject vs. accept such sacrificial harm align with deontological vs. utilitarian ethics, respectively, but reflect a combination of psychological mechanisms, the study of which forms a cornerstone of social psychological research into moral reasoning. Yet, the majority of this work relies on self-reported hypothetical judgments rather than behavior. To address this, we designed the fungible trolley dilemma (FTD), which resembles the inherent structure of sacrificial dilemmas in a realistic economic setting. In two studies (Total N = 944), we investigated how people’s behavior in this task resembled judgments in classic moral dilemmas. We find robust evidence suggesting that multiple FTD decisions of different monetary values directly predict judgments in hypothetical moral dilemmas. Furthermore, such decisions are correlated with individual differences in cognitive reflection and financial literacy; similar to hypothetical moral dilemmas. These results provide new insights on how moral reasoning translates to economic behavior and how the intention-behavior gap between moral judgment and decision-making might be smaller than previously expected.

M3 - Poster

T2 - 19th General Meeting of the European Association of Social Psychology

Y2 - 30 June 2023 through 4 July 2023

ER -