Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is deontological? Completing moral dilemmas in front of mirrors increases deontological but not utilitarian response tendencies
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is deontological? Completing moral dilemmas in front of mirrors increases deontological but not utilitarian response tendencies
Recent evidence suggests moral dilemma responses reflect concerns about image and identity. If so, enhancing self-awareness should impact dilemma responses-possibly increasing both harm-rejection (consistent with deontological philosophy) and outcome-maximization tendencies (consistent with utilitarian philosophy). Yet, conventional analyses may not detect such effects because they treat harm-rejection and outcome-maximization tendencies as diametric opposites. Instead, we employed process dissociation to assess these response tendencies independently. Across two studies (n = 370), participants who completed dilemmas in front of mirrors-a classic manipulation of self-awareness-tended to reject harm more than those in a control condition. However, the mirror manipulation did not systematically increase outcome-maximization tendencies. These findings suggest that deontological decisions in moral dilemmas may partially reflect self-awareness and concerns about one's image.
Reynolds, Caleb J.
c8ea5d23-9002-4b25-b077-ffeedfe9ffd3
Knighten, Kassidy R.
452520ac-5b2f-4357-aba6-78e81edfb434
Conway, Paul
765aaaf9-173f-44cf-be9a-c8ffbb51e286
1 November 2019
Reynolds, Caleb J.
c8ea5d23-9002-4b25-b077-ffeedfe9ffd3
Knighten, Kassidy R.
452520ac-5b2f-4357-aba6-78e81edfb434
Conway, Paul
765aaaf9-173f-44cf-be9a-c8ffbb51e286
Reynolds, Caleb J., Knighten, Kassidy R. and Conway, Paul
(2019)
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is deontological? Completing moral dilemmas in front of mirrors increases deontological but not utilitarian response tendencies.
Cognition, 192.
(doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2019.06.005).
Abstract
Recent evidence suggests moral dilemma responses reflect concerns about image and identity. If so, enhancing self-awareness should impact dilemma responses-possibly increasing both harm-rejection (consistent with deontological philosophy) and outcome-maximization tendencies (consistent with utilitarian philosophy). Yet, conventional analyses may not detect such effects because they treat harm-rejection and outcome-maximization tendencies as diametric opposites. Instead, we employed process dissociation to assess these response tendencies independently. Across two studies (n = 370), participants who completed dilemmas in front of mirrors-a classic manipulation of self-awareness-tended to reject harm more than those in a control condition. However, the mirror manipulation did not systematically increase outcome-maximization tendencies. These findings suggest that deontological decisions in moral dilemmas may partially reflect self-awareness and concerns about one's image.
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Accepted/In Press date: 3 June 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 21 June 2019
Published date: 1 November 2019
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Local EPrints ID: 473316
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/473316
ISSN: 0010-0277
PURE UUID: 14bc2446-501e-44cb-8005-39fea43e3f63
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Date deposited: 13 Jan 2023 18:06
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:17
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Author:
Caleb J. Reynolds
Author:
Kassidy R. Knighten
Author:
Paul Conway
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