Moral%20judgment%20of%20economic%20behavior%20under%20risk%20in%20relation%20to%20moral%20emotions

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Moral judgment of economic behavior under risk in
relation to moral emotions

• Tadeusz Tyszka
• Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management
• Tomasz Zaleskiewicz
• Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities

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Agenda

1. Reference to our previous study
2. Idea of the present study
3. Methodology
4. Results
5. Discussion

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The basic idea

• Some economic decisions are associated not only
  with financial outcomes (gains/losses) but also
  with moral outcomes (negative/positive)

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EXAMPLE
Person A faces severe financial problems because
he has been fired, has large debts and must
provide for a big family. He finds a wallet on
the street, containing a substantial sum of
money. The owners name and address are in the
wallet. On the other hand, person A can easily
keep the wallet instead of returning it to the
owner.
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Our previous study

• Four economic scenarios that described people
  facing a moral conflict (wallet, safety, product,
  bribe)
• Participants asked to judge an immoral behavior
• Immoral behavior in two scenarios (bribe,
  product) blamed more then in two other scenarios
  (wallet, safety)

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Our previous study

• Higher level of blame positively correlated with
  reaction time
• Higher level of blame ? insensitivity to
  quantitative risk parameters (outcomes and
  probabilities) ? deontological judgment
• Lower level of blame ? high sensitivity to
  quantitative risk parameters ? consequentialistic
  judgment

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A new research question

• Where does this difference in moral judgment come
  from?
• Why do people behave as deontologists in some
  situations and as consequentialists in other
  situations?

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A possible solution

• Immoral behavior can evoke different level of
  negative affect. People blame immoral behavior
  harsher when affect is stronger (Greene et al.,
  2001 Haidt, 2001 2003 Kahneman Sunstein,
  2005)
• Violating some moral norms can evoke stronger
  negative affect than violating other moral norms

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The hypothesis
Violating the norm in those scenarios where moral
judgments were consistent with the deontological
position will evoke stronger negative emotions
than violating the norm in scenarios where
judgments were consistent with the
consequentialist position
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The four scenarios

• S1 introducing safety changes in a factory
• S2 returning wallet found on a street
• S3 selling a product that can be dangerous for
  consumers
• S4 accepting a bribe

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Part 1 self-oriented moral emotions

• Participants asked to imagine that they were
  evolved in the scenarios and behaved in an
  immoral way
• Ps asked to evaluate how much guilt, shame or
  embarrassment they would feel (on a 100-point
  scale)

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Part 2 others-oriented moral emotions

• Participants asked to imagine that they observed
  immoral behaviors of other people
• Ps asked to evaluate how much anger, disgust and
  contempt they would feel (on a 100-point scale)

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Part 1 Results (self-oriented moral emotions)
F(3,243) 13.136 p lt .0001
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Part 2 Results (others-oriented moral emotions)
F(3,252) 42.256 p lt .0001
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Discussion

• Violating moral norm when judgment consistent
  with deontological position (fast judgment,
  insensitivity to basic risk parameters) ?
  stronger negative affect
• Violating moral norm when judgment consistent
  with consequentialistic position (slower
  judgment, insensitivity to basic risk parameters)
  ? weaker negative affect

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Discussion

• Deontological moral judgment might be
  affect-based and produced mainly by the affective
  system of thought (S. Epstein The
  risk-as-feelings hypothesis)
• Consequentialistic moral judgment might be
  reason-based and produced mainly by the rational
  system of thought