Overriding Moral Intuitions – Does It Make Us Immoral? Dual-Process Theory of Higher Cognition Account for Moral Reasoning

Authors: Michał Białek, Simon J. Handley

Abstract:

Moral decisions are considered as an intuitive process, while conscious reasoning is mostly used only to justify those intuitions. This problem is described in few different dual-process theories of mind, that are being developed e.g. by Frederick and Kahneman, Stanovich and Evans. Those theories recently evolved into tri-process theories with a proposed process that makes ultimate decision or allows to paraformal processing with focal bias.. Presented experiment compares the decision patterns to the implications of those models. In presented study participants (n=179) considered different aspects of trolley dilemma or its footbridge version and decided after that. Results show that in the control group 70% of people decided to use the lever to change tracks for the running trolley, and 20% chose to push the fat man down the tracks. In contrast, after experimental manipulation almost no one decided to act. Also the decision time difference between dilemmas disappeared after experimental manipulation. The result supports the idea of three co-working processes: intuitive (TASS), paraformal (reflective mind) and algorithmic process.

Keywords: Moral reasoning, moral decision, reflection, trolley problem, dual-process theory of reasoning, tri-process theory of cognition.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1079388

References:

[1] Parfit D. (1997). Reasons and Motivation. Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 71 (1):99-130.
[2] Haidt, J . (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review. 108, 814-834
[3] Haidt, J. (2007). The new synthesis in moral psychology. Science, 316, 998-1002
[4] Suter, R., & Hertwig, R. (2011). Time and moral judgment. Cognition, 119, 454-458
[5] Paxton, J.M., Ungar, L., Greene, J.D., (2011 ePub, 2012) Reflection and reasoning in moral judgment. Cognitive Science, 36(1) 163-177
[6] Broeders, R., Bos, K. van den, Mueller, P.A. & Ham, J.R.C. (2011). Should I save or should I not kill? How people solve moral dilemmas depends on which rule is most salient. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(5), 923-934.
[7] Evans, J.St.B.T. (2008). Dual-processing accounts of reasoning, judgement and social cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 255- 278.
[8] Evans, J.St.B.T. (2010). Thinking twice: Two minds in one brain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[9] Stanovich, K. E. (2009). Distinguishing the reflective, algorithmic, and autonomous minds: Is it time for a tri-process theory? In J. Evans & K. Frankish (Eds.), In two minds: Dual processes and beyond (pp. 55-88). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[10] Stanovich, K. E., Toplak, M. E., & West, R. F. (2008). The development of rational thought: A taxonomy of heuristics and biases. Advances in child development and behaviour, 36, 251-285.
[11] Goel V, Dolan RJ. Explaining modulation of reasoning by belief. Cognition 2003; 87: B11-22.
[12] Manktelow, K.I. (2012) Thinking and Reasoning: Psychological Perspectives on Reason, Judgment and Decision Making. Hove: Psychology Press.
[13] Foot, P. (1967). The problem of abortion and the doctrine of the double effect. Oxford Review, 5, 5-15.
[14] Thomson, J. J. (1986). The trolley problem. In J. J. Thomson, Rights, restitution, and risk. Essays in moral theory (pp. 94-116). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[15] Lanteri, A, Chelini, C and Rizzello, S (2008) 'An experimental investigation of emotions and reasoning in the trolley problem', Journal of Business Ethics , 83:4, 789-804
[16] Shallow, C., Iliev, R., & Medin, D. (2011). Trolley problems in context Judgment and Decision Making, 6 (7), 593-601
[17] Hauser, M. D., Cushman, F. A., Young, L., Kang-Xing Jin, R., & Mikhail, J. (2007). A dissociation between moral judgments and justifications. Mind and Language 22(1): 1-21.
[18] Royzman, E. B., & Baron, J. (2002). The preference for indirect harm. Social Justice Research, 15, 165-184.
[19] Waldmann, M. & Dieterich, J. (2007). Throwing a bomb on a person versus throwing a person on a bomb: Intervention myopia in moral intuitions. Psychological Science, 18, 247-253.