Cultural differences in responses to real-life and hypothetical trolley problems
Trolley problems have been used in the development of moral theory and the psychological study of moral judgments and behavior. Most of this research has focused on people from the West, with implicit assumptions that moral intuitions should generalize and that moral psychology is universal. Howeve...
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doaj-e526e89ec3024386aeae6ea085a4a23f2021-05-02T06:48:13ZengSociety for Judgment and Decision MakingJudgment and Decision Making1930-29752014-01-01916576Cultural differences in responses to real-life and hypothetical trolley problemsNatalie GoldAndrew M. ColmanBriony D. Pulford Trolley problems have been used in the development of moral theory and the psychological study of moral judgments and behavior. Most of this research has focused on people from the West, with implicit assumptions that moral intuitions should generalize and that moral psychology is universal. However, cultural differences may be associated with differences in moral judgments and behavior. We operationalized a trolley problem in the laboratory, with economic incentives and real-life consequences, and compared British and Chinese samples on moral behavior and judgment. We found that Chinese participants were less willing to sacrifice one person to save five others, and less likely to consider such an action to be right. In a second study using three scenarios, including the standard scenario where lives are threatened by an on-coming train, fewer Chinese than British participants were willing to take action and sacrifice one to save five, and this cultural difference was more pronounced when the consequences were less severe than death.http://journal.sjdm.org/12/121101/jdm121101.pdfChinese culture cultural difference fatalism moral decisionmaking moral judgment responsibility Taoism trolley problem. |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Natalie Gold Andrew M. Colman Briony D. Pulford |
spellingShingle |
Natalie Gold Andrew M. Colman Briony D. Pulford Cultural differences in responses to real-life and hypothetical trolley problems Judgment and Decision Making Chinese culture cultural difference fatalism moral decisionmaking moral judgment responsibility Taoism trolley problem. |
author_facet |
Natalie Gold Andrew M. Colman Briony D. Pulford |
author_sort |
Natalie Gold |
title |
Cultural differences
in responses to real-life and hypothetical trolley problems |
title_short |
Cultural differences
in responses to real-life and hypothetical trolley problems |
title_full |
Cultural differences
in responses to real-life and hypothetical trolley problems |
title_fullStr |
Cultural differences
in responses to real-life and hypothetical trolley problems |
title_full_unstemmed |
Cultural differences
in responses to real-life and hypothetical trolley problems |
title_sort |
cultural differences
in responses to real-life and hypothetical trolley problems |
publisher |
Society for Judgment and Decision Making |
series |
Judgment and Decision Making |
issn |
1930-2975 |
publishDate |
2014-01-01 |
description |
Trolley problems
have been used in the development of moral theory and the psychological study
of moral judgments and behavior. Most of this research has focused on people
from the West, with implicit assumptions that moral intuitions should
generalize and that moral psychology is universal. However, cultural
differences may be associated with differences in moral judgments and behavior.
We operationalized a trolley problem in the laboratory, with economic
incentives and real-life consequences, and compared British and Chinese samples
on moral behavior and judgment. We found that Chinese participants were less
willing to sacrifice one person to save five others, and less likely to
consider such an action to be right. In a second study using three scenarios,
including the standard scenario where lives are threatened by an on-coming
train, fewer Chinese than British participants were willing to take action and
sacrifice one to save five, and this cultural difference was more pronounced
when the consequences were less severe than death. |
topic |
Chinese culture cultural difference fatalism moral decisionmaking moral judgment responsibility Taoism trolley problem. |
url |
http://journal.sjdm.org/12/121101/jdm121101.pdf |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT nataliegold culturaldifferencesinresponsestoreallifeandhypotheticaltrolleyproblems AT andrewmcolman culturaldifferencesinresponsestoreallifeandhypotheticaltrolleyproblems AT brionydpulford culturaldifferencesinresponsestoreallifeandhypotheticaltrolleyproblems |
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1721494344471412736 |