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Presentation given at SPP 2011 in Montreal. On the influence of Third-party intentions on moral judgment.
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Manipulating Morality
Third-party intentions alter moral judgment
Jonathan Phillips and Alex Shaw
Yale University
Typical moral judgments
Situational Situational ConstraintConstraint
DeservDeserves es
Blame?Blame?SituationsSituations IntentionsIntentionsAgent’s Agent’s
IntentionIntention
A Moral Situation
A Moral Question
Should be blamed for his actions?
Situational Constraint
NE 1110a 4-8
Another Moral Question
Should be blamed for his actions?
Do third-party intentions matter?
Some reason to think they shouldn’t
•Normative: Irrelevant to whether or not the agent acted wrongly
•Theoretical: Greene & Cohen (2004); Rosen (2002)
•Empirical: Lagnado (2008); Brickmann (1975)
•Empirical support: Studies 1, 2 & 3
•Theoretical support:
•Theoretical proposal
•Study 4
Reasons to think they do matter
Study 1: Intentional Condition
Isabel's daughter has a rare disease that requires her to take medication every day, and Isabel has always been very careful to make sure that her daughter takes her medicine. While Isabel doesn't know it, her mother-in-law has never liked her and has come up with a plan to get custody of her daughter by forcing her to steal medicine. While going through the medicine cabinet, Isabel's mother-in-law intentionally hides the medication knowing that Isabel won't be able to get any more. The next day, Isabel realizes that all the medicine is gone and starts to panic. Knowing that her daughter can't survive without the medicine, she goes to the doctor's office but finds that it has closed for a holiday. In desperation, she breaks into the doctor's office and steals the medicine. Because of her theft, another child in town did not get her medicine and died as a result. When the police start to investigate the crime, they realize that Isabel's daughter is one of the few children that take that particular medicine. Eventually the police question Isabel's mother-in-law and she admits that it was Isabel who stole the medicine. Once Isabel is convicted of the crime, she has to serve a jail sentence and loses custody of her daughter. Isabel's mother-in-law knew her plan had worked perfectly, and took custody of her granddaughter while Isabel was in jail.
Study 1: DV
• Isabel should be blamed for her actions.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
StronglyDisagree
Strongly Agree
In Between
Study 1: Accidental Condition
Isabel's daughter has a rare disease that requires her to take medication every day, and Isabel has always been very careful to make sure that her daughter takes her medicine. While Isabel doesn't know it, her mother-in-law has never realized that her granddaughter needs this medicine to survive. While going through the medicine cabinet, Isabel's mother-in-law accidentally hides the medication without knowing that Isabel won't be able to get any more. The next day, Isabel realizes that all the medicine is gone and starts to panic. Knowing that her daughter can't survive without the medicine, she goes to the doctor's office but finds that it has closed for a holiday. In desperation, she breaks into the doctor's office and steals the medicine. Because of her theft, another child in town did not get her medicine and died as a result. When the police start to investigate the crime, they realize that Isabel's daughter is one of the few children that take that particular medicine. Eventually the police question Isabel's mother-in-law and she admits that it was Isabel who stole the medicine. Once Isabel is convicted of the crime, she has to serve a jail sentence and loses custody of her daughter. Isabel's mother-in-law had not known this would happen at all, and took custody of her granddaughter while Isabel was in jail.
Study 1: DV
• Isabel should be blamed for her actions.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
StronglyDisagree
Strongly Agree
In Between
Results
t(58) = 2.44 , p = .018.
Agent Blame
Study 2I’d kill for some
food right now!
Study 2: Intentional Condition
In the 1950s, the government of a small Eastern European country plotted to secretly start a war, using industrial workers, and get revenge on a neighboring country. For the first part of their plan, the government intentionally destroyed farm machinery and set fire to several food stores on purpose. As a result, there was a serious lack of food in the country. Soon the people living in the city couldn't get enough food to feed themselves. The whole city shut down, crime skyrocketed and a small but violent uprising broke out.
The government knew their plan was working perfectly. Right at that time, a group of industrial workers heard on the government news channel that a neighboring village had a surplus of food. After hearing the news, the group of industrial workers raided the small village on the country's border, stealing food from the farmers and killing innocent people. The government had known this would happen all along and felt great about their successful plan.
Study 2: DV
• The workers should be blamed for their actions.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
StronglyDisagree
Strongly Agree
In Between
Study 2: Accidental Condition
In the 1950s, the government of a small Eastern European country planned to start a new economic program, using industrial workers, to increase the country's wealth. While it wasn't part of their plan, the government accidentally destroyed farm machinery and set fire to several food stores by mistake. As a result, there was a serious lack of food the country. Soon the people living in the city couldn't get enough food to feed themselves. The whole city shut down, crime skyrocketed and a small but violent uprising broke out.
The government knew their plan wasn't working at all. Right at that time, a group of industrial workers heard on the government news channel that a neighboring village had a surplus of food. After hearing the news, the group of industrial workers raided the small village on the country's border, stealing food from the farmers and killing innocent people. The government had not known this would happen and felt terrible about their unsuccessful plan.
Study 2: DV
• The workers should be blamed for their actions.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
StronglyDisagree
Strongly Agree
In Between
Study 2: Results
t(36) = 3.47, p = .001
Agent Blame
Studies 1 & 2: Boring Explanations
Third-party mental states influence moral judgment....
....through implicit comparisons of immoral acts
Third-party mental states influence moral judgment...
....through seeing the agent as a manipulated victim
Studies 1 & 2: Boring Explanations
Study 3I want to make
sure they attack village A! We’d kill for
Village A’s food right now!
We’d kill for Village B’s food
right now!
Study 3: Intention-Consistent
In the 1960's the government of a small Eastern European country plotted to secretly start a war using industrial workers, in order to get revenge on the wealthy citizens of the Shaki village. For the first part of their plan, the government intentionally destroyed farm machinery and set fire to several food stores on purpose. As a result, there was a serious lack of food in the country. Soon the people living in the city couldn't get enough food to feed themselves. The whole city shut down, crime skyrocketed and a small but violent uprising broke out.The government knew their plan was working perfectly. Right at that time, a group of industrial workers heard through the government news channel that the Shaki village had a surplus of food. After hearing the news, the group of industrial workers raided the Shaki village, stealing food from the farmers and killing innocent people. The government had known this would happen all along and it was exactly what they planned.
Study 3: DV
• The workers should be blamed for their actions.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
StronglyDisagree
Strongly Agree
In Between
Study 3: Intention-Deviant
In the 1960's the government of a small Eastern European country plotted to secretly start a war using industrial workers, in order to get revenge on the wealthy citizens of the Shaki village. For the first part of their plan, the government intentionally destroyed farm machinery and set fire to several food stores on purpose. As a result, there was a serious lack of food in the country. Soon the people living in the city couldn't get enough food to feed themselves. The whole city shut down, crime skyrocketed and a small but violent uprising broke out.The government knew their plan was working perfectly. Right at that time, a group of industrial workers heard through the government news channel that the Shaki village had a surplus of food. After hearing the news, the group of industrial workers raided a village on the opposite side of the small country called the Nobi village, stealing food from the farmers in that village and killing innocent people. The government had not known this would happen at all and it wasn't what they planned.
Study 3: DV
• The workers should be blamed for their actions.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
StronglyDisagree
Strongly Agree
In Between
Study 3: Results
t(48) = 2.473, p = .017
Agent Blame
Consistent
Deviant
Study 3: Discussion
•Contrast effects of immoral acts
•Merely seeing the agent as a victim
•Third-party intentions influence moral judgment in an interesting way
•Specifically, the content of the third-party’s intention is important
So why would the content of the intention be
important?
Proposal
The content of the third-party intention can change how we see the situation by giving it a teleological
structure
(Lombrozo & Carey 2006; Keleman & Rosset 2009)
Intention-Consistent
Govern-Govern-mentment
Crops Crops burnedburned
News News releasedreleased
Workers Workers raidraid
VillagerVillagers dies die
Causal Structure
Intentional Structure
Govern-Govern-mentment
VillagerVillagers dies die
So what’s important about a situation’s teleological
structure?
Crops Crops burnedburned
Workers Workers raidraid
News News releasedreleased
Causal-Teleological Structure
Intention-Deviant
Govern-Govern-mentment
Crops Crops burnedburned
News News releasedreleased
Workers Workers raidraid
VillagerVillagers dies die
Causal Structure
Intentional Structure
Intention-Deviant
Govern-Govern-mentment
VillagerVillagers dies die
Causal-Teleological Structure
Crops Crops burnedburned
News News releasedreleased
Workers Workers raidraid
•When the third-party’s intention matches the outcome of the events, it orders the perceived causal chain teleologically
•But when the intention doesn’t match, the perceived causal chain lacks this teleological structure
Proposal
Empirical Test
If this theory is right, then we should also expect to see differences in...
•... who caused the outcome
•... whether the agent had to bring about the outcome
•...whether the agent acted freely
Study 4I want to make
sure they attack village A! We’d kill for
Village A’s food right now!
We’d kill for Village B’s food
right now!
Study 4: Replication
t(62) = 2.56, p = .013
Agent Blame
Study 4: Causation
Cause: t(62) = 2.55, p = .013
• The government caused the attack on the village.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
StronglyDisagree
Strongly Agree
In Between
Study 4: ‘Had to’
Had to: t(62) = 2.82, p = .006
• The workers had to attack the village.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
StronglyDisagree
Strongly Agree
In Between
Study 4: Freedom
Force: t(62) = 4.13, p < .001
• The government forced the workers to attack the village.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
StronglyDisagree
Strongly Agree
In Between
Govern-Govern-mentment
VillagerVillagers dies die
Crops Crops burnedburned
Workers Workers raidraid
News News releasedreleased
Govern-Govern-mentment
VillagerVillagers dies die
Crops Crops burnedburned
News News releasedreleased
Workers Workers raidraid
Vs.
Intention-Deviant
Intention-Consistent
But why would this influence moral
responsibility of the agent?
If you were made to do it,
you aren’t morally responsible.
Alternative Hypothesis: The Conservation of
Blame‘The more you blame the government,
the less you blame the workers’
0
Supporting Evidence
Government Blame: t(62) = 2.75, p = .01
• The government should be blamed for the the attack on the village.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
StronglyDisagree
Strongly Agree
In Between
How to decide?
vs
0
Conservationof Blame
Govern-Govern-mentment
VillagerVillagers dies die
Crops Crops burnedburned
WorkerWorkers raids raid
News News releasedreleased
Causal-TeleologicalStructure
Evidence for causal structure
Workers Blamed
Intention Intention ConsistencConsistenc
y y vs.vs.
Deviation Deviation
GovernmentCaused
β= .309, p = .013
β= .308, p
= .013
β= .333, p = .007
β= .229, ns
?
?
?
Evidence for conservation of
blame?Intention Intention
ConsistencConsistency y vs.vs.
Deviation Deviation
GovernmentBlamed
Workers Blamed
β= .309, p = .013
β= .369, p
= .003β= .1
58, ns
β= .290, p = .030
??
Some evidence...
WorkersBlamed
Intention Intention ConsistencConsistenc
y y vs.vs.
Deviation Deviation
GovernmentBlamed
GovernmentCaused
Moral Judgment
Situational Situational ConstraintConstraint
DeservDeserves es
Blame?Blame?SituationsSituations IntentionsIntentionsAgent’s Agent’s
IntentionIntention
Third-party
Thanks!
Yale Mind and Development Lab
Yale Experimental Philosophy Lab
Study 1b: Replication
I want to win the
scholarship!
I want to make sure she gets
caught cheating!
I feel really bad about ruining
her computer...
Kate
Sarah
Replication Results
Agent Blame
t(54) = 2.65, p = .011