Intuition and Moral Decision-Making – The Effect of Time Pressure and Cognitive Load on Moral Judgment and Altruistic Behavior

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 11; no. 10; p. e0164012
• Main Authors: Tinghög, Gustav, Andersson, David, Bonn, Caroline, Johannesson, Magnus, Kirchler, Michael, Koppel, Lina, Västfjäll, Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 26.10.2016; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Altruism; Biology and Life Sciences; Cognition; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive ability; Cooperation; Decision Making; Decisions; Economics and Business; Ekonomi och näringsliv; Engineering; Ethical aspects; Female; Gender aspects; Gender differences; Humans; Judgment; Judgments; Light rail transit; Male; Mental task performance; Middle Aged; Morality; Morals; Physical Sciences; Pressure; Pressure effects; Research and Analysis Methods; Science; Self control; Sex differences; Social psychology; Social Sciences; Studies; Time Factors; Time lag; Trends; Young Adult; United States > US; Sweden; Austria; Decision Making; Prosocial behavior; Dual-process theory; Experiment; Cognition; Altruism; Intuition
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164012

Do individuals intuitively favor certain moral actions over others? This study explores the role of intuitive thinking-induced by time pressure and cognitive load-in moral judgment and behavior. We conduct experiments in three different countries (Sweden, Austria, and the United States) involving over 1,400 subjects. All subjects responded to four trolley type dilemmas and four dictator games involving different charitable causes. Decisions were made under time pressure/time delay or while experiencing cognitive load or control. Overall we find converging evidence that intuitive states do not influence moral decisions. Neither time-pressure nor cognitive load had any effect on moral judgments or altruistic behavior. Thus we find no supporting evidence for the claim that intuitive moral judgments and dictator game giving differ from more reflectively taken decisions. Across all samples and decision tasks men were more likely to make utilitarian moral judgments and act selfishly compared to women, providing further evidence that there are robust gender differences in moral decision-making. However, there were no significant interactions between gender and the treatment manipulations of intuitive versus reflective decision-making.