Cognitive Psychology Moral Bookkeeping A Cognitive Model of
Cognitive Psychology Moral Bookkeeping: A Cognitive Model of Moral Judgments Tea. P 2018 Henrik Singmann, Igor Douven, Frank Hindriks, & Sylvia Wenmackers
The vice-president of a company went to the chairman of the board and said, “We are thinking of starting a new program. It will help us increase profits, but it will also harm the environment. ” The chairman of the board answered, “I don’t care at all about harming the environment. I just want to make as much profit as I can. Let’s start the new program. ” They started the new program. Sure enough, the environment was harmed. How blameworthy is the chairman for acting as he did? +++ The vice-president of a company went to the chairman of the board and said, “We are thinking of starting a new program. It will help us increase profits, but it will also help the environment. ” The chairman of the board answered, “I don’t care at all about helping the environment. I just want to make as much profit as I can. Let’s start the new program. ” They started the new program. Sure enough, the environment was helped. How praiseworthy is the chairman for acting as he did? +
Moral Compositionality Hypothesis –
Experimental Test: OA Version –
Experimental Test: O version –
Experimental Test: A Version –
Experimental Design – 5 conditions per vignettes: 1. OA- (harm) – 251 participants (online): 2. OA+ (help) – Each answered 3 questions: OA, O, and A 3. O+ – One question per scenario 4. O- – Either OA+ and O+ or OA- and O- 5. A – 3 different vignettes: 1. chairman of company (original Knobe scenario) 2. mayor of city 3. president of country
Observed Data error bar: ± 1 SE
Bayesian Statistics – Requires likelihood (i. e. , no least squares). – Information (uncertainty) regarding parameters expressed via (continuous) probability distributions. 1. Prior distributions capture ignorance before data is collected. 2. Prior distributions updated in light of data using Bayes' theorem. 3. Posterior distributions reflect new state of knowledge.
Bayesian Moral Bookkeeping Model – Ferrari & Cribari-Neto (2004)
Observed Data (in blue) & Model Posterior Predictions (in red) inner error bar: 80% CI; outer: 95% CI error bar: ± 1 SE
Parameter estimates
Summary –
New scenarios The mayor of a small city has to decide whether or not to build a bridge over a nearby river. One of his advisors tells him that doing so will improve the flow of traffic in the city but will also negatively affect the wildlife around the city. The mayor responds: “I don’t care about what will happen to the wildlife. I want to improve the flow of traffic. So, let’s build the bridge. ” The bridge was built. As a result, the wildlife around the city was negatively affected. The minister of infrastructure of an African country advises the president of the country to construct a big dam to improve the country’s irrigation systems. The minister tells the president that the dam will adversely impact the irrigation systems in the neighboring countries. The president responds that he doesn’t care about the other countries, and he orders that the dam be built. The dam is built, and the irrigation systems in the neighboring countries suffer as a result.
- Slides: 14