Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8bljj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-24T21:45:39.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The ecological benefits of being irrationally moral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2022

Elisabetta Sirgiovanni Open the ORCID record for Elisabetta Sirgiovanni [Opens in a new window]
Elisabetta Sirgiovanni*
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular Medicine, Museum of the History of Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy elisabetta.sirgiovanni@uniroma1.it
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Trolley-like dilemmas are other cases of what Bermúdez refers to as (conscious) quasi-cyclical preferences. In these dilemmas, identical outcomes are obtained through morally non-identical actions. I will argue that morality is the context where descriptive invariance and ecological relevance may be crucially distinguished. Logically irrational moral choices in the short term may promote greater social benefits in the longer term.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e241
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartels, D. M., & Pizarro, D. A. (2011). The mismeasure of morals: Antisocial personality traits predict utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas. Cognition, 121, 154–161. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2011.05.010CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cosmides, L., Guzmán, R. A., & Tooby, J. (2018). The evolution of moral cognition. In Zimmerman, A., Jones, K., & Timmons, M. (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of moral epistemology (pp. 174–228). Routledge Publishing.Google Scholar
Costa, A., Foucart, A., Hayakawa, S., Aparici, M., Apesteguia, J., Heafner, J., & Keysar, B. (2014). Your morals depend on language. PLoS ONE, 9(4), e94842. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094842.Google ScholarPubMed
Cushman, F. (2013). Action, outcome, and value: A dual-system framework for morality. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 17(3), 273–292. doi: 10.1177/1088868313495594CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cushman, F., & Greene, J. D. (2012). Finding faults: How moral dilemmas illuminate cognitive structure. Social Neuroscience, 7(3), 269–279. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2011.614000.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duckworth, A. L., & Kern, M. L. (2011). A meta-analysis of the convergent validity of self-control measures. Journal of Research in Personality, 45(3), 259–268. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2011.02.004CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edmonds, D. (2014). Would you kill the fat man? The trolley problem and what your answer tells us about right and wrong. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Everett, J. A. C., Faber, N. S., Savulescu, J., & Crockett, M. J. (2018). The costs of being consequentialist: Social inference from instrumental harm and impartial beneficence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 79, 200–216. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2018.07.004CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Everett, J. A. C., Pizarro, D. A., & Crockett, M. J. (2016). Inference of trustworthiness from intuitive moral judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 145(6), 772–787. doi: 10.1037%2Fxge0000165CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fujita, K. (2011). On conceptualizing self-control as more than the effortful inhibition of impulses. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15(4), 352–366. doi: 10.1177/1088868311411165CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geipel, J., Hadjichristidis, C., & Surian, L. (2016). Foreign language affects the contribution of intentions and outcomes to moral judgment. Cognition, 154, 34–39. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.05.010CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gigerenzer, G. (2015). On the supposed evidence for libertarian paternalism. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 6, 361–383. doi: 10.1007/s13164-015-0248-1CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glenn, A. L., Koleva, S., Iyer, R., Graham, J., & Ditto, P. H. (2010). Moral identity in psychopathy. Judgment and Decision Making, 5, 497–505.Google Scholar
Greene, J. D. (2008). The secret joke of Kant's soul. In Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (Ed.), Moral psychology, Vol. 3. The neuroscience of morality: Emotion, brain disorders, and development (pp. 35–80). MIT Press.Google Scholar
Greene, J. D. (2016). Beyond point-and-shoot morality: Why cognitive (neuro)science matters for ethics. In Liao, S. M. (Ed.), Moral brains: The neuroscience of morality (pp. 119–149). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Greene, J. D., Cushman, F. A., Stewart, L. E., Lowenberg, K., Nystrom, L. E., & Cohen, J. D. (2009). Pushing moral buttons: The interaction between personal force and intention in moral judgment. Cognition, 111(3), 364–371.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greene, J. D., & Haidt, J. D. (2002). How does moral judgment work? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6(12), 517–523. doi: 10.1016/S1364-6613(02)02011-9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greene, J. D., Morelli, S. A., Lowenberg, K., Nystrom, L. E., & Cohen, J. D. (2008). Cognitive load selectively interferes with utilitarian moral judgment. Cognition, 107(3), 1144–1154. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2007.11.004Google ScholarPubMed
Greene, J. D., Nystrom, L. E., Engell, A. D., Darley, J. M., & Cohen, J. D. (2004). The neural bases of cognitive conflict and control in moral judgment. Neuron, 44, 389–400. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2004.09.027CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greene, J. D., Sommerville, R. B., Nystrom, L. E., Darley, J. M., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment. Science, 293(5537), 2105–2108. doi: 10.1126/science.1062872CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, J. (2020). Why kill the cabin boy? Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 30(1), 4–9. doi: 10.1017/S0963180120000420CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Inzlicht, M., & Friese, M. (2021). Willpower is overrated. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 44, e42. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X20000795CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kahane, G. (2012). On the wrong track: Process and content in moral psychology. Mind and Language, 25(5), 519–545.Google Scholar
Kahane, G., Everett, J., Earp, B., Caviola, L., Faber, N., Crockett, M., & Savulescu, J. (2017). Beyond sacrificial harm: A two dimensional model of utilitarian psychology. Psychological Review, 125(2), 131–164. doi: 10.1037/rev0000093CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kahane, G., Everett, J., Earp, B., Farias, M., & Savulescu, J. (2015). Utilitarian judgment in sacrificial dilemmas does not reflect impartial concern for the greater good. Cognition, 134, 193–209. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2014.10.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kneer, M., & Hannikainen, I. R. (2022). Trolleys, triage and Covid-19: The role of psychological realism in sacrificial dilemmas. Cognition & Emotion, 36(1), 137–153. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2021.1964940CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koenigs, M., Kruepke, M., Zeier, J., & Newman, J. P. (2012). Utilitarian moral judgment in psychopathy. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7(6), 708–714. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsr048CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koenigs, M., Young, L., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Cushman, F., Hauser, M., & Damasio, A. (2007). Damage to the prefrontal cortex increases utilitarian moral judgements. Nature, 446(7138), 908–911. doi: 10.1038/nature05631CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuehne, M., Heimrath, K., Heinze, H.-J., & Zaehle, T. (2015). Transcranial direct current stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex shifts preference of moral judgments. PLoS ONE, 10(5), e0127061. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127061CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Magen, E., Kim, B., Dweck, C. S., Gross, J. J., & McClure, S. M. (2014). Behavioral and neural correlates of increased self-control in the absence of increased willpower. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(27), 9786–9791.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwitzgebel, , E., & Cushman, , F. (2012). Expertise in moral reasoning? Order effects on moral judgment in professional philosophers and non-philosophers. Mind & Language, 27, 135–153. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0017.2012.01438.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sher, S., & McKenzie, C. R. (2006). Information leakage from logically equivalent frames. Cognition, 101(3), 467–494.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tassy, S., Oullier, O., Mancini, J., & Wicker, B. (2013). Discrepancies between judgment and choice of action in moral dilemmas. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 1–8. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00250.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thomson, J. J. (1976). Killing, letting die, and the trolley problem. The Monist, 59(2), 204–217. doi: 10.5840/monist197659224CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Todd, P. M., & Gigerenzer, G. (2012). Ecological rationality: Intelligence in the world. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Warnock, M. (2003). Introduction. In Warnock, M. (Ed.), Utilitarianism and on liberty (pp. 1–16). Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, L., Camprodon, J. A., Hauser, M., Pascual-Leone, A., & Saxe, R. (2010). Disruption of the right temporoparietal junction with transcranial magnetic stimulation reduces the role of beliefs in moral judgments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107, 6753–6758. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0914826107CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed