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24 - Imagination and Moral Cognition

from Part III - Intentionality-Based Forms of the Imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2020

By
Giorgio Ganis
Edited by
Anna Abraham
Anna Abraham
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
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Summary

We spend large portions of our inner lives imagining social events and situations that fall under the umbrella of moral cognition. For example, we may simulate in our mind a future scenario in which we have to decide whether to withhold the truth to protect a colleague or a friend and wonder if it is the right thing to do or not. Or we may do the same for a past event or situation. This chapter briefly introduces the field of moral cognition with a focus on dual processing approaches, and then provides a critical review of recent empirical studies about the effect of various forms of mental simulations on a subset of moral cognitive processes. A number of behavioral studies show that imagination can affect moral cognitive processes in multiple ways, from enhancing our emotional responses to personal moral dilemmas and guiding our moral judgments, to facilitating theory of mind simulations and perspective-taking in prosocial scenarios. Ideas for future directions in the field are discussed in the final section.

Keywords

Moral cognitionmoral judgmentmoral dilemmamental imageryimaginationdual processingdeontologyconsequentialism
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination , pp. 390 - 405
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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