title: Moral appraisals affect doing/allowing judgments.
abstract: An extensive body of research suggests that the distinction between doing and allowing plays a critical role in shaping moral appraisals. Here, we report evidence from a pair of experiments suggesting that the converse is also true: moral appraisals affect doing/allowing judgments. Specifically, morally bad behavior is more likely to be construed as actively 'doing' than as passively 'allowing'. This finding adds to a growing list of folk concepts influenced by moral appraisal, including causation and intentional action. We therefore suggest that the present finding favors the view that moral appraisal plays a pervasive role in shaping diverse cognitive representations across multiple domains.
authors: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. cushman@wjh.harvard.edu
authors: Fiery
authors: F
authors: Cushman
authors: Joshua
authors: J
authors: Knobe
authors: Walter
authors: W
authors: Sinnott-Armstrong
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D009014:Morals; D012938:Social Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires