title: You see, the ends don't justify the means: visual imagery and moral judgment.
abstract: We conducted three experiments indicating that characteristically deontological judgments--here, disapproving of sacrificing one person for the greater good of others--are preferentially supported by visual imagery. Experiment 1 used two matched working memory tasks-one visual, one verbal-to identify individuals with relatively visual cognitive styles and individuals with relatively verbal cognitive styles. Individuals with more visual cognitive styles made more deontological judgments. Experiment 2 showed that visual interference, relative to verbal interference and no interference, decreases deontological judgment. Experiment 3 indicated that these effects are due to people's tendency to visualize the harmful means (sacrificing one person) more than the beneficial end (saving others). These results suggest a specific role for visual imagery in moral judgment: When people consider sacrificing someone as a means to an end, visual imagery preferentially supports the judgment that the ends do not justify the means. These results suggest an integration of the dual-process theory of moral judgment with construal-level theory.
authors: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, MA 02138, USA. amit@wjh.harvard.edu
authors: Elinor
authors: E
authors: Amit
authors: Joshua D
authors: JD
authors: Greene
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009014:Morals; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult