title: What makes moral dilemma judgments "utilitarian" or "deontological"?
abstract: The distinction between utilitarianism and deontology has become a prevailing framework for conceptualizing moral judgment. According to the principle of utilitarianism, the morality of an action depends on its outcomes. In contrast, the principle of deontology states that the morality of an action depends on its consistency with moral norms. To identify the processes underlying utilitarian and deontological judgments, research in psychology and neuroscience has investigated responses to moral dilemmas that pit one principle against the other (e.g., trolley dilemma). However, the interpretation of responses in this paradigm is ambiguous, because the defining aspects of utilitarianism and deontology, outcomes and norms, are not manipulated. We illustrate how this shortcoming distorts interpretations of empirical findings and describe an alternative approach that overcomes the limitations of the traditional paradigm.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Texas at Austin , Austin , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Bertram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gawronski
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Texas at Austin , Austin , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Beer
mesh_terms: D003657:Decision Making; D028663:Ethical Theory; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008960:Models, Psychological
keywords: Deontology; measurement; moral judgment; omission bias; utilitarianism