title: Intuition and Moral Decision-Making - The Effect of Time Pressure and Cognitive Load on Moral Judgment and Altruistic Behavior.
abstract: Do individuals intuitively favor certain moral actions over others? This study explores the role of intuitive thinking-induced by time pressure and cognitive load-in moral judgment and behavior. We conduct experiments in three different countries (Sweden, Austria, and the United States) involving over 1,400 subjects. All subjects responded to four trolley type dilemmas and four dictator games involving different charitable causes. Decisions were made under time pressure/time delay or while experiencing cognitive load or control. Overall we find converging evidence that intuitive states do not influence moral decisions. Neither time-pressure nor cognitive load had any effect on moral judgments or altruistic behavior. Thus we find no supporting evidence for the claim that intuitive moral judgments and dictator game giving differ from more reflectively taken decisions. Across all samples and decision tasks men were more likely to make utilitarian moral judgments and act selfishly compared to women, providing further evidence that there are robust gender differences in moral decision-making. However, there were no significant interactions between gender and the treatment manipulations of intuitive versus reflective decision-making.
authors: JEDILab, Division of Economics, Department for Management and Engineering, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.|The National Center for Priority Setting in Health Care, Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors: Gustav
authors: G
authors: Tinghög
authors: JEDILab, Division of Economics, Department for Management and Engineering, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Andersson
authors: Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen, Norway.
authors: Caroline
authors: C
authors: Bonn
authors: Department of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors: Magnus
authors: M
authors: Johannesson
authors: Department of Banking and Finance, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.|Centre for Finance, Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg Sweden.
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Kirchler
authors: JEDILab, Division of Economics, Department for Management and Engineering, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.|Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors: Lina
authors: L
authors: Koppel
authors: JEDILab, Division of Economics, Department for Management and Engineering, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.|Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.|Decision Research, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America.
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Västfjäll
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000533:Altruism; D003071:Cognition; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009014:Morals; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult