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Research has focused on the cognitive and affective processes underpinning dilemma judgments where causing harm maximizes outcomes. Yet, recent work indicates that lay perceivers infer the processes behind others' judgments, raising two new questions: whether decision-makers accurately anticipate the inferences perceivers draw from their judgments (i.e., meta-insight), and, whether decision-makers strategically modify judgments to present themselves favorably. Across seven studies, a) people correctly anticipated how their dilemma judgments would influence perceivers' ratings of their warmth and competence, though self-ratings differed (Studies 1-3), b) people strategically shifted public (but not private) dilemma judgments to present themselves as warm or competent depending on which traits the situation favored (Studies 4-6), and, c) self-presentation strategies augmented perceptions of the weaker trait implied by their judgment (Study 7). These results suggest that moral dilemma judgments arise out of more than just basic cognitive and affective processes; complex social considerations causally contribute to dilemma decision-making.

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Representations of the self and others include not only piecemeal traits but also causal trait theories-explanations for why a person's standing on 1 trait causes or is caused by standings on other traits (Studies 1a-1c). These causal theories help resolve the puzzle of egocentric pattern projection-the tendency for people to assume that traits correlate in the population in the same way they align in the self. Causal trait theories-created to explain trait co-occurrence in a single person-are exported to guide one's implicit personality theories about people in general (Study 2). Pattern projection was found to be largely egocentric (i.e., more strong guided by self- than by social perceptions) for 2 reasons. First, causal trait theories are more numerous for the self. When participants were prompted to generate causal trait theories about someone else, they pattern projected more from that person (Study 3). Second, causal trait theories about the self are more likely to draw on behavioral information from multiple contexts instead of merely seeking to explain why 2 traits co-occur in a single context. Causal trait theories based on trait-relevant behaviors from different contexts, instead of trait co-occurrence within a single context, produce more pattern projection (Study 4). Implications for self and social cognition are discussed.

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