Moral foundations, values, and judgments in extraordinary altruists

Abstract

Donating a kidney to a stranger is a rare act of extraordinary altruism that appears to reflect a moral commitment to helping others. Yet little is known about patterns of moral cognition associated with extraordinary altruism. In this preregistered study, we compared the moral foundations, values, and patterns of utilitarian moral judgments in altruistic kidney donors (n = 61) and demographically matched controls (n = 58). Altruists expressed more concern only about the moral foundation of harm, but no other moral foundations. Consistent with this, altruists endorsed utilitarian concerns related to impartial beneficence, but not instrumental harm. Contrary to our predictions, we did not find group differences between altruists and controls in basic values. Extraordinary altruism generally reflected opposite patterns of moral cognition as those seen in individuals with psychopathy, a personality construct characterized by callousness and insensitivity to harm and suffering. Results link real-world, costly, impartial altruism primarily to moral cognitions related to alleviating harm and suffering in others rather than to basic values, fairness concerns, or strict utilitarian decision-making.

What is the moral person like? An examination of the shared and unique perspectives on moral character

“…Nonmoral personality traits • Agreeableness and conscientiousness have been described as "the classic dimensions of character" (McCrae & John, 1992) • Honesty-humility has sometimes been interpreted as "integrity" (Szirmák & De Raad, 1994), "trustworthiness" (Di Blas & Forzi, 1998), or "morality" (John et al, 1988) • There is conceptual overlap between our measurement of moral character and the domains of Big Five agreeableness (kindness) and Honesty-Humility (fairness, honesty, trustworthiness) • People tend to rate extraversion and neuroticism as being less morally relevant (Sun & Goodwin, 2020) • People do not believe that improving facets of their extraversion and neuroticism would improve their morality much (Sun & Berman, under review) Moral behavior and values • Self-reports of Honesty-Humility and guilt-proneness were both positively related to prosocial behavior across a variety of games, and both self-and informant reports of Honesty-Humility predicted allocations during a dictator game (Thielmann et al, 2020) • Informant reports had unique predictive validity (beyond self-reports) for fairness in the dictator game (Thielmann et al, 2017) • It is an open question as to whether certain values are especially likely to motivate people to be more moral (e.g., Amormino et al, 2022), whether moral people value all moral foundations, or whether moral people could pursue different moral values (Fleeson et al, 2023) Social consequences • Those who are perceived as being moral tend to be liked and respected (Goodwin et al, 2014;Hartley et al, 2016;Sun et al, under review) First impressions • People preferentially seek morally relevant information when forming first impressions of others (Brambilla et al, 2011;Goodwin et al, 2014) • First impressions of morality are likely based mostly on observable behavior, and might, therefore, be more related to Moral Reputation than Moral Identity…”

Ethical Reasoning vs. Empathic Bias: A False Dichotomy?

“…These pervasive parochial biases in altruism render all the more remarkable exceptional subsets of people who go to great lengths to equitably help distant others, such as effective altruists [4,8] who donate large portions of their incomes to charities that efficiently maximize welfare, and extraordinary altruists [9] who donate organs and other body tissues to benefit anonymous strangers. It is important to note that effective altruists and extraordinary altruists are not one and the same.…”

“…One relevant line of evidence draws from research on extraordinary altruists, who take on extreme risks and sacrifices such as donating a kidney or a portion of their liver to benefit strangers. Exemplifying that empathy can guide equitable altruism, extraordinary altruists do not exhibit strict ethical reasoning [9] but exhibit heightened empathic responses to strangers' suffering relative to typical adults (Box 1). Concurrently, individuals who have pledged 10% of their career income to effective charities show heightened reasoning abilities and heightened empathic abilities that parallel those of extraordinary altruists [11].…”

“…However, most insights on factors promoting equitable altruism come from studies on organ and marrow donors [15]. It's essential to note that extraordinary altruism also encompasses acts by groups like heroic rescuers and humanitarian workers, who similarly demonstrate reduced parochial bias [9,[13][14]]. It's yet to be explored if these populations also possess increased empathy or enhanced reasoning, as suggested by effective altruists, and if effectiveness in altruism relies on heightened empathy as well.…”

Does impartial altruism incur costs in close relationships?

“…They engage in reduced social discounting, such that their generosity towards others decreases minimally as social distance increases [8][9][10] . Relative to controls, they show increased self-other overlap in neural responses to strangers' distress 11 ; subjectively value distant other's well-being 12 ; and preferentially endorse impartial bene cence, or the ideal of helping others regardless of social closeness, on the Oxford Utilitarianism Scale 13 . By contrast, altruists score no higher than controls in measures such as self-reported empathy, conscientiousness, or risk sensitivity 10 .…”