Morality and Conformity: A Hypothetical Experimental Design Exploring the Relationship Between Moral Standing and Social Pressure

Abstract

Morality is one of the crucial founding bricks of human society. Research has shown that even newborn babies demonstrate an innate sense of morality. However, recent studies have shown that situational factors significantly impact people’s moral decisions. One study, in particular, measures the effect of social pressure on moral judgments but makes a potentially inaccurate assumption about participants’ moral standing. To reexamine the results of this study, a hypothetical experiment is designed to investigate the relationship between morality and conformity. This experiment combines the methods of Asch’s conformity experiments and variations of the Trolley problem and addresses the deficiencies in the previous study. The participants in the study will take part in a survey section, a seminar section, and an interview section. In the survey section, the participants answer questions regarding demographics and moral dilemmas. During the seminar section, the participants are asked to announce their answers to the moral dilemmas in front of a group of confederates. The confederates will provide their answers individually, and the participant will be the last to share his answer. Since the confederates know the participant’s answer from the survey session, they will all share an answer different from the participant’s. During the interview section, the participants will be debriefed. The purpose of this experiment is to see whether the participant will conform or not under the pressure of confederates. Hopefully, future scholars can improve and conduct this experiment to investigate the relationship between morality and conformity.