Sociocultural Influences on Moral Judgments: East–West, Male–Female, and Young–Old

Abstract

Gender, age, and culturally specific beliefs are often considered relevant to observed variation in social interactions. At present, however, the scientific literature is mixed with respect to the significance of these factors in guiding moral judgments. In this study, we explore the role of each of these factors in moral judgment by presenting the results of a web-based study of Eastern (i.e., Russia) and Western (i.e., USA, UK, Canada) subjects, male and female, and young and old. Participants (n = 659) responded to hypothetical moral scenarios describing situations where sacrificing one life resulted in saving five others. Though men and women from both types of cultures judged (1) harms caused by action as less permissible than harms caused by omission, (2) means-based harms as less permissible than side-effects, and (3) harms caused by contact as less permissible than by non-contact, men in both cultures delivered more utilitarian judgments (save the five, sacrifice one) than women. Moreover, men from Western cultures were more utilitarian than Russian men, with no differences observed for women. In both cultures, older participants delivered less utilitarian judgments than younger participants. These results suggest that certain core principles may mediate moral judgments across different societies, implying some degree of universality, while also allowing a limited range of variation due to sociocultural factors.

Moral Judgment in Old Age

“…Perhaps older adults belong to a more consequentialist, outcome-focused, generation than younger adults. However, this possibility is inconsistent with the results reported by Arutyunova, Alexandrov, and Hauser (2016) who found that, when evaluating trolley dilemmas, older adults turned out to be more deontological and less consequentialist than younger adults (see also Hannikainen, Machery, & Cushman, 2018, who argue that younger cohorts are becoming more utilitarian). Future studies could investigate whether these effects generalize to the evaluation of other moral cases, in particular ones likely to be encountered in everyday situations.…”

Universals and variations in moral decisions made in 42 countries by 70,000 participants

“…The preference for Switch over Footbridge is already well documented. Because this preference is large, it is easy to detect even with small samples, and it was, indeed, detected in at least 30 countries (21)(22)(23)(24)(25). The difference between Switch and Loop is smaller and requires larger sample sizes.…”

Chronic Stress and Moral Decision-Making: An Exploration With the CNI Model

“…Previous studies have indicated age and gender differences in moral judgment. Females express less preference for utilitarian options than males, while the older made less utilitarian judgments than the younger (e.g., Arutyunova et al, 2016 ). Friesdorf et al (2015) found that females had higher deontological inclinations than males.…”