The Knobe Effect From the Perspective of Normative Orders

Abstract

The characteristic asymmetry in the attribution of intentionality in causing side effects, known as the Knobe effect, is considered to be a stable model of human cognition. This article looks at whether the way of thinking and analysing one scenario may affect the other and whether the mutual relationship between the ways in which both scenarios are analysed may affect the stability of the Knobe effect. The theoretical analyses and empirical studies performed are based on a distinction between moral and non-moral normativity possibly affecting the judgments passed in both scenarios. Therefore, an essential role in judgments about the intentionality of causing a side effect could be played by normative competences responsible for distinguishing between normative orders.

The Significance of the Relationship between Main Effects and Side Effects for Understanding the Knobe Effect

“…Since then, numerous studies and analyses have corroborated the observed asymmetry in ascribing intentionality, which has come to be known as the "Knobe effect" or the "side-effect effect." Knobe's results have been also replicated in other languages, e.g., Hindi (Knobe and Burra 2006), German (Dalbauer and Hergovich 2013), and Polish (Kuś and Maćkiewicz 2016;Waleszczyński, Obidziński and Rejewska 2018), which indicates that the Knobe effect is culture-and language-independent, and as such may be successfully studied in the Polish language.…”