Who makes utilitarian judgments? The influences of emotions on utilitarian judgments

Abstract

Recent research has emphasized emotion’s role in non-utilitarian judgments, but has not focused much on characteristics of subjects contributing to those judgments. The present article relates utilitarian judgment to individual disposition to experience various emotions. Study 1 first investigated the relationship among state emotions and utilitarian judgment. Diverse emotions were elicited during judgment: guilt, sadness, disgust, empathy, anger, and anxiety, etc. Using psychological scales, Study 2 found that trait emotions predict the extent of utilitarian judgments, especially trait anger, trait disgust, and trait empathy. Unlike previous research that designated emotions only as factors mitigating utilitarian judgment, this research shows that trait anger correlates positively with utilitarian judgment. On the other hand, disgust and empathy correlated negatively. Guilt and shame—though previous research argued that their absence increased utilitarian judgment—appear unrelated to the extent of utilitarian judgment. These results suggest that people’s emotional dispositions can affect their judgment. This finding might contribute to untangling the complex mechanisms of utilitarian judgments.

The needs of the many: Exploring associations of personality with third-party judgments of public health-related utilitarian rule violations

“…Individuals with higher PF1 scores (empathy, altruism, faith in intuition and low callous affect) rated the protagonists' decision against the utilitarian option in both scenarios as more morally appropriate. This result is in line with findings that show negative associations between empathy and utilitarian tendencies [48,101]. Furthermore, there were interaction effects on moral appropriateness ratings between dilemma type and two additional personality factors: PF2 (anxiety, personal distress, low self-esteem) and PF5 (faith in intuition, victim justice sensitivity, obedience to authorities, low NFC).…”

Effects of perspective switching and utilitarian thinking on moral judgments in a sacrificial dilemma among healthcare and non-healthcare students

“…For example, antisocial personality trait constructs, such as psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and life meaninglessness, are positively related to the endorsement of utilitarian solutions (Bartels & Pizarro, 2011 ). In a study of emotion and moral judgment, Choe and Min ( 2011 ) found that the trait anger was positively correlated with utilitarian judgment, but trait disgust and trait empathy were negatively correlated. A more recent study has demonstrated that the politeness aspects (e.g., respectfulness and etiquette) of agreeableness are positively associated with deontological judgments, whereas the intellectual aspects of openness (e.g., curiosity and cognitive engagement) are positively associated with utilitarian judgments (Smillie et al, 2021 ).…”

“…First, it extends our knowledge by identifying conditions under which healthcare students’ utilitarian judgments may be related to their positioning as a member of a minority group, a member of a majority group, and in a third-person (neutral) perspective while making judgments in hypothetical moral dilemmas. Second, although personal traits have been proven to be antecedents linked to utilitarian judgment and decision-making (Choe & Min, 2011 ; Djeriouat & Trémolière, 2014 ; Gleichgerrcht & Young, 2013 ), little work has been done to explore the positive and negative aspects of trait-like utilitarian tendencies assessed through the OUS concerning the utilitarian judgments of healthcare students in terms of sacrificial moral dilemmas. Thus, this study may develop our understanding of how one’s utilitarian tendencies account for individual differences in utilitarian judgments.…”

Respect for Autonomy: Seeking the Roles of Healthcare Design From the Principle of Biomedical Ethics

“…Among them, the ability to state and reason will vary according to the patient’s current conscious state, so it is difficult for patients to get immediate help through objective means. However, some evidence suggests that negative emotions will hinder people’s judgment and DM (Choe & Min, 2011; Raghunathan et al, 2006). Injury and illness often bring a lot of negative emotions to patients, especially in the face of emergencies, patients will have different degrees of fear, anxiety, pain, helplessness, or other negative emotions.…”