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Moral Judgments Are Value-Based Decisions Driven by Culturally Stable Valuations and Culturally Variable Decision Biases
Dale Cohen, Philip Quinlan & Xingyu Liu
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Many theorize that cultural similarities in moral judgments arise from a specialized cognitive system devoted to morality. We claim, in contrast, that people make moral judgments using a general-purpose, value-based decision-making process. We present a computational cognitive model to predict response time and response choice to moral dilemmas using valuations as input. Cultural similarities in moral judgment are explained by a culturally stable set of valuations that drives choices that aid survival. Corresponding cultural differences are explained by changes in a decisional bias parameter that accounts for differences in the perceived costs of making various kinds of decisional errors. The model accurately predicts the timed choices of both U.K. and Chinese respondents from values collected from U.S. respondents.
Refusing to pay taxes: Loneliness, conspiracy theorizing, and non-normative political action
Daniel Jolley, Jenny Paterson & Rebecca Thomas
Social Psychology, October 2023, Pages 308–319
Abstract:
Conspiracy theorizing can motivate non-normative intentions (e.g., tax evasion and violence). However, less is known about the contributors of these conspiracy-inspired intentions or if they translate into behaviors. Two studies (N = 1,155) found a positive correlation between loneliness and conspiracy theorizing, which in turn related to non-normative intentions. Study 3 (n = 234) provided further evidence of these relationships through serial mediations: participants who remembered a lonely experience (vs. control) reported feeling lonelier, which was positively linked to conspiracy beliefs, and subsequently associated with non-normative intentions and a new behavioral measure (actual tax evasion). While our findings consistently link loneliness to conspiracy theorizing and non-normative actions, future research utilizing longitudinal designs would bolster confidence in our theoretical framework.
“Consumed by creed”: Obsessive-compulsive symptoms underpin ideological obsession and support for political violence
Jais Adam-Troian & Jocelyn Bélanger
Aggressive Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Radicalization is a process by which individuals are introduced to an ideological belief system that encourages political, religious, or social change through the use of violence. Here we formulate an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) model of radicalization that links obsessive passion (OP; one of the best predictors of radical intentions) to a larger body of clinical research. The model's central tenet is that individual differences in OCD symptom severity could shape radical intentions via their influence on OP. Across four ideological samples in the United States (Environmental activists, Republicans, Democrats, and Muslims, Ntotal = 1114), we found direct effects between OCD symptom severity and radical intentions, as well as indirect effects of OCD on radical intentions via OP. Even after controlling for potential individual difference and clinical confounds (e.g., adverse childhood experiences, loss of significance, and substance abuse), these relationships remained robust, implying that OCD plays a significant role in the formation of violent ideological intentions and opening new avenues for the treatment and prevention of violent extremism. We discuss the implications of conceptualizing radicalization as an OCD-like disorder with compulsive violent tendencies and ideology-related concerns.
Does Mobility Make a Nice Person? Theory and Evidence from Across the Globe
Ziqi Lu
Harvard Working Paper, November 2023
Abstract:
In much of modern life, cooperation takes a form of people engaging in costly behavior that helps another. It is easy to understand how cooperation might be achieved in small communities where members interact repeatedly. However, in our modern world, there is a high degree of relational mobility -- where individuals can easily change locations and/or social groups. How does this affect cooperative behaviors? I examine this question from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. I first develop a model of repeated prisoner’s dilemma. Individuals are matched but have some ability to leave the relationship. I show that in this environment, perhaps surprisingly, greater relational mobility actually leads to more cooperation in equilibrium, and the model predicts a stronger effect when players are more patient. I take these predictions to the data by first conducting a meta-analysis of twelve prisoner’s dilemma experiments that varied the amount of mobility in and out of relationships. I also examine the predictions of the model using data from the World Values Survey and Gallup World Poll. I find that higher relational mobility in the region is associated with greater cooperation, and this relationship is stronger when individuals are more patient.
Building Socially Intelligent AI Systems: Evidence from the Trust Game Using Artificial Agents with Deep Learning
Jason Xianghua Wu et al.
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The trust game, a simple two-player economic exchange, is extensively used as an experimental measure for trust and trustworthiness of individuals. We construct deep neural network–based artificial intelligence (AI) agents to participate a series of experiments based upon the trust game. These artificial agents are trained by playing with one another repeatedly without any prior knowledge, assumption, or data regarding human behaviors. We find that, under certain conditions, AI agents produce actions that are qualitatively similar to decisions of human subjects reported in the trust game literature. Factors that influence the emergence and levels of cooperation by artificial agents in the game are further explored. This study offers evidence that AI agents can develop trusting and cooperative behaviors purely from an interactive trial-and-error learning process. It constitutes a first step to build multiagent-based decision support systems in which interacting artificial agents are capable of leveraging social intelligence to achieve better outcomes collectively.
Does studying economics make you selfish?
Daniele Girardi et al.
Southern Economic Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
It is widely held that studying economics makes you more selfish and politically conservative. We use a difference-in-differences strategy to disentangle the causal impact of economics education from selection effects. We estimate the effect of four different intermediate microeconomics courses on students' experimentally elicited social preferences and beliefs about others, and policy opinions. We find no discernible effect of studying economics (whatever the course content) on self-interest or beliefs about others' self-interest. Results on policy preferences also point to little effect, except that economics may make students somewhat less opposed to highly restrictive immigration policies.
Compassion Fatigue as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Believing Compassion Is Limited Increases Fatigue and Decreases Compassion
Izzy Gainsburg & Julia Lee Cunningham
Psychological Science, November 2023, Pages 1206-1219
Abstract:
People’s compassion responses often weaken with repeated exposure to suffering, a phenomenon known as compassion fatigue. Why is it so difficult to continue feeling compassion in response to others’ suffering? We propose that people’s limited-compassion mindsets -- beliefs about compassion as a limited resource and a fatiguing experience -- can result in a self-fulfilling prophecy that reinforces compassion fatigue. Across four studies of adults sampled from university students and online participant pools in the United States, we show that there is variability in people’s compassion mindsets, that these mindsets can be changed with convincing information, and that limited-compassion mindsets predict lower feelings of compassion, lower-quality social support, and more fatigue. This contributes to our understanding of factors that underlie compassion fatigue and supports the broader idea that people’s beliefs about the nature of emotions affect how emotions are experienced. Together, this research contributes to developing a strategy for increasing people’s capacity to feel compassion and their social support.
The emergence of young children’s tolerance for inequality: With age, children stop showing numerically sensitive fairness
Nadia Chernyak
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, February 2024
Abstract:
One persistent and pernicious feature of outstanding social inequality is that even relatively extreme forms of inequality can be justified with reference to merit-based considerations. One key feature of fairness with respect to resource allocation is that it is numerically sensitive; greater (more extreme) inequalities are generally seen as less fair than less extreme ones. This work sought to document the emergence of numerically sensitive fairness in children aged 4 to 8 years. A total of 81 4- to 8-year-olds completed a series of within-participants fairness judgment trials in which they observed two characters receive either equitable or inequitable shares of resources -- ranging from 50/50 (completely fair) to 0/100 (completely unfair) -- in two contexts: one in which the two characters were described as working the same amount (equality context) and one in which one character was described as working harder than the other character (merit context). Children of all ages showed numerically sensitive fairness in the equality context. However, whereas younger children continued to show numerically sensitive fairness in the merit context, older children approved even relatively extreme inequalities when one person was described as working harder. This effect emerged with age, suggesting a double-edged sword to acquiring beliefs in merit-based fairness; as children get older, they may begin to accept even relatively extreme forms of inequality when presented in a merit context. Results are discussed with respect to the acquisition of meritocracy as a normative belief of fairness.