Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is deontological? Completing moral dilemmas in front of mirrors increases deontological but not utilitarian response tendencies

Caleb J Reynolds; Kassidy R Knighten; Paul Conway

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2019.06.005

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is deontological? Completing moral dilemmas in front of mirrors increases deontological but not utilitarian response tendencies

Cognition. 2019 Nov:192:103993. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.06.005. Epub 2019 Jun 21.

Authors

Caleb J Reynolds¹, Kassidy R Knighten², Paul Conway²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Florida State University, USA. Electronic address: creynolds@psy.fsu.edu.
² Department of Psychology, Florida State University, USA.

PMID: 31229738
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.06.005

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests moral dilemma responses reflect concerns about image and identity. If so, enhancing self-awareness should impact dilemma responses-possibly increasing both harm-rejection (consistent with deontological philosophy) and outcome-maximization tendencies (consistent with utilitarian philosophy). Yet, conventional analyses may not detect such effects because they treat harm-rejection and outcome-maximization tendencies as diametric opposites. Instead, we employed process dissociation to assess these response tendencies independently. Across two studies (n = 370), participants who completed dilemmas in front of mirrors-a classic manipulation of self-awareness-tended to reject harm more than those in a control condition. However, the mirror manipulation did not systematically increase outcome-maximization tendencies. These findings suggest that deontological decisions in moral dilemmas may partially reflect self-awareness and concerns about one's image.

Keywords: Moral dilemmas; Moral self; Process dissociation; Self-perceptions.

MeSH terms

Adult
Decision Making*
Ethical Theory
Female
Humans
Judgment*
Male
Morals*
Self Concept*
Young Adult