Cohen, Dale J and Quinlan, Philip Thomas orcid.org/0000-0002-8847-6390 (2025) Why moral judgments change across variations of trolley-like problems. British journal of psychology. ISSN 0007-1269
Abstract
In the standard “trolley problem,” respondents must decide whether to save a condemned group of individuals by sacrificing a safe bystander. Although respondents often are willing to sacrifice the bystander in some circumstances (e.g., by pulling a lever), they are loath to sacrifice the bystander in others (e.g., by pushing the bystander off a footbridge). This difference in responding has been explained via a Dual Process theory of moral judgements (DPT). DPT, however, is a classic boxes-and-arrows model that only makes directional predictions. Meehl (1967, Phil. Sci, 34, 103-115) cautioned against theories that only make directional predictions, explaining that they are notoriously difficult to falsify. Meehl (1967) argued that researchers should follow the lead of Physics and develop computational models that make functional and point predictions. Here, we use a value-based, computational cognitive model of decision-making (Psychological Value Theory) to predict precisely both the speed and kind of response in trolley-like problems in three experiments. We show that this model accounts for the changes in choices across variations of the trolley problem with a response bias parameter.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The British Psychological Society. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the University’s Research Publications and Open Access policy. |
Keywords: | trolley problems,sacrificial moral dilemmas;,Computational modelling,Psychological Values Theory,Dual Process Theory |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Psychology (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 30 Jan 2025 14:30 |
Last Modified: | 31 Mar 2025 23:11 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12782 |
Status: | Published online |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/bjop.12782 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:222644 |