Friesdorf Rebecca, Conway Paul, Gawronski Bertram
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2015 May;41(5):696-713. doi: 10.1177/0146167215575731.
The principle of deontology states that the morality of an action depends on its consistency with moral norms; the principle of utilitarianism implies that the morality of an action depends on its consequences. Previous research suggests that deontological judgments are shaped by affective processes, whereas utilitarian judgments are guided by cognitive processes. The current research used process dissociation (PD) to independently assess deontological and utilitarian inclinations in women and men. A meta-analytic re-analysis of 40 studies with 6,100 participants indicated that men showed a stronger preference for utilitarian over deontological judgments than women when the two principles implied conflicting decisions (d = 0.52). PD further revealed that women exhibited stronger deontological inclinations than men (d = 0.57), while men exhibited only slightly stronger utilitarian inclinations than women (d = 0.10). The findings suggest that gender differences in moral dilemma judgments are due to differences in affective responses to harm rather than cognitive evaluations of outcomes.
道义论原则指出，一个行为的道德性取决于其与道德规范的一致性；功利主义原则意味着，一个行为的道德性取决于其后果。先前的研究表明，道义论判断受情感过程影响，而功利主义判断则由认知过程引导。当前的研究采用过程分离法（PD）来独立评估男性和女性的道义论和功利主义倾向。一项对40项研究、6100名参与者的元分析重新分析表明，当两种原则暗示相互冲突的决策时，男性比女性更倾向于功利主义而非道义论判断（d = 0.52）。过程分离法进一步揭示，女性表现出比男性更强的道义论倾向（d = 0.57），而男性表现出的功利主义倾向仅略强于女性（d = 0.10）。研究结果表明，道德困境判断中的性别差异是由于对伤害的情感反应差异，而非对结果的认知评估差异。
