Department of Psychology, Boston College.
Yale School of Management, Yale University.
Cogn Sci. 2017 Apr;41(3):744-767. doi: 10.1111/cogs.12354. Epub 2016 Mar 3.
People perceive that if their memories and moral beliefs changed, they would change. We investigated why individuals respond this way. In Study 1, participants judged that identity would change more after changes to memories and widely shared moral beliefs (e.g., about murder) versus preferences and controversial moral beliefs (e.g., about abortion). The extent to which participants judged that changes would affect their relationships predicted identity change (Study 2) and mediated the relationship between type of moral belief and perceived identity change (Study 3). We discuss the role that social relationships play in judgments of identity and highlight implications for psychology and philosophy.
人们认为，如果他们的记忆和道德信仰发生了变化，那么他们自己也会随之改变。我们探究了人们之所以这样认为的原因。在研究 1 中，参与者判断，与偏好和有争议的道德信仰（例如，关于堕胎的道德信仰）相比，记忆和广泛共享的道德信仰（例如，关于谋杀的道德信仰）发生变化后，身份会发生更大的变化。参与者判断变化会在多大程度上影响他们的人际关系，这预测了身份的变化（研究 2），并在道德信仰类型和感知到的身份变化之间起中介作用（研究 3）。我们讨论了社会关系在身份判断中的作用，并强调了这对心理学和哲学的意义。
