Psychology, California State University , Fullerton.
J Soc Psychol. 2021 Jan 2;161(1):25-39. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2020.1749019. Epub 2020 Apr 8.
In sacrificial dilemmas, participants judge the morality of killing one person to save several others. For five sacrificial dilemmas, participants rated on separate unidimensional scales how "morally right" and how "morally wrong" they felt such actions would be under six combinations of beneficiaries (strangers, cousins, one's children) and targets (firefighter, bank robber). Framing a survey question in terms of "morally right" potentially primes prescriptive moral norms, directing attention to the beneficiaries; framing it in terms of "morally wrong" potentially primes proscriptive moral norms, directing attention to the targets. Selective attention induced by a question should heighten sensitivity to changes in levels of the corresponding independent variable. Accordingly, ratings of right changed more than ratings of wrong across beneficiaries; ratings of wrong changed more than ratings of right across targets. Question framing can bias moral appraisal by heightening or attenuating attentiveness to individuals who would benefit or suffer from sacrificial action.
在牺牲困境中，参与者判断杀死一个人以拯救数人的道德性。对于五个牺牲困境，参与者在六个受益人（陌生人、表亲、自己的孩子）和目标（消防员、银行劫匪）组合的六个单独的一维量表上，分别对这样的行为会感到多么“道德正确”和多么“道德错误”进行了评级。以“道德正确”的方式来表述调查问题可能会预先设定规范性道德规范，将注意力引向受益人；以“道德错误”的方式来表述可能会预先设定禁止性道德规范，将注意力引向目标。问题引发的选择性注意应该会提高对相应自变量水平变化的敏感性。因此，受益人的评级变化大于错误的评级变化；目标的错误评级变化大于正确评级变化。问题框架可以通过提高或降低对会受益或遭受牺牲行为的个人的注意力，来影响道德评估。
