Perceived intent motivates people to magnify observed harms

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Daniel L Ames, Susan T Fiske

Abstract

Existing moral psychology research commonly explains certain phenomena in terms of a motivation to blame. However, this motivation is not measured directly, but rather is inferred from other measures, such as participants' judgments of an agent's blameworthiness. The present paper introduces new methods for assessing this theoretically important motivation, using tools drawn from animal-model research. We test these methods in the context of recent "harm-magnification" research, which shows that people often overestimate the damage caused by intentional (versus unintentional) harms. A preliminary experiment exemplifies this work and also rules out an alternative explanation for earlier harm-magnification results. Exp. 1 asks whether intended harm motivates blame or merely demonstrates the actor's intrinsic blameworthiness. Consistent with a motivational interpretation, participants freely chose blaming, condemning, and punishing over other appealing tasks in an intentional-harm condition, compared with an unintentional-harm condition. Exp. 2 also measures motivation but with converging indicators of persistence (effort, rate, and duration) in blaming. In addition to their methodological contribution, these studies also illumina...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 27, 2015·Brain : a Journal of Neurology·Eugenia HesseAgustin Ibanez
Aug 3, 2016·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Eugene M CarusoBenjamin A Converse
Oct 30, 2016·Frontiers in Psychology·Christophe HeintzAndras Molnar
Mar 13, 2019·PloS One·Steve Guglielmo, Bertram F Malle
Mar 6, 2015·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Jennifer Viegas
Aug 6, 2017·Scientific Reports·Naoki KonishiYohsuke Ohtsubo
Dec 6, 2020·Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior·Aviv EmanuelNitzan Censor
Apr 2, 2021·Aggressive Behavior·Baptiste Subra
Dec 30, 2021·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Alexander G Fulmer, Taly Reich

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