Moral Judgments Are Value-Based Decisions Driven by Culturally Stable Valuations and Culturally Variable Decision Biases

Bibliographic Data

ID21209613
AuthorsDale J Cohen (0000-0003-3353-3340, University of North Carolina Wilmington, corresponding author), Patrick T Quinlan (0000-0002-8847-6390, University of York), Xingyu Liu (0000-0003-1986-9358, Beijing Normal University)
Year2025
Volume16
Issue2
Pages115-125
Publication date2025-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Psychological and Personality Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1948-5506 • E-ISSN: 1948-5514
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/19485506231199527
OpenAlexW4387018444
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited33

Many theorize that cultural similarities in moral judgments arise from a specialized cognitive system devoted to morality. We claim, in contrast, that people make moral judgments using a general-purpose, value-based decision-making process. We present a computational cognitive model to predict response time and response choice to moral dilemmas using valuations as input. Cultural similarities in moral judgment are explained by a culturally stable set of valuations that drives choices that aid survival. Corresponding cultural differences are explained by changes in a decisional bias parameter that accounts for differences in the perceived costs of making various kinds of decisional errors. The model accurately predicts the timed choices of both U.K. and Chinese respondents from values collected from U.S. respondents

Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Epistemology · Morality · Value judgment · Cultural Differences and Values · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology