Causal dilemmas

Transfer effects between moral dilemmas: a causal model theory.

Evaluations of analogous situations are an important source for our moral intuitions. A puzzling recent set of findings in experiments exploring transfer effects between intuitions about moral dilemmas has demonstrated a striking asymmetry. Transfer often occurred with a specific ordering of moral dilemmas, but not when the sequence was reversed. In this article we present a new theory of trans...

Training dilemmas and false dilemmas

Causal Attribution of Choice Behavior in Three N-Person Prisoner's Dilemmas

The major purpose of the present study was to compare the causal attributions made by Cooperators and Defectors for a cooperative and a noncooperative target in an N-Person Prisoner's Dilemma. Factor analyses of attributions yielded two factors associated with the target's intrapersonal processes. One intrapersonal factor was a combination of weakness and lack of intelligence, labeled Ignorance...

Perceived Difficulty of Moral Dilemmas Depends on Their Causal Structure: A Formal Model and Preliminary Results

We propose causal agency models for representing and reasoning about ethical dilemmas. We find that ethical dilemmas, although they appear similar on the surface, differ in their formal structure. Based on their structural properties, as identified by the causal agency models, we cluster a set of dilemmas in Type 1 and Type 2 dilemmas. We observe that for Type 1 dilemmas but not for Type 2 dile...

A Double Causal Contrast Theory of Moral Intuitions in Trolley Dilemmas

In trolley dilemmas a train is about to kill several victims who could be saved if instead a different victim is harmed. A number of theories have been proposed which assume that permissibility judgments in these harm-based moral dilemmas are mediated by an analysis of the underlying causal structure. For example, it has been postulated that it is permissible to harm people as a side effect but...