Search Results (4)

Previous research has extensively examined the impact of money on morality, yet limited attention has been given to how the mere contemplation of money influences moral reasoning and decision-making. The present study aims to address this gap by exploring how both the concept of money and the love of money shape deontological and utilitarian inclinations in moral judgments. In Study 1 (N = 102), we investigated the effect of money concept priming on moral thinking. Participants were primed with either the concept of money or a neutral concept through a scrambled-sentences task, and subsequently made moral decisions in 20 dilemmas adapted from Conway and Gawronski. These dilemmas required participants to decide whether to harm others in order to achieve a greater outcome. To assess participants’ utilitarian and deontological tendencies, we employed the process-dissociation procedure. In Study 2 (N = 488), we further examined the relationship between the love of money—a long-term trait—and moral judgments. Specifically, we investigated whether four moral orientations (deliberation, rule, sentiment, and integration) mediate the relationship between the love of money and deontological/utilitarian inclinations. Participants completed the love of money scale and the moral orientation scale before reading the same 20 dilemmas from Study 1. Our findings revealed that priming the concept of money enhanced utilitarian tendencies but did not significantly affect deontological tendencies. Furthermore, the love of money was negatively correlated with deontological tendencies and positively correlated with utilitarian tendencies. Deliberation fully mediated the effect of the love of money on utilitarian tendencies and partially mediated its effect on deontological tendencies. Full article

This study aims to examine how the activation of the role of nursee and professional identification as a nurse can influence moral judgments in terms of deontological and utilitarian inclinations. In Study 1, a priming technique was used to assess the impact of activating the nursing concept on moral reasoning. Participants were randomly assigned to either a nursing prime or neutral prime condition. By using a scrambled-sentence task, participants were prompted to think about nursing-related or neutral thoughts. Following the priming task, participants were asked to respond to 20 moral dilemmas. The process dissociation approach was employed to measure the degree of deontological and utilitarian tendencies in their moral reasoning. In Study 2, participants completed the nursing profession identification scale and the moral orientation scale before engaging in moral judgments similar to those in Study 1. The findings revealed that priming the concept of being a nursee resulted in an increase in deontological clinical inclinations while having no significant effect on utilitarian inclinations. Additionally, a positive correlation was observed between identification with the nursing profession and deontological clinical inclinations, whereas a negative correlation was found with utilitarian inclinations. Deliberation orientation acted as a complete mediator in the relationship between nursing professional identification and deontological tendencies and as a partial mediator for utilitarian tendencies. Full article

Previous studies have explored the differences in moral judgments under normal situations and acute stress using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). The present study examined whether anticipatory stress (i.e., induced by an anticipated speech) could elicit similar effects and further explored the mediation of emotional responses between acute stress and moral judgments with a process-dissociation approach. Fifty-three undergraduate students (20 males and 33 females) were randomly assigned to the stress and control groups. In the first stage, they were instructed to prepare a public speech (the stress group) or just recall events during the previous vacation (the control group). In the second stage, they reported emotional valence and arousal for each moral dilemma in a set of 12 moral dilemmas, followed by judgments on moral acceptability of the agent’s action. The manipulation check confirmed that anticipatory stress was reliably induced, as indicated in both self-reported and physiological data. The traditional dilemma analysis revealed that participants in the stress group would make fewer utilitarian judgments than those in the control group. The process dissociation (PD) analyses further revealed that the stress group exhibited higher deontological inclinations than the control group, but no significant differences in utilitarian inclinations. Emotional valence played a mediating role in the association between stress and deontological inclinations. To sum up, our study extended the investigation of the relationship between acute stress and moral judgment to anticipatory stress, clarified its distinct impact on deontological and utilitarian inclinations, and revealed the mediating effect of emotional valence. Full article

Both deontological ethics and utilitarian ethics are important theories that affect decision making in medical and health care. However, it has been challenging to reach a balance between these two ethical theories. When there is a conflict between these two ethical principles in the medical context, the conflict must be addressed in order to reach an appropriate solution for patients and others involved. To demonstrate decisions made in terms of deontological ethics and utilitarian ethics, the study will use the film Outbreak as example to further understand these two ethics in relation to epidemiology and public health. The paper will also analyze film scenarios to examine how deontological ethics and utilitarian ethics are involved and strike a balance with different pearspectives to reach an appropriate public health solution. To reach more just solutions, it is essential to determine how to make wise decisions by balancing deontological ethics and utilitarian ethics. However, the decision-making process is complicated because any solution must consider not only medical ethics but also political, environmental, and military issues. In order to reach an appropriate public health decision, those involved should be inclined toward empathy and contemplate things from different ethical perspectives to deal with ethical/moral dilemmas and create greater beneficence and justice for patients and humanity at large. Full article