WITHDRAWN Applying an Advice Taking Approach to Moral Cognition Research - The Case of Asymmetric Moral Conformity WITHDRAWN
Mon-A7-Talk I-03
Presented by: Max Hennig
Though models of moral cognition recognize the importance of social influences, experimental investigations of conformity effects in moral judgment are surprisingly rare. A notable exception, Bostijn and Roets (2017a) demonstrated greater conformity to “deontological” than to “consequentialist” majorities when judging moral dilemmas. Although the authors interpreted this “asymmetric moral conformity effect” in terms of a strategic shifting of responses away from consequentialist towards deontological judgments, this could not actually be investigated, as only post-manipulation judgments were measured. We reinvestigated this finding by conducting a direct replication (dataset 1), as well as an extension, in which initial judgments were assessed prior to final judgments, which enables a direct test of the shift hypothesis (dataset 2). Dataset 1 (N = 242) replicates the original asymmetric conformity effect, showing that deontological majorities reduced consequentialist judgments, whereas consequentialist majorities exerted no influence, both compared to a no-majority control condition. Dataset 2 (N = 483) manifests a marginal interaction between majority condition and initial judgments such that, when initial judgments were consequentialist, deontological majorities reduced the likelihood for final judgments being consequentialist, whereas consequentialist majorities exerted no influence, which provides weak support for the shift hypothesis. Moreover, and unexpectedly, when initial judgments were added, deontological and consequentialist majorities both influenced final judgments, resulting in a symmetrical moral conformity effect. This finding suggests limitations to the asymmetric conformity effect and illustrates how the advice taking paradigm could provide a useful tool for investigating moral cognition.
Keywords: advice taking, moral judgment, conformity, social influence