Abstract
Individuals tend to judge bad side effects as more intentional than good side effects (the Knobe or side-effect effect). Here, we assessed how widespread these findings are by testing eleven adult cohorts of eight highly contrasted cultures on their attributions of intentional action as well as ratings of blame and praise. We found limited generalizability of the original side-effect effect, and even a reversal of the effect in two rural, traditional cultures (Samoa and Vanuatu) where participants were more likely to judge the good side effect as intentional. Three follow-up experiments indicate that this reversal of the side-effect effect is not due to semantics and may be linked to the perception of the status of the protagonist. These results highlight the importance of factoring cultural context in our understanding of moral cognition.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 22-30 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Cognition |
Volume | 164 |
Early online date | 29 Mar 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2017 |
Keywords
- Moral cognition
- Moral evaluation
- Intentional action
- Side-effect effect
- Cross-cultural psychology
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Erin Robbins
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience - Lecturer in Developmental Psychology
- Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences
- Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution
Person: Academic