Individualism and collectivism in ethical decision making

Do cultural differences affect moral decisions? Two studies were conducted to investigate whether attitudes of individualism vs. collectivism have an impact on ethical decision making. Study 1 (N=92) showed that utilitarianism was preferred in a situation, in which an intervention resulted in the best outcome (i.e., saving more people's lives), while deontology was preferred in a situation, in which the focus was on negative consequences of the intervention (i.e. personal sacrifices). Additionally, there were differences between the idiocentrics and the allocentrics groups regarding morality aspects. In the idiocentrics group, harm and fairness were regarded as more important than other moral aspects, while in the allocentrics group, not only harm and fairness, but also ingroup and authority were perceived as critical moral aspects. In Study 2 (N=30), after lexical decision tasks were conducted for culture priming, the mouse tracking method was used to explore response dynamics of moral decision processes, while judging appropriateness of interventions in moral dilemmas. In Study 2, in a condition, in which the small number of victims were focused upon, there were more maximal deviations and higher Xflips in the individualism priming group than in the collectivism priming group, which showed that the participants in the individualism condition had more deliberative processes before choosing their answers between utilitarianism and deontology. In addition, the participants in the individualism priming condition showed more maximal deviations in the mouse trajectories regarding ingroup related interventions in moral dilemmas than those in the collectivism priming condition. These results implicated the possibilities that the automatic emotional process and the controlled deliberative process in moral decision making might interact with cultural dispositions of the individuals and the focus of situations.

keywords: 문화성향, 개인중심, 집단중심, 윤리적 의사결정, 마우스궤적, culture, individualism, collectivism, moral decision

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Article Contents

Vol.21 No.1

Individualism and collectivism in ethical decision making

Abstract

Reference

Korean Psychological Journal of Culture and Social Issues