Intentional or accidental: Exploring the role of intentionality in shaping the asymmetric moral memory_data.xlsx

Harm can arise in various ways, sometimes driven by malicious intent, and other times born from negligence. Perpetrators and victims retain asymmetric memories of injurious incidents: the victims remember the events with more clarity, vividness and detail compared to perpetrators. We argued that intentionality functions as a boundary condition in this asymmetric memory effect and that consequence severity may alter this phenomenon. Using the take-in-memory paradigm across our studies, we found that intentionality plays a moderating role in memory asymmetry, with this effect being observed only when the perpetrator intentionally engages in immoral behavior (Study 1). We also found that, under transgressions with severe consequences, the moderating effect of intentionality vanishes, as cognitive resources shift from intent cues to outcome cues (Study 2). Our work shed light on the effect of intentionality as well as the complicated interplay between intentionality and consequence severity on moral memory.

伤害可能以多种方式产生，有时源于恶意意图，有时则源于疏忽。施害者和受害者对伤害事件的记忆存在不对称性：与施害者相比，受害者对事件的记忆更为清晰、生动且详细。我们提出，意图性在此不对称记忆效应中扮演了边界条件的作用，并且后果的严重性可能改变这一现象。通过在我们研究中采用记忆摄入范式，我们发现意图性在记忆不对称性中起到了调节作用，这一效应仅在施害者有意进行不道德行为时才得以观察到（研究1）。此外，我们发现，在严重后果的违规行为中，意图性的调节作用消失，因为认知资源从意图线索转向了结果线索（研究2）。我们的研究揭示了意图性的影响，以及意图性与后果严重性之间复杂交互对道德记忆的影响。