Manipulating morality: Third-party intentions alter moral judgments by changing causal reasoning

The present studies investigate how the intentions of third parties influence judgments of moral responsibility for other agents who commit immoral acts. Using cases in which an agent acts under some situational constraint brought about by a third party, we ask whether the agent is blamed less for the immoral act when the third party intended for that act to occur. Study 1 demonstrates that third‐party intentions do influence judgments of blame. Study 2 finds that third‐party intentions only influence moral judgments when the agent's actions precisely match the third party's intention. Study 3 shows that this effect arises from changes in participants' causal perception that the third party was controlling the agent. Studies 4 and 5, respectively, show that the effect cannot be explained by changes in the distribution of blame or perceived differences in situational constraint faced by the agent.

本系列研究旨在探讨第三方意图如何影响对实施不道德行为的行动者的道德责任判断。我们选取行动者处于第三方所创设的特定情境约束下实施行为的案例，探究当第三方意图促成该不道德行为发生时，行动者所遭受的道德指责是否会有所降低。研究1证实，第三方意图确实会对道德指责判断产生影响。研究2发现，仅当行动者的行为与第三方意图完全契合时，第三方意图才会对道德判断产生影响。研究3表明，该效应源于被试对第三方操控行动者的因果感知发生了变化。研究4与研究5分别证实，该效应无法通过指责分配的变化，或行动者所面临的情境约束的感知差异来解释。