When the killing has been done: Exploring associations of personality with third-party judgment and punishment of homicides in moral dilemma scenarios.

ABSTRACT: Killing people is universally considered reprehensible and evokes in observers a need to punish perpetrators. Here, we explored how observers' personality is associated with their cognitive, emotional, and punishing reactions towards perpetrators using data from 1,004 participants who responded to a set of fifteen third-party perspective moral dilemmas. Among those, four scenarios (architect, life boat, footbridge, smother for dollars) describing deliberate killings were compared to investigate the role of the content features "motive for killing" (selfish vs. utilitarian) and "evitability of victims' death". Participants' moral appropriateness ratings, emotions towards perpetrators, and assigned punishments revealed complex scenario-personality interactions. Trait psychopathy was associat

SUBMITTER: Behnke A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7326181 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature