The logic of universalization guides moral judgment
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26158.full.pdf
Description
Published version
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1018.39 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Levine, Sydney
Kleiman-Weiner, Max
Schulz, Laura E
Tenenbaum, Joshua B
Cushman, Fiery
Date Issued
October 2020
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Citation
Levine, Sydney et al. "The logic of universalization guides moral judgment." 117, 42 (October 2020): 26158-26169 © 2020 National Academy of Sciences
Version
Final published version
Abstract
To explain why an action is wrong, we sometimes say, "What if everybody did that?" In other words, even if a single person's behavior is harmless, that behavior may be wrong if it would be harmful once universalized.We formalize the process of universalization in a computational model, test its quantitative predictions in studies of human moral judgment, and distinguish it from alternative models. We show that adults spontaneously make moral judgments consistent with the logic of universalization, and report comparable patterns of judgment in children. We conclude that, alongside other well-characterized mechanisms of moral judgment, such as outcome-based and rule-based thinking, the logic of universalizing holds an important place in our moral minds.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2014505117
