Norms and the Knobe effect
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Holton_Norms and.pdf
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142.63 KB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Holton, Richard
Date Issued
May 2010
Journal
Analysis
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Citation
Holton, Richard. “Norms and the Knobe Effect.” Analysis 70.3 (2010) : 417 -424.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
In a justly famous study, Joshua Knobe found an asymmetry in the way we ascribe intentional action (Knobe 2003). Consider an executive who, motivated entirely by the goal of maximizing profit, embarks on a policy that he knows will also cause environmental damage. Does he intentionally harm the environment? Most people hold that he does. In contrast, when considering an otherwise identical case in which the side effects would be beneficial to the environment, most people hold that the executive does not intentionally help the environment. A number of follow-up studies have found that the finding is robust, that it applies to children as young as four, and that it occurs in other languages and cultures (Knobe 2006).
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anq037
