Calendar of events

Speaker: Dr Paul Conway, University of Southampton

Host: Dr Jesse Preston

Abstract: Considerable research examines the processes underpinning moral dilemma judgments where causing harm maximises outcomes, such as the famous trolley dilemma. Conventional research focuses on basic psychological processes such as affective reactions to harm, cognitive evaluations of outcomes, or adherence to moral rules. However, it may be that higher-order processing, such as concern over how others may react to your dilemma judgment, also causally contributes to moral dilemma decision-making. To speak to this possibility, I will present studies demonstrating that a) people infer the roles of affective and cognitive processing underlying other people’s moral dilemma judgments, b) people use this information to select others for social roles, c) people exhibit meta-cognitive accuracy regarding how their judgments make them appear to others, d) people strategically alter judgments to cultivate favourable impressions, e) such inferences emerge in realistic dilemmas regarding business and COVID decisions, and f) such inferences extend beyond human targets to AI but depend on how people interpret the meaning of AI minds. Together, these findings suggest that dilemma judgments reflect higher-order social cognitive considerations and hold important real-world implications.

Webpage: https://www.paulconway.org/