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Beyond sacrificial harm: a two-dimensional model of utilitarian psychology
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(see record 2018-15704-001). The copyright attribution was incorrectly listed, and the Creative Commons CC-BY license disclaimer was incorrectly omitted from the author note. The correct copyright is "© 2017 The Author(s)" and the omitted disclaimer is found in the erratum. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Recent research has relied on trolley-type sacrificial moral dilemmas to study utilitarian versus nonutilitarian modes of moral decision-making. This research has generated important insights into people's attitudes toward instrumental harm-that is, the sacrifice of an individual to save a greater number. But this approach also has serious limitations. Most notably, it ignores the positive, altruistic core of utilitarianism, which is characterized by impartial concern for the well-being of everyone, whether near or far. Here, we develop, refine, and validate a new scale-the Oxford Utilitarianism Scale-to dissociate individual differences in the 'negative' (permissive attitude toward instrumental harm) and 'positive' (impartial concern for the greater good) dimensions of utilitarian thinking as manifested in the general population. We show that these are two independent dimensions of proto-utilitarian tendencies in the lay population, each exhibiting a distinct psychological profile. Empathic concern, identification with the whole of humanity, and concern for future generations were positively associated with impartial beneficence but negatively associated with instrumental harm; and although instrumental harm was associated with subclinical psychopathy, impartial beneficence was associated with higher religiosity. Importantly, although these two dimensions were independent in the lay population, they were closely associated in a sample of moral philosophers. Acknowledging this dissociation between the instrumental harm and impartial beneficence components of utilitarian thinking in ordinary people can clarify existing debates about the nature of moral psychology and its relation to moral philosophy as well as generate fruitful avenues for further research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
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“There is no consensus amongst laypeople about how such moral dilemmas should be resolved (154, 155), nor is there normative agreement amongst philosophers on how they should be resolved and why.”
From The impact of generative artificial intelligence on socioeconomic inequalities and policy making (2024) · cites this paper as [155]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kahane, G., Everett, J. A. C., Earp, B. D., Caviola, L., Faber, N. S., Crockett, M. J., & Savulescu, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Everett, Jim A. C.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Psychological Review
- Published
- 2018-03
- Volume
- 125
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 131-164
- ISSN
- 0033-295X (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1471
- PMC
- PMC5900580
- OpenAlex
- W2779777831
- Cited by
- 434
- References
- 144
- Citations by year
- 2026: 48 · 2025: 48 · 2024: 60 · 2023: 74 · 2022: 60 · 2021: 57 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 11
- FWCI
- 13.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2018-04-16)
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Psychological Review (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Kent Academic Repository (University of Kent) (submittedVersion)
- PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Uehiro Foundation on Ethics and Education
- Wellcome Trust
- Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities (WT203132/Z/16/Z)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophical Ethics and Theory
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Ethics in Business and Education
- Keywords
- utilitarianism, instrumental harm, impartial beneficence, moral psychology, moral philosophers, empathic concern, subclinical psychopathy, religiosity, trolley problem, altruism
- MeSH terms
- Decision Making, Empathy, Humans, Morals, Psychological Theory, Ethical Theory
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