Cited by 261Psychology of Moral and Emotional JudgmentCultural Differences and ValuesExperimental Behavioral Economics Studies

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Universals and variations in moral decisions made in 42 countries by 70,000 participants

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Awad, Edmond, Dsouza, Sohan, Shariff, Azim, Rahwan, Iyad, Bonnefon, Jean-François·2020·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI 10.1073/pnas.1911517117PMC PMC7007553

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Abstract

When do people find it acceptable to sacrifice one life to save many? Cross-cultural studies suggested a complex pattern of universals and variations in the way people approach this question, but data were often based on small samples from a small number of countries outside of the Western world. Here we analyze responses to three sacrificial dilemmas by 70,000 participants in 10 languages and 42 countries. In every country, the three dilemmas displayed the same qualitative ordering of sacrifice acceptability, suggesting that this ordering is best explained by basic cognitive processes rather than cultural norms. The quantitative acceptability of each sacrifice, however, showed substantial country-level variations. We show that low relational mobility (where people are more cautious about not alienating their current social partners) is strongly associated with the rejection of sacrifices for the greater good (especially for Eastern countries), which may be explained by the signaling value of this rejection. We make our dataset fully available as a public resource for researchers studying universals and variations in human morality.

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Fig. 1. Geographical coverage and stimuli. (A) Many participants came from Europe and the Americas, but more than 40 countries delivered sample sizes of 200+ participants. Participants made decisions in three scenario variants: (B) Switch, (C) Loop, and (D) Footbridge.CC BY · PubMed Central

Fig. 2. Percentage choosing to sacrifice in each scenario variant. In all of these countries, participants were most likely to sacrifice in Switch, then in Loop, then in Footbridge. Within each continent, countries are ordered by decreasing order of the average acceptability of sacrifice in the three scenarios. Oc., Oceania. AU: Australia, NZ: New Zealand, US: United States of America, MX: Mexico, CA: Canada, BR: Brazil, AR: Argentina, CO: Colombia, CZ: Czechia, GB: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, HU: Hungary, PT: Portugal, IE: Ireland, FR: France, SE: Sweden, BE: Belgium, ES: Spain, IT: Italy, SK: Slovakia, RO: Romania, NL: Netherlands, NO: Norway, FI: Finland, DE: Germany, PL: Poland, CH: Switzerland, UA: Ukraine, DK: Denmark, RU: Russian Federation, GR: Greece, AT: Austria, BY: Belarus, VN: Viet Nam, IL: Israel, TR: Turkey, IN: India, SG: Singapore, HK: Hong Kong, KR: The Republic of Korea, JP: Japan, TW: Taiwan (Province of China), CN: China.CC BY · PubMed Central

Fig. 3. Funnel plots for the difference in decisions between scenario variants. (A) The difference between the proportion of participants choosing to sacrifice in Switch and the proportion choosing to sacrifice in Loop was small, with an effect size converging to about 0.10 as a function of increasing sample size. (B) The difference between the proportion of participants choosing to sacrifice in Loop and the proportion choosing to sacrifice in Footbridge was twice as large, but also heterogeneous, with greater variance in countries with greater sample size.CC BY · PubMed Central

Fig. 4. Association between relational mobility and decisions in the three scenario variants. (A) Scatter plots and (B) tables with regression model coefficients and P values show that greater relational mobility is correlated with a greater propensity to endorse sacrifice in all variants, even after controlling for other relevant country-level variables. This correlation is especially strong among the subsample of Asian countries, as shown by the regression lines which were fitted to this subsample for illustration.CC BY · PubMed Central

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Authors: Awad, E., Dsouza, S., Shariff, A., Rahwan, I., & Bonnefon, J.-F.
Affiliations: University of Exeter (GB)
MIT Media Lab (US)
University of British Columbia (CA)
Max Planck Institute for Human Development (DE)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
Corresponding author: Awad, Edmond
Shariff, Azim
Rahwan, Iyad
Bonnefon, Jean-François
ORCID: Awad, Edmond
Shariff, Azim
Rahwan, Iyad
Bonnefon, Jean-François
Venue: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
Published: 2020-01-21
Volume: 117
Issue: 5
Pages: 2332-2337
ISSN: 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
1091-6490
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1911517117
PMC: PMC7007553
OpenAlex: W3000950628
Cited by: 261
References: 44
Citations by year: 2026: 25 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 60 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 17
FWCI: 20.81
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: hybrid
doi.org
Licence: cc-by
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (vor)
Locations: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Toulouse 1 Capitole Publications (Université Toulouse I Capitole) (submittedVersion)
MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders: Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-17-EURE-0010, ANR-19-P3IA-0004)
Topics: Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Cultural Differences and Values
Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
Keywords: ethical decision-making, sacrificial dilemmas, trolley problem, moral intuitions, cross-cultural variation, relational mobility, signaling, East-West differences
MeSH terms: Cognition, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Decision Making, Humans, Morals, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Mobility, Ethical Theory

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Universals and variations in moral decisions made in 42 countries by 70,000 participants

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