Social 1: Intro, values and morality

Question 1

What is moral realism?

Answer 1

Thinking that morally correct = objective truth
Plato
e.g. cheating is wrong would be considered an objective truth

Question 2

What is anti-realism or subjectivism?

Answer 2

Values are relative to how people feel
e.g. cheating is wrong would not be considered an objective truth

Question 3

What is value relativism?

Answer 3

Values depend on others’ approval

Question 4

What is value constructivism?

Answer 4

Evaluative truths are objective, but also depend on human activity

Question 5

What does Schwartz theory tell us that values are?

Answer 5

• Desirable goals that motivate action
• Trans-situational - across all contexts
• Serve as a standard/criteria (for ourself and others)
• Beliefs related to affect (emotional)
• Ordered by relative importance - more important values more likely to influence behaviour

Question 6

What are attitudes and what are beliefs?

Answer 6

Attitudes: evaluative response towards a person, object or an issue
Beliefs: ideas about the relations between different things

Question 7

What are norms and what are personality traits?

Answer 7

Norms: generally accepted standards of behavior within a group, community and society
Personality traits: relatively stable patterns of behaviors, thoughts and emotions

Question 8

What is ideology?

Answer 8

Organized system of political attitudes, norms, values and morals

Question 9

Why are values assumed to be universal?

Answer 9

• They help fulfil individuals’ biological needs, enable social interaction, as well as survival of groups

Question 10

Why are values special?

Answer 10

• Values are seen as inherently positive – we are SATISFIED with our values
• We use values to justify our actions
• People believe it is harder to change values than traits

Question 11

How many basic values are there?

Answer 11

• Rokeach (1973): 36 basic values - 18 terminal (e.g., world at peace, a comfortable life) and 18 instrumental values (e.g., forgiving, honest, capable, ambitious)
• Schwartz (1994): 10
• Refined theory: 19 ( Schwartz et al., 2012)

Question 12

What are social values and personal values?

Answer 12

Social
security, conformity, tradition, benevolence, universalism
Personal
self-direction, stimulation, hedonism, achievement, power

Question 13

What are intrinsic vs extrinsic values?

Answer 13

Intrinsic - no external reward - internal motivation
Extrinsic - protection from threats and seeking rewards

Question 14

What are issues with the Schwartz value survey, and what was developed as a result?

Answer 14

SVS - difficult to do if you are from a different culture / if you have to translate the language

Portrait value questionnaire was developed
- Initially developed for children and people not educated in Western school of thought

Question 15

What format does the ESS human values scale take?

Answer 15

Read descriptions and respond with how much this person is like/unlike you
e.g. It is important to her to be rich. She wants a lot of money and expensive things. (power)

Question 16

What value preferences do women vs men have?

Answer 16

Women tend to report stronger preference for benevolence and universalism
Men report preference for power, stimulation, hedonism, achievement, and self-direction values

Question 17

Are individual differences in value structure larger than country-level differences? What does this suggest?

Answer 17

Yes - individual larger
Suggests structure of values is universal

However, country level differences explain more variance in conformity and tradition

Question 18

What are value-expressive behaviours vs value-ambivalent behaviours?

Answer 18

Expressive = behaviour supports that value
Ambivalent = behaviour opposes that value

Behaviours can express more than one value

Question 19

What is an example of opposing value conflict and opposing value congruence?

Answer 19

Deciding whether to do extreme sports - safety vs stimulation
Festivity and Christmas - hedonism and tradition

Question 20

What is an example of neighbouring value conflict and neighbouring value congruence?

Answer 20

Owning a gun - conformity and security
Musician - hedonism and achievement

Question 21

Can only opposing values come into conflict?

Answer 21

No
Even values next to each other can come into conflict, opposing values can be congruent

Question 22

Why do values not always predict behaviour?

Answer 22

Values are abstract and behaviours are concrete

People who value the same thing can choose various actions

Question 23

When is there a stronger correlation between values and behaviours?

Answer 23

When behaviour is seen as prototypical e.g. volunteering is prototypical of universalism

Question 24

What are the two ways to line up values and actions?

Answer 24

1. Making the actions more abstract (e.g. get people to think about general consumption behaviour instead of the single decision on buying jeans)
2. Making values more concrete

Question 25

How does Turiel define morality?

Answer 25

Prescriptive judgments of justice, rights, and welfare pertaining to how people ought to relate to each other

Question 26

How does Haidt define moral systems?

Answer 26

Moral systems are interlocking sets of values, practices, institutions, and evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and make social life possible

Question 27

What is a general definition of morality?

Answer 27

People’s beliefs about what is ‘right,’ ‘moral’ and ‘good’ and what is absolutely ‘wrong,’ ‘immoral,’ and evil

Question 28

According to Gray, what does mind perception require?

Answer 28

Experience (capacity to feel pain, pleasure) Agency (capacity to act)

Question 29

Gray - what does denying mind result in?

Answer 29

- Moral disengagement and dehumanization (Denying capacity to feel pain and pleasure, denying capacity to act)

Question 30

What two (untrue) things does the dyadic template compel people to see? (Gray)

Answer 30

Injustice - people need to see a blameworthy agent for unjust suffering e.g. blaming God for disasters Harmless wrongs - people need to see perceived 'immoral acts' as inducing harm e.g. flag-burning seems to harm veterans e.g. homosexuality seems to harm children Injustice = creating agent Harmless wrongs = creating patient

Question 31

What are the components of the cognitive template of morality? (Gray)

Answer 31

Morality = agent + patient Agent = person causing action Patient = person suffering consequences Immoral/wrong = agent intent + patient suffering Agent missing = injustice Patient missing = harmless wrongs

Question 32

How is moral typecasting seen in superhero movies? (Gray)

Answer 32

Moral Agents (either superheroes or villains) -are typically seen as resistant to pain (less experience) Moral Patients (victims) – are seen as having less capacity to act (less agency)

Question 33

What happens according to Gray when a person is both a perpetrator and a victim?

Answer 33

Conundrum - confuses the role of agent and patient

Question 34

Gray - What emotions do victims elicit? (Harm/patient)

Answer 34

Sympathy and sadness

Question 35

Gray - What emotions do villains elicit? (Harm/agent)

Answer 35

Anger and disgust

Question 36

Gray - What emotions do heroes elicit? (Help/agent)

Answer 36

Inspiration and elevation

Question 37

Gray - What emotions do beneficiaries elicit? (Help/patient)

Answer 37

Relief and happiness

Question 38

Humans have an aversion to making ethical decisions towards robots, because they lack emotionality. How can ethical treatment of robots be increased?

Answer 38

Make them more human (anthropomorphised) BUT Don’t do it if you want robot to provide negative feedback (Yam et al., 2022) - e.g. if robot gives you bad feedback, do not humanise the robot because people feel more anger towards them

Question 39

What are the differences between monist and pluralist theories of morality?

Answer 39

Monist = one Morality = harm (justice/fairness) All manifestations of morality are derived from one foundation - Linked to western philosophical ideas of autonomy Pluralist = many Morality = more than just harm (how many, not known) Emphasis on cultural differences

Question 40

What are the 4 theoretical assumptions of Haidt's moral foundations theory?

Answer 40

Nativism Cultural learning Intuition vs reasoning Pluralism

Question 41

Haidt - what is nativism?

Answer 41

Morality is based on evolutionary based innate predispositions Help us solve recurrent adaptive problems quickly and efficiently

Question 42

Haidt - what is cultural learning?

Answer 42

Morality's evolutionary based foundations get rewritten and changed through experiences

Question 43

Haidt - what is intuition vs reasoning?

Answer 43

Moral evaluations generally occur rapidly and automatically Reasoning is important when we need to explain, defend and justify our intuitive moral reactions to others Reasoning comes after the intuition of whether something is right or wrong

Question 44

Haidt - what is pluralism?

Answer 44

Morality is based on different pairs: 5 key foundations: Ethics of autonomy - care/harm and fairness/cheating Ethics of community - loyalty/betrayal and authority/subversion Ethics of divinity - sanctity/degradation (purity) 6th new one: Liberty/Oppression – the feelings of reactance and resentment people feel toward those who dominate them and restrict their liberty

Question 45

What are the original five foundations of intuitive ethics?

Answer 45

Care/harm Fairness/cheating Loyalty/betrayal Authority/subversion Sanctity/degradation

Question 46

What was Frans de Waal's morality experiment on capuchin monkeys?

Answer 46

One monkey given grapes as reward, other given cucumbers Grapes more delicious to monkeys than cucumbers Monkey sensed that it was unfair, got angry and threw cucumbers back at experimenter Strong reaction to being treated unfairly

Question 47

How do strong liberals and strong conservatives differ with how relevant they think the five foundations of intuitive ethics are to moral decisions?

Answer 47

Strong liberals = high relevance of harm and fairness, lower relevance of ingroup (loyalty/betrayal), authority and purity Strong conservatives = foundations are considered fairly equally relevant - high relevance of ingroup, authority and purity They judge things based on different moral foundations

Question 48

Are values broader than morality?

Answer 48

Yes About pursuit of our own goals - can have something to do with right and wrong but have other applications too