Document Type

Student Research Paper

Date

Spring 2018

Academic Department

Psychology

Faculty Advisor(s)

Michael Roy

Abstract

Intuition and moral beliefs are used unconsciously in every day decision making, with intuition being the main decision maker and moral foundations providing reasoning for a decision. Intuition refers to the gut feelings a person may have about a situation or decision. Moral foundations refer to themes of morality that individuals may rely on. Under varying circumstances, different moral beliefs may be more salient and important when making a judgement. Given the role that both of these play in everyday decision making, this study aimed to explore the relationship between the three types of intuition (holistic, inferential, and affective) and the five moral foundations (harm/care, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, and sanctity/degradation) and how different thinking styles, namely analytic and intuitive thinking styles, would influence the moral foundations that are relied on when making moral decisions. It was hypothesized that the three types of intuition would be related to the sanctity/degradation moral foundation and that these relationships would be positive. Furthermore, it was expected that participants under cognitive load would rely more on individualizing moral values when making moral judgements. Results showed the strongest relationship between the harm/care moral foundation and affective intuition. Thinking styles did not affect the moral foundations that participants relied on when making moral decisions.

Notes

Senior thesis.

Included in

Psychology Commons

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