Disfluent fonts lead to more utilitarian decisions in moral dilemas / El tipo de letra difícil de leer ("disfluent") produce más decisiones utilitarias en dilemas morales

Previous research suggests that utilitarian decisions to moral dilemmas often stem from analytic, controlled cognitive processes. Furthermore, processing disfluency can trigger analytic thinking and improve performance on tasks that require logic and cognitive reflection. In the present study we investigated how processing fluency affects the readiness with which people give utilitarian responses to both personal and impersonal dilemmas. Participants were presented in two different experimental blocks with dilemmas written in both easy- (fluent) and hard-to-read (disfluent) fonts. We expected that dilemmas written in a disfluent font would be associated with more utilitarian responses. Results supported this prediction, albeit only when the disfluent dilemmas appeared first, showing that participants endorsed more utilitarian actions in the disfluent condition than in the fluent condition across dilemma types. These data suggest that increasing processing disfluency by manipulating the font affects decisions in the moral domain

Investigaciones previas sugieren que las decisiones utilitarias a dilemas morales a menudo tienen origen en procesos cognitivos controlados y analíticos. Se sabe además que el procesamiento disfluente puede inducir pensamiento analítico y mejorar la ejecución en tareas que requieren lógica y reflexión cognitiva. En este estudio se investigó cómo la fluencia de procesamiento afecta a la disponibilidad con la que se dan repuestas utilitarias a dilemas morales personales e impersonales. Se presentaron a los participantes dilemas escritos tanto en una letra fácil (fluent) como difícil de leer (disfluent) en dos bloques experimentales diferentes. Se esperaba encontrar una asociación entre este último tipo de dilemas y respuestas más utilitarias. Los resultados apoyaron esta predicción cuando los dilemas disfluent se presentaron en primer lugar, mostrando que los participantes subscribían más acciones utilitarias en la condición disfluent que en la fluent, tanto para dilemas personales como impersonales. Estos datos sugieren que incrementar la disfluencia de procesamiento manipulando el tipo de letra utilizado afecta a las decisiones en el ámbito moral

Disentangling the effect of valence and arousal on judgments concerning moral transgressions

An increasing body of research has investigated the effect of emotions on judgments concerning moral transgressions. Yet, few studies have controlled for arousal levels associated with the emotions. High arousal may affect moral processing by triggering attention to salient features of transgressions, independently of valence. Therefore previously documented differences in effects of negative and positive emotions may have been confounded by differences in arousal. We conducted two studies to shed light on this issue. In Study 1 we developed a questionnaire including vignettes selected on the basis of psychometrical properties (i.e., mean ratings of the actions and variability). This questionnaire was administered to participants in Study 2, after presenting them with selected pictures inducing different valence but equivalent levels of arousal. Negative pictures led to more severe moral judgments than neutral (p = .054, d = 0.60) and positive pictures (p = .002, d = 1.02), for vignettes that were not associated with extreme judgments. In contrast, positive pictures did not reliably affect judgments concerning such vignettes. These findings suggest that the observed effects of emotions cannot be accounted for by an increase in attention linked to the arousal which accompanies these emotions (AU)

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