Citation

Ngo L, Kelly M, Coutlee CG, Carter RM, Sinnott-Armstrong W, Huettel SA. Sci. Rep. 2015; 5: e17390.

Affiliation

Brain Imaging Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center 2424 Erwin Road, Suite 501, Durham, NC 27705.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/srep17390

PMID

26634909

Abstract

Philosophers and legal scholars have long theorized about how intentionality serves as a critical input for morality and culpability, but the emerging field of experimental philosophy has revealed a puzzling asymmetry. People judge actions leading to negative consequences as being more intentional than those leading to positive ones. The implications of this asymmetry remain unclear because there is no consensus regarding the underlying mechanism. Based on converging behavioral and neural evidence, we demonstrate that there is no single underlying mechanism. Instead, two distinct mechanisms together generate the asymmetry. Emotion drives ascriptions of intentionality for negative consequences, while the consideration of statistical norms leads to the denial of intentionality for positive consequences. We employ this novel two-mechanism model to illustrate that morality can paradoxically shape judgments of intentionality. This is consequential for mens rea in legal practice and arguments in moral philosophy pertaining to terror bombing, abortion, and euthanasia among others.

Language: en