@article{ref1,
title="You see, the ends don't justify the means: visual imagery and moral judgment",
journal="Psychological science",
year="2012",
author="Amit, Elinor and Greene, Joshua D.",
volume="23",
number="8",
pages="861-868",
abstract="We conducted three experiments indicating that characteristically deontological judgments-here, disapproving of sacrificing one person for the greater good of others-are preferentially supported by visual imagery. Experiment 1 used two matched working memory tasks-one visual, one verbal-to identify individuals with relatively visual cognitive styles and individuals with relatively verbal cognitive styles. Individuals with more visual cognitive styles made more deontological judgments. Experiment 2 showed that visual interference, relative to verbal interference and no interference, decreases deontological judgment. Experiment 3 indicated that these effects are due to people's tendency to visualize the harmful means (sacrificing one person) more than the beneficial end (saving others). These results suggest a specific role for visual imagery in moral judgment: When people consider sacrificing someone as a means to an end, visual imagery preferentially supports the judgment that the ends do not justify the means. These results suggest an integration of the dual-process theory of moral judgment with construal-level theory.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0956-7976",
doi="10.1177/0956797611434965",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797611434965"
}