When the Future Feels Worse Than the Past: A Temporal Inconsistency in Moral Judgment

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Volumn 139, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 610-624

  Caruso, Eugene M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO   (United States)

Author keywords

Fairness; Moral judgment; Past and future; Time

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; DECISION MAKING; EMOTION; HUMAN; HUMAN RELATION; IMAGINATION; MORALITY; QUESTIONNAIRE; TIME;

EMOTIONS; HUMANS; IMAGINATION; INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS; JUDGMENT; MORALS; QUESTIONNAIRES; RETROSPECTIVE MORAL JUDGMENT; TIME FACTORS;

EID: 78349262289     PISSN: 00963445     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1037/a0020757     Document Type: Article

References (102)

1. Addis D.R., Wong A.T., Schacter D.L. Remembering the past and imagining the future: Common and distinct neural substrates during event construction and elaboration. Neuropsychologia 2007, 45:1363-1377.
2. Ainslie G. Specious reward: A behavioral theory of impulsiveness and impulse control. Psychological Bulletin 1975, 82:463-509.
3. Arendt H. The life of the mind 1978, Harcourt, New York, NY.
4. Bar-Anan Y., Wilson T.D., Gilbert D.T. The feeling of uncertainty intensifies affective reactions. Emotion 2009, 9:123-127.
5. Bargh J.A. Free will is un-natural. Are we free? The psychology of free will 2008, 128-154. Oxford University Press, New York, NY. J. Baer, J. Kaufman, R. Baumeister (Eds.).
6. Baron R.M., Kenny D.A. The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1986, 51:1173-1182.
7. Bartels D.M. Principled moral sentiment and the flexibility of moral judgment and decision making. Cognition 2008, 108:381-417.
8. Bazerman M.H., Loewenstein G.F., White S.B. Reversals of preference in allocation decisions: Judging an alternative versus choosing among alternatives. Administrative Science Quarterly 1992, 37:220-240.
9. Bazerman M.H., Moore D., Tenbrunsel A.E., Wade-Benzoni K.A. Explaining how preferences change across joint versus separate evaluations. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organizations 1999, 39:41-58.
10. Bazerman M.H., Schroth H.A., Shah P.P., Diekmann K.A., Tenbrunsel A.E. The inconsistent role of comparison others and procedural justice in reactions to hypothetical job descriptions: Implications for job acceptance decisions. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 1994, 60:326-352.
11. Bazerman M.H., Tenbrunsel A.E., Wade-Benzoni K.A. Negotiating with yourself and losing: Understanding and managing conflicting internal preferences. Academy of Management Review 1998, 23:225-241.
12. Bechara A., Damasio A.R. The somatic marker hypothesis: A neural theory of economic decision. Games and Economic Behavior 2005, 52:336-372.
13. Bem D.J. Self-perception: An alternative interpretation of cognitive dissonance phenomena. Psychological Review 1967, 74:183-200.
14. Bem D.J. Self-perception theory. Advances in experimental social psychology 1972, 6:1-62. Academic Press, New York, NY. L. Berkowitz (Ed.).
15. Bies R.J., Tripp T.M. Beyond distrust: " Getting even" and the need for revenge. Trust in organizations: Frontiers of theory and research 1996, 246-260. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. R.M. Kramer, T.R. Tyler (Eds.).
16. Blair R. A cognitive developmental approach to morality: Investigating the psychopath. Cognition 1995, 57:1-29.
17. Blair R., Jones L., Clark F., Smith M. The psychopathic individual: A lack of responsiveness to distress cues?. Psychophysiology 1997, 34:192-198.
18. Blount S., Bazerman M.H. The inconsistent evaluation of absolute versus comparative payoffs in labor supply and bargaining. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 1996, 30:227-240.
19. Brehm J.W. Increasing cognitive dissonance by a fait accompli. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 1959, 58:379-382.
20. Camerer C.F. Behavioral game theory: Experiments in strategic interaction 2003, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, NY.
21. Caruso, E. M. (2010). Why it is easier to get forgiveness than permission. Unpublished manuscript, University of Chicago.
22. Caruso E.M., Gilbert D.T., Wilson T.D. A wrinkle in time: Asymmetric valuation of past and future events. Psychological Science 2008, 19:796-801.
23. Caruso, E. M., Idson, L. C., & Bazerman, M. H. (2002). Do groups protect you from yourself? Individuals versus groups in want/should decisions. Unpublished manuscript, Harvard University.
24. D'Argembeau A., Linden M.V.D. Phenomenal characteristics associated with projecting oneself back into the past and forward into the future: Influence of valence and temporal distance. Consciousness and Cognition 2004, 13:844-858.
25. Dhar R., Wertenbroch K. Consumer choice between hedonic and utilitarian goods. Journal of Marketing Research 2000, 37:60-71.
26. Dunbar R. Grooming, gossip, and the evolution of language 1996, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
27. Festinger L. A theory of cognitive dissonance 1957, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
28. Festinger L., Carlsmith J.M. Cognitive consequences of forced compliance. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 1959, 58:203-211.
29. Fischhoff B. Hindsight ≠ foresight: The effect of outcome knowledge on judgment under uncertainty. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 1975, 1:288-299.
30. Frijda N.H. The emotions 1986, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.
31. Frijda N.H. The laws of emotion. American Psychologist 1988, 43:349-358.
32. Gilbert D.T. Stumbling on happiness 2006, Knopf, New York, NY.
33. Gilbert D.T., Pinel E.C., Wilson T.D., Blumberg S.J., Wheatley T.P. Immune neglect: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1998, 75:617-638.
34. Grant S.J., Tybout A.M. The effect of temporal frame on information considered in new product evaluation: The role of uncertainty. Journal of Consumer Research 2008, 34:897-913.
35. Greene J.D. The secret joke of Kant's soul. Moral psychology, volume 3: The neuroscience of morality: Emotion, brain disorders, and development 2008, 35-117. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. W. Sinnott-Armstrong (Ed.).
36. Greene J.D., Nystrom L.E., Engell A.D., Darley J.M., Cohen J.D. The neural bases of cognitive conflict and control in moral judgment. Neuron 2004, 44:389-400.
37. Greene J.D., Sommerville R.B., Nystrom L.E., Darley J.M., Cohen J.D. An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment. Science 2001, September 14, 293:2105-2108.
38. Güth W., Schmittberger R., Schwarze B. An experimental analysis of ultimatum bargaining. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 1982, 3:367-388.
39. Haidt J. The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review 2001, 108:814-835.
40. Haidt J. The new synthesis in moral psychology. Science 2007, May 18, 316:998-1002.
41. Hauser M.D. Moral minds: How nature designed our universal sense of right and wrong 2006, HarperCollins, New York, NY.
42. Hawkins S.A., Hastie R. Hindsight: Biased judgment of past events after the outcomes are known. Psychological Bulletin 1990, 107:311-327.
43. Hoch S.J., Loewenstein G.F. Time-inconsistent preferences and consumer self-control. Journal of Consumer Research 1991, 17:492-507.
44. Hodgson L.K., Wertheim E.H. Does good emotion management aid forgiving? Multiple dimensions of empathy, emotion management, and forgiveness of self and others. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 2007, 24:931-949.
45. Hogan R., Emler N. Retributive justice. The justice motive in social behavior: Adapting to times of scarcity and change 1980, 125-143. Plenum Press, New York, NY. M. Lerner, S. Lerner (Eds.).
46. Hsee C.K. The evaluability hypothesis: An explanation for preference reversals between joint and separate evaluation alternatives. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 1996, 67:247-257.
47. Hsee C.K., Loewenstein G., Blount S., Bazerman M.H. Preference reversals between joint and separate evaluations of options: A review and theoretical analysis. Psychological Bulletin 1999, 125:576-590.
48. Hume D. A treatise of human nature 1969, Penguin, London, England, (Original work published 1739).
49. Kahneman D., Knetsch J.L., Thaler R. Fairness as a constraint on profit seeking: Entitlements in the market. The American Economic Review 1986, 76:728-741.
50. Kahneman D., Ritov I. Determinants of stated willingness to pay for public goods: A study in the headline method. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 1994, 9:5-38.
51. Kahneman D., Schkade D., Sunstein C.R. Shared outrage and erratic awards: The psychology of punitive damages. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 1998, 16:49-86.
52. Kant, I. (1964). Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals (H. J. Paton, Trans.). New York, NY: Harper & Row. (Original work published 1785).
53. Kermer D.A., Driver-Linn E., Wilson T.D., Gilbert D.T. Loss aversion is an affective forecasting error. Psychological Science 2006, 17:649-653.
54. King C.K., Narayandas D. Coca-Cola's new vending machine (A): Pricing to capture value, or not?. Harvard Business School Case 9-500-068 2000.
55. Langer E.J. The illusion of control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1975, 32:311-328.
56. Lazarus R.S. Emotion and adaptation 1991, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
57. Lerner M. The belief in a just world 1980, Plenum Press, New York, NY.
58. Loewenstein G. Out of control: Visceral influences on behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 1996, 65:272-292.
59. Loewenstein G.F., Weber E.U., Hsee C.K., Welch N. Risk as feelings. Psychological Bulletin 2001, 127:267-286.
60. Marks I.M. Fears, phobias, and rituals: Panic, anxiety, and their disorders 1987, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
61. McClure S.M., Laibson D.I., Loewenstein G., Cohen J.D. The grasshopper and the ant: Separate neural systems value immediate and delayed monetary rewards. Science 2004, October 15, 306:503-507.
62. Mendez M.F., Anderson E., Shapira J.S. An investigation of moral judgement in frontotemporal dementia. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology 2005, 18:193-197.
63. Mikhail J. Universal moral grammar: Theory, evidence, and the future. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2007, 11:143-152.
64. Miller A.G., Gordon A.K., Buddie A.M. Accounting for evil and cruelty: Is to explain to condone?. Personality and Social Psychology Review 1999, 3:254-268.
65. Mitchell T.R., Thompson L., Peterson E., Cronk R. Temporal adjustments in the evaluation of events: The " rosy view." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 1997, 33:421-448.
66. Nichols S. Norms with feeling: Towards a psychological account of moral judgment. Cognition 2002, 84:221-236.
67. O'Connor K.M., De Dreu C.K.W., Schroth H., Barry B., Lituchy T., Bazerman M.H. What we want to do versus what we think we should do. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 2002, 15:403-418.
68. Okuda J., Fujii T., Ohtake H., Tsukiura T., Tanji K., Suzuki K., Yamadori A. Thinking of the future and past: The roles of the frontal pole and the medial temporal lobes. NeuroImage 2003, 19:1369-1380.
69. Parfit D. Rationality and time. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 1984, 84:47-82.
70. Parfit D. Reasons and persons 1984, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
71. Pillutla M.M., Murnighan J.K. Unfairness, anger, and spite: Emotional rejections of ultimatum offers. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 1996, 68:208-224.
72. Roberts W.A. Are animals stuck in time?. Psychological Bulletin 2002, 128:473-489.
73. Sanfey A.G., Rilling J.K., Aronson J.A., Nystrom L.E., Cohen J.D. The neural basis of economic decision-making in the ultimatum game. Science 2003, June 13, 300:1755-1757.
74. Schwarz N. Feelings as information: Informational and motivational functions of affective states. Handbook of motivation and cognition: Foundations of social behavior 1990, 2:527-561. Guilford Press, New York, NY. E.T. Higgins, R. Sorrentino (Eds.).
75. Schwarz N., Clore G.L. How do I feel about it? The informative function of affective states. Affect, cognition, and social behavior: New evidence and integrative attempts 1988, 44-62. Hogrefe, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. K. Fiedler, J. Forgas (Eds.).
76. Schwarz N., Clore G.L. Feelings and phenomenal experiences. Social psychology: A handbook of basic principles 1996, 433-465. Guilford Press, New York, NY. E.T. Higgins, A. Kruglanski (Eds.).
77. Shiv B., Fedorikhin A. Heart and mind in conflict: The interplay of affect and cognition in consumer decision making. Journal of Consumer Research 1999, 3:278-292.
78. Sinnott-Armstrong W. Framing moral intuitions. Moral psychology, volume 2: The cognitive science of morality: Intuition and diversity 2008, 47-76. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. W. Sinnott-Armstrong (Ed.).
79. Slovic P., Finucane M., Peters E., MacGregor D.G. The affect heuristic. Heuristics and biases: The psychology of intuitive judgment 2002, 397-420. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY. T. Gilovich, D. Griffin, D. Kahneman (Eds.).
80. Smith C.A., Ellsworth P.C. Patterns of cognitive appraisal in emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1985, 48:813-838.
81. Soman D. Prospective and retrospective evaluations of experiences: How you evaluate an experience depends on when you evaluate it. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 2003, 16:35-52.
82. Strickland L.H., Lewicke R.J., Katz A.M. Temporal orientation and perceived control as determinants of risk-taking. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 1966, 2:143-151.
83. Suddendorf T., Busby J. Mental time travel in animals?. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2003, 7:391-396.
84. Tabibnia G., Satpute A.B., Lieberman M.D. The sunny side of fairness: Preference for fairness activates reward circuitry (and disregarding unfairness activates self-control circuitry). Psychological Science 2008, 19:339-347.
85. Tetlock P.E., Kristel O.V., Elson S.B., Green M.C., Lerner J.S. The psychology of the unthinkable: Taboo trade-offs, forbidden base rates, and heretical counterfactuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2000, 78:853-870.
86. Tooby J., Cosmides L. The past explains the present: Emotional adaptations and the structure of ancestral environments. Ethology and Sociobiology 1990, 11:375-424.
87. Trope Y., Liberman N. Temporal construal. Psychological Review 2003, 110:403-421.
88. Tulving E. Episodic memory: From mind to brain. Annual Review of Psychology 2002, 53:1-25.
89. Turiel E. The development of social knowledge: Morality and convention 1983, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.
90. Van Boven L., Ashworth L. Looking forward, looking back: Anticipation is more evocative than retrospection. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 2007, 136:289-300.
91. Van Boven L., Kane J., McGraw A.P. Temporally asymmetric constraints on mental simulation: Retrospection is more constrained than prospection. Handbook of imagination and mental simulation 2009, 131-147. Psychology Press, New York, NY. K.D. Markman, W.M.P. Klein, J.A. Suhr (Eds.).
92. Viscusi W.K. Corporate risk analysis: A reckless act?. Stanford Law Review 2000, 52:547-597.
93. Vohs K.D., Schooler J.W. The value of believing in free will: Encouraging a belief in determinism increases cheating. Psychological Science 2008, 19:49-54.
94. Vosgerau J., Wertenbroch K., Carmon Z. Indeterminacy and live television. Journal of Consumer Research 2006, 32:487-495.
95. Wheatley T., Haidt J. Hypnotic disgust makes moral judgments more severe. Psychological Science 2005, 16:780-784.
96. Wilson T.D., Centerbar D.B., Kermer D.A., Gilbert D.T. The pleasures of uncertainty: Prolonging positive moods in ways people do not anticipate. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2005, 88:5-21.
97. Wilson T.D., Gilbert D.T. Affective forecasting. Advances in experimental social psychology 2003, 35:345-411. Elsevier, New York, NY. M. Zanna (Ed.).
98. Wilson T.D., Gilbert D.T. Explaining away: A model of affective adaptation. Perspectives on Psychological Science 2008, 3:370-386.
99. Wirtz D., Kruger J., Scollon C.N., Diener E. What to do on spring break? The role of predicted, on-line, and remembered experience in future choice. Psychological Science 2003, 14:520-524.
100. Witvliet C.V.O. Forgiveness and health: Review and reflections on a matter of faith, feelings, and physiology. Journal of Psychology and Theology 2001, 29:212-224.
101. Wong P.T.P., Weiner B. When people ask " why" questions, and the heuristics of attributional search. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1981, 40:650-663.
102. Worthington E.L. Handbook of forgiveness 2005, Routledge, New York, NY.