The omission effect in moral cognition: Toward a functional explanation

Evolution and Human Behavior

Volumn 32, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 204-215

  DeScioli, Peter ^a   Bruening, Rebecca ^b   Kurzban, Robert ^b  

^a CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA   (United States)

Author keywords

Moral judgment; Moral psychology; Omission; Transparency

Indexed keywords

EID: 79954629277     PISSN: 10905138     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2011.01.003     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. Alexander R.A. The biology of moral systems 1987, Aldine de Gruyter, New York.
2. Alicke M.D. Culpable causation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1992, 63:368-378.
3. Anderson C.J. The psychology of doing nothing: forms of decision avoidance result from reason and emotion. Psychological Bulletin 2003, 129:139-167.
4. Baron J., Ritov I. Reference points and omission bias. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 1994, 59:475-498.
5. Baron J., Ritov I. Omission bias, individual differences, and normality. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2004, 94:74-85.
6. Boyd R., Richerson P.J. The origin and evolution of cultures 2005, Oxford University Press, New York.
7. Cushman F.A., Young L., Hauser M.D. The role of reasoning and intuition in moral judgments: testing three principles of harm. Psychological Science 2006, 17:1082-1089.
8. Darley J.M., Pittman T.S. The psychology of compensatory and retributive justice. Personality and Social Psychology Review 2003, 7:324-336.
9. Darwin C. Descent of man, and selection in relation to sex 1871, D. Appleton and Company, New York.
10. de Waal F. Good natured: the origins of right and wrong in humans and other animals 1996, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
11. DeScioli P. Investigations into the problems of moral cognition. Unpublished doctoral dissertation 2008, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
12. DeScioli P., Christner J., & Kurzban R. (in press). The omission strategy. Psychological Science.
13. DeScioli P., Kurzban R. Mysteries of morality. Cognition 2009, 112:281-299.
14. Fehr E., Fischbacher U., Gächter S. Strong reciprocity, human cooperation, and the enforcement of social norms. Human Nature 2002, 13:1-25.
15. Fox M.W. India's sacred cow: her plight and future. The animal ethics reader 2003, 238-241. Routledge, New York. S.J. Armstrong, R.G. Botzler (Eds.).
16. Gintis H., Smith E.A., Bowles S. Costly signaling and cooperation. Journal of Theoretical Biology 2001, 213:103-119.
17. Gray K., Wegner D.M. Moral typecasting: divergent perceptions of moral agents and moral patients. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2009, 96:505-520.
18. Haidt J. The emotional dog and its rational tail: a social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review 2001, 108:814-834.
19. Haidt J. The new synthesis in moral psychology. Science 2007, 316:998-1002.
20. Haidt J., Baron J. Social roles and the moral judgment of acts and omissions. European Journal of Social Psychology 1996, 26:201-218.
21. Hauser M.D. Moral minds 2006, HarperCollins, New York.
22. Heider F. The psychology of interpersonal relations 1958, Wiley, New York.
23. Kahneman D., Miller D.T. Norm theory: comparing reality to its alternatives. Psychological Review 1986, 93:136-153.
24. Knauft B.M. Reconsidering violence in simple human societies: homicide among the Gebusi of New Guinea. Current Anthropology 1987, 28:457-500.
25. Knobe J. Theory of mind and moral cognition: exploring the connections. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2005, 9:357-359.
26. Kordes-de Vaal J. Intention and the omission bias: omissions perceived as nondecisions. Acta Psychologica 1996, 93:161-172.
27. Kurzban R., DeScioli P., O'Brien E. Audience effects on moralistic punishment. Evolution and Human Behavior 2007, 28:75-84.
28. Lieberman D., Tooby J., Cosmides L. Does morality have a biological basis? An empirical test of the factors governing moral sentiments relating to incest. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 2003, 270:819-826.
29. Lieberman D., Tooby J., Cosmides L. The architecture of human kin detection. Nature 2007, 445:727-731.
30. Mikhail J. Universal moral grammar: theory, evidence and the future. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2007, 11:143-152.
31. Miller G.F. Sexual selection for moral virtues. Quarterly Review of Biology 2007, 82:97-125.
32. Miller G.P. Norm enforcement in the public sphere: the case of handicapped parking. George Washington Law Review 2003, 71:895-933.
33. Nikiforakis N. Punishment and counter-punishment in public good games: can we really govern ourselves?. Journal of Public Economics 2008, 92:91-112.
34. Pinker S., Nowak M.A., Lee J. The logic of indirect speech. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2008, 105:833-838.
35. Pizarro D.A., Uhlmann E., Bloom P. Causal deviance and the attribution of moral responsibility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2003, 39:653-660.
36. Ridley M. The origins of virtue 1996, Penguin Books, London: Viking.
37. Ritov I., Baron J. Protected values and omission bias. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 1999, 79:79-94.
38. Schelling T.C. The strategy of conflict 1960, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
39. Shaver K.G. The attribution of blame: causality, responsibility, and blameworthiness 1985, Springer-Verlag, New York.
40. Waldmann M.R., Dieterich J. Throwing a bomb on a person versus throwing a person on a bomb: intervention myopia in moral intuitions. Psychological Science 2007, 18:247-253.
41. Weiner B. Judgments of responsibility: a foundation for a theory of social conduct 1995, Guilford Press, New York.
42. Wiessner P. Norm enforcement among the Ju/'hoansi Bushmen: a case of strong reciprocity?. Human Nature 2005, 16:115-145.
43. Wolfgang M. E., Figlio R. M., Tracy P. E., & Singer S. I. (1985). The National Survey of Crime Severity. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
44. Wright R. The moral animal 1994, Pantheon, New York.