Culture Orientation And Utilitarian Moral Judgment

Utilitarian moral judgment maximizes the greatest good for the greatest number on the basis of "cost-benefit" analysis or "utility maximization". Recently, more attention has paid increasingly to the in fluency of culture on utilitarian moral judgment by home and abroad scholars. There were many studies compare the differences in moral judgment between individualism and collectivism through a cross-cultural study. However, the inconsistent results set us studying how cultural orientation effect utilitarian moral judgment. The results of the study led to the causes of inconsistency are various. While, cultural could been divided into individual level and nation level, and this was worthy of attention. Thus, this research studied the effects of cultural orientation on the utilitarian moral judgment, and mainly discussed the function of empathy and thinking style.The study was divided into study1and study2. This research studied the effects of cultural orientation on the utilitarian moral judgment, and mainly discussed the function of empathy and thinking style. In study1,192college students were investigated and then were selected according to experimental requirements, which participates were divided into individualism (n=34) and collectivism (n=39). According to Chi-square test and Logistic regression analysis, the results have shown that moral reasoning of individuals diverged from individualism and collectivism. Study2a and study2b applied the same approach to select participates. The mechanism of cultural orientation, empathy and utilitarian moral judgment were tested in study2a from a emotional perspective. Moreover, a link of cultural orientation, thinking style and utilitarian moral judgment were established in study2b. The main results were described as follows:Firstly, cultural orientation based on individual level was also related to moral judgment.(1) Cultural variable was operated effectively, and individualism and collectivism had been distinguished according to the subculture.(2) The judgments were diverged from individualism and collectivism. The individualism more likely to make utilitarian judgment that maximizes the greatest for the greatest number, relative to their collectivism. Secondly, the internal process of how cultural orientation affected the moral judgment could be characterized by empathy and thinking style.(1) The correlation between cultural orientation, empathy and utilitarian moral judgment were significant. The correlation between cultural orientation, rational thinking style and moral utilitarian judgment were also significant.(2) The mechanism of cultural orientation’ influence on moral judgment was conformed to the mediation model. Empathy served to mediate the association between cultural orientation and utilitarian moral judgment. Among the four dimensions of empathy, empathic concern played a more significant role. Rational thinking style served to mediate the association between cultural orientation and utilitarian moral judgment.