The Asymmetry Effect Of Intention On Moral Blame And Praise

Moral judgment involves assessing the moral acceptability of an action or other characteristics.Previous scholars found that intention played an important role in moral judgment.Participants blamed the agents less when they conducted the negative action unintentionally.However,there are little studies discussing the role of intention in positive acts.Here,we first focused on the effect of intention on moral judgment,and we hypothesized that the effect of intention on moral judgment exists an asymmetry in moral blame and praise.Besides,we explored the underlying mechanism behind this asymmetry effect.Based on the person-centered approach,we assumed that moral character mediated the effect of intention on moral judgement.In study 1,we manipulated the agents’ intention to examine the effect of intention on moral blame and praise.In study 2,we manipulated agents’ intention to testify the causality between intention and moral character.And in study 3,we manipulated agents’moral character to prove the causality between moral character and moral judgment.The results of study 2 and 3 proved that moral character mediated the influence between intention and moral judgment.Finally,in study 4,we retested the mediation of moral character and discussed the relationship between intention,valence of consequence,moral character,and moral judgment.Results supported the hypothesis.In the end,we discussed the implication and short comings of this research.And also,we proposed some directions for future study.