The Influence Of Psychological Distance On Moral Judgment

Moral judgment is our attitude and behavior choice on moral events,which are widely present in our life.We can understand how people make moral judgments by studying people's moral judgments?psychological mechanisms and influencing factors of ethical behaviors.Then we can predict people's behaviors on this basis,and make them do more moral behavior of social expectations.In previous studies,Haidt's social intuition model and Greene's dual processing model made different theoretical explanations for the psychological mechanism of moral judgment.In social intuition model,moral judgment is a fast process of intuition without thinking;while in the double processing model,moral judgment occurs when two different processing paths of emotion and cognition compete with each other.In the traditional research paradigm that explores the types of moral judgments in the dilemma of morality(tram dilemma),the moral judgment that individuals choose to pull a wrench to sacrifice one person to save five lives is evaluated as a moral judgment based on utilitarianism.However,this kind of measurement method has been questioned by many researchers because of its shortcomings such as simply opposing the two options.The CNI model proposed by Gawronski in 2017 not only more accurately measures the moral judgment tendency of individuals in moral dilemmas,such as morality(sensitivity to ethics)and utilitarianism(sensitivity to results),and A certain preference for an individual to take action or not to act can be measured.This model reveals the essence of moral judgment more comprehensively and meticulously.Psychological distance is a subjective experience that occurs when a person approaches or moves away from a reference point.Studies have shown that psychological distance affects moral judgment.Therefore,this study is based on the CNI model to further explore this issue.The research includes three aspects:(1)the influence of psychological distance on moral judgment;and(2)the influence of emotion on psychological judgment on moral judgment.(3)The role of cognition in the influence of psychological distance on moral judgment.Study 1 explores the impact of emotional and psychological distance on moral judgment.The results show that:(1)psychological distance affects the individual's moral behavior preference.Compared with the far psychological distance,the individual under the psychological distance is more inclined to choose not to act,but in the sensitivity to the result,the ethics There is no significant difference in sensitivity.(2)Compared with the psychological distance,when the psychological distance is close,the emotion affects the individual's sensitivity to moral standards.Individuals are more sensitive to ethics in a positive emotional state.Study 2 explores the impact of cognitive load and psychological distance on moral judgment.The results of the study found that the cognitive load had no significant effect on moral judgment,whether the psychological distance was near or far.Conclusion:(1)Psychological distance has an influence on moral judgment,but it is different from the research conclusion that the individual will make a moral judgment of morality or utilitarianism when the psychological distance obtained in the previous study is different.This study finds that psychological distance only affects Individual behavioral preferences.Under far psychological distance,individuals are more inclined to choose the moral judgment of action,and in the near psychological distance,individuals are more likely to make inaction choices.(2)Compared with the far psychological distance,positive emotions have an influence on moral judgment under the condition of near psychological distance,and individuals are more sensitive to moral norms;(3)cognition does not affect the influence of psychological distance on moral judgment.