Discretionary Morality

Casey Ryback: I support women's lib. Don't you?
Jordan Tate: When it works in my favor.
--Under Seige

Interesting study by Uhlmann et al. (2009) demonstrating discretionary application of moral principles by politically motivated individuals. Their basic premise was that people will be more likely to employ moral principles when those principles are consistent with the preferred political narrative.

For example, the researchers hypothesized that progressives would be more prone to support the consequentialist outcome of the trolley problem when the victim to be sacrificed was white instead of black. Similarly, the researchers hypothesized that conservatives would be more prone to endorse the consequentialist outcome of collateral damage during wartime (e.g., accidental killing of innocent civilians) when the victims were Iraqis rather than Americans.

Five studies using 'what if' scenarios presented to college student and community respondents confirmed the hypotheses. The authors conclude that people appear to selectively draw from a 'moral toolbox' when those morals conveniently support a political argument.

These results are consistent with theoretical concepts of confirmation bias, selective reasoning, and cognitive dissonance.

Reference

Uhlmann, E.L., Pizarro, D.A., Tannenbaum, D. & Ditto, P.H. (2009). The motivated use of moral principles. Judgment and Decision Making, 4(6): 476-491.