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Virtual morality: Transitioning from moral judgment to moral action?
Francis, Kathryn B. Howard, C. Howard, I.S. Gummerum, M. Ganis, G. Anderson, G. Terbeck, S.
Francis, Kathryn B.
Howard, C.
Howard, I.S.
Gummerum, M.
Ganis, G.
Anderson, G.
Terbeck, S.
Publication Date
2016-10-10
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© 2016 Francis et al. This is an open
access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author and source are credited.
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2016-09-23
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Abstract
The nature of moral action versus moral judgment has been extensively debated in numerous
disciplines. We introduce Virtual Reality (VR) moral paradigms examining the action
individuals take in a high emotionally arousing, direct action-focused, moral scenario. In
two studies involving qualitatively different populations, we found a greater endorsement of
utilitarian responses±killing one in order to save many others±when action was required in
moral virtual dilemmas compared to their judgment counterparts. Heart rate in virtual moral
dilemmas was significantly increased when compared to both judgment counterparts and
control virtual tasks. Our research suggests that moral action may be viewed as an independent
construct to moral judgment, with VR methods delivering new prospects for investigating
and assessing moral behaviour.
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Citation
Francis KB, Howard C, Howard IS et al. (2016). Virtual morality: Transitioning from moral
judgment to moral action? PLoS ONE 11(10): e0164374.
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