Moral Decision-Making: Empathy as an Indicator for Utilitarian or Deontological Moral Judgments

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to further examine empathy in relation to moral decision making. More specifically, this study investigates how empathy can be related to utilitarian or deontological moral judgments.. Participants’ moral judgments were examined using four moral scenarios where an agent sacrifices one life into order to save five other lives. Results of the current study showed that the more participants empathized with the agent making the decision, the more likely a utilitarian moral judgment was made. In addition, the more empathy the participant had for the one man, the more deontological moral judgment was made. There was no relationship found between empathy for five men and moral decision-making.