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Name: Anushka Chakraborty University: Saginaw Valley State Univercity Assignment 5 Topic: The right of the Indian people to choose if they want to eat beef or not URL: Kouchaki, M., Smith, I. H., & Savani, K. (2018). Does deciding among morally relevant options feel like making a choice? how morality constrains people’s sense of choice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 115(5), 788-804. doi: http://0-dx.doi.org.library.svsu.edu/10.1037/pspa0000128 URL: Mustafa, F., & Sohi, J. S. (2017). Freedom of religion in india: Current issues and supreme court acting as clergy. Brigham Young University Law Review, 2017(4), 915-955. Retrieved from https://0-search-proquest-com.library.svsu.edu/docview/2015723426?accountid=960 Does_deciding_am ong_morally_re.pdf Does Deciding Among Morally Relevant Options Feel Like Making a Choice? How Morality Constrains People’s Sense of Choice Maryam Kouchaki Northwestern University Isaac H. Smith Cornell University Krishna Savani Nanyang Technological University We demonstrate that a difference exists between objectively having and psychologically perceiving multiple-choice options of a given decision, showing that morality serves as a constraint on people’s perceptions of choice. Across 8 studies (N � 2,217), using both experimental and correlational methods, we find that people deciding among options they view as moral in nature experience a lower sense of choice than people deciding among the same options but who do not view them as morally relevant. Moreover, this lower sense of choice is evident in people’s attentional patterns. When deciding among morally relevant options displayed on a computer screen, people devote less visual attention to the option that they ultimately reject, suggesting that when they perceive that there is a morally correct option, they are less likely to even consider immoral options as viable alternatives in their decision-making process. Furthermore, we find that experiencing a lower sense of choice because of moral considerations can have downstream behavioral consequences: after deciding among moral (but not nonmoral) options, people (in Western cultures) tend to choose more variety in an unrelated task, likely because choosing more variety helps them reassert their sense of choice. Taken together, our findings suggest that morality is an important factor that constrains people’s perceptions of choice, creating a disjunction between objectively having a choice and subjectively perceiving that one has a choice. Keywords: morality, choice, moral conviction, variety seeking, process tracing Objectively, people make choices whenever they select an op- tion from two or more alternatives, and this is the definition of choice enshrined in neoclassical economics (Neumann & Morgen- stern, 1944). However, psychologically, what constitutes a choice? There are certainly times when people pick one of multiple options but do not necessarily feel like they are making a choice at all (Savani, Markus, Naidu, Kumar, & Berlia, 2010). Consider Mu- hammed Chohan, who was sitting in his car when he witnessed a thief smash the passenger window of the car in front him, slap a woman sitting in the driver’s seat, grab her bag, and then start running away. Chohan suddenly had a decision to make. Would he go about his business as if nothing had happened, or would he try to intervene on the victim’s behalf? Chohan did the latter. He jumped out of his own car and chased the thief. The thief ulti- mately escaped, but Chohan was able to retrieve some of the woman’s possessions that the thief had dropped during the pursuit. Chohan was hailed as a hero by the media and praised for his bravery. It is reasonable to expect that Chohan might view his decision to help as a deliberate personal choice—one reflective of his upstanding character—granting him personal and public credit for making a morally praiseworthy decision. In a subsequent interview, however, Chohan remarked, “When I noticed a young lady in need, I had no choice but to help.” (Mkamba, 2013). Although Chohan was faced with an objective choice between staying put or chasing the thief, his comments do not reflect a strong sense of choice in the matter. In the present research, we investigate whether morality is a factor that constrains people’s perceptions of choice, creating a disjunction between objectively having a choice and psychologically perceiving that one has a choice, and examine a downstream behavioral consequence of this disjunction (i.e., variety seeking). Moral Choices Philosophers, psychologists, and lay people have long been concerned with perceptions of choice. In general, people value their ability to choose to such an extent that many psychologists consider autonomy to be a fundamental psychological need (Ryan This article was published Online First July 26, 2018. Maryam Kouchaki, The Management & Organizations Department, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University; Isaac H. Smith, S. C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell S. C. Johnson College of Business, Cornell University; Krishna Savani, Culture Science Institute, Division of Strategy, Management, and Organisation, Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University. This research was partially supported by a Nanyang Assistant Profes- sorship grant awarded by Nanyang Technological University to Krishna Savani. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Maryam Kouchaki, The Management & Organizations Department, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2211 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208. E-mail:
[email protected] T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs . T hi s ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition © 2018 American Psychological Association 2018, Vol. 115, No. 5, 788–804 0022-3514/18/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000128 788 mailto:
[email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000128 & Deci, 2000). This drive for autonomy is so strong that people often subjectively perceive that they have made a choice even when they have not (Bear & Bloom, 2016). People also tend to have an illusion of control, believing that they can unduly influ- ence chance or near-chance events (Langer, 1975). This sense of personal choice can be functional and adaptive, contributing to better mental health (Taylor & Brown, 1988) and even longevity (Langer & Rodin, 1976; Schulz, 1976). While a wealth of research has shown that people are motivated to perceive that they have choices, some initial research has demonstrated that there are variations in people’s choice percep- tions. For example, a cross-cultural study found that Indians are less likely than Americans to view mundane actions, such as picking which of two cubicles to sit in, as choices (Savani et al., 2010). However, even within the U.S. sample, there was substan- tial variation in people’s tendency to perceive the act of picking one of multiple options as a choice (Savani et al., 2010). Aside from cultural influences, however, there is little empirical research on factors that shape or constrain whether people perceive an act of selecting one of multiple options as a choice. We ask whether morality is one such factor. Morality involves appraisals of right and wrong, as reflected in the definition provided by the American Psychological Associa- tion’s Dictionary of Psychology (Morality, 2018): morality is “a system of beliefs or set of values relating to right conduct, against which behavior is judged to be acceptable or unacceptable.” Ac- cording to this definition, morality prescribes what people think they should do, not what they feel forced to do. For centuries, philosophers have acknowledged important connections between people’s morality and their decisions, arguing that a sense of choice and free will are prerequisite for holding people morally responsible for their actions (Kant, 1788/1997). Some even claim that in the absence of free will, there does not seem to be much place for ethics at all (Lemmon, 1962). In the present research, we ask whether morality influences people’s perceptions of choice when they are making a decision. Two lines of research in moral psychology make contrasting predictions. Given that autonomy is highly valued in many cultures (Ryan & Deci, 2000), and that people can maintain a sense of autonomy by believing that they are freely making choices, one might expect that people would perceive the act of picking one of multiple morally relevant options as a choice. Indeed, a person’s sense of choice might even be amplified by morality, because moral deci- sions are typically more personally important than nonmoral de- cisions (Skitka, 2010; Turiel, 2002). As people strive to main positive self-views, and positive moral self-views in particular (Mazar, Amir, & Ariely, 2008), they might be more likely to view their moral decisions as choices because doing so could allow them to claim moral credits for having freely chosen the morally right option—credits that researchers have shown people some- times use to excuse subsequent immoral behavior (Monin & Miller, 2001). Yet, there exists an alternative possibility: that perceptions of morality constrain people’s psychological sense of choice, such that moral decisions feel less like choices than decisions that are not moral in nature. In contrast to preferences or desires, which reflect people’s likes and dislikes (Zajonc, 1980), people often view moral beliefs and attitudes in terms of oughts and ideals— duties to be upheld and virtues to be developed—that reflect their evaluations of what is right and wrong (Cornwell & Higgins, 2015). Whereas people find it acceptable that different people have different preferences—at least in Western cultures—people tend to view their own moral beliefs as universally true and more objec- tive (Skitka, Bauman, & Sargis, 2005). Thus, when people make a choice between morally relevant options, they may consciously or unconsciously rule out morally wrong alternatives, leaving them with a single acceptable option (Tetlock, 2003). In such cases, the person might be less likely to experience a sense of choice (the subjective perception of whether multiple choice options exist) even when they actually made a choice (between the objectively available options). Thus, morality might be an important factor that constrains people’s perceptions of choice—an argument that we elaborate below. By empirically examining the effect of morality on people’s perceptions of choice, we help extend the scope of moral psychol- ogy research from examining individuals’ moral judgments and decision-making to how individuals psychologically experience morally relevant decisions. While people’s moral views form and inform their evaluations of what is right and wrong in a given situation, it is unclear how such moral evaluations psychologically influence their sense of choice in the moment. Moral beliefs help people decide what they should do, but people still have a choice as to what