Filing for Moral Bankruptcy: An Examination of How Affect and Empathy Predict Moral Competence
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Date
2018
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Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM
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Abstract
What does being moral mean? On one hand people may justify mercy killing as
sparing someone’s suffering, but on the other hand they are still, in-fact, taking another’s
life. According to Lind’s theory of moral competence (2008), it is based on consistent
utilization of moral principles. Although common sense tells us that people’s affective
states and levels of empathy may explain the differences, there is little direct evidence.
The purpose of this study was to fill this gap by examining the relative contribution of
empathy and affective state to moral competence. Results of the study revealed that
although perspective taking and negative affective state were both significant predictors
of moral competence, perspective taking was a stronger contributor. This suggests that
the next time you deliberate over a moral dilemma (e.g., euthanasia), you should try
understanding another person’s perspective rather than feeling empathy to make the
best moral judgment.
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Keywords
moral competence, empathy, affect, emotions
Citation
Ethics in Progress, Volume 9 (2018), Issue 2, pp. 16-26.
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ISBN
ISSN
2084-9257