Flanagan, Brian and de Almeida, Guilherme F. C. F. and Struchiner, Noel and Hannikainen, Ivar R. (2023) Moral appraisals guide intuitive legal determinations. Law and Human Behavior, 47 (2). pp. 367-383. ISSN 0147-7307

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Abstract

Objectives: We sought to understand how basic competencies in moral reasoning influence the application of private, institutional, and legal rules. Hypotheses: We predicted that moral appraisals, implicating both outcome-based and mental state reasoning, would shape participants’ interpretation of rules and statutes— and asked whether these effects arise differentially under intuitive and reflective reasoning conditions. Method: In six vignette-based experiments (total N = 2,473; 293 university law students [67% women; age bracket mode: 18–22 years] and 2,180 online workers [60% women; mean age = 31.9 years]), participants considered a wide range of written rules and laws and determined whether a protagonist had violated the rule in question. We manipulated morally relevant aspects of each incident—including the valence of the rule’s purpose (Study 1) and of the outcomes that ensued (Studies 2 and 3), as well as the protagonist’s accompanying mental state (Studies 5 and 6). In two studies, we simultaneously varied whether participants decided under time pressure or following a forced delay (Studies 4 and 6). Results: Moral appraisals of the rule’s purpose, the agent’s extraneous blameworthiness, and the agent’s epistemic state impacted legal determinations and helped to explain participants’ departure from rules’ literal interpretation. Counter-literal verdicts were stronger under time pressure and were weakened by the opportunity to reflect. Conclusions: Under intuitive reasoning conditions, legal determinations draw on core competencies in moral cognition, such as outcome-based and mental state reasoning. In turn, cognitive reflection dampens these effects on statutory interpretation, allowing text to play a more influential role.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	textualism; time pressure; moral reasoning; legal interpretation; theory of mind;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Law
Item ID:	18870
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000527
Depositing User:	Brian Flanagan
Date Deposited:	12 Sep 2024 13:28
Journal or Publication Title:	Law and Human Behavior
Publisher:	Educational Publishing Foundation
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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