What Role does Prejudice Play in Moral Decision-Making?

  • Chloe G. Bland

Abstract

In order to further examine the role contextual factors play in the moral decision-making process, such as socio-economic status (SES), a preliminary pilot study was conducted by the author (CGB). Twenty college students from New York City were asked to morally reason about a series of short vignettes, which were based on research by Miller & Bersoff (1995). The results of the pilot study showed some preliminary evidence that prejudice may impact the moral reasoning of the respondent. This suggests that people may respond to the same situation in different ways, depending on the SES of the individuals involved. I propose to expand on the aforementioned pilot study. In addition, I will use Allport's (1954) term of "nouns that cut slices" to help define prejudice. Allport uses the term to describe the labels we use to categorize and organize groups of people. My assumption for the purpose of this study will be that every person has prejudices that are implicit in their worldview. Although the word "prejudice" often carries a negative meaning, for my purposes it is merely a way of saying that each person sees and interacts with the world in a distinct way.

References

Allport, G., (1954). The Nature of Prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.

Haidt, J., (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108, 814-834.

Kohlberg, L. (1971). From is to ought: How to commit the naturalistic fallacy and get away with it in the study of moral development. In T. Mischel (Ed.), Cognitive Development and Epistemology (pp. 151-180). New York, NY: Academic Press.

Miller, J. & Bersoff, D. (1995). Development in the context of everyday family relationships: Culture, interpersonal morality, and adaptation. In M. Killen & D. Hart (Eds.), Morality in Everyday Life: A Developmental Perspective (pp. 259-282). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Pizarro, D. & Bloom, P. (2001). The intelligence of moral intuitions: Comment on Haidt (2001). Psychological Review,110, 193-196.

Saltzstein, H., & Kasachkoff, T. (In Press). Haidt (2001)'s moral intuitionist theory: A psychological and philosophical critique. The Review of General Psychology.

Shweder, R., Mahapatra, M., & Miller, J. (1990). Culture and moral development. In Stigler, J., Shweder, R., & Herdt, G. (Eds.), Cultural Psychology: Essays on Comparative Human Development (pp. 130-204). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Turiel, E. (1983). The Development of Social Knowledge: Morality and Convention. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Published
2004-12-10
Section
Articles