耶鲁大学-心理学导论class15

Morality Reminders • Book approval: April 9 • Assignment due: April 16 • Final exam: April 30 • Also: Experimental participation requirement Morality Where are we? • Brain • Freud and Skinner • Cognitive development, language, vision, memory • Love • Emotion, reason, evolution 1 Where are we? • Cognitive neuroscience • Differences • Sex and food • Morality • Social thought and behavior • Mysteries • Mental illness • Happiness Outline • Moral feelings • Moral judgment • Why do good people do bad things? [The Milgram Study] Outline • Moral feelings • Moral judgment • Why do good people do bad things? [The Milgram Study] How could moral feelings evolve? 2 1. Selfish genes lead to altruistic animals • To the extent that evolution operates at the level of the genes, there is no hard- and-fast distinction between oneself and another Haldane’s math -- “Would you lay down your life for your brother?” -- “No, but I would gladly give my life for three brothers, or five nephews, or nine first cousins” Choose: You die or your three brothers die • Gene A: makes an animal choose to die • Gene B: makes an animal choose for its brothers to die • Gene A wins 2. It benefits animals to cooperate • Warning cries • Grooming • Food exchange -- our minds have evolved to solve the prisoner’s dilemma 3 Social emotions and the prisoners dilemma • We feel GRATITUDE and LIKING for people who cooperate with us. This motivates us to be nice to them in the future • We feel ANGER and DISTRUST toward those who betray us. This motivates us to betray or avoid them in the future • We feel GULT when we betray someone who cooperates with us. This motivates us to behave better in the future First case-study of moral feeling: Empathy Instinctive empathy towards those close to us The pain of others is aversive • For babies • For chimpanzees • Not logically linked to morality • But it does lead to moral concern and action (more empathy --> more concern & help) Psychopathy as a breakdown in instinctive empathy 13-year-old mugger, when asked about one of his victims: “What do I care? I’m not her.” Gary Gillmore: “I was always capable of murder … I can become totally devoid of feelings of others, unemotional. I know I’m doing something grossly … wrong. I can still go ahead and do it.” Ted Bundy: "I mean, there are so many people" 4 Second case-study of moral feeling: In-group versus out-group The Robbers Cave study • 11 and 12-year-old boys at a 3 week camping program • Well-adjusted WASPs • Separate cabins, leaders, “Eagles” and “Rattlers”, for one week • Distinctive cultures • Competition -- within-group solidarity -- negative stereotyping -- hostility, raids, violence The Robbers Cave study • Attempts to reduce hostility between groups: -- peace talks -- individual competitions -- shared meals -- shared movies -- fun with firecrackers -- sermons on brotherly love ALL FAILED The Robbers Cave study What could bring them together? Superordinate goal (shared enemy) 5 “Minimal Groups” • Henri Tajfel, after World War II • Klee/Kandinksy lovers • Coin flip Outline • Moral feelings • Moral judgment • Why do good people do bad things? [The Milgram Study] Moral judgments • Evaluation • Obligation • Sanctions 6 Universals • Intuitions about fairness and reciprocity (anger at cheaters, gratitude toward sharers) • Intuitions about moral and immoral acts • Adult humans, but also: -- young children -- non-human primates Variation • Richard Shweder notes that people … Three frameworks of moral thought Ethics of autonomy -- rights, equality, freedom Ethics of community -- duty, status, hierarchy, interdependence Ethics of divinity -- purity, sanctity, pollution, sin Three frameworks of moral thought Ethics of autonomy -- rights, equality, freedom Ethics of community -- duty, status, hierarchy, interdependence Ethics of divinity -- purity, sanctity, pollution, sin 7 • Most Americans -- particularly college students -- believe that they hold to an ethics of autonomy • If it doesn’t harm anyone, it’s ok • E.g., sex between consenting adults • Ok? Moral disgust • Brother and sister • Family dog • Flag & toilet • Chicken Conclusion: Our moral intuitions can surprise us Outline • Moral feelings • Moral judgment • Why do good people do bad things? [The Milgram Study] Stanley Milgram’s Studies • Basic study procedure – teacher and learner (learner always confederate) – watch learner being strapped into chair -- learner expresses concern over his “heart condition” 8 Stanley Milgram’s Studies • Teacher to another room with experimenter • Shock generator panel – 15 to 450 volts, labels “slight shock” to “XXX” • Asked to give higher shocks for every mistake learner makes Bad explanations for Milgram’s Results • Abnormal group of subjects? – numerous replications with variety of groups shows no support • People in general are sadistic? – videotapes of Milgram’s subjects show extreme distress Stanley Milgram’s Studies • Learner protests 120 “Ugh! Hey this really hurts.” more and more 150 “Ugh! Experimenter! That’s all. as shock get me out of here. I told you I had heart trouble. My heart’sincreases starting to bother me now.” • Experimenter 300 (agonized scream) “I absolutely continues to refuse to answer any more. get me out of here You can’t hold request me here. Get me out.” obedience even if 330 “(intense & prolonged agonized teacher balks scream) “Let me out of here. Let me out of here. My heart’s bothering me. Let me out, I tell you…” Follow-Up Studies to Milgram • Original study • Different building • Teacher with learner • Put hand on shock • Orders by phone • Ordinary man orders • 2 teachers rebel • Teacher chooses shock level 9 Critiques of Milgram • 84% later said they were glad to have participated and fewer than 2% said they were sorry, but, still, serious damage could have been done • Do these experiments really help us understand real-world atrocities? Is the issue really obedience? The perfect situation • Authority of Yale and value of science • Experimenter self-assurance and acceptance of responsibility • Distance of learner and experimenter • New situation and no model of how to behave Two forces for evil • Deindividuation of self • Denigration of other 10 Two forces for evil • Deindividuation of self • Denigration of other Deindividuation • There is a sense of reduced accountability and shifted attention away from the self that occurs in the context of groups • Responsible for riots, lynching, gang rapes, and other group violence • Deindividuation is not limited to groups • Effect of authority • Effect of anonymity Why Don’t People Always Help Others in Need? • Diffusion of responsibility – presence of others leads to decreased help response – we all think someone else will help, so we don’t Why Don’t People Always Help Others in Need? • Latane studies – several scenarios designed to measure the help response • found that if you think you’re the only one that can hear or help, you are more likely to do so • if there are others around, you will diffuse the responsibility to others • Kitty Genovese incident 11 How to make others matter less • Distance • Euphemism (‘cargo’, ‘extermination’) • Humor • Take away their names • See them as disgusting If people are seen as disgusting, they matter less “Thus, throughout history, certain disgust properties -- sliminess, bad smell, stickiness, decay, foulness -- have repeatedly and monotonously been associated with… Jews, women, homosexuals, untouchables, lower- class people -- all of those are imagined as tainted by the dirt of the body” -- Martha Nussbaum Disgust (“the body and soul emotion”) • Human universal • Basic emotion: characteristic facial expression • Rozin: Animals and animal by-products – Feces – Urine – Blood – Vomit – Rotten flesh – Most meat “Just look at these guys! The louse-infested beards! The filthy, protruding ears, Those stained, fatty clothes… Jews often have an unpleasant sweetish odor. If you have a good nose, you can smell the Jews." (Nazi School Book, 1938) 12 Two forces for good • Contact and interdependence • Perspective-taking 1. Contact and inter- dependence • Selfish motives for altruistic action Robert Wright’s argument for the moral value of globalization “One of the many reasons I don’t want to bomb the Japanese is that they built my minivan.” Thomas Friedman: 1. Contact and inter- dependence • Selfish motives for altruistic action Robert Wright’s argument for the moral value of globalization “One of the many reasons I don’t want to bomb the Japanese is that they built my minivan.” Thomas Friedman: 1. Contact and inter- dependence • The contact hypothesis -- equal status -- common goal -- social support e.g., - Robber’s Cave - military - universities? 13 2. Perspective taking • If you take another person’s perspective, you care more about that person Ways to motivate perspective taking in others Direct: “How would you feel if you …” “Try to see it from their point of view …” Indirect: Representing something as similar to more familiar objects of empathy Fetus: similar to child Animal: similar to human Stranger: similar to family member [metaphors of “brotherhood”, “sisterhood”] Reading response • If the Milgram experiment was done for the first time right now, at Yale, with Yale undergraduates a) what do you think you would do? b) what do you think the average Yale student would do? 14