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Expanding the moral circle: Inclusion and exclusion mindsets and the circle of moral regard

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.08.012Get rights and content

Abstract

The human tendency to draw boundaries is pervasive. The ‘moral circle’ is the boundary drawn around those entities in the world deemed worthy of moral consideration. Three studies demonstrate that the size of the moral circle is influenced by a decision framing effect: the inclusion–exclusion discrepancy. Participants who decided which entities to exclude from the circle (exclusion mindset) generated larger moral circles than those who decided which to include (inclusion mindset). Further, people in an exclusion mindset showed “spill-over” effects into subsequent moral judgments, rating various outgroups as more worthy of moral treatment. The size of the moral circle mediated the effects of mindset on subsequent moral judgment. These studies offer an important first demonstration that decision framing effects have substantial consequences for the moral circle and related moral judgments.

Section snippets

Studies 1a and 1b

Studies 1a and 1b considered the IED in the demarcation of two important moral boundaries. Philosophers and bioethicists have long pondered whether entities such as fetuses and people in permanent vegetative states deserve the same moral treatment as fully functioning human beings (McMahan, 2002). Such entities, said to reside at the ‘margins of life,’ are granted full moral regard by some but not by others and the consequences of such disagreements can have serious implications for social

Study 2

Although Studies 1a and 1b demonstrate that the IED does occur for judgments about the circle of moral regard, an interesting question remains as to whether inclusion and exclusion mindsets have significant effects on other, related moral judgments. An important consequence of an expansive moral circle is that it promotes treating a wider range of others with moral consideration. Thus the focus of Study 2 was not only whether exclusion mindsets would lead to more expansive moral circles, but

Discussion

Across three studies, exclusion mindsets resulted in consistently and substantially larger moral circles than did inclusion mindsets. Studies 1a, 1b and 2 demonstrated that in drawing boundaries at the ‘margins of life’ (1a and 2) and between animals (1b), exclusion mindsets led to more expansive moral circles than inclusion mindsets. Moreover, Study 2 demonstrated that participants in an exclusion mindset felt a stronger obligation to treat various outgroups with moral regard than did those in

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