A growing literature suggests that generalized distrust mindsets encourage carefully considering alternatives—yet it remains unclear whether this pertains to moral decision making. We propose that distrust simultaneously increases opposing moral response inclinations when moral decisions pit two moral responses against one another, such as classic moral dilemmas where causing harm maximizes outcomes. Such a pattern may be invisible to conventional analytic techniques that treat dilemma response inclinations as diametric opposites. Therefore, we employed process dissociation to independently assess response inclinations underlying moral dilemma responses. Three studies demonstrated that activating generalized distrust (vs. trust and control) mindsets increased both harm avoidance and outcome-maximization response tendencies. These effects canceled out for conventional relative dilemma judgments. Moreover, perceptions of feeling torn between available response options mediated the impact of distrust on both response inclinations. These findings clarify how distrust impacts decision-making processes in the moral domain.

中文翻译：

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不信任你的道德指南针：不信任心态对道德困境处理和判断的影响

越来越多的文献表明，普遍的不信任心态鼓励仔细考虑替代方案，但目前尚不清楚这是否与道德决策有关。我们提出，当道德决定使两种道德反应相互抵触时，不信任会同时增加对立的道德反应倾向，例如造成损害最大化结果的经典道德困境。这种模式对于将困境响应倾向视为对立的常规分析技术可能是不可见的。因此，我们采用过程分解来独立评估潜在的道德困境反应的反应倾向。三项研究表明，激活普遍的不信任（相对于信任和控制）心态既可以避免伤害，也可以提高结果最大化响应趋势。这些影响被传统的相对困境判断所抵消。此外，可用响应选项之间的感觉撕裂感介导了不信任对两种响应倾向的影响。这些发现阐明了不信任如何影响道德领域的决策过程。