ABSTRACT

Prior studies have examined the impacts of sensemaking processes, such as forecasting, on ethical decision making (EDM) but only a few have considered how aspects of the ethical issue itself, such as social consensus and magnitude of consequences, might interact with sensemaking processes to influence EDM. The present effort examines both forecasting and moral intensity, as well as their interactions, during the EDM process. Participants in this study were given an ethical scenario with either a high or low degree of social consensus as well as a greater or smaller magnitude of consequences. They were then asked to forecast either many or few potential outcomes stemming from their actions before coming up with a final plan of action. Responses were rated for quality of forecasting, use of metacognitive reasoning strategies, perceived moral intensity, and ethicality. Results indicate that social consensus may not be beneficial for EDM if the magnitude of consequences is low or individuals are not engaged in extensive forecasting. Implications of these findings are discussed.

摘要

先前的研究已经检查了意义构建过程（例如预测）对道德决策 (EDM) 的影响，但只有少数研究考虑了道德问题本身的各个方面，例如社会共识和后果的严重程度，可能如何与意义构建过程相互作用，以影响EDM。目前的工作检查了 EDM 过程中的预测和道德强度，以及它们的相互作用。这项研究的参与者被赋予了一个道德情景，具有高或低程度的社会共识以及更大或更小的后果。然后，他们被要求在提出最终行动计划之前预测他们的行动产生的许多或很少的潜在结果。根据预测质量、元认知推理策略的使用、感知的道德强度和伦理道德。结果表明，如果后果的严重程度较低或个人不参与广泛的预测，社会共识可能对 EDM 不利。讨论了这些发现的含义。