Moral judgments of risky choices: A moral echoing effect

Two experiments examined moral judgments about a decision-maker’s choices when he chose a sure-thing,400 out of 600 people will be saved,or a risk,a two-thirds probability to save everyone and a one-thirds probability to save no-one. the results establish a moral echoing effect — a tendency to credit a decision-maker with a good outcome when the decision-maker made the typical choices of the sure-thing in a gain frame or the risk in a loss frame,and to discredit the decision-maker when there is a bad outcome and the decision-maker made the atypical choices of a risk in a gain frame or a sure-thing in a loss frame. the moral echoing effect is established in experiment 1 (n=207) in which participants supposed the outcome would turn well or badly,and it is replicated in experiment 2 (n=173) in which they knew it had turned out well or badly,for judgments of moral responsibility and blame or praise. the effect does not occur for judgments of cause,control,counterfactual alternatives,or emotions. © 2017.