Can unintended side effects be intentional? Resolving a controversy over intentionality and morality

Can an event's blameworthiness distort whether people see it as intentional? in controversial recent studies,people judged a behavior's negative side effect intentional even though the agent allegedly had no desire for it to occur. such a judgment contradicts the standard assumption that desire is a necessary condition of intentionality,and it raises concerns about assessments of intentionality in legal settings. six studies examined whether blameworthy events distort intentionality judgments. studies 1 through 4 show that,counter to recent claims,intentionality judgments are systematically guided by variations in the agent's desire,for moral and nonmoral actions alike. studies 5 and 6 show that a behavior's negative side effects are rarely seen as intentional once people are allowed to choose from multiple descriptions of the behavior. specifically,people distinguish between knowinglya and intentionally bringing about a side effect,even for immoral actions. these studies suggest that intentionality judgments are unaffected by a behavior's blameworthiness. © 2010 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.