Vilka faktorer predicerar beslut vid Footbridge-dilemmat? - En studie om högkänslighet och utilitarism

Sammanfattning: Moral decision-making has a long history within philosophical theory and has recently become a domain for empirical research. Modern neuropsychological research provides support for moral decisions being influenced by two distinct systems. According to Dual-process theory, moral decisions take place through two parallel and independent systems, one emotional and one rational (utilitarian). Our basic purpose was to see if the degree of emotional and sensory sensitivity as well as utilitarianism could predict if one chose to push another person from a bridge, as it is described in the Footbridge-dilemma. Moreover, we wanted to investigate whether people with increased emotional activation to a greater extent make decisions that are characterized by the emotional system. It was also interesting to explore how the Footbridge-dilemma treats utilitarianism as a phenomenon, as earlier research suggests that dilemmas only correlate with one of the two subscales that together constitute utilitarianism. This was done by constructing a web based questionnaire that was answered by (N=91). The survey consisted of 22 statements based on two previously validated measuring instruments: Oxford Utilitarianism Scale and Highly Sensitive Person Scale. Bivariate correlations were performed and the result showed no correlation between the emotional aspect and the pushing. Moreover, we found a significant correlation between one of the utilitarian subscales and the pushing.