Moral Appraisals Guide Intuitive Legal Determinations

• Published in: Law and human behavior 2023-04, Vol.47 (2), p.367-383
• Main Authors: Flanagan, Brian, de Almeida, Guilherme F. C. F., Struchiner, Noel, Hannikainen, Ivar R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adjudication; Adolescent; Adult; Cognition; Female; Human; Humans; Intuition; Judgment; Male; Morality; Morals; Problem Solving; Professional Competence; Reasoning; Theory of Mind; Time; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0147-7307; 1573-661X
• DOI: 10.1037/lhb0000527

Objectives: We sought to understand how basic competencies in moral reasoning influence the application of private, institutional, and legal rules. Hypotheses: We predicted that moral appraisals, implicating both outcome-based and mental state reasoning, would shape participants' interpretation of rules and statutes-and asked whether these effects arise differentially under intuitive and reflective reasoning conditions. Method: In six vignette-based experiments (total N = 2,473; 293 university law students [67% women; age bracket mode: 18-22 years] and 2,180 online workers [60% women; mean age = 31.9 years]), participants considered a wide range of written rules and laws and determined whether a protagonist had violated the rule in question. We manipulated morally relevant aspects of each incident-including the valence of the rule's purpose (Study 1) and of the outcomes that ensued (Studies 2 and 3), as well as the protagonist's accompanying mental state (Studies 5 and 6). In two studies, we simultaneously varied whether participants decided under time pressure or following a forced delay (Studies 4 and 6). Results: Moral appraisals of the rule's purpose, the agent's extraneous blameworthiness, and the agent's epistemic state impacted legal determinations and helped to explain participants' departure from rules' literal interpretation. Counter-literal verdicts were stronger under time pressure and were weakened by the opportunity to reflect. Conclusions: Under intuitive reasoning conditions, legal determinations draw on core competencies in moral cognition, such as outcome-based and mental state reasoning. In turn, cognitive reflection dampens these effects on statutory interpretation, allowing text to play a more influential role. Public Significance Statement When deciding whether someone has violated a written rule, people initially consult their moral instincts about the incident. With more time to reflect, their interpretation draws closer to the letter of the law. This finding suggests that in frontline settings, in which time for reflection is scarce (e.g., law enforcement), a rule's application will depend significantly on the interpreter's moral values.