The Impact of Mortality Salience on Utilitarian Decision-Making in Personal and Impersonal Moral Dilemmas

Publication Date

Spring 4-16-2025

College

College of Sciences & Mathematics

Department

Psychological Science, Department of

Student Level

Undergraduate

SPARK Category

Research

Faculty Advisor

Lingfei Luan

Presentation Type

Article

Summary

This study investigates how awareness of one's mortality affects moral decision-making in variations of the trolley problem. Building on terror management theory and dual-process models of moral judgment, we examine whether mortality salience differentially influences utilitarian choices in personal versus impersonal moral dilemmas. Previous research suggests that thoughts of death consume cognitive resources and alter moral reasoning, often reducing utilitarian responses in moral scenarios. However, these effects may vary based on the emotional proximity of the moral decision. We employ an experimental design where participants (n=40, recruited from undergraduate psychology courses) are randomly assigned to either a mortality salience condition or control condition before responding to six trolley problem variations. The experimental group completes the Multidimensional Mortality Awareness Measure while the control group does not receive mortality-related questions. We hypothesize that mortality salience will increase utilitarian decision-making overall, with a stronger effect in impersonal scenarios where emotional engagement is reduced. Conversely, we predict that the control group will show more balanced responses between deontological and utilitarian choices. This research contributes to our understanding of how existential concerns influence moral decision-making processes, with implications for ethics education, clinical psychology, and understanding moral reasoning under psychological stress.

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