Experimental vignettes decouple general agency from moral agency in perception of a target

Evidence

In each part, participants read about two targets, Jeffrey and Michael. Michael was described as “the CEO of a large software company. Through determination and grit, he worked his way up from the mail room to top management.” Jeffrey was described as someone who “works in a nursing home, but is secretly a psychopath. There is nothing he enjoys more than hurting other people. He takes special glee in hurting animals.” In the first part, participants were asked to evaluate whether Michael or Jeffrey was more powerful, more determined, more daring, and more dominant. These were measures of general agency, and it was predicted that Michael would be perceived to have more general agency than Jeffrey. Participants also indicated whether Michael or Jeffrey was more capable of evil. This rating served as a measure of moral agency, and it was predicted that Jeffrey would be perceived to have relatively greater moral agency. Each question was answered on the scale used in Study 3. Finally, participants read that “Michael and Jeffrey are both out walking one night when there is an evil murderer on the loose.” To assess perceptions of relative moral patiency, we had participants rate the following: “If you had to guess between Michael and Jeffrey, who is more likely to be a victim of the murderer?” — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 111

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 111
• XREF: connects to: Perceiving someone as a moral agent may preclude perceiving them as a moral patient — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 21; Recategorizing a target by morally relevant features alters perceived agency. — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 51; Perceiving someone as a moral agent reduces perceived moral patiency. — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 1 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Moral agency specifically, not general agency, reduces perceived moral patiency. #expands (0.90)
• Perceiving someone as a moral agent reduces perceived moral patiency. #qualifies (0.82) — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 1