Perceived moral agency and perceived moral patiency vary inversely across targets

Evidence

People rated the child as less responsible than the adult, t(68) 3.32, p .01, and as having less intentionality than the adult for the moral transgression, t(68) 2.20, p . (see Figure 1). Just as children were seen as less agentic, they were also seen as more patient-like. Relative to the adult, children were rated as experiencing more pain, t(68) 3.49, p .01. These findings indicate that age of harm-doer and age of victim have complementary effects on perceptions of moral agency and moral patiency— the older victim is seen as more responsible, and the younger victim is seen as more harmed. When moral agency and patiency vary in response to variations in age of target, then, they vary inversely. — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 39

(“If both characters had caused a person’s death, which one do you think would be more deserving of punishment?”) correlated significantly more strongly with Agency than Experience, whereas desire to avoid harming (“If you were forced to harm one of these characters, which one would it be more painful for you to harm?”) correlated more strongly with Experience than Agency. The dimension of Agency was thus linked to responsibility for harm and so to perceived moral agency, whereas the dimension of Experience was linked to perceived sensitivity to harm and so to perceived moral patiency. — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 20

In all three studies, we predict moral typecasting: the target who is relatively more of a patient should be seen as relatively less of an agent, and the target who is relatively more of an agent should be seen as relatively less of a patient. — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 78

The moral typecasting hypothesis offers one way of integrating theories of moral perception to include both agents and patients, and it suggests the simple idea that perceptions of agency and patiency are inversely related. — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 165

Categorization

• XREF: This maps directly onto the reader’s planned experiment: recategorizing a group changes which perceived-mind dimension (agency/experience) is salient, hence moral status. — connects to: Moral typecasting operates independently of whether actions are good or bad — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 57; Moral agency specifically, not general agency, reduces perceived moral patiency.; Only moral agency, not instrumental competence, suppresses perceived patiency — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 99 (+2 more)
• corroborated: 7 independent passages support this claim — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 39; Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 20; Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 78 (+1 more)

Related

• Only moral agency, not instrumental competence, suppresses perceived patiency (similarity 0.89)
• Recategorizing a target’s status shifts perceived agency and victimhood in complementary directions (similarity 0.89)
• Perceiving someone as a moral agent reduces perceived moral patiency. (similarity 0.89)
• Perceived moral agency and perceived patiency may trade off inversely even at extreme levels. (similarity 0.88)
• Moral agency and patiency are perceived along continuous dimensions rather than as binary categories. (similarity 0.88)
• Moral agency specifically, not general agency, reduces perceived moral patiency. (similarity 0.88)
• Perceived moral agency uniquely suppresses perceived victimhood, separable from general agency (similarity 0.87)
• People more readily punish good moral agents than moral patients. (similarity 0.86)
• Moral agency and patiency perceptions are inversely related, not linked. (similarity 0.85)
• Moral typecasting operates independently of whether actions are good or bad (similarity 0.85)
• Perceived moral agency predicts expected behavioral tolerance of pain (similarity 0.84)
• Enhancing perceived patiency reduces perceived agency, and vice versa (similarity 0.83)
• Moral patiency rests on a target’s perceived capacity for pain and pleasure. (similarity 0.83)
• Judgments of pain sensitivity reveal a target’s perceived moral patient status (similarity 0.82)
• Higher agency confers reduced perceived patiency even for moral saints. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Perceived moral agency predicts expected behavioral tolerance of pain #expands (0.80) — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 75