Recategorizing a target only along one agency dimension shifts both responsibility and sensitivity judgments

Evidence

To test these ideas, we presented participants with one of two targets—a relative agent (a fully able adult) or a relative patient (a person challenged with mental disabilities)—and described the target completing a number of good and bad actions. We assessed perceived agency by asking participants to evaluate the target’s responsibility and intentionality for each action. To assess patiency, we used two items taken from the Mind Perception Questionnaire (Kozak, Marsh, & Wegner, 2006) to assess the target’s capacity for pain and pleasure. We predicted moral typecasting, such that the mentally challenged target would be held less responsible for both the good and bad actions, and would be seen to be more able to feel both pleasure and pain. Conversely, we expected to find that the able adult would be held relatively more responsible for good and bad actions, and would be seen to be less sensitive to both pleasure and pain. — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 43

Categorization

• SEED: This is the exact experimental paradigm for the reader’s project: rather than divergent target identities differing on multiple dimensions, only the perceived-mind dimension is manipulated, so a ‘religious vs ideological’ recategorization study could follow the same two-way (blame plus pleasure/pain) outcome structure.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does the target’s own label (‘religion’ vs ‘ideology’) change these judgments when the described actions are held constant, exactly as held-constant good/bad actions here?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 43
• XREF: connects to: Recategorizing a target’s status shifts perceived agency and victimhood in complementary directions — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 37; Recategorizing a target by morally relevant features alters perceived agency. — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 51; Perceived agency and patiency shift based on whom a target is paired with — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 128 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Recategorizing a target by morally relevant features alters perceived agency. #expands (0.86) — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 51
• Perceived agency and patiency shift based on whom a target is paired with #expands (0.78) — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 128
• Harm with irrational motives yields lower agency attribution than harm with rational motives. #exemplifies (0.75) — Mansur Khamitov, Jeff D. Rotman, and Jared Piazza, Perceiving the Agency of Harmful Agents, 146