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The Magic Moral Survey: Choice blindness in the moral domain

Strandberg, Thomas LU (2009) KOGM11 20091
Cognitive Science
Abstract
It has been argued that the choice blindness effect is only present in quick and intuitive tasks such as preference decisions for faces or shapes, and not when it comes to more important and deliberative decisions involving issues like moral, political or religious beliefs. To answers this criticism, using a method inspired by close up magic, we investigated whether participants would notice changes made to previously evaluated moral dilemmas, and also if these manipulations would in any way affect the participants' explanations of their previous evaluations. Few participants detected the changes, and many also gave confabulatory answers when asked to explain their choices. These results shows that the choice blindness effect persists also... (More)
It has been argued that the choice blindness effect is only present in quick and intuitive tasks such as preference decisions for faces or shapes, and not when it comes to more important and deliberative decisions involving issues like moral, political or religious beliefs. To answers this criticism, using a method inspired by close up magic, we investigated whether participants would notice changes made to previously evaluated moral dilemmas, and also if these manipulations would in any way affect the participants' explanations of their previous evaluations. Few participants detected the changes, and many also gave confabulatory answers when asked to explain their choices. These results shows that the choice blindness effect persists also for more important tasks like moral choices, and it suggests that the choice blindness paradigm is a viable research tool for many other forms of decision making. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Strandberg, Thomas LU
supervisor
organization
course
KOGM11 20091
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Change Blindness, Choice Blindness, Consciousness, Confabulation, Decision Making, Experimental Psychology, Introspection, Magic, Moral, X-Phi.
language
English
id
1510645
date added to LUP
2010-04-22 12:30:17
date last changed
2010-04-22 12:30:17
@misc{1510645,
  abstract     = {{It has been argued that the choice blindness effect is only present in quick and intuitive tasks such as preference decisions for faces or shapes, and not when it comes to more important and deliberative decisions involving issues like moral, political or religious beliefs. To answers this criticism, using a method inspired by close up magic, we investigated whether participants would notice changes made to previously evaluated moral dilemmas, and also if these manipulations would in any way affect the participants' explanations of their previous evaluations. Few participants detected the changes, and many also gave confabulatory answers when asked to explain their choices. These results shows that the choice blindness effect persists also for more important tasks like moral choices, and it suggests that the choice blindness paradigm is a viable research tool for many other forms of decision making.}},
  author       = {{Strandberg, Thomas}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Magic Moral Survey: Choice blindness in the moral domain}},
  year         = {{2009}},
}