Applying Prospect Theory to Moral Decision-making: The Heuristic Biases of Moral Decision-making Under Risk

Researchers have found that moral decisions are not always consistent with what is expected by moral development theory; this inconsistency suggests that moral decisions are influenced by factors not considered by moral development theory. Prospect theory, which is used to describe how people react when faced with economic decisions under risk, served as the theoretical framework for understanding the inconsistency. The purpose of the study was to determine if moral decisions, similar to economic decisions, were risk aversive for positive situations, risk seeking for negative situations, and influenced by situation framing. The researcher developed the Moral Decisions Under Risk Survey to assess moral decisions under uncertainty and the Moral Comprehension Survey to assess participants' understanding about how they should act in varied moral situations. Analysis of 110 graduate students' responses, using binomial and chi-square tests of proportions, showed equivalent proportions for responses to both surveys when involving positively framed situations and significantly different proportions at p < .001 for situations framed negatively. The conclusion is that prospect theory can be used to describe moral decisions under uncertainty similar to what is described by prospect theory for economic risk decisions; participants showed preferences for risk aversive ethical decisions for positively framed situations and they revealed preferences for risk-seeking unethical decisions for negatively framed situations. Implications for social change include the importance of context and consequences when understanding behavior that results from moral decisions made under uncertainty.