The Effect Of Power On Judgement Of Moral Dilemma:Utilitarianism Characteristics As A Moderator

Moral dilemma judgment is a process in which individuals use moral norms or value standards to make moral judgment and inference on the actions or events of specific goals in specific situations.The sense of power is an important factor that affects the judgment of moral dilemma,but the results of previous studies are not consistent.Some studies show that high sense of power increases people’s moral response.Some studies believe that high sense of power improves individual utilitarian response.The purpose of this study is to explore the regulatory role of individual utilitarianism in the judgment of moral dilemma influenced by the sense of power by using the paradigm of process separation.1073 universities were measured with personal power scale,The Oxford Utilitarianism Scale(OUS)and revised moral dilemma judgment materials.The process separation paradigm was used here to analyze the influence of power on moral dilemma judgment and the regulatory role of individual utilitarianism in moral dilemma judgment.The results are as follows: there was a significant positive correlation between personal power and utilitarian tendency(U score)in moral dilemma judgment,and a significant negative correlation between personal power and moral dilemma judgment(D score).The two dimensions of good behavior and instrumental harm of justice under the characteristics of individual utilitarianism were significantly positively correlated with utilitarianism tendency(U score)in moral dilemma judgment,and negatively correlated with moralism tendency(D score).The good behavior dimension of justice of individual utilitarianism had a significant moderating effect on the utilitarianism tendency influenced by the sense of power.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)The higher the sense of personal power,the higher the tendency of utilitarianism in moral dilemma judgment;the higher the sense of personal power,the lower the tendency of moralism in moral dilemma judgment.(2)The higher the characteristics of individual utilitarianism,the higher the tendency of utilitarianism in moral judgment;the higher the characteristics of individual utilitarianism,the lower the tendency of moralism in moral judgment.(3)Under the condition of high impartial beneficence,the sense of power improves the individual’s utilitarianism tendency;for the subjects under low impartial beneficence,the sense of power reduces the individual’s utilitarianism tendency.