Publications
Publications
- 2022
- HBS Working Paper Series
Moral Thin-Slicing
By: Julian De Freitas and Alon Hafri
Abstract
Given limits on time and attention, people increasingly make moral evaluations in a few seconds or less, yet it is unknown whether such snap judgments are accurate or not. On one hand, the literature suggests that people form fast moral impressions once they already know what has transpired (i.e., who did what to whom, and whether there was harm involved), but how long does it take for them to extract and integrate these ‘moral atoms’ from a visual scene in the first place to decide who is morally wrong? Using controlled stimuli, we find that people are capable of ‘moral thin-slicing’: they reliably identify moral transgressions from visual scenes presented in the blink of an eye (< 100 ms). Across four studies, we show that this remarkable ability arises because observers independently and rapidly extract the atoms of moral judgment — event roles (who acted on whom) and harm level (harmful or unharmful). In sum, despite the rapid rate at which people view provocative moral transgressions online, as when consuming viral videos on social media or negative news about companies’ actions toward customers, their snap moral judgments about visual events can be surprisingly accurate.
Keywords
Moral Judgement; Thin Slices; Social Media; Fake News; Misinformation; Moral Sensibility; Behavior; News
Citation
De Freitas, Julian, and Alon Hafri. "Moral Thin-Slicing." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-002, July 2022. (Revised December 2022.)