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  • 2022
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Moral Thin-Slicing

By: Julian De Freitas and Alon Hafri
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:50
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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.)

Supplemental Information

Web Appendix For Moral Thin-Slicing
  • SSRN
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About The Author

Julian De Freitas

Marketing
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  • Unselfish Alibis Increase Choices of Selfish Autonomous Vehicles By: Julian De Freitas
  • Will We Blame Self-Driving Cars? A New Study Finds That People Are Likely to Hold Autonomous Vehicles Liable for Accidents Even When They’re Not at Fault By: Julian De Freitas
  • Summarizing the Mental Customer Journey By: Julian De Freitas, Ahmet Uğuralp, Zeliha Uğuralp, Pechthida Kim and Tomer Ullman
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