The intelligence of the moral intuitions: comment on Haidt (2001).

Full Abstract

The social intuitionist model (J. Haidt, 2001) posits that fast and automatic intuitions are the primary source of moral judgments. Conscious deliberations play little causal role; they are used mostly to construct post hoc justifications for judgments that have already occurred. In this article, the authors present evidence that fast and automatic moral intuitions are actually shaped and informed by prior reasoning. More generally, there is considerable evidence from outside the laboratory that people actively engage in reasoning when faced with real-world moral dilemmas. Together, these facts limit the strong claims of the social intuitionist model concerning the irrelevance of conscious deliberation.

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Author information

Author/s: Pizarro, David A (DA); Bloom, Paul (P);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Yale University, USA. dpizarro(-atsign-)uci.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comment; Journal Article

Journal: Psychological review (Psychol Rev), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Jan; vol 110 (issue 1) : pp 193-6; discussion 197-8

Dates: Created 2003/01/16; Completed 2003/02/14; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12529062, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentOn: Psychol Rev. 2001 Oct;108(4):814-34. (PMID: 11699120)

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