Research

Components of Intentionality and the Possible Role of Morality

How do people figure out if a behavior was intentional or not? Do the criteria they use differ depending on the moral status of the behavior? Research on the folk concept of intentionality has shown that people judge a behavior intentional only when the five components of desire, belief, intention, awareness, and skill are present.

However, recent work by Joshua Knobe and others has shown that people are apparently willing to call immoral behaviors (but not morally positive ones) intentional even when some of these components are missing. Bertram Malle and I are currently exploring this phenomenon to determine whether...

• people truly skip over certain intentionality components when considering immoral behavior
• people exhibit any positive-negative asymmetries in judgments of intentionality or judgments of moral responsibility (blame and praise)

Download three papers that discuss these topics:

Guglielmo, S., Monroe, A. E., & Malle, B. F. (in press). At the heart of morality lies folk psychology. Inquiry.

Guglielmo, S. & Malle, B. F. (under review). Enough skill to kill: Intentionality judgments and the moral valence of action.

Guglielmo, S. & Malle, B. F. (under review). Can unintended side effects be intentional? Solving a puzzle in people's judgments of intentionality and morality.

Timing of Intentionality and Morality Judgments

How quickly can people assess the intentionality and morality of behavior? What is the causal ordering between these two types of judgments? I am currently studying people's online (i.e., real-time) judgments to address these questions.