Morale Sense Test
The Moral Sense Test is an internet-based research project by evolutionary biologist and moral philosopher Marc D. Hauser , in which participants are presented with a series of hypothetical moral dilemmas and are asked to assess each one. Since 2005, the test has been carried out on a large number of subjects.
The man on the bridge
In 2005, the evolutionary biologist Marc D. Hauser at Harvard University started interviewing a large number of test subjects , including children, adults, academics, unskilled, religious and non-religious people from different countries. To do this, he asked the test subjects for answers to two hypothetical questions. On the one hand, imagine that the test person is standing on a railroad track at a switch and that a wagon is rolling towards them. If the test person does nothing, the wagon will run over five track workers. If the person adjusts the turnout, the wagon will change the direction of travel, but run over another track worker. In the second question, the test subjects should imagine the situation differently. Now the test person stands on a bridge and, in order to stop the wagon and save the five track workers, has to push a fat man off the bridge who would hold up the wagon and be killed in the process. The answers to the two questions differed greatly, which is considered a scientific breakthrough in behavioral research. Around 90 percent of those surveyed would adjust the switch, but only one sixth of those surveyed would push the man off the bridge.
Hauser recognized that, psychologically , it makes a significant difference whether you actively or passively cause a person's death, even if the result is the same. Hauser drew the far-reaching conclusion from the fact that the results of the surveys were almost the same for all peoples, ages and levels of education that there must be a basic framework of moral values in every person that leads him to follow the same moral principles without that his upbringing plays a role. Following this, every human being is born with an innate instinct for morality . To substantiate his thesis, Hauser and António Damásio carried out the same tests on patients who had suffered damage to the ventromedial region of the frontal lobe as a result of accidents , which is also known as Phineas-Gage syndrome or frontal lobe syndrome . People with such injuries often lack moral sensitivity after the accidents. Hauser's tests confirmed this in a surprisingly clear manner. Almost all of these respondents said they pushed the man off the bridge. Research in this area continues to this day, with Hauser's experiments being considered important building blocks. Critics criticize, however, that Hauser's experiments bring many other aspects to bear and that the theses are too far-reaching.
reception
The problem was addressed in 2016 in the play Terror - Your Judgment , which was later filmed and broadcast in cinemas and on First German Television, and the experiment of the man on the bridge was specifically named. The spectators could decide by telephone voting whether a Bundeswehr soldier should be convicted for shooting down a hijacked aircraft occupied with passengers, which was heading for a stadium with tens of thousands of spectators. Overall, 60 percent of the audience said they shouldn't punish the soldier. After the television broadcast, more than 80 percent voted for an acquittal.
Web links
- The Moral Sense Test on the Harvard University website.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ronald C. Tamborini: Media and the Moral Mind , Routledge, 2013, p. 28
- ↑ Jörg Blech: With decency to the world . In: Der Spiegel . No. 51 , 2006 ( online ).
- ↑ In the chapter “The man on the bridge - is morality innate?” In Richard David Precht : Who am I - and if so, how many? A philosophical journey . Goldmann, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-442-31143-9 . Hauser's research is described in detail.
- ↑ Marc Hauser, Peter Singer : Godless Moral . January 4, 2006.
- ↑ Hubertus Breuer, Das Moral-Gene: Is the good innate in humans? , on www.profil.at .
- ↑ broadcast on ARD on October 17, 2016 and October 14, 2016 in various German cinemas.