Psychological mechanisms behind moral judgment in the trolley problem: Utilitarian thinking, deontological thinking, or unwillingness to assume responsibility?

Hirofumi HASHIMOTO, Associate professor, Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan

The trolley problem, where utilitarian and deontological thinking clash, is frequently used to explore people’s moral judgment. The present study examines the potential psychological mechanisms behind moral judgment using this problem. Specifically, whether “inaction” in the trolley problem is based on deontological thinking or unwillingness to assume responsibility is examined. The results of the two studies showed that as the number of victims changed, people's moral judgments wavered, and suggested that inaction in the trolley problem was related to the unwillingness to assume responsibility, while action was related to utilitarian thinking. These results suggest that interpreting inaction in the trolley problem based on deontological thinking should be reconsidered.