The effects of individual moral inclinations on group moral conformity

Abstract

Conformity has been shown to affect behaviors ranging from attitudes to moral decisions. The current research examined how individual moral inclination (i.e., utilitarian vs. deontological) affects moral conformity in online settings. To this end we designed a trolley-like moral dilemma paradigm in which participants rated moral decisions both individually and after being exposed to other people's ratings. We validated the task with 363 participants, demonstrating that in online settings individuals tend to conform to the group's moral judgments. Using an additional 346 participants, we showed that individual differences influence the conformity tendency, such that people with utilitarian inclinations conform to a greater extent and more frequently than people with deontological inclinations. We conclude that people with prior utilitarian inclinations are more disposed to moral conformity.