Impact of Religiosity on Moral Dumbfounding

Abstract

New ideas have emerged around moral decision-making, emphasising intuitions rather than reasoning. Research suggests that people often rely on their moral intuitions and then use post-hoc rationalisations to explain themselves (Perkins et al., 1991; Nisbett et al., 1977). This tendency is most clearly seen in the moral dumbfounding effect, where people hold to a moral claim without being able to justify their position (Haidt et al., 2000; McHugh et al., 2020). However, the impact of religion on moral dumbfounding has yet to receive proper attention. Indian and South American cultures (which are more religious than Western secular cultures) tend to place more emphasis on respect and purity, while Western cultures tend to prioritise fairness and harm (Haidt et al., 1993; Miller & Bersoff, 1992; Miller et al., 1990; Miller & Luthar, 1989). This is important, as past moral dumbfounding studies try to account for explanations rooted in justice and harm, making it harder for secular cultures to explain their reasoning. Therefore, moral dumbfounding may not occur in religious cultures as respect and purity explanations are not accounted for in past moral dumbfounding experiments. Therefore, this thesis seeks to determine whether religious cultures are affected by dumbfounding.