Moral Appraisals Guide Intuitive Legal Determinations

44 Pages Posted: 26 Dec 2021 Last revised: 6 Apr 2022

See all articles by Brian Flanagan

Brian Flanagan

National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUI Maynooth) - Faculty of Law

Guilherme F. C. F. de Almeida

Yale University

Noel Struchiner

PUC-Rio

Ivar Hannikainen

Department of Philosophy I, University of Granada

Date Written: November 2, 2021

Abstract

Objectives: We sought to understand how basic competencies in moral reasoning influence the interpretation and application of private, legal, and institutional rules. Hypotheses: We predicted that moral appraisals, implicating both outcome-based and mental state reasoning, would shape participants’ application of various rules and statutes—and asked whether these effects arise differentially under intuitive versus reflective reasoning conditions. Methods: In six vignette-based experiments (total N = 2502), participants considered a wide range of written rules and laws and were asked to decide whether a protagonist had violated the statute in question. We manipulated morally relevant aspects of each incident—including the valence of the statute’s purpose (Experiment 1) and of the outcomes that ensued (Experiments 2 and 3), as well as the protagonist’s accompanying mental state (Experiment 5). In two studies, we simultaneously varied whether participants decided under time pressure or following a forced delay (Experiments 4 and 6). Results: Integrative moral appraisals of the rule’s purpose, the agent’s extraneous blameworthiness and their epistemic state impacted legal determinations, and helped to explain participants’ departure from rules’ literal interpretation. These counter- literal verdicts were stronger under time pressure and were weakened by the opportunity to reflect. Conclusions: Under intuitive reasoning conditions, legal determinations draw heavily on core competencies in moral cognition, such as outcome-based and mental state reasoning. In turn, cognitive reflection dampens these effects on statutory interpretation, giving rise to a broadly textualist response pattern.

Keywords: experimental jurisprudence, cognitive science, automatic processes, natural law, legal positivism

Suggested Citation

Flanagan, Brian and de Almeida, Guilherme F. C. F. and Struchiner, Noel and Hannikainen, Ivar, Moral Appraisals Guide Intuitive Legal Determinations (November 2, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3955119 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3955119

Brian Flanagan (Contact Author)

National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUI Maynooth) - Faculty of Law ( email )

Maynooth, County Kildare
Ireland

Guilherme F. C. F. De Almeida

Yale University

493 College St
New Haven, CT CT 06520
United States

Noel Struchiner

PUC-Rio ( email )

Brazil

Ivar Hannikainen

Department of Philosophy I, University of Granada ( email )

Cartuja Campus
Granada, Granada 18071
Spain

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