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Who are “we”? Dealing with conflicting moral obligations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2020

Alex Shaw
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL60637. ashaw1@uchicago.eduhttps://www.dibslab.uchicago.edu/
Shoham Choshen-Hillel
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, School of Business Administration and the Center for the Study of Rationality, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem9190501. Shoham@huji.ac.ilhttps://shohamchoshen.wixsite.com/psych

Abstract

Satisfying one's obligations is an important part of being human. However, people's obligations can often prescribe contradictory behaviors. Moral obligations conflict (loyalty vs. fairness), and so do obligations to different groups (country vs. family when one is called to war). We propose that a broader framework is needed to account for how people balance different social and moral obligations.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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