AUTHOR=Tutic Andreas , Haiser Friederike , Krumpal Ivar TITLE=Social class and moral judgment: a process dissociation perspective JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sociology VOLUME=9 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sociology/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2024.1391214 DOI=10.3389/fsoc.2024.1391214 ISSN=2297-7775 ABSTRACT=

Do social classes differ in moral judgment? Previous research showed that upper-class actors have a greater inclination toward utilitarian judgments than lower-class actors and that this relationship is mediated by empathic concern. In this paper, we take a closer look at class-based differences in moral judgment and use the psychometric technique of process dissociation to measure utilitarian and deontological decision inclinations as independent and orthogonal concepts. We find that upper-class actors do indeed have a greater inclination toward decisions consistent with utilitarian principles, albeit only to a quite small extent. Class-related differences are more pronounced with respect to deontological judgments, in so far as upper-class actors are less inclined to judgments consistent with deontological principles than lower-class actors. In addition, it is shown that class-based differences in utilitarian judgments are mediated by cognitive styles and not so much by empathic concern or moral identity. None of these potential mediators explains class-based differences in the inclination toward deontological judgments.