The relationship between stress, negative (dark) personality traits, and utilitarian moral decisions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5944/rppc.28948Agencias Financiadoras:
This work was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, FCT Research Center Grant UID/BIM/04773/2013 CBMR 1334.Resumen
Abstract: Stress affects the cognitive and emotional processes involved in moral decisions, leading to less utilitarian choices. Our study examines whether specific negative (dark) personality traits – narcissism and Machiavellianism – moderate the impact of stress on moral decision-making. Forty undergraduate volunteers were classified into three trait groups («high Machiavellian», «high narcissistic» and «low negative traits»), randomly assigned to two experimental conditions (stress vs. control) and asked to perform a moral decision task. The main results suggest that participants under acute stress made fewer utilitarian decisions when faced with personal moral decisions compared to participants from the control group and that this effect was partially moderated by negative personality traits. We concluded that acute stress may reduce utilitarian decisions in moral dilemmas, but that negative personality traits seem to attenuate the effect of stress on moral decision-making.
Keywords: Moral decision; utilitarianism; negative (dark) personality traits; stress.
Relación entre el estrés, los rasgos oscuros de la personalidad y las decisiones morales utilitarias
Resumen: El estrés afecta a los procesos cognitivos y emocionales envueltos en a las decisiones morales, conduciendo a elecciones menos utilitarias. Nuestro estudio examina si determinados rasgos oscuros de la personalidad – el narcisismo y el maquiavelismo – moderan el impacto del estrés en la toma de decisiones morales. Cuarenta voluntarios universitarios fueron agrupados en tres categorías de rasgos («alto maquiavelismo», «alto narcisismo» y «bajos rasgos negativos»), asignados aleatoriamente a dos condiciones (estrés vs. control) y se les pidió que completasen una tarea de decisión moral. Los resultados principales sugieren que los participantes, bajo situaciones de estrés agudo, tomaron menos decisiones morales personales utilitarias en comparación con los participantes del grupo de control y que este efecto estuvo, parcialmente, moderado por los rasgos oscuros de personalidad. Concluimos que el estrés agudo parece reducir la toma de decisiones utilitarias en los dilemas morales, pero los rasgos oscuros de la personalidad pueden atenuar este efecto del estrés.
Palabras clave: Decisión moral; utilitarismo; rasgos oscuros de personalidad; estrés.
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