For the Right Reason: Good vs. Bad Actions

This study aims to examine and clarify the claim that moral motivation (the motivation to do morally good action) is a kind of intrinsic motivation. The study aims to show that the question of motivation, and so the importance of intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation for the awarding of moral worth, is particular to the evaluation of morally good actions. While acting from intrinsic motivation (so for the pleasure of acting so) in doing a bad deed may lower moral evaluations (as compared to the same action done from extrinsic motivation, i.e., gain), we predict that motivation does not play the same "make-or-break" role for morally bad actions that it does for morally good actions. In other words, for right, prosocial actions, intrinsic motivation is part and parcel of their moral goodness; learning that this prosocial action was extrinsically motivated removes its moral goodness. By contrast, we expect that wrong, antisocial actions are understood to be morally bad, regardless of their underlying motivation (the intention has the determinative role). Participants will read scenarios reflecting a 2 (action: right/prosocial vs. wrong/antisocial) x 3 (motivation of target: none provided vs. intrinsic vs. extrinsic) design. In all scenarios, participants will rate the moral goodness of the person described in relation to either the same prosocial action - returning to pay for an unpaid for items - or the same antisocial action - shoplifting - but from different motivations. They also will answer the likelihood of the target doing a different low difficulty good behavior, and also rate the action in terms of its moral goodness or badness.