For the Right Reason: Pleasure

This study aims to examine and clarify the claim that moral motivation is a kind of intrinsic motivation. The study aims to show that the question of moral worth (the moral credit given to a person/action) is not well addressed by the question of altruism (whether the agent gets something vs. nothing from their action). Instead, we posit that the question of moral worth hinges on the agent's motivation (so whether the agent acts from intrinsic (morally good) vs. extrinsic (morally neutral) motivation). We hypothesize that rather than "tainting" moral worth (because no longer altruistic action), pleasure taken in an intrinsically motivated action confirms the moral goodness of the agent. By contrast, pleasure taken in extrinsically motivated action does nothing to moral evaluation, as the action was already "tainted" by its non-moral motivation. We also hypothesize that without information otherwise, an agent doing prosocial action is evaluated as morally good as an agent doing that same prosocial action stipulated as done from intrinsic motivation. This extension of the "moral benefit of the doubt" to others suggests that the direct motivational force of morally good actions is deeply internalized by most people, as revealed in their interpretation of others' behavior. It also suggests that acting from moral motivation may be more common, or at least more commonly attributed to others, than recognized. Participants will read scenarios reflecting a 2 (pleasure: no mention vs. present) 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 the same prosocial action - giving $5 to someone begging on the street - but from different motivations and where there is either no mention of target affect or the target is said to take pleasure in their action. They also will answer the likelihood of the target doing a different low difficulty good behavior (giving their seat to an elderly woman on a crowded bus).