Building Interpretable Models for Moral Decision-Making
Abstract
We build a custom transformer model to study how neural networks make moral decisions on trolley-style dilemmas. The model processes structured scenarios using embeddings that encode who is affected, how many people, and which outcome they belong to. Our 2-layer architecture achieves 77% accuracy on Moral Machine data while remaining small enough for detailed analysis. We use different interpretability techniques to uncover how moral reasoning distributes across the network, demonstrating that biases localize to distinct computational stages among other findings.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)
Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
Publication details
- Journal / source
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Publication date
- 3 February 2026
- Document type
- Preprint