Force Dynamics as a Basis for Moral Intuitions

Abstract

People seamlessly generate moral intuitions about a wide range of events they observe, but to date the cognitive processes underlying this competency are poorly understood. We propose that our moral intuitions are grounded in force-dynamic intuitions. We show how the evaluation of entities engaged in schematized interactions can be predicted from specific force-dynamic properties of those interactions, and we point out how these evaluative tendencies relate to our moral norm of not interfering with others’ interests.


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