The Trolley Problem: Has the Obsession with Sacrificial Dilemmas Derailed Moral Psychology?

Professor David Pizarro (Psychology, Cornell)

Professor Guy Kahane (Philosophy, Oxford)

Chaired by Dr Sophia Connell (Philosophy, Cambridge)

Abstracts:

Trolley dilemmas and their variants have utterly dominated recent work in empirical moral psychology. It is assumed that such dilemmas shed light on psychological basis of the fundamental ethical division between utilitarian and deontological approaches to ethics. Prof Pizarro and Dr Kahane will address this assumption, and discuss the original philosophical purposes of trolley dilemmas, empirical findings from studies employing such dilemmas, and methodological alternatives.

About the speakers:

Prof Pizarro is a leading researcher in the area of moral judgments, intuitions, and biases. He also studies the influence of emotion on decision-making, with a particular focus on how specific emotions (e.g., disgust, fear) impact information processing and interpersonal judgments.

Dr Kahane is the Deputy Director of the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics and Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. He is a Research Fellow at Pembroke College and a recipient of a Wellcome Trust University Award. His research areas include practical ethics, neuroethics, meta-ethics, and value theory.