christopherj comments on Link: Study finds that using a foreign language changes moral decisions - Less Wrong

8 Post author: Vladimir_Golovin 30 April 2014 05:26AM

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Comment author: christopherj 02 May 2014 01:25:58AM 1 point [-]

Some hypotheses: 1) Words in the foreign language are not tainted with morality. Using more neutral words in the problem description would have a similar effect.

2) The extra time taken to parse the foreign language description forces more time to think about the problem. Saying the problem slowly, or writing with a huge font, would have a similar effect.

3) The distraction of translating has an effect. Giving the subjects an additional task to do would have a similar effect.

Other studies showed an effect of language helping to discriminate between things like two different colors (aided if your language uses different words for them). That seemed like a different thing, perhaps an effect of categories and practice.

Comment author: fubarobfusco 02 May 2014 03:16:39PM 1 point [-]

Some other ways to tell which of these worlds we're living in ...

  1. Test a blunt description ("The trolley will hit the five people and kill them") versus a more verbose one, possibly with extraneous technical detail ("The vehicle, whose mass is N metric tons, will collide with the five individuals with a force of M newtons. Every similar collision on record has resulted in instant fatality.")

  2. Occupy the subjects' working memory by asking them to memorize a phone number or pattern of symbols before the question.

  3. Occupy the subjects' attention by asking them the question while bouncing a basketball, or balancing on one foot, or doing some other activity that requires continuous physical attention.

Comment author: ThisSpaceAvailable 06 May 2014 12:15:51AM 1 point [-]

Another thing to look into is how much giving the people names changes things. Or even back stories.

"Will you let Bob Naylor, a 48-year-old mechanic who is working overtime on the trolley track to save up to pay for his daughter's wedding, die, or will you spare him by swerving the trolley into..."