Test Your (Moral) Mettle
Is morality hard-wired into the human brain? Is there such a thing as “moral intuition”? Are emotions linked to moral judgments?
Harvard psychology professor Marc Hauser asks those and other probing questions in his job of studying the science of moral decisions. How do human beings decide what is right and what is wrong? Surprisingly or not, our answers about what is morally acceptable don’t vary much, despite our differences in nationality, age, religion, and sex.
To offer your answers for Hauser’s consideration, take his online Moral Sense Test. There are 13 thought-provoking scenarios, each followed by one question. Your responses are confidential and will help researchers gain further insight into the moral judgments we all make.
The test takes only 10-15 minutes and is painless. Any slight numbing sensation may be just a tiny prick of your conscience—remember?
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Ethics Hard Wired
I think St. Thomas Aquinas had it right.
We are all born with a spark of conscience and have a choice to exercise it like
a muscle or to let it rot away to nothing.
Keep in mind that 99% of ethics and morality is common sense and very rarely
do the “trick questions” come up in life.
We need to educate our youth on the 99% using practical traditional teaching
methods before we have them struggle with nearly impossible moral problems.
Thomas Masty | 4 months, 3 weeks ago
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A kind of math
Killing one to save two is not a kind of math that can be called “right.” Number applied like that to human beings is an algebra that never equates to any sort of balance. There are always other options. As evidence, look at the reactions of others after such things are done. It’s a horrible, horrible situation to be in, and no matter what we do, we will not be in the right to most people. You simply cannot balance one person’s suffering against another’s, and numbers don’t figure in these types of scenarios. Also, philosophical ideals rarely stand up in real world situations. Just as “a hungry man is no philosopher,” while I suspect that ALL of us have ideals that we filled out this form with, I doubt that ANY of us could have followed them in MANY instances, little say MOST. I wish I were sure of what that means; I’m not, but I’m almost certain it’s true.
Ian
Ian MacLeod | 3 months ago
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Why is the imaginary brought into this discussion?
Why do people feel the need to mention a god on issues of ethics? Gods are nothing more than human delusions meant to dehumanize the word. We are talking about “real” issues here.
F
F | 2 months, 3 weeks ago
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Think about it
What makes-up society?
F
F | 2 months, 3 weeks ago
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artist
I believe that we should love others even if they hate us.
ron | 1 month, 2 weeks ago
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mr.
where’s the test?
ric jimenez | 3 weeks ago
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