Individual Variations in Responses to a Hypothetical Moral Dilemma
Author(s): William Indick
Abstract: Undergraduate participants (N = 483) responded to 9 different variations of a questionnaire containing a moral dilemma. In the dilemma, participants had to decide whether or not to report a prior infraction committed by a sorority/fraternity pledge to the house selection committee for new members. Four different individual factors in the dilemma were manipulated. The relationship between the participant and the character, the level of authority held by the participant, the severity of the negative outcome for the pledge, and the degree of the negative information about the pledge. The results indicated that when the character was a "stranger," participants were significantly more likely to divulge the harmful information than were participants responding to the scenarios in which the character was an "acquaintance" or "best friend." This effect was greater than the effects for manipulation of the participants' authority, the consequence for the pledge, or the pledge's infraction.
Pages: 29-38
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