In contrast, if a tendency to ‘utilitarian’ judgment reflects a narrower moral disposition largely driven, not by concern for the greater good, but by reduced aversion to harming others (Crockett et al., 2010 and Cushman et al., 2012), then we would expect no association between a ‘utilitarian’ bias in this special context and greater endorsement of paradigmatic utilitarian judgments in other contexts. Moreover, to the extent that such

a ‘utilitarian’ bias is in fact driven by antisocial tendencies, we would rather expect a negative association between ‘utilitarian’ judgment and markers of genuine concern for the greater good, this website and a positive association with Trichostatin A mouse selfish and amoral views and dispositions. Such a pattern of results would cast serious doubt on the common assumption that so-called ‘utilitarian’ judgment in sacrificial dilemmas expresses a general concern for the greater good. Before we proceed, two clarifications are in order. First, what is at issue here is not whether ordinary folk explicitly

endorse and consistently follow an abstract utilitarian theory; it is clear that few if any do. What is at issue is whether individuals with a marked tendency to ‘utilitarian’ judgments in sacrificial dilemmas are expressing an outlook that is at least in the broad direction of impartial concern for the greater good ( Kahane & Shackel, 2010). 3 It would be too much to expect such individuals to judge, for example, that they must give most of their money to distant strangers as utilitarianism may require. But one would expect them at least to be more inclined Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase than others to judge that we should

give some of our money to help such people in need. Since such an impartial moral outlook can manifest itself in more than one way, we shall consider a range of possible markers of concern for the greater good. Second, by impartial concern for the greater good, we mean the utilitarian view that we morally ought to always maximize the aggregate happiness of all. This is primarily a claim about people’s moral judgments—their views about what we ought to do. It is not, in the first instance, a claim about motivation or behavior. But although people do not always act on their moral judgments (e.g. they may eat meat despite thinking this is wrong), people’s behavior is often good evidence for their moral judgments.