Programming Impacts Responses to Moral Dilemmas

33 Pages Posted: 6 Feb 2023

See all articles by Tanya Singh

Tanya Singh

Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota

Jui Ramaprasad

University of Maryland

Kartik K. Ganju

University of Minnesota

Date Written: February 2, 2023

Abstract

We examine if performing a programming task alters a decision-makers’ response to a well-known moral dilemma, the trolley problem. In the problem, the decision-maker must choose between an action that would sacrifice a single innocent life or inaction, sacrificing multiple lives. We argue that performing a programming task requires structured, rule-based cognition, resulting in a deliberative mindset. This mindset leads decision-makers to prefer sacrificing a single life to save multiple lives, known as the utilitarian choice to the moral dilemma. Through a series of experiments with computer programmers we find that (1) programming increases the prevalence of utilitarian choices on the trolley problem (2) this shift is stronger for lower-experienced programmers (3) programming’s shift to utilitarian choices is stronger for programmers who have lower motivation for cognitive reasoning. These results contribute to our understanding of how programming impacts human cognition and the biases programmers experience when designing algorithms. We discuss the implications of our results for programmers, organizations, and society.

Keywords: Moral Decision-Making, Programming, Trolley Problem, Programming Bias, Autonomous Vehicles

Suggested Citation

Singh, Tanya and Ramaprasad, Jui and Ganju, Kartik K., Programming Impacts Responses to Moral Dilemmas (February 2, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4345957 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4345957

Tanya Singh

Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota ( email )

420 Delaware St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States

Jui Ramaprasad

University of Maryland ( email )

Robert H. Smith School of Business
4313 Van Munching Hall
College Park, MD 20815
United States

Kartik K. Ganju (Contact Author)

University of Minnesota ( email )

United States

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