Virtual Reality in Experimental Moral Psychology: Identifying and Understanding Judgment-Action Discrepancy

In this chapter, the author considers the introduction of Virtual Reality (VR) and Haptic VR technologies in the field of experimental moral psychology and critically considers what these technologies can reveal about human moral behaviour. In recent years, VR reconstructions of sacrificial moral dilemmas that pit one life against many others, have been introduced into experimental paradigms in moral psychology. These simulations present a complete picture of contextual features that have previously been absent in traditional text-based vignettes that, instead, rely on imagination. Across several studies comparing responses to text-based moral dilemmas versus VR moral dilemmas, individuals appear to endorse characteristically utilitarian outcomes in VR but not in text-based vignettes. The author considers the impact of this recent work on theories of moral judgment and extends existing models to account for these findings. Critically, some researchers have argued that the discrepancy between responses in VR and text-based moral dilemmas provides evidence of a moral judgment-action discrepancy with VR capturing moral actions and text-based vignettes capturing moral judgments. However, there remain questions regarding the modality of VR itself and whether this would influence moral decisions. Therefore, in the final section of the chapter, the author considers whether VR does support the measurement of moral actions and identification of a moral judgment-action discrepancy or whether it is features of VR itself that influence moral decision-making.