Michael D. Harvey

Moral Evaluations and Judgments of Responsibility

There has been a failure to distinguish between moral evaluations and responsibility in the literature on moral judg- ment. Consequently, interpretive problems have occurred because the dependent measures of each have been discussed as if they were equivalent. An attempt was made in the present research to examine the comparability of moral evaluations and respon- sibility judgments. Factor analyses of the ratings of an ag- gression and an accident story by 94 women and 85 men revealed that moral evaluations (e.g. praise-blame) and responsibility judgments are distinct and cannot be interpreted interchangeably.

Implicit role obligations versus social responsibility in constituency representation

The widely accepted conclusion that constituency representation in itself produces inflexible and ineffective competition was critiqued. A new model was proposed that predicts enhanced bargaining flexibility and outcome effectiveness as a consequence of constituency representation. Two experiments were conducted with adult Ss.

Effects of Retaliation Latency and Provocation Level on Judged Blameworthiness for Retaliatory Aggression

Subjects observed an interaction in which one person retaliated with a harmful act after a long or short latency period following another persons severe or mild insult. The retaliator was blamed more when his act was delayed rather than immediate, and when the prior insult was mild rather than severe. These results appeared to be mediated by perceptions of the degree to which the retaliator premeditated his action.

Effects of a Third-Party Requestor's Surveillance and Recipient Awareness of Request on Helping:

The study tested the predictions that (a) donors who believe that a third-party request on behalf of a recipient is known to the recipient will be more generous than donors who believe the recipient is unaware of the request, and (b) donors who believe a third-party requestor will monitor their compli ance will help more than will donors who believe monitoring to be impossible. Both predictions were supported.

Recipient vs. Third-Party Requests, Recipient Need, and Helping Behavior

Subjects received a request for help from either a third-party who was unable to help or from the recipient. The recipients need was either high or relatively low. Subjects helped significantly more in response to the third-party re- quest than to the recipient request, and significantly more when the recipients need was high than when it was low.

Outcome Severity and Knowledge of "Ought" Effects on Moral Evaluations

Two experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that moral evaluations of retaliatory harm are a direct function of the discrepancy between the observed retaliation severity and the appropriate retaliation severity (the Ought). Both severe and mild retaliation, then, would be evaluated more negatively than moderate retaliation. The first experiment manipulated the value of the Ought, and the second experiment allowed subjects to employ their own belief about it. The results of both experiments supported the hypothesis.

Time Pressure and Causal Attributions

Evidence was obtained which indicates that time pres sure was responsible for the conflicting results reported in two previously published attribution studies. The theoretical sig nificance of time pressure for causal attribution processes was discussed.