AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN MORAL DECISION-MAKING: UTILITARIAN VS. DEONTOLOGICAL JUDGMENTS - Poster Session 7200

Sep 29, 2026

Research suggests older adults favor deontological moral judgments (rules and duties) over utilitarian judgments (maximizing welfare for the most people) compared with younger adults. Prior work treated deontological and utilitarian judgments as endpoints, leaving uncertainty whether age effects reflect deontological, utilitarian, or both components. This study compared 65 younger (18-22) and 63 older (60+) adults using reciprocal and process dissociation analyses, finding less utilitarian—but no age difference in deontological—judgments, mediated by working memory capacity.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages1

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Study purpose and uncertainty in prior work

Participants and moral dilemma task

Analytic approaches and key findings

Mediation by working memory

FAQs

What difference in moral judgments do older adults show compared with younger adults?

Older adults made more deontological (less utilitarian) moral judgments than younger adults.

How did the study separate utilitarian and deontological components?

It used a process dissociation analysis that produced separate parameters for utilitarian and deontological judgments.

What factor mediated age differences in utilitarian judgments?

Working memory capacity mediated the age-related differences in utilitarian judgments.

Sep 29, 2026

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