Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Apr;23(2):206-215.
doi: 10.1080/1047840X.2012.686247. Epub 2012 May 31.

The Moral Dyad: A Fundamental Template Unifying Moral Judgment

Kurt Gray, Adam Waytz, Liane Young
Free PMC article

The Moral Dyad: A Fundamental Template Unifying Moral Judgment

Kurt Gray et al. Psychol Inq. 2012 Apr.
Free PMC article
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Dyadic acts involving intention and suffering are those which are the most canonically and universally judged as immoral.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Abstracted from specific judgments, a cognitive template of morality is formed, which represents immoral acts in general as a dyadic combination of agent and patient, intention and suffering.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
The dyadic template serves as a cognitive working model through which all moral events are viewed. This means that even “objectively” victimless misdeeds are perceived to have victims.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
The dyad is a cognitive template of moral events, but this template is filled with two different kinds of content.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alicke M. D. Culpable control and the psychology of blame. Psychological Bulletin. 2000;126:556–574. - PubMed
    1. Bartels D. M., Pizarro D. A. The mismeasurement of morals: Antisocial personality traits predict utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas. Cognition. (in press) - PubMed
    1. Bartels D. M., Urminsky O. On intertemporal selfishness: How the perceived instability of identity underlies impatient consumption. Journal of Consumer Research. 2011;38:182–198.
    1. Bastian B., Laham S. M., Wilson S., Haslam N., Koval P. Blaming, praising, and protecting our humanity: The implications of everyday dehumanization for judgments of moral status. British Journal of Social Psychology. 2011;50:469–483. doi:10.1348/014466610×521383. - PubMed
    1. Bering J. M. The existential theory of mind. Review of General Psychology. 2002;6(1):3–24. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.6.1.3.

LinkOut - more resources