Moral Absolutism as a Theory of Mind Deficit

Moral Absolutism as a Theory of Mind Deficit

Introduction

Moral absolutism is an attitude toward morality in which actions are not evaluated as right or wrong based on how they affect others and the reasons behind the action, but rather certain actions are deemed as intrinsically right or wrong, regardless of whether it causes harm, and regardless of the reasons behind the action. Typically, the basis behind what actions are considered wrong by individuals with moral absolutist attitudes is in normative rules that have been taught or observed by the person, religious & political belief systems, and disgust/social norm violation. In this post I argue and provide evidence for the hypothesis that moral absolutism is partially caused by deficits in theory of mind, and cognitive empathy.

Theoretical Basis

Cognitive empathy is a component of empathy that is characterised by the ability to accurately detect others mental states, intentions, thoughts, and emotions, understand the causes of others behaviour, intuitively imagine and simulate another person’s mind, understand how minds vary and different perspectives, understand communication based on intentions rather than common meanings or ‘rules’ (and ambiguous communication), and reflect on the intentions, thoughts, emotions, and behaviours of oneself and others, and understand their causes (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright 2004)(Gori et al. 2021)(Cloudfindings 2021a)(Conway et al. 2020). Understanding the reason behind a person's actions and how other minds vary is important for an accurate moral judgement: for example, if someone unintentionally says something which is considered inappropriate or seems similar to an offensive meaning different from the intended meaning, someone who lacks cognitive empathy would not be able to detect the intended meaning, nor potential differences in knowledge, experience, values, reasoning, personality, and culture that would change the meaning and nature of an action, but instead would perceive the action and person as “bad” in place of an explanation, make false assumptions about the person, and attribute blame to the person. If cognitive empathy is not used for moral reasoning, moral judgement instead would be based on what others seem to think of as being good or bad, and the values, meanings & belief systems of those around a person or their culture, and would be followed rigidly, and literally.

Moral Judgement in Autism

Autism at its core involves deficits in cognitive empathy, theory of mind, and imagination (Crespi et al. 2016). Therefore, studies investigating morality and autism can provide insight into how these traits affect morality. Autistic individuals, in contrast to the general population have been found to place more emphasis on conventional & normative rules when making moral judgements, and are often unable to provide appropriate justification for why an action was wrong without appealing to normative rules (McGeer 2008)(Vignemont & Frith 2008)(Shulman et al. 2012)(Fadda et al. 2016). Inflexible following of rules set out by authority/culture is also found (Takeda et al. 2007)(Tei et al. 2022), as well as an increased tendency to rely on existing belief systems to form worldviews (Andersen 2021). Finally, autistic individuals are more likely to rate disgusting or socially deviant actions as morally wrong than non-autistic individuals (Zalla et al. 2011), and are more likely to judge unintentional moral transgressions as intentional and apply harsher judgement to them (Koster-Hale et al. 2013)(Moran et al. 2011)(Roge & Mullet 2011). 

Dogmatism & Cognitive Empathy

Dogmatism is a trait and attitude related to moral absolutism, and is characterised by a reduced willingness to consider different points of view, more rigid standards for right and wrong, reduced awareness of alternative interpretations, and reduced willingness to update beliefs and account for new information. Dogmatism has been shown to have a medium-strong, negative association with cognitive empathy (Shearman & Levine 2006)(Vonk & Pitzen 2017)(Tackett 2018). Aspects and correlates of dogmatism such as reduced sense of humour and reduced awareness of alternative interpretations (Shearman & Levine 2006), show negative correlations with social intelligence and positive correlations with autistic traits (Cloudfindings 2021a). Dogmatism also inversely correlates with openness to experience (Samuel et al. 2012), which has been found to predict cognitive empathy most consistently out of the big 5 personality traits, along with agreeableness (e.g., De Corte et al. 2007). 

Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum

The obsessive compulsive spectrum includes obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), and is included within the autism spectrum (Cloudfindings 2021b, 2022)(Hummelen et al. 2008). Like autism, OCD & OCPD are associated with moral rigidity, and the tendency to base moral judgements on whether an action violates a normative rule or is disgusting, rather than whether an action causes harm or the intentions behind the action (Hosseinzadeh et al. 2020)(Whitton et al. 2014)(Samuel et al. 2012). OCD shows a weak negative association with cognitive empathy, and OCPD shows a moderate-strong negative association with cognitive empathy (Cloudfindings 2022)(Cain et al. 2016), consistent with the hypothesised relationship between moral absolutism and cognitive empathy, as dogmatism & moral rigidity are considered to be diagnostic of OCPD, but not OCD.

Morality & Hyper-Theory-of-Mind

While autism is characterised by reduced theory of mind (ToM) it is theorised and supported by a large body of evidence that the processes underlying ToM are increased to the point of dysfunction in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (Abu-Akel 1999)(Crespi & Badcock 2008)(Ciaramidaro et al. 2014)(Crespi et al. 2016)(Andersen 2021). If low ToM leads to moral absolutism, does excessive ToM lead to the opposite? Moral absolutists place greater emphasis on normative rules and authority in moral judgements, in contrast with schizophrenia, which is characterised by opposition and scepticism toward normative rules, values, and ways of thinking (Stanghellini & Ballerini 2007), and with schizotypy which shows inverse correlations with values of conformity and tradition (Hanel et al. 2019)(Hanel & Wolfradt 2016). Nozer et al. (2015) found that eccentricity and psychoticism showed a negative relationship with moral foundations of authority, ingroup loyalty, and purity (i.e., disgust-based) over other personality disorder traits, which contrasts with autism and the obsessive-compulsive spectrum. High schizotypy relative to autistic traits also shows a negative association with OCPD (Cloudfindings 2022a). Schizotypy is positively associated with openness to experience (Camisa et al. 2005)(DeYoung et al. 2012), which is inversely related with dogmatism. Finally, high schizotypy is associated with idiosyncratic worldviews, which may include unconventional values and morality (Andersen 2021). More research is needed to clarify how schizotypy affects morality.

Conclusion

While some research has investigated the psychological origins of moral/political attitudes & beliefs, most of this research has focused on culture and identity (e.g., comparing self identified liberals and conservatives), which is not likely to be underpinned by psychological traits nor predict everyday attitudes and moral judgments (for example, a self identified liberal and  conservative may have similar personalities and make every day moral judgments in an identical fashion, but attach heavily to their cultural affiliation and identity, and thus have opposing opinions on conventional issues consistent with conventional "liberalism" and "conservatism"). This may explain why left-wing authoritarianism exists despite authoritarianism traditionally being associated with right-wing political beliefs - a right wing personality with a left wing cultural affiliation. van Prooijen & Kuijper (2020) found that political extremists with opposing cultural affiliations/identity shared similar worldviews, further supporting this hypothesis. The tendency to self identify with a culture or existing belief system, and rigidly follow the rules associated with them is likely underpinned by reduced theory of mind, the latter discussed in this post, the former found in Cloudfindings (2022b). Most studies focus on traits considered "normal" but not traits associated with mental disorders at their extremes (e.g., theory of mind), or pathological traits, which limits insight into the psychological underpinnings of moral and political attitudes. This post supports the hypothesis that moral absolutism is underpinned by a reduced theory of mind, and future research should further explore the relations between morality, identity, social cognition, and political orientations.

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