Moral Dilemmas and Personality Traits

Abstract

The study examines the relationship of moral choice and emotional intelligence, personal characteristics, implicit preferences, the ability to rely on emotional experience. The study involved 74 subjects: 40 healthy subjects and 34 patients of the MHRC. All subjects performed the following tests: "Moral dilemmas", Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT V2.0), Ich-Struktur-Test nach Ammon (ISTA), Implicit Association Test (IAT). It is demonstrated that the number of utilitarian choices in "personality" dilemmas increases with a deterioration in the ability to recognize the emotions of other people as well as with a decrease in ambivalence in assessing one's own state and reducing the ability to control emotions. When making decisions, people who make utilitarian choices rely on the experience of delayed negative consequences, their immediate emotional effect is reduced. Utilitarian personality choices increased with the reduction of capability to attack in a constructive way, to perceive personal fear and the fear of others with pathological narcissism, destructive internal and external restrictions. The preference of practical decisions is related to the implicit preference of "depth".