Pulling the lever in a hurry: the influence of impulsivity and sensitivity to reward on moral decision-making under time pressure

Making timely moral decisions can be crucial. Just think of physicians and health care professionals, who are often called upon to make quick decisions about the lives of their patients. Nevertheless, experimental studies that have investigated the effects of time pressure on moral decisions (i.e., how many lives to save in a threatening situation) are few and have produced mixed results. Moreover, it is unclear how personality traits, such as impulsivity and reward sensitivity, influence decisions made under pressure.
To explore this phenomenon, in a recent paper published in BMC Psychology, Fiorella Del Popolo Cristaldi and Nicola Cellini from the DPG, with the collaboration of Michela Sarlo (University of Urbino) and Grazia Pia Palmiotti (Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt), presented young adults with a set of moral dilemmas, limiting to 8 seconds the maximum time to decide whether to sacrifice one life to save more (utilitarian choice). In addition to choice behaviour, decision time, subjective emotional responses, and individual levels of impulsivity and reward sensitivity were measured.
The study showed that time pressure alone did not change the type of moral choices. However, impulsivity did play a role: individuals with greater cognitive impulsivity (i.e., those who experience intrusive thoughts and rapid shifts in attention) took longer to make decisions. These results suggest that the role of time pressure in making moral decisions is complex and influenced by individual traits such as impulsivity.
Link to the paper: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01773-y

Del Popolo Cristaldi, F., Palmiotti, G.P., Cellini, N. et al. Pulling the lever in a hurry: the influence of impulsivity and sensitivity to reward on moral decision-making under time pressure. BMC Psychol 12, 270 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01773-y