Cognitive and Emotional Factors in Moral Decision-Making

Abstract

Moral decision-making happens in every individual’s life on a daily basis. It is having people to decide which is the right action when people have spotted an ethical issue. A lot of studies have been conducted focusing on cognition, emotion and moral decision making. Numerous studies are carried out to explore how moral decision-making is affected. This paper will be looking at the role cognitive and emotional factors play in moral decision-making in several aspects. First, the paper will focus on the role of emotional factors and cognitive factors separately, so to investigate the relationship between emotional and cognitive traits and moral decision making. Finally, the paper will look at how moral choices are affected when cognitive and emotional factors begin to be manipulated. Some limitations of previous studies were also analyzed and discussed. Directions of future research were demonstrated as well. This paper can provide some suggestions for the design of prevention and intervention courses for moral decision-making.