Walking the moral plank: using virtual reality to investigate moral decision-making under threat.
How is decision-making affected when individuals face threats to safety? Guided by the theory of dyadic morality, the limited capacity model of motivated-mediated message processing, and exemplification theory, we investigated how safety threats shaped individuals' physiological responses and behavi...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Communication Vol. 76; no. 2; pp. 134 - 147 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Apr2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=193166878&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 193166878 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00219916 JCO jtl: Journal of Communication issn: 00219916 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Apr2026 vid: 76 iid: 2 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 193166878 10.1093/joc/jqaf054 ppf: 134 ppct: 13 formats: tig: atl: Walking the moral plank: using virtual reality to investigate moral decision-making under threat. aug: au: Lee, Joomi Baldwin, Joshua Hahn, Lindsay Read, Glenna Ahn, Sun Joo (Grace) affil: Department of Communication, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, United States Division of Emerging Media Studies, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States Department of Communication, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States su: Virtual reality Ethical decision making Threat (Psychology) Egoism Altruism Safety sug: subj: Virtual reality Ethical decision making Threat (Psychology) Egoism Altruism Safety keyword: altruistic-egoistic conflict arousal copyrightHolder:International Communication Association copyrightYear:2026 decision-making inLanguage:en morality publisher:Oxford University Press sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf054 threat virtual reality altruistic-egoistic conflict arousal copyrightHolder:International Communication Association copyrightYear:2026 decision-making inLanguage:en morality publisher:Oxford University Press sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf054 threat virtual reality ab: How is decision-making affected when individuals face threats to safety? Guided by the theory of dyadic morality, the limited capacity model of motivated-mediated message processing, and exemplification theory, we investigated how safety threats shaped individuals' physiological responses and behavioral moral decision-making. Using an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment simulating a moral tradeoff, participants crossed a deep pit and made decisions between their safety and that of another person, reflecting a tradeoff between egoism and altruism. Results from an experiment with 201 participants revealed that exposure to threat increased arousal (physiologically and self-reported), which decreased the extent to which they felt their decision harmed others, leading to selfish decisions in the moral dilemma. However, this pattern only manifested when concerns of harm were not made salient before the threatening experience. Together, these findings demonstrate VR's utility for simulating moral tradeoffs and advancing both psychophysiological and behavioral approaches to media psychology and morality research. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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