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Similarity and the trustworthiness of distributive judgements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Alex Voorhoeve Open the ORCID record for Alex Voorhoeve [Opens in a new window] ,
Arnaldur Stefánsson  and
Brian Wallace
Alex Voorhoeve*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK Department of Applied Economics and Department of Philosophy, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Arnaldur Stefánsson
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Brian Wallace
Affiliation:
Source Clear, San Francisco, CA, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: a.e.voorhoeve@lse.ac.uk
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Abstract

When people must either save a greater number of people from a smaller harm or a smaller number from a greater harm, do their choices reflect a reasonable moral outlook? We pursue this question with the help of an experiment. In our experiment, two-fifths of subjects employ a similarity heuristic. When alternatives appear dissimilar in terms of the number saved but similar in terms of the magnitude of harm prevented, this heuristic mandates saving the greater number. In our experiment, this leads to choices that are inconsistent with all standard theories of justice. We argue that this demonstrates the untrustworthiness of distributive judgements in cases that elicit similarity-based choice.

Keywords

similaritydistributive justicemoral decision-makingheuristicsreflective equilibrium
Type
Article
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , November 2019 , pp. 537 - 561
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Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

Author note: Brian Wallace’s work on this paper was carried out while at the Department of Economics, University College London, London, UK.

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