The study of moral judgements often centres on moral dilemmas in which options consistent with deontological perspectives (that is, emphasizing rules, individual rights and duties) are in conflict with options consistent with utilitarian judgements (that is, following the greater good based on consequences). Greene et al. (2009) showed that psychological and situational factors (for example, the intent of the agent or the presence of physical contact between the agent and the victim) can play an important role in moral dilemma judgements (for example, the trolley problem). Our knowledge is limited concerning both the universality of these effects outside the United States and the impact of culture on the situational and psychological factors affecting moral judgements. Thus, we empirically tested the universality of the effects of intent and personal force on moral dilemma judgements by replicating the experiments of Greene et al. in 45 countries from all inhabited continents. We found that personal force and its interaction with intention exert influence on moral judgements in the US and Western cultural clusters, replicating and expanding the original findings. Moreover, the personal force effect was present in all cultural clusters, suggesting it is culturally universal. The evidence for the cultural universality of the interaction effect was inconclusive in the Eastern and Southern cultural clusters (depending on exclusion criteria). We found no strong association between collectivism/individualism and moral dilemma judgements.

Aarhus University Aarhus Denmark

Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iași Romania

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Aventura Social and DESSH Faculty of Human Kinetics Institute of Environmental Health Medicine Faculty University of Lisbon Lisbon Portugal

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Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences Shenzhen China

Busara Center for Behavioral Economics Nairobi Kenya

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Department of Music Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics Frankfurt am Main Germany

Department of Occupational Economic and Social Psychology Faculty of Psychology University of Vienna Vienna Austria

Department of Philosophy American University of Beirut Beirut Lebanon

Department of Philosophy Universidad de los Andes Bogotá Colombia

Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University Muğla Turkey

Department of Psychological Science University of California Irvine CA USA

Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Dalhousie University Halifax Nova Scotia Canada

Department of Psychology and Psychodynamics Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences Krems an der Donau Austria

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Department of Psychology New York University New York NY USA

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Department of Psychology Skidmore College Saratoga Springs NY USA

Department of Psychology State University of New York at Fredonia Fredonia NY USA

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Division of Psychology and Language Sciences University College London London UK

Doctoral School of Psychology ELTE Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Hungary

EGADE Business School Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey San Pedro Garza García Mexico

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Florida International University Miami FL USA

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GAME Science Research Center Lucca Italy

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Harrisburg University of Science and Technology Harrisburg PA USA

Imperial College Business School Imperial College London London UK

IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca Lucca Italy

Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse Toulouse France

Institute for Brain Sciences Nanjing University Nanjing China

Institute for Research and Development of Education Faculty of Education Charles University Prague Czechia

Institute of Applied Psychology School of Public Administration Northwest University Xi'an China

Institute of Decision Science for a Sustainable Society Kyushu University Fukuoka Japan

Institute of Medical Psychology Goethe University Frankfurt am Main Germany

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Institute of Psychology Faculty of Arts University of Prešov Prešov Slovakia

Institute of Psychology Faculty of Philosophy Jagiellonian University Kraków Poland

Institute of Psychology University of Silesia in Katowice Katowice Poland

Instituto de Investigación Científica Universidad de Lima Lima Peru

Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Córdoba Spain

Instutute of Psychology University of Wrocław Wrocław Poland

Iscte University Institute of Lisbon CIS IUL Lisbon Portugal

Kadir Has University Istanbul Turkey

Karolinska Institutet Solna Sweden

Laboratório de Evolução do Comportamento Humano Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte Natal Brazil

Laboratory for Research of Individual Differences Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade Belgrade Serbia

Lancaster University Lancaster UK

Lazaridis School of Business and Economics Wilfrid Laurier University Waterloo Ontario Canada

Leibniz Institut für Wissensmedien Tübingen Germany

LIP PC2S Université Savoie Mont Blanc Chambéry France

Lomonosov Moscow State University Moscow Russia

London School of Economics and Political Science and Open University London UK

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Manhattan College New York NY USA

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Marketing Department University of Groningen Groningen the Netherlands

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge MA USA

Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods Bonn Germany

Montfort College Bengaluru India

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Athens Greece

New York University New York NY USA

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Psychological Institute of Russian Academy of Education Moscow Russia

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