Effects of acute stress exposure on decision-making in everyday moral conflict situations

In everyday life, moral decisions must frequently be made under acute stress. Therefore, the overarching aim of this dissertation was to experimentally investigate the effects of exposure to acute psychosocial stress on decision-making in everyday moral conflict situations. In Study I, we developed and validated in three independent paper-pencil surveys (N = 200 males and females) a new measure with 40 items to assess decision-making in everyday moral conflict situations, the Everyday Moral Conflict Situations (EMCS) Scale. Additionally, in a further methodological study (N = 100 males and females), the equivalence of a computer version of the EMCS Scale was checked. Using the newly developed EMCS Scale, in Studies II and III, the effects of acute stress exposure on decision-making in everyday moral conflict situations were investigated. Additionally, in Study II (N = 40 males), potential effects of social closeness and timing on everyday moral decision-making after acute stress exposure were explored. The results of Study II revealed significantly higher percentages of altruistic decisions in the stress than in the control condition and for scenarios involving socially close (e.g., mother) compared to socially distant (e.g., stranger) protagonists, while the main effect of timing was nonsignificant. In Study III (N = 179 males and females), potential gender differences and effects of personality on everyday moral decision-making after acute stress exposure were examined. The results of Study III indicated a rather complex interplay between stress, stress hormones, and altruistic decision-making. These divergent findings can most likely be explained by methodological differences between the utilized study designs and experimental procedures. Hence, further and more large-scale studies on this research topic are required, and only a critical combination of the present and still outstanding future research will bring us closer to the truth