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Changes in moral decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

S. Enikolopov ,
T. Medvedeva ,
O. Boyko ,
O. Vorontsova  and
O. Kazmina
S. Enikolopov
Affiliation:
Clinical Psychology, Federal State Budgetary Scientific institution “Mental health research center”, Moscow, Russian Federation
T. Medvedeva
Affiliation:
Clinical Psychology, Federal State Budgetary Scientific institution “Mental health research center”, Moscow, Russian Federation
O. Boyko*
Affiliation:
Clinical Psychology, Federal State Budgetary Scientific institution “Mental health research center”, Moscow, Russian Federation
O. Vorontsova
Affiliation:
Clinical Psychology, Federal State Budgetary Scientific institution “Mental health research center”, Moscow, Russian Federation
O. Kazmina
Affiliation:
Clinical Psychology, Federal State Budgetary Scientific institution “Mental health research center”, Moscow, Russian Federation
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Stress can influence moral decisions.

Objectives

The aim of the study was to evaluate whether the stress experienced by people during the COVID-19 pandemic can change moral decision making.

Methods

311 respondents took part in the Internet survey 30.03.20-31.05.20, including SCL-90-R, and a subset of moral dilemmas proposed by Greene J.D (30 dilemmas in Russian), with «footbridge dilemma» among them as a personal dilemma and «trolley dilemma» as impersonal. The relationship of utilitarian personal dilemmas choices with psychopathological characteristics was analyzed. Personal moral dilemma choices were considered separately, in subgroups with a high level of somatization (N=107) and a high level of psychopathological symptoms (N=76).

Results

The results showed an increase in personal dilemmas choices: 2.84 mean utilitarian choice in March - April and 3.17 in May (Univariate Analysis of Variance, age, gender as Covariates, p<0.01). At the beginning of the study the groups did not differ in the number of utilitarian personal choices, and at the end of the study the number of personal choices increased in the subgroup with a high level of psychopathology (4.7 utilitarian choices in May) and became statistically higher than in other groups (ANOVA with Bonferonni correction). In the subgroup with a high level of somatization, personal choices slightly decreased by the end of the survey (2.68 choices).

Conclusions

The level of stress during the COVID-19 ambiguously affects moral decisions: a higher level of psychopathological symptoms leads to an increase in utilitarian choices and a high level of somatization leads to a decrease in utilitarian choices.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

Moral decision-makingCOVID-19Moral dilemmaspsychopathology
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S660
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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