Abstract

The study contributes to a social psychology perspective on moral judgment. The research design is premised on the assumption that affective valences grounded in individual moral inferences can be contrasted with the principled moral judgments of the group, culture, or organisation, in order to demonstrate how individuals evaluate cognitive conflict and rationalize intensions and behavior. The assumption of a disassociation between judgment and justification in moral decisions is adopted. The important premise with respect to dissociation in this study is that the evaluative and intentional properties of human action can be understood through a study of reasoned persuasion (post hoc and reflective) and social persuasion (intentional and known) both of which are conscious rather than unconscious.