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Impartial Beneficence Predicts Greater and More Uniform Concern for Others Across Social Relationships

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The principle of impartial beneficence (IB) holds we should strive to maximize others’ well- being regardless of their relationship to us. But does endorsement of IB in principle translate to more uniform concern for others irrespective of relationship type? Three pre-registered studies (total N=1,716) found IB endorsement predicts greater and more uniform concern for others across social relationships varying in social distance: in care prescriptions (Study 1), as well as blame judgments (Study 2) and guilt expressions (Study 3) in response to care- violations. Heightened concern for others in socially distant relationships was not “offset” by less concern for close ones; nor was IB associated with a motive to be generally admired but was instead linked to “communal striving.” Across different types of moral judgments, a commitment to IB thus entails caring much more than average about the well-being of socially distant others, while maintaining a high level of concern for socially close ones.

Source: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

DOI: 10.1177/01461672251379518

Authors: Brian D. Earp, Killian L. McLoughlin, Mina Caraccio, Rachel Calcott, Joshua Rottman, Margaret S. Clark, M. J. Crockett

Institutions: National University of Singapore, Yale University, University of Oxford, Princeton University, Harvard University, Franklin & Marshall College

Language: English

Topic: Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,900

OpenAlex ID: W4417304739

FWCI:

Cites: 47

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