TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2010//
TI  - Can Unintended Side Effects Be Intentional? Resolving a Controversy Over Intentionality and Morality
JO  - Personality and social psychology bulletin
A1  - Guglielmo, Steve
A1  - Malle, Bertram F.
SP  - 1635
EP  - 1647
VL  - 36
IS  - 12
N2  - Can an event’s blameworthiness distort whether people see it as intentional? In controversial recent studies, people judged a behavior’s negative side effect intentional even though the agent allegedly had no desire for it to occur. Such a judgment contradicts the standard assumption that desire is a necessary condition of intentionality, and it raises concerns about assessments of intentionality in legal settings. Six studies examined whether blameworthy events distort intentionality judgments. Studies 1 through 4 show that, counter to recent claims, intentionality judgments are systematically guided by variations in the agent’s desire, for moral and nonmoral actions alike. Studies 5 and 6 show that a behavior’s negative side effects are rarely seen as intentional once people are allowed to choose from multiple descriptions of the behavior. Specifically, people distinguish between "knowingly" and "intentionally" bringing about a side effect, even for immoral actions. These studies suggest that intentionality judgments are unaffected by a behavior’s blameworthiness.<p />
LA  - 
SN  - 0146-1672
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167210386733
ID  - ref1
ER  -