Moral Dilemmas in Military Situations: Proportionality Principle,Religiosity, Political Attitudes,and Authoritarian Personality |
| |
Authors: | Shaul Kimhi Asa Kasher |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychology, Tel Hai Collegeshaulkim@telhai.ac.il;3. Department of Professional Ethics and Philosophy of Practice and ?Department of Philosophy, Tel Aviv University |
| |
Abstract: | The current study focuses on a moral dilemma in military situations: the amount of force to be used in order to neutralize a “most wanted” terrorist. This study examines the association between this moral dilemma with 4 independent variables: agreement with the proportionality principle (mediating variable), level of religiosity, authoritarian personality, and political attitudes. Three equal groups of participants (together, N = 357) were included: Israeli regular army combat soldiers, Israeli reserve combat soldiers, and Israeli students. In accordance with the study hypotheses, the 4 independent variables significantly correlated with each other and with moral decisions. Structural equation modeling indicated that agreement with the proportionality principle is the best predictor of moral decision, and mediated the association between level of religiosity and political attitudes and moral decisions. |
| |
Keywords: | moral dilemma proportionality principle level of religiosity authoritarian personality political attitudes |
|
|