Moral Luck
We judge people's character more harshly based on outcomes they did not control.
Moral luck refers to the way external factors outside a person's control influence the moral judgments we make about them. Two equally careless drivers who run a red light are judged very differently if one happens to hit a pedestrian and the other does not — even though both were equally reckless. The actual outcome, determined by luck, colors our moral evaluation despite being irrelevant to the quality of the decision.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Justice Drunk Driving Outcomes Two people drive drunk the same distance. One happens to hit and kill a pedestrian; the other arrives safely. The first receives a prison sentence and social condemnation; the second receives no punishment — despite identical culpability.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
Lily left her car windows down in a storm. No rain fell. Her neighbor did the same and their car flooded. Lily says her neighbor 'tempted fate' and should have known.
Chris ate junk food for years and stayed thin. His coworker did the same and gained a lot of weight. Chris thinks the coworker lacks discipline.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
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