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Sacred versus Pseudo-Sacred Values: How People Cope with Taboo Trade-Offs

Philip E. Tetlock¹; Barbara A. Mellers¹; J. Peter Scoblic²

¹ Department of Psychology, Solomon Labs, University of Pennsylvania, 3720 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (e-mail: ) · ² Harvard Business School, Wyss House, Boston, MA 02163 (e-mail: )

Psychologists have documented widespread public deference to “sacred values” that communities, formally or informally, exempt from tradeoffs with secular limits, like money. This work has, however, been largely confined to low-stakes settings. As the stakes rise, deference must decline because people can't write blank checks for every “sacred” cause. Shadow pricing is inevitable which sets the stage for political blame-games of varying sophistication. In a rational world, citizens would accept the necessity of such tradeoffs, but the attraction to moral absolutes is strong--perhaps even essential for social cohesion.

DOI

10.1257/aer.p20171110

Volume

107 (5)

Pages

96-99

Language

en

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