Quantifying the Knobe effect: population-level patterns and heterogeneity analyses

Abstract

An influential survey by Joshua Knobe (2003) indicates that the cognitive process ascribing intentionality to an agent is mediated by the perceived moral worth of the action. To assess the external validity of the finding and to obtain more precise estimates of effect sizes, the present study replicates this canonical experiment with a large scale random sample of the German population (N?=?2,295). The difference we observe between the harm and help scenarios is more pronounced than in nearly all previous studies (90.5% [88.754, 92.148] attribute intentionality in the harm scenario, 92.5% [90.947, 94.005] do not do so in the help scenario). In exploratory multivariate analyses, we also investigate whether the magnitude of the Knobe effect differs between different population groups, as characterized by a broad set of socio-demographics and personality traits as given by the Big Five. We find that the magnitude of the Knobe effect varies with gender, migration status, and being in a managerial position.