Moral Judgment and Effort in Human Figure Drawings

-On the basis of previous research in personality and in social psychology, it was predicted that Ss who expend little effort in drawing the human figure may have a closed cognitive system and would thus make harsh moral judgments. 62 smdenrs were given a test of moral judgments in which they rated the morality of different behaviors and drew a full-length picmre of a person. Ss who expended low effort in their drawings made more severe moral judgments ( p < . lo) , even though all test situations involved mitigating circumstances. Differences were partially obscured by the fact that all Ss were rather moralistic in their judgments.