What is the cognitive basis of the side‐effect effect? An experimental test of competing theories

Recent work on the side-effect effect has shown that subjects’ intentionality judgments are influenced by moral evaluations. In 6 experiments, we tested four different candidates for the cognitive foundation derived from prominent explanatory accounts (prescriptiveness, (un-)expectedness, blame and a shift in default attitudes) against eachother in three steps. First, Study 1 showed that the effect even extends to certain descriptive norms. Second, Studies 2-5 investigated the candidates more directly. Results reveal that intentionality judgments could best be explained by underlying shifts in default attitudes. Third, Study 6 experimentally manipulated this default attitude, leading to the predicted change in intentionality judgments.