The essential moral self

•Not all parts of the mind contribute equally to judgments of personal identity.•Memory and distinguishing features contribute less to identity than moral traits.•Moral traits are the strongest contributor to identity, the self, and the soul. It has often been suggested that the mind is central to p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognition Vol. 131; no. 1; pp. 159 - 171
Main Authors: Strohminger, Nina, Nichols, Shaun
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.04.2014
Elsevier
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition
Experiments
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Identity
Male
Memory
Morality
Morals
Numerical identity
Personal identity
Personality. Affectivity
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Self
Self Concept
Self representation
Social relations
Personal identity
Numerical identity
Morality
Self
Human
Moral attitude
Personality
Cognition
Experimental study
Moral science
ISSN:0010-0277, 1873-7838, 1873-7838
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:•Not all parts of the mind contribute equally to judgments of personal identity.•Memory and distinguishing features contribute less to identity than moral traits.•Moral traits are the strongest contributor to identity, the self, and the soul. It has often been suggested that the mind is central to personal identity. But do all parts of the mind contribute equally? Across five experiments, we demonstrate that moral traits—more than any other mental faculty—are considered the most essential part of identity, the self, and the soul. Memory, especially emotional and autobiographical memory, is also fairly important. Lower-level cognition and perception have the most tenuous connection to identity, rivaling that of purely physical traits. These findings suggest that folk notions of personal identity are largely informed by the mental faculties affecting social relationships, with a particularly keen focus on moral traits.
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ISSN:0010-0277
1873-7838
1873-7838
DOI:10.1016/j.cognition.2013.12.005