Academic Journal
Programming Tasks Impact Responses to Moral Dilemmas for Novice Programmers.
| Τίτλος: | Programming Tasks Impact Responses to Moral Dilemmas for Novice Programmers. |
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| Συγγραφείς: | Singh, Tanya1 (AUTHOR) singht3@rpi.edu, Ramaprasad, Jui2 (AUTHOR) jramapra@umd.edu, Ganju, Kartik K.3 (AUTHOR) ganju006@umn.edu |
| Πηγή: | Information Systems Research (INFORMS). Jun2026, Vol. 37 Issue 2, p948-962. 15p. |
| Θεματικοί όροι: | *Computer programming, *Computer programmers, Ethical decision making, Ethical problems, Psychological techniques, Utilitarianism, Cognitive styles |
| Περίληψη: | The rapid diffusion of programming skills across education and industry may impact how individuals consider moral dilemmas. Across a series of experiments, we show that performing even simple programming tasks shifts novice programmers' evaluation of the classic trolley problem toward utilitarian responses. After solving a programming problem, respondents are more willing to sacrifice one life to save many. This effect arises because programming induces a deliberative, rule-based cognitive style. However, the effect diminishes with greater programming experience and can be mitigated through interventions, such as time delays or moral nudges. These findings highlight that organizations training employees in coding should be aware that programming tasks may temporarily alter moral reasoning, potentially influencing judgments in ethically charged contexts (e.g., product design, risk management, or AI development). Incorporating reflective cooling-off periods or explicit ethical reinforcement may reduce bias toward utilitarian reasoning. As programming becomes a baseline skill across the workforce, its cognitive spillovers could shape societal attitudes toward contested moral dilemmas. These include ethical trade-offs in settings such as autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence systems. We examine if performing a programming task alters a decision maker's response to a well-known moral dilemma: the trolley problem. In the problem, the decision maker must choose between inaction that sacrifices multiple lives or a deliberate action that changes the course of events and sacrifices a different life. We argue that computer programming requires structured, rule-based cognition, resulting in a deliberative mindset. This mindset leads decision makers to prefer sacrificing a single life to save multiple lives, known as the utilitarian choice to the moral dilemma. Through a series of experiments, we find that performing a programming task (i) increases the prevalence of utilitarian choices on the trolley problem and (ii) this shift is exclusive to novice programmers. We validate this effect with more complex programming tasks. We examine two interventions (a simple nudge and a time delay between programming and the moral dilemma) that mitigate this effect. These results contribute to our understanding of how performing programming tasks impact ethical decision making. We discuss the implications of our results for organizations and society. History: Deepa Mani, Senior Editor; Idris Adjerid, Associate Editor. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.0376. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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