The power of moral arguments

Work in moral psychology has focused on the individual-her intuitions and her reasoning. Drawing on the argumentative theory of reasoning, we suggest that the exchange of reasons plays an important role in moral judgment and decision making. After briefly reviewing some evidence suggesting that strong moral arguments can be effective we describe three studies bearing on that topic. The first confirms that arguments can make people change their mind even on some emotionally charged moral judgments. By contrast, the second and the third failed to reveal consistent effects of discussion on moral judgments.