Intentional or accidental: Exploring the role of intentionality in shaping the asymmetric moral memory_data.xlsx

Harm can arise in various ways, sometimes driven by malicious intent, and other times born from negligence. Perpetrators and victims retain asymmetric memories of injurious incidents: the victims remember the events with more clarity, vividness and detail compared to perpetrators. We argued that intentionality functions as a boundary condition in this asymmetric memory effect and that consequence severity may alter this phenomenon. Using the take-in-memory paradigm across our studies, we found that intentionality plays a moderating role in memory asymmetry, with this effect being observed only when the perpetrator intentionally engages in immoral behavior (Study 1). We also found that, under transgressions with severe consequences, the moderating effect of intentionality vanishes, as cognitive resources shift from intent cues to outcome cues (Study 2). Our work shed light on the effect of intentionality as well as the complicated interplay between intentionality and consequence severity on moral memory.