Replication of Study 1A by Liane Young and Rebecca Saxe (2011, Cognition)

Overview

This repository contains materials for the replication of Study 1A from Young & Saxe (2011), which investigates the role of intent in moral judgments across different moral domains. The study follows a 2 (intent: intentional vs. accidental) × 3 (domain: harm, incest, ingestion) between-subjects design.

Project Structure

├── data/                     # Raw and cleaned datasets
├── scripts/                  # R scripts for analysis and visualization
├── results/                  # Output files, figures, and summary statistics
├── Final_Project_Report.Rmd  # Main replication report in R Markdown
├── README.md                 # This file

Getting Started

Requirements

To reproduce the analysis, install the following R packages:

install.packages(c("tidyverse", "ggplot2", "car"))

Running the Analysis

1. Download the repository: Clone using the command below or download manually.

   git clone https://github.com/ucsd-psych201a/young2011

2. Load the dataset: The dataset is available in data/moral_judgment_data.csv.
3. Run the scripts:
   • Data cleaning: scripts/data_cleaning.R
   • ANOVA analysis: scripts/anova_analysis.R
   • Visualization: scripts/plot_results.R
4. Generate the final report:
   • Run Final_Project_Report.Rmd in RStudio or use:

     rmarkdown::render("Final_Project_Report.Rmd")

Results Summary

• Harm vs. Incest: Significant intent × domain interaction (p < 0.05), replicating original findings.
• Incest vs. Ingestion: No significant interaction (p > 0.05), consistent with prior work.
• Harm vs. Ingestion: Significant difference (p < 0.05), reinforcing harm-purity distinction.

Contributors

• Belynda Herrera ([email protected])
• Cassie Wang ([email protected])
• Kexin Jiang ([email protected])
• Seyi Lawal ([email protected])

Citation

If using this work, please cite:

Young, L., & Saxe, R. (2011). When ignorance is no excuse: Different roles for intent across moral domains. Cognition, 120(2), 202-214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2011.04.005

License

This project is released under the MIT License.