Cause or moral responsibility?

Abstract The literature shows that an individual’s moral valence affects the causal judgements of social observers. The effect is considered by some to be a cognitive bias. This article challenges this notion by investigating the relationship between how facts are presented to participants and their interpretation of causal judgment tasks, whether as a search for moral responsibility or a strict causal link. To do this, we proposed the first categorisation of the causal models of the facts described (i.e. the arrangement of causes presented to the participants). Through a systematic review, our analysis suggests an alternative hypothesis to the cognitive bias view: the arrangement of the facts presented to the participants could influence the relevant interpretation they make of the causal judgement task. Specifically, the causal models predominantly used in the literature may prompt an interpretation focused on attributing blame rather than identifying a narrow causal link.