The Effects of Visuals on Ethical Reasoning: What's a Photograph Worth to Journalists Making Moral Decisions?

Two experiments explored the effects of photographs on ethical decision making in the journalism domain. Both found that photographs improved participants' ethical reasoning and identified mental elaboration as significant in that process: thinking about the people affected by an ethical situation helped improve ethical reasoning. Involvement also was important; when participants were not very involved with the dilemmas, having photographs significantly improved their ethical reasoning. Theoretical explanations for why and how this occurs are offered, building upon moral development theory.