No Detectable Effects of Chronic Stress on Moral Decision-Making Are Found: A Data Reanalysis and a Pre-Registered Replication and Extension.

According to the dual-process model of moral cognition, individuals tend to refuse the proposal of killing some to save more innocents under stressful conditions compared to non-stressful states, which has been demonstrated in previous studies. However, this effect might be unreliable according to the General Adaptation Syndrome theory and the Stress Process Model. To test this speculation, we reanalyzed the raw data on the effect of chronic stress on moral choice from a previous study (Study 1) and conducted a pre-registered replication and extension study (Study 2). Both results demonstrated no detectable effect of chronic stress on moral decisions, which is inconsistent with the original results. This study calls for caution regarding this effect and has important theoretical and practical implications.