Moral decision-making with bounded cognitive resources and limited information

Real-world moral decisions are constrained by limited information and bounded cognitive resources, necessitating heuristic strategies. We argue that choices in moral dilemmas should be analysed in terms of decision strategies rather than ethical theories and show how resource rationality and the bias-variance trade-off explain when people rely on particular strategies.

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Publication Details

Journal
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Published
2026-02-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.12.010
Primary Topic
Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Moral decision-making with bounded cognitive resources and limited information

Falk Lieder, Maximilian Maier, Vanessa Cheung
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
article

Moral decision-making with bounded cognitive resources and limited information

Falk Lieder, Maximilian Maier, Vanessa Cheung
article en

Abstract

Real-world moral decisions are constrained by limited information and bounded cognitive resources, necessitating heuristic strategies. We argue that choices in moral dilemmas should be analysed in terms of decision strategies rather than ethical theories and show how resource rationality and the bias-variance trade-off explain when people rely on particular strategies.

Trends in Cognitive Sciences
University of California, Los Angeles (US), University of Warwick (GB), University College London (GB)
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 54%
Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
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