Denna studie utgörs av en kvantitativ undersökning vars syfte är att utröna vilka språkliga bakgrundsfaktorer som potentiellt påverkar huruvida vuxna andraspråkstalare av svenska tar ett deontologiskt eller utilitaristiskt beslut i moraliska frågeställningar. För att testa i vilken omfattning de språkliga bakgrundsfaktorerna påverkar det moraliska beslutsfattandet har sex hypoteser ställts. De sex ställda hypoteserna har utformats mot bakgrund av tidigare forskning inom området och de motsvarar sex olika språkliga bakgrundsfaktorer: språkbehärskningsnivå av svenska som andraspråk, startålder för inlärning av svenska som andraspråk, modersmålets språkliga närhet till svenska, vistelsetid i Sverige, språkanvändning av svenska i emotionella kontexter och kulturell exponering av svenska. Respondenternas moraliska beslutsfattande testades genom footbridgedilemmat. Undersökningen bygger på data insamlad genom en online-enkät bestående av tre delar: footbridgedilemmat, ett språkbehärskningstest i form av en lucktext och en bakgrundsenkät. Enkätresultaten har analyserats genom Pearsons korrelationsanalys och Walds χ2-analys. Resultaten visar att det inte finns någon samvariation mellan respondenternas svar på det moraliska dilemmat och de olika språkliga bakgrundsfaktorerna, vilket innebär att ingen undersökt språklig bakgrundsfaktor påverkar respondenternas moraliska beslutsfattande i föreliggande studie.

BACKGROUND: Today’s societal changes, including high rate of change and increasing information flows, are increasing the demand on the individual mental capacity. It becomes increasingly difficult to analytically process all the different dilemmas and everyday decisions as individuals have a limited mental capacity available to make these decisions. Thus, it has been suggested that ego-depleted relies more heavily on intuition, which is less burdensome, when making decision. However little is known about to what extent intuitive decisions differ from analytic. Are ego-depleted individuals more or less likely to maximize outcome in moral dilemmas involving conflicting values? Do ego depleted individuals become more or less willing to cooperate? Do ego depleted individuals become more or less altruistic? Is our intuition more or less in accordance with Homo Economicus?AIM: Starting from a Dual Process perspective on decision-making the aim of this study is to examine how ego depletion affects moral judgment and pro-social decisions.METHOD: A laboratory experiment involving 115 subjects, using real monetary incentives, was conducted among students at Linköping University. Subjects were randomized into one of two treatments. Everything was identical across treatments except for the initial ego-depletion manipulation. Using a standard paradigm for ego-depletion subjects in treatment 1 were put under high cognitive load while subjects in treatment two were put under low cognitive load. Subjects faced 16 questions divided into four different decision tasks: Moral dilemmas, Public Goods game, two types of Dictator Game where the type of sacrifice subjects could make in order to contribute money to charity was varied.RESULTS: Subjects in the high cognitive load treatment made fewer consequentialists moral judgments compared to other subjects (p = 0.075). The effect is especially strong when looking only at high-conflict dilemmas such as Crying Baby. No difference between treatments was found for the public goods games. In the dictator game involving monetary sacrifice subjects donated less money to charity when put under high cognitive load. However the finding was not significant (p = 0.292). No difference was found in the dictator game involving effort as personal sacrifice since almost everyone chooses to donate to charity.CONCLUSION: According to The Dual Process perspective this essay shows that intuitive thinking does not evidently lead to that they makes decision that more or less is in accordance with Homo Economicus. The connection between ego depletion and pro-social decisions is more complex. Further research needs to investigate which different mental shortcuts that individuals uses in various types of pro-social decisions and why intuitive and analytical decision-making differ between different decisions. Further research within the area can identify potential mechanisms and policies that can support individuals’ capacity to make decisions in accordance with their own and society’s preferences.