Intentional action in folk psychology: An experimental investigation

Abstract

Four experiments examined people’s folk-psychological concept of intentional action. The chief question was whether or not evaluative considerations–considerations of good and bad, right and wrong, praise and blame–played any role in that concept. The results indicated that the moral qualities of a behavior strongly influence people’s judgments as to whether or not that behavior should be considered “intentional.” After eliminating a number of alternative explanations, the author concludes that this effect is best explained by the hypothesis that evaluative considerations do play some role in people’s concept of intentional action.