Abstract

Psychological Inquiry, 23: 143–149, 2012 Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1047-840X print / 1532-7965 online DOI: 10.1080/1047840X.2012.666199 Peter DeScioli Departments of Psychology and Economics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts Sarah S. Gilbert and Robert Kurzban Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Pinocchio is alone on a lifeless planet. Is it possible judgment, but mind perception precedes these com- for Pinocchio to do something morally wrong? If he putations” (p. 115). If a victim’s suffering has to be shouts falsehoods into empty space, will his nose grow perceived first, as the authors argue, then solo agents longer? Will the moral lessons he learned from Jiminy like Pinocchio will be incapable of wrongdoing. Cricket be of any use? Pinocchio certainly can take However, there is another way that victims could be actions prohibited by moral rules. He can commit sui- central to moral judgments. People could show victim cide, eat pork, take drugs, worship pagan gods, speak completion—the perception of a victim of a moral of- false oaths, desecrate graves, or cannibalize the dead fense even when an actual victim is absent or unclear. bodies of other marionettes. Are these actions morally We suggest a top-down account of