News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Here's how I deal with users who steal by mcherm on Tuesday October 29, 2013 @08:25AM (#6633508)
> Is telling a gay person "Homosexuality is wrong" moral or immoral?

Maybe. Because it is a question on which significant numbers of people differ, it would be a poor choice for such a study.

> Is admitting that "Mohammed is the final messanger [sic] of God" moral or immoral?

No.

> Is calling the Pope God's representative on earth moral or immoral?

No.

> Is calling Jesus devine [sic] moral or immoral?

No.

> Until you can define what you're trying to measure, you cannot do any study.

Not every action is moral or immoral, and some actions have a moral component but it is debated which is preferable. On the other hand, LOTS of actions have clearly defined and widely accepted morality. Construct your study so you measure whether participants take more than their share of M&Ms or whether they cheat on the test when they think it will be undetectable.

Re:Here's how I deal with users who steal by rmc on Tuesday October 29, 2013 @10:56AM (#6634561)
> Not every action is moral or immoral

True, but there are some actions which some people think are moral, and some think are immoral. The religious questions I gave are like that. People disagree about whether an action is moral or immoral. Some Christians will think that it's moral and right and good to call Jesus divine (and a sin and immoral to claim the opposite), whereas some (say) Muslims will think that it's blashpemy and wrong and immoral to call Jesus divine (and a moral and good thing to claim the opposite).

Re:Here's how I deal with users who steal by Fargren on Tuesday October 29, 2013 @06:01PM (#6637806)
Asumming that a subset of moral questions have black an white answers (or nearly), couldn't the study just look only at those questions?