Would you take a bullet?

How likely are you to take a bullet for somebody? University of Queensland researchers have helped develop a way of predicting the strength of your convictions. PhD candidate Daniel Crimston and Professor Matthew Hornsey from the School of Psychology introduced the Moral Expansiveness Scale (MES) to quantify the extent of our moral boundaries. "We performed six studies with the MES and it uniquely predicted willingness to engage in behaviours at a personal cost," Mr Crimston said. "One test asked 316 participants from the United States to imagine they lived in a country ruled by a powerful dictator who was planning to annihilate eight specific groups. "The targeted groups included people from the participant's hometown, people from Africa, people with intellectual disabilities, prisoners, animals and trees. "Participants were asked to consider how many of each group would need to be killed before they would sacrifice themselves in their place." Collaborating with Paul Bain of Queensland University of Technology and Brock Bastian of the University of Melbourne, the researchers reliably predicted participant responses using the MES. A participant's MES score was determined by ascertaining the composition of four moral boundaries - the Inner Circle, Outer Circle, Fringes of Concern, and Outside the Moral Sphere.