Pahat ja/tai välinpitämättömät firmat

Edellistä postausta kirjoittaessani törmäsin seuraavaan mielenkiintoiseen kokeiluun ja siinä ilmenneeseen epäsymmetriaan eräässä Scott Sumnerin artikkelissa:

An experimental philosopher named Joshua Knobe reported some interesting findings in an interview on Bloggingheads.tv. Knobe said that two groups of people were given two slightly different stories, and then asked a question. The first group heard a story where an engineer went to the CEO of a company with a project that he said would dramatically boost profits. But there was one drawback; it would seriously harm the environment. The CEO said “I don’t care about the environment, I only care about profits. Do the project.” For the second group, everything in the story was exactly the same except that project was said to actually help the environment. Again the CEO said “I don’t care about the environment, I only care about profits. Do the project.” In both cases the listener was asked whether the CEO intentionally hurt (or helped) the environment. Most people in the first group said the CEO did intentionally hurt the environment, but most in the second group said that he did not intentionally help the environment.