DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x25101696 ISSN: 0140-525X
Moral flexibility without mutual benefits: From change to disagreement
Yuhan Fu, Yifan MeiAbstract
Resource-rational contractualism claims that moral flexibility leads to mutually beneficial agreements through renegotiation when new situations arise. We challenge this view using COVID-19 evidence, where moral change leads to persistent disagreement rather than consensus. We demonstrate that three psychological factors – social identity, confirmation bias, and emotional responses – systematically prevent convergence, revealing limitations in the resource-rational contractualism model.