The Assessment of the Personal and Impersonal Moral Judgment According to Behavioral Activation System (BAS) and BehavioralInhibition System (BIS)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of personality dimensions on moral judgment according to the level of activity of the behavioral activating system (BAS) and behavioral inhibition system (BIS). Participants were male students in Kharazmi University who were selected based on their extreme scores in the Carver and White Personality Questionnaire and were assighined in four groups as follows: High behavioral activating system (HBAS)، low behavioral activating system (LBAS)، high behavioral inhibition system (HBIS) and low behavioral inhibition system (LBIS). Participants were assessed by personal and impersonal moral stories. Results showed that individuals with HBAS and HBIS in comparison with individals with LBIS obtained higher scores in both personal and impersonal moral judgment components. It seems that personality traits associated with BAS and BIS، which are respectively associated with positive and negative emotions lead to utilitarianism in personal and impersonal moral judgment.