Comments on: Just Pay a Fine and Move Along: The Amorality of Drunk Driving

By: BudB

BudB — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 23:22:18 +0000

I wonder how moral a person can be when they are prone to public drunkenness? It seems like this is the unique kind of crime where the mental state of the criminals is altered in a way that makes moral decision making kind of difficult. I know an NJ DWI lawyer, so I will probably ask him about the moral aspect of his clients. Should be interesting.

By: Nancy Ko

Nancy Ko — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:38:01 +0000

In reply to danariely. Thank you!

By: danariely

danariely — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:23:30 +0000

In reply to Nancy Ko.

This is not just a scenario — it is an excellent experiment by Uri Gneezy and Aldo Rustichini: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/468061

By: Nancy Ko

Nancy Ko — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 19:27:42 +0000

Very similar to a scenario described in Freakonomics: At a day care, a handful of parents would occasionally fail to pick up their kids. Consequently, the employees at the day care had to stay for an extra, say, thirty minutes. As a reaction to this “injustice,” the employees established a small monetary fee imposed upon parents each time they did not pick up their children on time. Expected to solve the problem, right? Wrong. The number of late parents increased. And why? Because the “crime” was now merely associated with a monetary fee, so any moral obligations or feelings of shame, which might previously have pushed straggling parents to arrive on time, effectively vanished.

By: Deane Nettles

Deane Nettles — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 14:44:59 +0000

Simpler; how about having to have a bumper sticker that says “I Drive Drunk” on all the cars in the family? Embarrassing both for the driver and for the family.

By: Grant

Grant — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:42:21 +0000

Make drunk driving offenders drive a car painted with “I’m a drunk driver” all around the car. It’s similar to making people pick up trash near your community.

By: Maarten

Maarten — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 17:59:31 +0000

I think lowering the legal limit to 0% (perhaps with a tiny error margin) would be a good signal that drunk driving is absolutely unacceptable. I’ve always found it strange that people are allowed to drink a little bit but not too much, before getting in the car. Especially considering that, in social situations, it’s quite hard to drink ‘just one beer’.