Using discourse processing methods to study moral thinking

A 16-year-old gunslinger named "Doug," who performed nine drive-by shooting s in his hometown of Omaha in I year, considers the films South Central and Boyz'n the Hood to be affirmations of his aspirations and lifestyle (Hull, 1993). In contrast, most viewers of these films absorbed explicit lessons about which behaviors and life choices to avoid. What are the factors that lead to these radically different understandings of the same video text? Wh y are the "take-home" moral lessons so distinct? Combining methods and theo ry from two research areas-discourse comprehension and moral judgment-a res earch program is summarized that examines moral thinking using methods such as narrative recall, multiple-choice moral theme extraction, thinking alou d while reading, and probing for inferences while reading on computer. Thes e studies offer a new approach to uncovering how people process moral event s in discourse such as written and visual texts, persuasive messages, and r eal-life events.