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"What we found was that women teachers in our study were more likely to rate their deontological approaches higher," said Aguilar.

In general, it seems that stress decreases people’s likelihood to choose utilitarian options in favor of deontological ones; that is, stressed-out people seem more likely to make decisions on the basis of whether they personally think something is right or wrong, rather than considering whether that decision benefits the largest number of people.

“Utilitarian” theories say that all that matters for morality is maximizing good consequences for everyone overall, while “deontological” theories say that some actions are just wrong, even if they have good consequences.

Utilitarian theories would praise Jaime’s decision to kill the Mad King, because it saves many thousands of lives, while deontological theories would prohibit killing one to save many others.

Out of the three comprehensive frameworks of normative ethics—the ethics of what one morally ought to do—we started with the duty-based or deontological approach.