Which movies have been most effective at expanding your moral circle?

By Geoffrey Miller @ 2023-02-26T02:34 (+18)

I'm curious which movies you've seen that have been effective at broadening which kinds of people, animals, or other sentient beings you've considered worth including in your 'moral circle' of concern -- especially movies that are congruent with EA-style reasoning (e.g. scope-sensitive consequentialism), rather than just emotional manipulation through provoking empathy for specific individuals.


Ariel Simnegar @ 2023-02-26T02:43 (+15)

The Dominion documentary helped me viscerally grasp the importance of farmed animal welfare:

https://watchdominion.org/

ElliotJDavies @ 2023-02-26T09:03 (+8)

Hotel Rowanda, Schlinder's list, and blood diamonds were all influential in increasing my moral seriousness as a teen

Aaron Gertler @ 2023-05-14T22:14 (+6)

Life in a Day.

Geoffrey Miller @ 2023-05-15T16:35 (+4)

Our local EA group just watched this for a movie night this weekend. Inspiring movie. (We watched the 2010 version available on YouTube here). 

NickLaing @ 2023-02-26T07:03 (+6)

I'm not sure about the level of EA congruence, but Lord of War helped me understand the effect of the small arms trade on people in sub-saharan Africa, which I didn't previously know about.

Matt_Sharp @ 2023-02-26T12:29 (+5)

Not movies, but watching Star Trek as a teenager strongly influenced my views towards non-humans. 

While the focus is typically on attitudes towards biological aliens, a couple of episodes are centred around the rights of artificial intelligence: The classic Next Generation episode 'The Measure of a Man', and Voyager episode 'Author, Author'. Though they both focus on specific individuals (namely Data, and The Doctor) they do touch on broader consequences and reasoning.

LoveAndPeaceAlways @ 2023-02-26T09:01 (+4)

The movie Joker makes a good case that many criminals are created by circumstances, like mental illness, abuse and lack of support from society and other people. I still believe in some form of free will and moral responsibility of an individual, but criminals are also to some extent just unlucky.