One factor in determining the moral intensity of an ethical issue is how quickly the consequences take effect, a factor that is known as?

• A. temporal immediacy.
• B. magnitude of consequences.
• C. probability of effect.
• D. duration of impact.

Answer: (A)

Temporal immediacy is about how quickly the consequences of an action will be felt. When the outcomes are felt soon after a decision, the ethical issue feels more urgent and salient because the link between action and result is immediately visible, increasing moral urgency in people's minds. That immediacy boosts moral intensity because people react more strongly to actions that produce near-term effects.

For context, this dimension is one part of measuring moral intensity, which considers several factors like how big the overall impact is and how likely the consequences are, but the aspect highlighted here specifically focuses on the speed of those effects.

Why this fits best: the term directly captures the timing of consequences. Magnitude of consequences refers to the size of the outcome, not how quickly it happens. Probability of effect concerns how likely it is that the outcome will occur, not the speed. Duration of impact deals with how long the effects last, rather than when they begin.