Abstract
Moral elevation is the prototypical emotional response when witnessing virtuous deeds of others. Yet, little is known about the role of individual differences that moderate the susceptibility to experiencing this self-transcendent emotion. The present experiment investigated the role of personality traits as moderators of elevation and its behavioral effects using economic games as a measure for prosocial behavior. One aim was to replicate prior findings on trait Engagement with Moral Beauty as moderator for experimentally induced state elevation. A second aim was to explore new potential moderators that were found to be connected to the moral realm: Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness vs. Anger, and Need for Cognition. Third, the present study is among the few investigating the effects of elevation on different prosocial actions and intentions. A sample of US American college students (N = 144) was randomly assigned to either watch a morally uplifting or a humorous video clip. Afterwards, all participants played a dictator game and an ultimatum game, and were asked to volunteer in another time-consuming experiment. In line with our hypotheses, experimentally induced state elevation promoted prosocial behavior, however, only within the dictator game. Also in line with our hypotheses, higher levels of Need for Cognition and higher levels of Engagement with Moral Beauty (but not higher levels of Honesty-Humility and Agreeableness vs. Anger) increased prosocial behavior within the experimental group. In contrast to our hypotheses, none of the investigated personality traits moderated the proneness to experience the state of elevation after seeing an elevating video clip; only the behavioral consequences of elevation were moderated. Our results replicate and extend prior findings on moderators for elevation and exemplify the importance of investigating the role of personality traits in the context of the moral elevation phenomenon.
Highlights
Putting his own life into great danger, the German industrialist Oskar Schindler saved the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories in Poland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The present experiment investigates how moral elevation and its behavioral effects are moderated by several personality traits. With respect to this aim, we intend to replicate Diessner et al (2013); the present experiment goes beyond their study since (1) we investigate additional traits which until now have not been explored as moderators of moral elevation and (2) we focus on the susceptibility to elevation and its behavioral effects in the context of economic games
We found that Need for Cognition (NFC) and Engagement with Moral Beauty (EmB) promoted the behavioral effects of experimentally induced moral elevation
Summary
Putting his own life into great danger, the German industrialist Oskar Schindler saved the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories in Poland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (for a detailed protrait, see Crowe, 2004). He even had to declare bankruptcy in 1963 and, from this time on, lived off donations by the so-called Schindlerjuden – the workers and families whose lives he had saved. He received several awards for his outstanding example of humanity (cf. Crowe, 2004)
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