Moral Emotions Research Articles

With privilege comes responsibility: Why some privileged insiders transform institutions for societal benefit

Why do some privileged insiders take action to transform institutions for broader societal benefit, while others do not? Privileged insiders are those who, because of their education, socio-economic background, formal position, citizenship, gender, and/or race, derive advantages from existing institutional arrangements. While their relative privilege places them in a better position to influence institutions, prior research would suggest that they are unlikely to do so without the prospect of personal gain. We find that privileged insiders feel compelled to engage in prosocial institutional transformation when they situate the problem not with others but with themselves, acknowledging their own complicity in structural injustice. They can navigate the emotional discomfort triggered by moral emotions by taking small pragmatic actions that lower their emotional distress and initiate a cycle of experimentation with change. Finally, we show that the practical evaluative dimension of agency plays a central role in shaping institutional change agency. Foregrounding the role of emotions in practical evaluation, we reveal how transformative templates for action emerge from a deliberative engagement with the self.

Yes, we care! Consumer emotional responses to corporate neglect of climate change and the role of individual differences

AbstractCompany activities are important contributors to climate change. Consumers take companies' actions toward environment into account when they decide to engage with these companies. We study under which conditions corporate misconduct with respect to climate change outrages consumers, eliciting negative moral emotions. Moreover, we explore the capacity of these negative moral emotions to energize consumer decisions and action tendencies to retaliate against “offending” companies. Testing two moderated mediation models on random samples of 152 adult citizens of the United States and 159 adult citizens of France, we show that negative moral emotions experienced by consumers that witness corporate malfeasance toward the climate determine negative attitudes toward the company and intentions to penalize it. Moreover, for both samples, empathy, collective self, and moral identity moderate the relationship between the perception of corporate irresponsibility and moral emotions, while the effect of political orientation is culturally specific. These findings help to uncover under which conditions consumer hostile responses toward corporate misconduct takes place.

‘Sympathy for the devil’: The strategic use of the populist repertoire in Viktor Orbán’s politics

Populist politicians such as Viktor Orbán are masters at harnessing intense and polarizing moral emotions: they stigmatize the enemies of the people, offer their community protection as self-proclaimed heroes, and at the same time, othering and moral transgressing trigger emotional overreactions from opponents. This article draws on a new analytical framework that incorporates theories of social labeling (moral panic and euphoria, moral entrepreneurship) and heroic/charismatic leadership to explore this multifaceted and antagonistic emotional relationship associated with populists. The theoretical reasoning suggests that these emotional dynamics define the moral cornerstones and boundaries of populist identity politics. Based on an analysis of four illustrative Hungarian cases – the migration crisis, anti-gender politics, the Authorisation Act during the coronavirus pandemic, and Fidesz’s expulsion from the European People’s Party – the article shows that populists can follow different paths to become charismatic heroes in the eyes of his supporters, while others still see them as folk devils due to their controversial moral entrepreneurship.

The theodicies of Hans Jonas and Jürgen Moltmann: Proposing an alternative reformed angle

Auschwitz had a profound impact on the theological landscape. It led to God’s lordship, goodness and power being put on trial. If God exists and if he is a good and powerful God, why did he not intervene to stop the atrocities committed during the Holocaust? The theologies of the Jewish philosopher Hans Jonas and the Christian theologian Jürgen Moltmann were decisively structured by these questions.Contribution: This article compares the theodicies of these two influential thinkers within the Jewish and Christian traditions by analysing their concepts of God, the nature of the cosmos and human history as well as their respective views on God’s response to suffering. Despite showing appreciation for profound insights, this article points out impasses in their arguments. Drawing on a reformed approach to the question, the article concludes that the anthropodicy question is the real elephant in the room, not the theodicy question. Instead of asking questions about God’s goodness, Reformed theology posits the incomprehensibility of human beings turning against God. We must ask: How does it happen that a self-conscious being possessing innate moral capacities, such as moral emotions and vicarious intersubjective capabilities, rebels against God and engage in atrocious acts? Seen from this perspective, the theodicy question seems to be undergirded by the human propensity to moral disengagement and blame-shifting. Perhaps, instead of putting God on trial, humans must resort to introspection.

Preschool children’s moral self-concept relates to their guilt-related behaviour

ABSTRACT The emergence of moral emotions such as guilt is central in moral and prosocial development. Guilt is an important psychological factor, which motivates prosocial behaviour and is credited for multiple social functions. Importantly, it remains unclear what determines the extent to which children show guilt. The current study examined two factors that have been proposed to support the emergence of guilt: children’s moral self-concept (MSC) and Theory of Mind (ToM). To this end, guilt-related behaviour and the two potentially explanatory factors were assessed in 5–6-year-old children (Mean age: 5.43 years, N = 133, 51% female). Most relevant, MSC predicted children’s guilt-related behaviour. Children’s ToM was not predictive for guilt-related behaviour. These findings support theoretical approaches proposing that the emergence of guilt is based on children’s developing self-concept.

Pembangunan permainan papan untuk pengajaran dan pembelajaran kewarganegaraan digital [The development of a board game for teaching and learning digital citizenship

This study aims to examine the need for using board games in teaching and learning (PdP) sessions related to the theme of digital citizenship. This study employed a qualitative approach using the Design and Development Research (DDR) methodology. Data was collected through interviews involving five Moral Education trainee teachers who had taught topics related to Digital Citizenship. The data was analyzed by adapting the three phases in the DDR Design and Development Model, where the first phase is needs analysis, the second phase is development, and the third phase is evaluation. The study results showed that the study participants had a high awareness of providing early exposure to the elements of citizenship. A teaching aid, namely a board game that incorporates three elements of digital citizenship, is needed. In the usability testing phase, the board game produced is attractive, capable of achieving three moral dimensions, namely moral reasoning, moral emotion, and moral behavior; the board game can also strengthen the relationship between students and teachers. The study's implications provide exposure to teachers to create a game-based teaching for the topic of moral and citizenship education, which can increase students' interest.

인공지능 로봇의 도덕감정 함양 가능성에 대한 검토 -초등 도덕과를 중심으로-

This study examined the possibility of cultivating moral emotions of artificial intelligence robots that are developing recently. The 2022 revised elementary moral curriculum provides an opportunity for thought by asking questions about the relationship between artificial intelligence robots and humans. For the study, we first investigated the nature and expression process of emotions from ancient Western philosophy to modern brain science and neuroscience. Based on this, we explored what kind of emotional view the currently developed artificial intelligence robots express emotions based on. As a result, current artificial intelligence robots showed responses to humans using information accumulated through facial movements and facial expressions, focusing on basic emotions, according to Ekman's theory. This may be seen as a passive form based on human physical characteristics. However, moral emotion has a complex and active character that combines understanding of moral problem situations, empathy for others, and appropriate responses to situations. Accordingly, it was recommended to clearly teach the status and limitations of artificial intelligence robots in the field of current moral emotions in elementary moral education and educate students to form desirable relationships with artificial intelligence robots.

배럿의 ‘구성된 감정이론’의 도덕 상대주의 문제에 관한 연구: 초등 도덕교육적 시사점을 중심으로

L. F. Barrett criticizes the existing essential view of emotion and insists on ‘The theory of constructed emotion’. From the perspective of construction, emotions are not passive reactions, but rather a process of active meaning construction based on concepts accumulated in experience. L. F. Barrett’s theory, which provides a new perception about emotions, suggests a new direction when educating emotions in moral education. However, L. F. Barrett’s theory falls into the problem of relativism in terms of moral emotion. In other words, problems claiming different moral legitimacy for different emotions felt in the same problem situation arise. Therefore, this study focuses on emotional language to overcome the relativism problem of moral emotion. In particular, it is intended to provide a basis for solving the problem of moral relativism by distinguishing the language of thin ethical concepts and the language of thick ethical concepts of meta-ethics. As a specific educational method for this, the application of role play for the communication and expansion of concepts, and the learning of emotional concepts were presented.

The moral masking behavior of management after real earnings management: An analysis of management's integrity commitment

This study examines the link between genuine earnings management and management's integrity commitment using data from A-share listed firms on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges (2007–2021). Findings indicate that following genuine earnings management, management tends to emphasize integrity in the MD&A section of annual reports, suggesting moral camouflage in response to negative moral emotions. This behavior is more pronounced with higher information asymmetry between management and investors, amplifying the tendency towards moral camouflage. Further analysis shows that post-earnings management, there is no significant increase in charitable contributions or CSR performance, and agency costs remain high, underscoring a preference for moral camouflage over moral purity. Additionally, management's integrity commitment does not affect analysts' future market valuations or reduce the likelihood of regulatory inquiries. The study also finds that the relationship between earnings management and integrity commitment strengthens under increased moral pressure. This research provides theoretical insights into executive behavior driven by negative moral emotions and offers practical implications for investors, auditors, and regulators.

A longitudinal study on moral emotions and psychosocial functioning among preschool children with and without hearing loss.

Moral emotions such as shame, guilt and pride are crucial to young children's social-emotional development. Due to the restrictions caused by hearing loss in accessing the social world, deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children may encounter extra difficulties in their development of moral emotions. However, little research so far has investigated the development trajectory of moral emotions during preschool years in DHH children. The present study used a longitudinal design to explore the development trajectories of shame, guilt, and pride, in a sample of 259 Chinese DHH and typically hearing (TH) preschoolers aged 2 to 6 years old. The results indicated that according to parent reports, DHH children manifested lower levels of guilt and pride compared to their TH peers, yet the manifested levels of shame, guilt, and pride increased throughout the preschool time at a similar pace in all children. Moreover, whilst guilt and pride contributed to increasing levels of psychosocial functioning over the preschool years, shame contributed to lower social competence and more externalizing behaviors in DHH and TH preschoolers. The outcomes imply that early interventions and adjustment to hearing loss could be useful to safeguard the social development of children with severe hearing loss, and cultural variances shall be taken into consideration when studying moral emotions in a Chinese cultural background.

Psychological need satisfaction, frustration, and unfulfillment profiles in the workplace: Their nature, predictors, and outcomes

Abstract Based on self-determination theory, this research relied on person-centered analyses to show how the distinct components of psychological need states combine to produce distinct profiles. We also explored contemporarily antecedents (perceptions of the organization’s environmental corporate social responsibility and negative moral emotions related to the organization’s environmental (ir)responsibility) and organizational outcomes (affective organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and cyberslacking). Questionnaire surveys were completed by 525 French employees. Four profiles characterized by configurations of psychological need states were identified and showed well-differentiated patterns. Negative moral emotions predicted membership in the most detrimental need states profiles while corporate social responsibility perceptions did not. As expected, we found opposite patterns of associations between profile membership and affective organizational commitment and turnover intentions, while the highest levels of cyberslacking were found in the most positive need states profiles. The results add to person-centered research and emphasize the importance of psychological experiences in the workplace and organizational outcomes.

Bad Guys Finish First? A Moral Emotional Perspective of Job Performance Outcomes for Abusive Supervisors

Do abusive supervisors benefit from their own harmful behaviors, or do they experience the same repercussions as their victims do? This article extends a growing stream of research that aims to understand how bad actors process their own negative actions, when they are most impacted by their adverse behaviors, and how their job performance is influenced as a result. We ground this research in a moral emotions perspective to suggest that enacted abusive supervision elicits prominent moral responses (i.e., shame or guilt), which subsequently influence the supervisor’s own work conduct. Specifically, we suggest that feelings of guilt will prompt an abusive boss to compensate for their negative behaviors by increasing performance efforts, whereas supervisors with feelings of shame will withdraw and exhibit lower work performance. Multiple mediation results from Study 1 revealed that abusive supervisors predominantly experience shame and, in turn, reduced performance. In Study 2, we expand on these findings by considering the moderating role of supervisor core self-evaluations (CSE). We find that the negative relationship between enacted abuse and supervisor performance (through shame) is exacerbated when managers possess a fragile sense of self (i.e., low CSE). Overall, the current article adds to the argument that abusive supervisors do not profit from their own negative behaviors and that they, too, suffer performance setbacks.

Othering and ethics of belonging in migrants' embodied healthcare experiences.

At a time when national identities are being reasserted in Western Europe alongside moral and intellectual visions of a cosmopolitan order more inclusive than nationalism, what does belonging mean for immigrants who are non-Europeans, particularly for women from South Asia, Africa and the Middle East? Based on the lived experiences of 23 women of diverse backgrounds, who are first-generation immigrants, regarding their experiences while accessing the healthcare system in Zurich, Switzerland, I illustrate through migrant experiences how Othering and belonging are experienced within the web of chaotic meanings and social space one navigates. By employing a phenomenological-sociological approach, I present how embodied migrant experiences can capture the experiences of being an 'Other', as well as how moral emotions such as shame and humiliation can influence one's moral self and its significance to everyday moral discourse. While much of the academic discourse around belonging focuses on a place and its related connectedness to one's racial, gender and ethnic identity, here, I analyse cosmopolitanism's possibilities through Othering/belonging experiences within the healthcare context, and beyond. I conclude this paper with the key contributions of the ethics of belonging to the normative discourse on migration health.

‘It’s really embarrassing […] to ask for help:’ navigating invisible and intersecting inequities in barriers to getting vaccinated

The arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in Canada marked the first time since the H1N1 influenza pandemic that adult vaccination became central in public health discourse, thus evoking feelings and discourse about individuals’ responsibility to get vaccinated. Public health institutions made efforts to ensure vaccines were accessible, and various local organizations worked to fill gaps in accessibility (e.g. vaccine clinics for equity-denied communities). However, despite knowledge of barriers to accessing healthcare, and specifically vaccines, public and health discourses emphasized individual objection as the main barrier to optimal vaccine uptake. This study explored how individuals who identified as a racialized minority or Indigenous person, perceived their personal responsibility to get vaccinated. We gathered perspectives in qualitative interviews (N = 27) when vaccines were first becoming available to adults living in Canada (May-June 2021). Theory about moral regulation, risk governance, and emotion informed our analysis. Findings suggest that individuals engaged in the governance of oneself and others towards getting vaccinated. However, participants also critiqued discourses that hold individuals responsible for accessing vaccines. They identified substantial barriers to accessing vaccines for individuals with fewer resources (e.g. travel time, missing work, childcare). When referencing individuals who do not know how to access information about vaccination, one participant stated, ‘it’s really embarrassing […] to ask for help.’ Feelings of individual responsibility may prevent some people uncertain about vaccines from asking for more information and support. We argue that the focus on vaccine hesitancy without attention to systemic barriers deflects responsibility for making vaccines accessible from centralized institutions to individuals.

On anger, or what Heidegger’s philosophy of affectivity offers

The article presented here thematizes Heidegger’s view of affectivity, experience and passions in the context of his reading of Nietzsche’s philosophy. Following the basic plan of Heidegger’s analysis of moods (especially fear and anxiety) in Being and Time, the author attempts to show us what Heidegger’s phenomenology of affectivity would have enabled us to see in the phenomenon of anger if Heidegger had elaborated it. The author analyzes anger as a social and moral emotion through the prism of what “angry” phenomena have in common; what we perceive when we are angry; and what it is for us that anger is even about. In conclusion, anger is presented as something existential that not only uncovers existence itself, but above all the relationship of our will to phenomena that are not acceptable to us.

Issue Fields and Echo Chambers: Increasing Field Contestation Fueled by Moral Emotions

We investigate how issue fields with increasing levels of contestation can develop into fields characterized by echo chambers. Studying the introduction of a controversial new approach to addiction services – harm reduction – we explain how proponents’ and opponents’ rhetorical arguments changed over time, transitioning the issue field through different configurations. Our findings reveal how field actors were initially differentiated by moral convictions, and as their expression of moral emotions became more intense, the two groups became increasingly divided and polarized in their views, leading to an issue field characterized by echo chambers. Through our analysis of archival materials and interview data, we explicate this process by identifying three phases of issue field transition: (1) Creating a moral emotional divide; (2) Intensifying antagonization; (3) Insulating against the other side. We contribute to the literature by presenting a model of change explaining how emotional rhetoric, together with different types of triggering events, can fuel increasing levels of contestation and drive the field toward developing echo chambers. Second, by taking a discursive view of issue fields with particular attention to rhetorical arguments, we provide foundational work for an institutional perspective on echo chamber – that echo chambers result from ongoing social processes where people encapsulate themselves based on a sense of right and wrong, in contrast to the predominant view of becoming trapped in an enclosed space. Third, through our focus on the role of moral emotions and how they can escalate in situations of contestation, we advance knowledge regarding the importance of emotions in field dynamics.

Educating Moral Emotions for 5-6 Years Old Children through familiarizing them with Fairy Tales

Educating Moral Emotions for 5-6 Years Old Children through familiarizing them with Fairy Tales

Personal Norms Predict Defending in Bullying: Mediating Role of Anticipated Pride and Guilt.

Recent studies have shown that bystander intervention involves moral engagement. However, the underlying internal mechanism is still poorly understood. Drawing on the norm activation model (NAM), Study 1 (questionnaire; n = 502) and Study 2 (experiment; n = 144) were conducted to investigate the influence of personal norms on defending through the mediating factors of anticipated pride and anticipated guilt. After controlling for age and gender, Study 1 revealed a significant positive association between personal norms and defending. This relationship was mediated by both anticipated pride and guilt, highlighting their parallel roles in explaining the influence of personal norms on defending. Study 2 investigated using writing tasks to manipulate personal norms from participants. The results revealed that the priming group had significantly higher levels of anticipated pride, guilt, and defending than the control group. Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 in testing the mediated path, enhancing the reliability of research findings. This study expands the scope of the application of NAM by examining the interplay between personal norms, anticipated pride, anticipated guilt, and defending, as well as exploring the implications of these findings for interventions against bullying. Moral education should focus not only on the responsibility and obligation of bystanders to intervene in bullying incidents but also on the need to assist students in forming a moral compass within themselves that guides them to defend victims through moral emotions actively.

Daily Variation in Religious Activities, Spiritual Experiences, Alcohol Use, and Life Satisfaction Among Emerging Adults in the USA.

Research suggests that religious activity and spiritual experiences are associated with well-being among emerging adults. This research is primarily evaluated on the between-person level, leaving within-person effects largely unexplored. We examined relations between religious activity and spiritual experiences and their relation to life satisfaction and alcohol use among 383 college students at a moderately large university in the southwest USA. Participants completed daily reports of study measures. Multilevel regression indicated that daily religious activities and spiritual experiences were directly, and indirectly through moral emotions, associated with satisfaction with life. Results suggest that students who engage in regular religious activity and spiritual experience see a concomitant increase in life satisfaction.

An Overview of Moral Psychology

Moral process has been a complex process since ancient times, and studying and understanding morality is beneficial for us to solve most of the moral dilemmas in our society, therefore, this paper mainly focuses on the introduction of moral emotions as well as the process of moral judgment, and discusses the relevant research and theories of moral psychology.