Moral Emotions Research Articles

What language does your heart speak? The influence of foreign language on moral judgements and emotions related to unrealistic and realistic moral dilemmas

ABSTRACT Emotional attenuation in a second language is believed to be one of the main causes of the Moral Foreign Language effect (MFLe). However, evidence on the mediating role of emotion in the relationship between language and moral judgements is limited and mainly derives from unrealistic moral dilemmas. We conducted two studies to investigate (1) whether the MFLe is present in both unrealistic (Study 1) and realistic (Study 2) moral dilemmas, and (2) whether this effect can be attributed to reduced emotionality. In Study 1, the MFLe was found in the moral judgements made by Spanish-English bilinguals. However, the same pattern was not observed in Greek Cypriot-English bilinguals’ moral judgements, and this result was attributed to the prominent role of English in Cyprus. In Study 2, the MFLe extended to realistic moral dilemmas when the outcome of the action entailed the violation of a social norm. Study 1 and Study 2 also revealed that these bilinguals experienced a wide range of emotions in their L1 and L2, which did not differ significantly across languages. Mediation analyses further indicated that the MFLe was not mediated by emotional blunting, which made us consider alternative explanations for the MFLe.

Prosocial aggression tracks genetic relatedness distinctly from emotional closeness.

Altruistic behavior is understood to largely stem from adaptations for kin altruism, contingent on degree of relatedness, and/or reciprocal altruism, contingent on degree of benefits conferred in exchange for help. Because kin qualify for both kin and reciprocal altruism, they should receive greater support than friends, as has been demonstrated in prior research. Here, we tested this prediction with regard to willingness to punish on another's behalf, comparing inclinations to aggress against transgressors when the victim was framed as an acquaintance, close friend, cousin, sibling, or oneself. Participants endorsed comparably greater direct aggression on behalf of the self, kin, or friends relative to acquaintances, despite reporting substantially greater emotional closeness to friends, consistent with what has been termed a kinship premium. Kin engendered greater aid than is explicable by affiliative emotion. Participants also reported less anger-yet trends toward greater disgust-when victims were acquaintances relative to all other conditions, replicating prior work distinguishing the social functions of anger and disgust. These results are discussed as they inform both the kinship premium hypothesis and sociofunctional accounts of moral emotion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Third-party punishers who express emotions are trusted more.

Third party punishment (TPP) is thought to be crucial to the evolution and maintenance of human cooperation. However, this type of punishment is often not rewarded, perhaps because punishers' underlying motives are unclear. We propose that the expression of moral emotions could solve this problem by advertising such motives. In each of three experiments (n = 1711), a third-party punishment game was followed by a trust game. Third parties expressed anger or disgust instead of, or in addition to, financial punishment. Results showed that third parties who expressed these emotions were trusted more than those who didn't express (Experiment 1), and more than those who financially punished (Experiment 2). Moreover, third parties who expressed while financially punishing were trusted more than those who punished without expressing (Experiment 3). Findings suggest that emotion expression might play a role in the evolution and maintenance of cooperation by facilitating TPP.

Moral Balancing in Video Games: The Moderating Role of Issue Congruency

Research has shown that performing moral or immoral actions in video games can affect the players’ moral self-worth and evoke moral emotions. People may compensate for their immoral behaviors by performing more moral actions, but sometimes performing moral actions can also license them to perform immoral behaviors later. The current study examines whether players engage in moral licensing or moral cleansing behaviors within and after video game moral scenarios. Study 1 is an exploratory study that examined a sequence of moral dilemmas in the game Papers, Please, and found that players alternated between choosing the moral choices and the accurate choices, indicating signs of moral balancing when faced with moral choices that conflict with their in-game goals. Study 2 utilized a 3 (moral vs. immoral vs. control) × 2 (congruent charity vs. incongruent charity) experiment using a moral event in the game Life is Strange to examine the moderating effects of issue congruency on moral balancing. Study 3 used three different games to replicate Study 2. The findings showed that players who performed moral actions in the game also devoted more efforts to a charity on a congruent issue. However, participants who performed a moral behavior in the game committed significantly less effort to a charity on an incongruent issue, indicating a moral licensing effect. Study 2 found that performing immoral actions in a game can motivate players to devote more efforts to a subsequent charity, regardless of issue congruity, but this moral cleansing effect was not observed in Study 3.

“What Was the Meaning of This Theatre of Absurdity” Public Shaming Meetings in the Late USSR

In recent years, we have seen a resurgence in the practice of public branding, a process in which members of a society express moral indignation at the views or behavior of an individual or a group. This stigmatization is especially common on social media, but it can also take other forms (meetings of Academic Councils and ethics commissions, the so-called cancel culture, and so on). The splitting of the public into opposing groups, the fury of the accusations, the severe consequences of stigmatization for social status, the reputation of a person, the often revealed interest of the state and certain institutions in unleashing or using stigmatization — all this makes it an important phenomenon of modern public life. Stephenson’s article examines the practice of prorabotka, a ritual of public shaming that took place in schools, universities and workplaces in the Soviet Union. It argues that rather than being events dedicated to moral improvement and re-education of individuals by the collectives (as they were seen in the official discourse), these were repressive rituals that led to social degradation of the victims of shaming. It shows that in addition to an official script, the meetings had a supplementary script that unleashed negative moral emotions and affects but also generated guilt and fear.

Moral Emotions and Their Functional Conflicts: Effects in Organizational Contexts

Moral Emotions and Their Functional Conflicts: Effects in Organizational Contexts

Moral Injury and Shame Mediate the Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Borderline Personality Disorder, PTSD, and Complex PTSD Symptoms in Psychiatric Inpatients.

Moral injury (MI) has received increased research attention in the past decades. However, despite its detrimental mental health consequences, MI has not been studied in psychiatric patients. We aimed to establish the relationship between childhood trauma, MI, and borderline personality disorder (BPD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and disturbances in self-organization symptoms (DSO), a core diagnostic criterion of complex PTSD besides PTSD symptoms, and shame as a moral emotion in an inpatient psychiatric sample (N = 240). We found that the impact of childhood trauma on present BPD, PTSD, and DSO symptoms was mediated by MI and shame; the models accounted for up to 31% of variance in symptomatology. To our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate MI in a psychiatric sample, and our results highlight the importance of considering MI as a critical factor of patient experiences in relation to childhood trauma that potentially contributes to the development of psychiatric symptoms.

Leader Narcissism, Team Empathically Driven Moral Emotions and Team Relational Quality

Leader Narcissism, Team Empathically Driven Moral Emotions and Team Relational Quality

Doing good or feeling good? Justice concerns predict online shaming via deservingness and schadenfreude

Public shaming has moved from the village square and is now an established online phenomenon. The current paper explores whether online shaming is motivated by a person's desire to do good (a justice motive); and/or, because it feels good (a hedonic motive), specifically, as a form of pleasure at witnessing another's misfortune (schadenfreude). We examine two key aspects of social media that may moderate these processes: anonymity (Study 1) and social norms (the responses of other users; Studies 2–3). Across three experiments (N = 225, 198, 202) participants were presented with a fabricated news article featuring an instance of Islamophobia and given the opportunity to respond. Participants' concerns about social justice were not directly positively associated with online shaming and had few consistent indirect effects on shaming via moral outrage. Rather, justice concerns were primarily associated with shaming via participants' perception that the offender was deserving of negative consequences, and their feelings of schadenfreude regarding these consequences. Anonymity did not moderate this process and there was mixed evidence for the qualifying effect of social norms. Overall, the current studies point to the hedonic motive in general and schadenfreude specifically as a key moral emotion associated with people's shaming behaviour.

Beyond fare evasion: the everyday moralities of non-payment and underpayment on public transport

In attempting to understand and prevent fare evasion, existing research and policy have often categorised fare evaders based on passenger ‘types’ or profiles. However, such categorisations of ‘malicious’ or ‘virtuous’ behaviours rely on underlying moral claims which often go unexamined. In this paper, we study how different actors construct such moral claims as part of everyday interactions. We demonstrate that the everyday moralities of not or under-paying are diverse, locally occasioned, and emotionally charged. Drawing on social media and video data from Chile and the UK, we examine interactions between passengers, by-standers, transport workers, and transport operators. We highlight the diverse resources that actors draw upon to construct moral claims around fare evasion, including the mobilisation of alternative moral categories; attempts to produce exceptions to formal rules; and the foregrounding of moral emotions. The paper engages with an interdisciplinary body of work which reassesses existing policies and societal responses to fare evasion, while also contributing to a nascent literature on everyday morality and mobilities.

Chinese Emotionality in Chinese Emic Concepts and its Relevance for Discourse - Influences from Ecology, Thought Systems and Folk Religion

Emotions are identified, categorised and expressed differently by different cultures and societies, what is also related to distinct reasoning (regarding which emotions are appropriate to a certain situation, time, or place, and the adequate way to express them, amongst others). A myriad factors contribute to this differentiated cultural development respecting emotionality, being geographical constrictions, history, and thought systems merely a few of them. Furthermore, discourse can be understood as a way through which culture is expressed. Chinese people have a common identity framework that dates back to a few millennia. Moreover, their cultural idiosyncrasies have a rich emphasis on emotional analysis and regulation. This work thus intends to present a few aspects of Chinese culture and society that are relevant to Chinese individuals’ perception and expression of emotionality in their everyday life, introducing also this society’s emphasis on moral, social and aesthetic emotions, and their work in contemporary Chinese discourse.

Community Violence Exposure and Bullying in Mexican Adolescents. The Mediating Role of Moral Emotions

Community characteristics can explain differences in bullying rates between schools. Underpinned by the social-ecological model, this study examined the relationships among community violence exposure (CVE), moral emotions (guilt and sympathy), and bullying in adolescents. We also explored the moderating role of gender in these relationships. The sample included 915 adolescents (48.6% female and 51.4% male) aged 11–16 (M age = 13.76, SD = 0.82). Students responded to the self-report measures. We used a latent variable structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to examine the relationships between variables. The SEM indicated that CVE was negatively associated with moral emotions (guilt and sympathy) and positively associated with bullying. In addition, CVE had a negative indirect association with bullying through their negative relationship with moral emotions. The structural model is equivalent for both genders, suggesting gender does not moderate these relationships. These findings indicate that CVE are associated with differences in school bullying rates.

Does the intention to purchase cause‐related products compared to charity donations indicate higher morality?

AbstractThe growing competition among charity organizations provides individuals with a wide selection of ways how to support specific social causes. Donations to charity and purchase of cause‐related products are two forms of pro‐social behaviors that receive the most attention from researchers and practitioners. Though their aim (to help others) and many characteristics of campaigns are similar, usually these behaviors and factors affecting them are studied separately, using different theoretical backgrounds. This paper aims to investigate these two behaviors together on the basis of identity theory and analyze how moral identity and moral emotions impact them. Based on a survey of 571 respondents, SEM analysis disclosed the positive impact of the moral identity dimension internalization on the intention to purchase cause‐related products (a private prosocial act), whereas the impact of the symbolization dimension on the intention to donate (a public prosocial act) was not revealed. The results also show that purchase intentions of a cause‐related product are influenced by empathy, while donation intentions are influenced by guilt. The results indicate that although both behaviors can be explained using the same theoretical background (identity theory), the factors triggering them vary. Additionally, this study proposes several implications for non‐profit organizations and cause‐related marketing campaigns on how to make charity advertisements more appealing and increase consumers' direct and indirect donations.

Fear facilitates utilitarian moral judgments: Evidence from a moral judgment task.

Previous research on moral judgment (MJ) has focused on understanding the cognitive processes and emotional factors that influence different types of moral judgment tasks, such as personal and impersonal dilemmas. However, few studies have distinguished between the emotions related to cognition and the complex emotions specifically caused by MJ tasks. This gap in knowledge is important to address to have a better understanding of how emotions influence moral judgment. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of fear and the role of moral emotions on MJ. Data were collected from 145 participants through jsPsych and analyzed using mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlation analysis. The study found that individuals who were triggered by the fear increased the number of utilitarian moral judgments in personal moral scenarios and lengthened the cognitive process, but not in impersonal moral dilemmas. Hence, we speculate that fear may play a cognitive role in personal moral dilemmas and an emotional role in impersonal moral dilemmas. Another finding is that the complex moral emotions arising from the moral decision-making process may affect the effectiveness of fear and potentially influence moral judgments. However, this study adopts a cautious attitude toward these discoveries, and further verification of this hypothesis should be conducted in the future.

Between death and suffering: resolving the gamer’s dilemma

The gamer’s dilemma, initially proposed by Luck (Ethics and Information Technology 11(1):31–36, 2009) posits a moral comparison between in-game acts of murder and in-game acts of paedophilia within single-player videogames. Despite each activity lacking the obvious harms of their real-world equivalents, common intuitions suggest an important difference between them. Some responses to the dilemma suggest that intuitive responses to the two cases are based on important differences between the acts themselves or their social meaning. Others challenge the fundamental assumptions of the dilemma. In this paper, we identify and explore key imaginative and emotional differences in how certain types of in-game violence are experienced by players, consider how these differences factor into the moral lives of players, and use these insights to resolve the dilemma. The view we develop is that the key moral emotion in offensive video gameplay is self-repugnance. This is not repugnance of the act one directs a game character to perform in the game, nor repugnance of the character one plays. It is repugnance of oneself in playing the game. If self-repugnance is a fitting emotional response to playing a videogame, then this is prima facie grounds for thinking it is wrong to play the videogame. Our approach to the gamer’s dilemma is to distinguish the fittingness conditions of self-repugnance from the fittingness conditions of other moral emotions as they pertain to playing videogames. We argue that because of the virtual character of the actions performed in video games, self-repugnance is a fitting response to particular kinds of offensive gameplay. On the other hand, in-game murder is not invariably a fitting ground for self-repugnance. We argue that this difference is grounded in imaginative responses to the harm of death and the harms of profound suffering. Our task is to explain and justify this difference in fittingness conditions and use this to resolve the gamer’s dilemma.

Intentions to Steal: How Equal is the Interplay Between Anticipated Moral Emotions and Self-Serving Justifications Across Male and Female Young People?

ABSTRACT The present study is concerned with the interplay between anticipated moral emotions and self-serving justifications in the explanation of intentions to steal. Theoretically, it has been suggested that both moral dimensions may interact in such a way that their effects amplify each other. This amplification hypothesis has rarely been tested. The following research question is addressed: To what extent do anticipated moral emotions amplify the impact of self-serving justifications on intentions to steal? To assess the stability of the findings, the hypothesis is tested across males and females. Online survey data are obtained from a large convenience sample of young people (N = 3584). A visual vignette was used to elicit participants’ offense-specific responses to the key concepts. Evidence suggests that self-serving justifications in the specific context of stealing and anticipated shame-guilt have strong main effects on intentions to steal. A statistically significant interaction effect is found in the full sample and the female subsample, suggesting that participants reporting weak anticipated shame and guilt are most likely to form intentions to steal in the presence of self-serving justifications. However, the effect is small and not found in the male subsample. We discuss the limitations and implications for further research.

The connections between personality, ideology and (counter-)empathic emotions depend on the target.

Examine the group-specific connections between personality, ideology, and the moral emotions of empathy and schadenfreude. Empathy and schadenfreude are emotions that often lead to moral prosocial or spiteful harmful behaviors respectively. An outstanding question is what motivates feelings of empathy and schadenfreude towards people from different groups. Here we examine two prominent motivators of emotions: personality traits and ideology. Previous work has found that people's ideological orientations towards respecting traditionalism (RWA) and preferences about group-based hierarchy (SDO) can impact intergroup emotions. Further, personality traits of low agreeableness, low openness, and high conscientiousness uniquely engender SDO and RWA. In the research presented here (Study 1 n = 492; Study 2 n = 786), we examine the relationships between personality traits, ideology, and emotions for groups that are perceived to be dangerous and competitive. We hypothesize that SDO and RWA will relate to reduced empathy and increased schadenfreude but towards unique groups. SDO will relate to reduced empathy and increased schadenfreude towards competitive, low-status groups while RWA will relate to reduced empathy and increased schadenfreude towards threatening groups. We further extend past work by investigating left-wing authoritarianism as well. We find broad support for our expectation that the relationships between personality and emotions, as well as ideology and emotions, depend on the specific group in question. These results help expand the dual process motivational model of prejudice and suggest the importance of specifying a target group when assessing relationships between personality, ideology, and emotions.

Moral Emotions in the Latin-America: A Socio-cultural and Socioeconomic Analysis

Background: Understanding how people respond to societal problems requires analyzing the experience and expression of moral emotions (ME). Despite the fact that various research on moral emotions have been conducted in Latin America, this analysis has yet to be completed, despite the fact that it is particularly important due to its link to violence and inequality. Methods: The goal of this paper is to evaluate ME research in Latin America and discuss it within the context of a socio-cultural and socio-economic analysis of this region of the world. The PRISMA searching method was applied in Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scielo, and Redalyc databases Results: The findings revealed 58 publications in Latin America that dealt with moral feelings and were consequently studied. Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile are the countries that have tackled the issue the most. Compassion, devotion, and gratitude were the three most explored MS and associated themes. Conclusion: The impact of moral emotions on persons living in various Latin American environments, as well as their prosocial acts aimed at combating violence and inequality, is revealed.

The Problem of Dilemma from the Viewpoint of Aesthetic and Ethical Existence in Kh. Hosseini’s Novel “And the Mountains Echoed”

Key words: personality, sacrifice, self-sacrifice, morality, virtue, feelings The article is dedicated to the inseparable reality of human existence – the analysis of the problem of choice. The analysis is based on the philosophical observations concluded in the works of the 19th century Danish philosopher, theologian and writer Søren Kierkegaard. The study of the problematics of the dilemma was carried out within the limits of the heroes’ life experience in the novel “And the Mountains Echoed” by Kh. Hosseini. The characters of the composition often have to face a dilemma during their lifetime, to sacrifice or self-sacrifice, to perish or be reborn morally. In the border zone, within the same reality, the heroes manifest different moral and psychological emotions, different behavior and different characteristics – taking personal or universal interests as a starting point. On their complicated path of identity search the heroes, at the aesthetic existential field, fall into oblivion, lose their common sense and the ability to judge, violating written and unwritten human laws. On the contrary, for some heroes in the existential paradigm, life's breakthrough events and the problem of dilemma serve as a transitional bridge: they have experienced moral development and now see the meaning of their existence in serving the general welfare. Considering the issue within the value systems of morality and virtue, it can be concluded that the characters of the novel make fatal decisions according to their respective existential spheres, i.e., from the aesthetic and ethical positions.

The Difference in Brain Processing Between Animate and Inanimate Beings in Moral Violation: An Electrophysiological Evidence

INTRODUCTION: Moral violation is known to elicit negative moral emotions and is associated with the electroencephalography (EEG)-derived P300 wave. However, the neural basis of moral categorisation (immoral behaviors towards animate beings or inanimate beings) has yet to be explored in moral psychology, which may increase knowledge and further understanding of brain function for the rehabilitation process. Thus our study aims to investigate the difference in brain processes between animate and inanimate moral violations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-six participants (mean age of 24 years old) were involved in the experimental observation that was held in the Neuroscience Laboratory. In the event-related potential (ERP) session, EEG-derived P300 data were recorded while participants viewed a random series of 200 trials of visual stimuli that were distributed according to the odd-ball paradigm. The trials consisted of three image categories (15% of immoral behaviour toward animate beings, 15% of immoral behaviour to non-animate beings, and 70% of neutral images). Participants also pressed the buttons numbered ‘1’ or ‘2’ while responding to animate beings and inanimate beings, respectively. RESULTS: When compared to neutral images and nonanimate objects, the brain regions that were activated with immoral behavior toward animate beings had the biggest P300 amplitude with stronger neural activation in the temporal and occipital regions. CONCLUSION: Immoral behaviour towards animate beings is associated with greater neural cognition, as reflected by the activation in most brain regions. This discovery contributes to a better understanding of the moral foundation. It could be applied in determining the abnormal pattern of brain function and as a baseline reference to be used in the medical rehabilitation field.