Moral Transgressions Research Articles

The effect of intent and character information on children's evaluations of third‐party transgressions

AbstractResearch in adults suggests that their perception of moral transgressions is affected by the moral character of the agent performing the transgression, such that undesirable actions enacted by ‘good’ agents are seen as less serious than those performed by ‘bad’ agents. This may be partly driven our tendency to view undesirable acts as less intentional when the agent has a perceived good moral character. It is currently unclear whether or not children make similar judgements. Therefore, we investigated if children's use of moral character information is consistent with their judgements of transgressions when the intent behind the act was ambiguous or blatant. Children aged 6–8‐years (N = 60) viewed a series of six moral transgressions in which the protagonist's intent was ambiguous or blatantly harmful, and their moral character was described as being good, mixed or bad. The children were then asked how much they felt the behaviour was intentional, how severe it was and the degree of punishment it deserved. Transgressions performed by ‘good’ characters were viewed as less intentional than those by ‘bad’ characters, but only when the intent behind it was ambiguous. Similarly, transgressions performed by good characters were viewed as less severe and deserving of less punishment than those performed by bad characters, although this effect was not moderated by intent information. These pattern of findings suggest that the view of transgressions performed by good individuals as less serious than the same act performed by bad individuals is established early in development.

Moral transgression modulates fairness considerations in the ultimatum game: Evidence from ERP and EEG data

People tend to dislike and punish unfair behaviors in social interactions, and this disposition may be moderated by the characteristics of their interaction partner. We used a modified ultimatum game (UG) to investigate players' responses to fair and unfair offers from proposers described as having performed either a moral transgression or a neutral behavior, and recorded an electroencephalogram. The participants' behavior in the UG suggests that people quickly demand more fairness from proposers who have committed moral transgressions rather than neutral behavior. Event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed a significant effect of offer type and of proposer type on P300 activity. The prestimulus α-oscillation power in the neutral behavior condition was significantly lower than that in the moral transgression condition. The post-stimulus β-event-related synchronization (β-ERS) was larger for the moral transgression condition than the neutral behavior condition in response to the least fair offers, and larger for neutral behavior than the moral transgression condition in response to the fairest offers. In summary, β-ERS was influenced by both proposer type and offer type, which revealed different neural responses to the offer from either a morally transgressive or a neutral behavior proposer.

Is moral disgust socially learned?

The present study examined mother-child talk about disgust. A total of 68 mothers and their 4-, (Mage = 55.72 months, SD = 4.13), 6- (Mage = 77.70 months, SD = 5.45), and 8- (Mage = 100.90 months, SD = 4.61) year-old children discussed four tasks relating to moral and pathogen disgust. Tasks comprised labeling facial expressions of emotions, generating items that would make participants disgusted or angry, identifying moral and pathogen transgressions as either causing anger or disgust, and finally rating the degree to which moral and pathogen transgressions were disgusting and justifying their responses. Mother-child dyads recognized the facial expression of happiness more accurately than that of disgust, but disgust was recognized equally well as expressions of sadness and anger across all age groups. Dyads associated moral transgressions with anger, whereas they associated pathogen transgressions with disgust. Finally, mothers and children and mothers individually rated pathogen transgressions as more disgusting than moral transgressions. Taken together, findings show that moral disgust is understood at a later age and is only used metaphorically, if at all, in children as old as 8 years old. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Children endorse deterrence motivations for third-party punishment but derive higher enjoyment from compensating victims

Children’s punishment behavior may be driven by both retribution and deterrence, but the potential primacy of either motive is unknown. Moreover, children’s punishment enjoyment and compensation enjoyment have never been directly contrasted. Here, British, Colombian, and Italian 7- to 11-year-old children (N = 123) operated a Justice System in which they viewed different moral transgressions in Minecraft, a globally popular video game, either face-to-face with an experimenter or over the internet. Children could respond to transgressions by punishing transgressors and compensating victims. The purpose of the system was framed in terms of retribution, deterrence, or compensation between participants. Children’s performance, endorsement, and enjoyment of punishment and compensation were measured, along with their endorsement of retribution versus deterrence as punishment justifications, during and/or after justice administration. Children overwhelmingly endorsed deterrence over retribution as their punishment justification irrespective of age. When asked to reproduce the presented frame in their own words, children more reliably reproduced the deterrence frame rather than the retribution frame. Punishment enjoyment decreased while compensation enjoyment increased over time. Despite enjoying compensation more, children preferentially endorsed punishment over compensation, especially with increasing age and transgression severity. Reported deterrent justifications, superior reproduction of deterrence framing, lower enjoyment of punishment than of compensation, and higher endorsement of punishment over compensation together suggest that children felt that they ought to mete out punishment as a means to deter future transgressions. Face-to-face and internet-mediated responses were not distinguishable, supporting a route to social psychology research with primary school-aged children unable to physically visit labs.

Restorative Justice Pathways in Palestine/Israel: Undoing the Settler Colonial Captivity of Jewishness

Abstract: Jewish critique of Zionism is not an abstract exercise, but one that is also, and necessarily, about Palestinians and sociopolitical realities in Palestine/Israel, where Zionist sovereignty defines the space in its entirety. This article traces sites of Jewish Israeli decolonial restorative justice potential and argues that some interventions that appear restorative, in effect, obscure and normalize historical injustices. Accordingly, a spectrum of Jewish critics posit Zionism as a form of Jewish "moral exile" or "moral transgression," and they seek Jewish authenticity to return "home" ethically. I argue that, to the degree that restorative justice practices are missing from ethical Jewish reflections on Zionism and Israelism, the sources of such Jewish critiques of Zionism remain diasporic. Focusing on the potentials of Jewish Israeli restorative justice, including those articulated by the feminist organization Zochrot and the petition of Jewish Israelis against Israeli apartheid propelled by the escalation of violence in May 2021, offers a pathway for unsettling and troubling the diasporic as the primary Jewish source of an ethical critique of Israelism as the idolatry of the Jewish State and as Zionism's imbrication in a settler colonial paradigm.

Viewing cute pictures can influence judgment of moral transgressions

Previous studies have shown exposure to something cute affects moral tendencies and prosocial behaviors, but how it affects people's moral judgment is still unknown. This study examines the effect of cuteness exposure on the judgment of morally transgressive events and explores the moderating effect of the moral transgressor's socioeconomic status. In Experiment 1, we find that individuals judged moral transgression incidents more harshly after viewing cute images. Experiment 2 examined whether the socioeconomic status of moral transgressors moderates the effect. The results revealed that when cuteness was primed, individuals were more tolerant of the advantaged than the disadvantaged, and made harsher moral judgments about the disadvantaged. In summary, the findings suggest that exposure to cute stimuli can enhance individuals’ moral sense and thus lead to harsher moral judgments. This effect is more pronounced when transgressors have low socioeconomic status.

Moral Responsibility, Moral Sanctions, and the Value and Normative Content of Morality

The paper deals with the problem of the role of moral of sanctions — an expression of retrospective moral responsibility — in the moral experience. Moral sanctions are negative consequences of a moral transgression or deviation that spring from their condemnation. This kind of sanctions includes public censure and self-censure. The author tries to establish whether the all content of morality is supported by moral sanctions. The first object of the analysis are moral norms (rules, requirements) creating obligations. There is an interesting precedent of splitting apart obligations and sanctions in H. Hart’s philosophy. Though Hart overlooks “the conceptual intuition that something can be genuinely obligatory only if those who are obligated can justifiably be held responsible or accountable for compliance” (S. Darwall). This intuition is deeply rooted in the moral consciousness and ethical thought (the most vivid examples — S. Pufendorf and J.S. Mill). But moral norms (rules, requirements) creating obligations are not the only element of the content of morality. Moral values have a capacity to influence the behavior of an agent not through norms (rules, requirements) but directly. R. Nozick supposed that there is a special type of sanction in this sphere (the so called “value sanction”). The author shows that it is not a sanction proper. The main conclusion of the paper is as follows: the moral space without sanctions and retrospective responsibility is the space there moral values influence the behavior of an agent not only directly but without overlapping with moral norms (rules, requirements). Supererogation fits the bill perfectly.

Early prosociality is conditional on opportunity cost and familiarity with the target

Developmental research in the past decade has painted the picture of a gregarious child ready to engage in a range of prosocial behavior, but less is known about the situational factors that moderate this behavior. The present study investigated the effects of cost and familiarity on children's readiness to help the victim of a moral transgression. Opportunity cost was operationalized as the time and effort expended on providing help, that could otherwise be used to earn a reward from a productive task. Familiarity varied as a function of whether there was prior contact between the child and victim. Five- and six-year-olds in Singapore ( N = 120) witnessed an adult transgressor destroy the victim's tower of blocks, responded to the victim's pleas for help in rebuilding her tower, and shared resources with both actresses. Contrary to our initial predictions, children helped a familiar victim less when cost was high as opposed to low, but helped an unfamiliar victim equally regardless of cost. Additionally, helping rates were low (30–60%) except in the least prohibitive condition (> 80%; Low-Cost, Familiar Victim), stemming from a combination of not having a productive task to occupy one's time and energy, and simultaneously a familiar target which increased one's intrinsic motivation to help. The conditional limits imposed on children's decision to help thus appear to be, “I'll help, if I know you and have nothing better to do!” In terms of resource sharing, children behaved selfishly toward both the victim and transgressor regardless of their familiarity with the victim. Altogether, our findings suggest that children consider self-interest when deciding whether to help and share with others.

Moral psychology biases toward individual, not systemic, representations.

We expand Chater & Loewenstein's discussion of barriers to s-frames by highlighting moral psychological mechanisms. Systemic aspects of moralized social issues can be neglected because of (a) the individualistic frame through which we perceive moral transgressions; (b) the desire to punish elicited by moral emotions; and (c) the motivation to attribute agency and moral responsibility to transgressors.

Moral judgements among neurotypical children, autistic children and adults with intellectual disability

Background: The present study investigates the possible differences between neurotypical children (NT), autistic children, and adults with intellectual disability (ID) related to (i) morality of the agent, (ii) morality of the action, and (iii) culpability in inappropriate situations. Method: Eighty-four Spanish participants (32 NT, 30 autistic children, and 22 adults with ID) responded to a task of moral transgression with an unambiguous structure (bad intention – bad outcome), where the stories were classified as first-order Theory of Mind (ToM) (based on simple desires) and second-order ToM (based on revenge). Results: Autistic group judged similarly to NT group. However, adults with ID had greater difficulty judging the (ii) morality of the action (compared with the autistic and NT group) and (iii) culpability (compared with the NT group). Also, ID adults encountered problems responding the moral questions in the balloon story (second-order ToM) and ice-cream story (first-order ToM). Conclusions: Autistic and NT children were able to make similar moral judgements, however adults with ID did not respond in the same way – as they were more benevolent in their judgements.

Moral transgression modulates empathy for pain: Evidence from ERP and EEG data

Empathy for others’ pain plays a critical role in human social interactions; however, the influence of moral transgression remains unclear. We examined the effect of moral transgression on the behavioral and underlying neural processes of empathy for others’ pain. Participants performed a pain-empathy task separately in a moral transgression condition and a neutral behavior condition, while an electroencephalogram was recorded. Event-related potential (ERP) results showed that empathic response, as reflected in the late positive component, was smaller when participants performed the task in the moral transgression condition than in the neutral behavior condition. Time-frequency results also showed decreased empathic effect on the beta event-related desynchronization response in the moral transgression as compared to the neutral behavior condition. However, empathic response as reflected in the N2 component was comparable between the moral conditions. These findings demonstrate a moral transgression effect on both cognitive evaluations and sensorimotor processes of empathy for others’ pain. Furthermore, spontaneous alpha-oscillation power recorded prior to the onset of empathy-inducing stimuli was significantly higher in the moral transgression condition than in the neutral behavior condition. Consequently, differences in sustained attention may be the physiological foundation of the impact of moral transgression of the observed person on the cognitive and sensorimotor processes of empathy for pain.

The performance and relational role of toast intervention in Chinese dining contexts

Abstract This study explores the performance and relational role of toast intervention in Chinese dining contexts. The analysis of both interactional data and post-event interview data indicates that the detection of moral transgression and moral identification may outweigh the power relationship and social distance in the interactional practice, and that toast intervention, by default, is relationally constructive even in seemingly conflictive situations. As a complement to previous research on ritual communication, such as countering the heckler and bystander intervention which focus on genuine aggression, this study sheds light on the ritual act of toast intervention as ‘mock intervention’, which is a form of ‘mock moral aggression’ similar to ritual teasing. Thus, this study reveals the greater significance of moral identification compared to other contextual factors, and its role in explaining the relational consequences of toast intervention in Chinese dining contexts.

Preschool Children’s Evaluations of Prototypic and Accidental Moral Transgressions Differ by Economic Strata

ABSTRACT Research Findings: Research with older children and adults reliably demonstrates that individuals raised in poverty tend to evaluate concerns related to moral concerns (i.e., related to harm, welfare, and justice) differently than do wealthier individuals. However, little work has examined these patterns in young children. Children (N=214, Mage = 53.30 months, SD = 18.3 months) completed tasks regarding accidental and prototypic moral transgressions, and a standard verbal assessment. Parents reported family size and household income, which were used to compute individuals’ income-to-needs ratio (INR) compared to federal standards. Using generalized linear mixed modeling (GLMM), a repeated-measure analysis, results indicate that children in low-income families (INR < 2.0) were more lenient in how they evaluate both accidental and prototypic issues, compared to more affluent children. Moreover, they were more likely to evaluate issues based on communal welfare (e.g., equitable resource distribution), whereas more affluent children were more likely to reference psychological harm. Practice or Policy: Practitioners and researchers of early childhood should be cognizant and sensitive to differences in children’s social understanding. We encourage scholars to use a strength-based, adaptive approach in future research on children’s cognition, particularly involving SES, class, and the like.

Reversing Pascal: scepticism about religious belief and its value

AbstractPascal famously argued that practical reasoning should lead people to try to form within themselves a commitment to religious practice and obedience, based upon a belief in God. I propose to take a less ambitious argument, which I call the Sensible Argument, and use it to present The Puzzle. I argue that there is a huge puzzle here, about the radical dissonance between the beliefs and practices of many of the purportedly religious. There are, I will argue, good reasons to doubt, concerning many (clearly not all or indeed most) purported religious believers, whether they are indeed believers, or at least whether their beliefs are strong; and religion seems to greatly increase the risks of deception, duplicity, and hypocrisy, as well as self-deception and inauthenticity. By turning towards a religious form of life, one will therefore be adding great morality-related risks. Arguably, if there is a God who deeply cares about individual moral behaviour, he would punish religious moral transgressors more than the secular ones. One is unlikely to be saved from hell (or other severe divine punishment) by becoming religious. If one is going to wager, it seems much more sensible to wager on the secular side.

Fashion, Thresholds, and Borders

Fashion, Thresholds, and Borders

Nietzsche's Last Will

Nietzsche's Last Will

The moral repetition effect: Bad deeds seem less unethical when repeatedly encountered.

Reports of moral transgressions can "go viral" through gossip, continuous news coverage, and social media. When they do, the same person is likely to hear about the same transgression multiple times. The present research demonstrates that people will judge the same transgression less severely after repeatedly encountering an identical description of it. I present seven experiments (six of which were preregistered; 73,265 observations from 3,301 online participants and urban residents holding 55 nationalities). Participants rated fake-news sharing, real and hypothetical business transgressions, violations of fundamental "moral foundations," and various everyday wrongdoings as less unethical and less deserving of punishment if they had been shown descriptions of these behaviors previously. Results suggest that affect plays an important role in this moral repetition effect. Repeated exposure to a description of a transgression reduced the negative affect that the transgression elicited, and less-negative affect meant less-harsh moral judgments. Moreover, instructing participants to base their moral judgments on reason, rather than emotion, eliminated the moral repetition effect. An alternative explanation based on perceptions of social norms received only mixed support. The results extend understanding of when and how repetition influences judgment, and they reveal a new way in which moral judgments are biased by reliance on affect. The more people who hear about a transgression, the wider moral outrage will spread; but the more times an individual hears about it, the less outraged that person may be. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Cultural Differences in Children’s Recommended Punishment of Moral Transgressions

Migration flows are as old as human history itself. In Greece, the first movements of people are recorded in the 13th century BCE and not stopped ever since. Inflows and outflows of people are a permanent future of Greek history. However, a distinction should be made between three types of flows. Firstly, people are forced to leave their country because of national agreements of resettlements. A world example of such resettlement was the exchange of population between Greece and Turkey in the first part of the 20th century. Secondly, people flee an area to save their lives because of war and prosecutions, including genocides. An example of such migration was the outflow of Greeks from Asia Minor because of the war between Turkey and Greece. Thirdly, people migrate for social reasons which may include economic, political and educational purposes. This was definitely the case of the post-Second World War period in Greece when many Greeks moved outside of Greece to find better jobs abroad (e.g., Germany); study abroad (e.g., U.K.); and to live in a democratic country (e.g., Canada, Sweden, etc.), because in Greece a dictatorship (1967-1974) had abolished democracy. Greece has also been on the receiving end of many migrants from all over the world for the same reasons. The latest example is the flow of Ukrainians who are coming to Greece due to the Russian-Belarus invasion of their country. These migration flows are examined in this paper. Keywords: migrants, refugees, migration policy, Greece, Ukraine

Morally transgressive companies and sustainable guidelines: seeking redemption or abusing trust?

Purpose This study aims to evaluate the impact of a sustainable production action on consumer trust and purchase intention by a company involved in moral transgression and also analyze the effect on consumer trust and purchase intention if a company, after green marketing, is identified as greenwashing spreader. Design/methodology/approach This quantitative nature (n = 121) study uses scale’s discriminant and convergent validity analyses, structural equation modeling and Student’s t-test. Findings Even for previously morally transgressive brands, actions of social legitimation, such as embracing environmental causes, positively impact consumer trust and purchase intention. However, consumers drop brand trust and purchase intention when verifying that this action was greenwashing. Research limitations/implications Mediating or moderating variables of ecological awareness, such as religiosity or political view, were not tested. Practical implications This article combines the impact of positive, sustainable management actions for morally transgressive companies and the effects of new transgression on their sustainable management action. Thus, it aims to reduce the gap between organizational practice and management research. Social implications This article shows that embracing society’s emerging causes and helping the world be a better place to live, moving toward the 2030 United Nations agenda, have practical repercussions for organizations. Originality/value This article contributes both to the literature and managerial implications by combining the impact of positive, sustainable management actions for morally transgressive companies and the effects of new transgression on their sustainable management action, thus reducing the gap between management research and organizational practice by unveiling the relations between sustainable actions and their perceived consequences.

The functions of anger in moral courage-Insights from a behavioral study.

Moral courage is manifested when bystanders intervene to stop or prevent others' norm transgressions, despite potential costs to themselves. Although theoretical models propose a key role of emotions, in particular anger, in the psychological processes underlying moral courage, to date this role is underexplored. In a behavioral study, we proposed a conceptual differentiation between experienced and expressed anger in response to a witnessed moral transgression. By staging the embezzlement of money from project funds in the lab, we tested whether anger arises in response to a witnessed moral norm transgression and scrutinized its unique contribution to predicting who intervenes and who remains inactive in the context of other theoretically relevant emotions (guilt, fear, and empathy). In addition, we investigated the role of bystanders' anger expression in response to the transgression. Lastly, we tested whether experienced and expressed anger reactions were predicted across time from dispositions. Our paradigm allowed us to obtain observational data of behavioral responses and anger expression and experienced emotion reports in response to a realistic moral norm transgression. Results showed that experienced anger increased after the transgression and uniquely predicted intervention. Experienced anger reaction was predictable across time from dispositional sensitivity to observed injustice. Anger expression was only loosely associated with anger experience and intervention, suggesting it may constitute a display of disapproval in itself. The present findings from a realistic moral transgression situation evidence the important role of anger in the psychological process underlying moral courage. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).