Moral Violations Research Articles

Evaluation of leaders who committed moral violations on the basis of support, perceived success, and effectiveness

Evaluation of leaders who committed moral violations on the basis of support, perceived success, and effectiveness

Can Business Ethics and Political Ethics Close/Narrow the Gap Between Morality and Economic Development-Power?

Can business ethics and political ethics solve the problems in business and politics caused by people's lifelong pursuit of economic and political power throughout their lives? This study, which we have built around this question, basically aims to present an analysis of the ethical violations and problems encountered in business and politics, two important areas of human experience, and the ethical emphasis developed to prevent them. In business; working, doing business, trading and pursuing pure profit and taking these as ends in themselves raise a wide variety of ethical problems in society and business life. There have been some recommendations of business ethics to solve these problems. In politics, on the other hand, we also face problems caused by the notion that public morality can be ignored, lies can be told when necessary, and any path that leads to political goals can be considered legitimate. This article argues that it is not possible to fully solve moral violations and problems in the fields of economy and politics with business ethics and political ethics. This is because the understanding of morality / ethics and human understanding underlies these problems is problematic. Utilitarianism, which was developed in the 17th century and is the moral philosophy of the English-speaking world, was formulated by Bentham and Mill and takes into account the general benefit of society on the basis of pleasure. It is an approach that does not see virtues, which are the backbone of morality, as essential because it accepts social interest and pleasure as the basis. Again, an understanding of humanity that sees people as beings with pure ambition and egoism, such idea that regards man is a wolf to man, and that is based on the motto that big fish eats the litle, is an understanding of humanity that excludes the altruism, which is characteristic of morality. If we want to fundamentally solve ethical problems in the fields of economics and politics, we need an approach that considers virtues and altruism as essential. This study emphasizes that the understanding of virtue of Aristotle and Islamic philosophers should be taken as a basis in solving problems in the field of economics and politics. It concludes that elements such as property, wealth and position, which are also at stake in the fields of economy and politics, have instrumental rather than values. Our article is a problem-oriented, partly systematic analysis, compilation article. Our study is based on the idea of shaping economic and political life from the perspective of virtue ethics.

Does a stronger moral identity lead to a more reserved sense of humor? The influence of moral identity on sense of humor and its underlying psychological mechanisms.

Three studies were conducted to examine the influence of moral identity on sense of humor, employing the benign violation theory (BVT) as a theoretical framework. Study 1 (n = 350), a questionnaire-based survey, aimed to establish a preliminary exploration of the relationship between moral identity and sense of humor. Studies 2 (n = 172) and 3 (n = 172) jointly examined the impact of activated moral identity on sense of humor (humor appreciation, humor sharing) through the recollection and writing task. The results of these studies indicated that the effects of (activated) moral identity on the sense of humor (humor appreciation, humor sharing) were moderated by the type of humor and social distance of the target. On the one hand, high levels of (or activated) moral identity can significantly and positively predict sense of humor (humor appreciation, sharing); on the other hand, when there is a moral violation in the humor, and the target involved is at a close social distance, activated moral identity decreases the humor appreciation and humor sharing, where benign judgment plays a mediating role. These findings enrich the understanding of the complex relationship between moral identity and sense of humor, and have significant theoretical and practical implications.

Standing-up against moral violations: The predicting role of attribution, kinship, and severity.

Witnesses of moral violations stand up for their moral principles, despite facing substantial costs for intervening. Notwithstanding its importance, little is known whether responsibility attributions and the relation between the victim and a witness (i.e., kinship) have different effects on the intention to intervene in situations of different severity (e.g., moral courage situations). We predict an interaction between the situation's severity and the victims' responsibility for their plight. In less-severe situations, witnesses would be less willing to help when they perceive the victim to be responsible for their plight. However, those who are not seen as responsible would receive more help. For more-severe situations, responsibility is predicted to have no effect. Opposite effects are predicted for the relationship between the helper and the victim. We further predict that perceived costs for helping mediates witnesses' willingness to intervene. Two studies showed that people are more willing to help individuals who are perceived as being innocent, but only in less-severe situations. In more-severe situations, people's willingness to intervene increases, regardless of responsibility attributions. We did not observe effects for kinship. Moreover, we provide partial evidence that witnesses of more-severe situations indeed accept higher costs for intervention.

Liberals and Conservatives Rely on Very Similar Sets of Foundations When Comparing Moral Violations

Applications of moral foundations theory in political science have revealed differences in the degree to which liberals and conservatives explicitly endorse five core moral foundations of care, fairness, authority, loyalty, and sanctity. We argue that differences between liberals and conservatives in their explicit ratings of abstract and generalized moral principles do not imply that citizens with different political orientations have fundamentally different moral intuitions. We introduce a new approach for measuring the importance of the five moral foundations by asking U.K. and U.S. survey respondents to compare pairs of vignettes describing violations relevant to each foundation. We analyze responses to these comparisons using a hierarchical Bradley–Terry model which allows us to evaluate the relative importance of each foundation to individuals with different political perspectives. Our results suggest that, despite prominent claims to the contrary, voters on the left and the right of politics share broadly similar moral intuitions.

Partisan Differences in Voters’ Desire for Punishment in Response to Politicians’ Moral Transgressions

Research shows that politicians are often not electorally punished for immoral behavior. Yet, voters may still desire to see politicians punished outside of the election context for committing moral transgressions. Moreover, these desires may be conditioned by the partisanship of the voter, the transgressor, and voters’ perceptions of moral violation severity. To examine such effects, we conduct a vignette study asking 2997 U. S. respondents to consider politicians’ moral violations. We randomly varied the moral principle violated (Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, Sanctity, and a social norm violation) and the partisanship of the politician (Republic/Democrat/Nonpartisan). When voters perceive the severity of a moral violation to be low, Republicans express a stronger desire to punish than do Democrats. Republicans’ desire for punishment depends on the group of the transgressor, with higher levels of punitiveness desired for out-party transgressors than in-party. However, when voters perceive severity to be moderate or high, Democrats have the stronger desire to punish the politician involved, but they show no in-party bias. Across the moral violations presented, Republicans and Democrats differ in perceptions of severity of politicians’ immoral behavior. Results show partisan voters’ heterogeneity in punitiveness, with the relationship strongly mediated by perceived severity of the moral violation.

When ethics are compromised: Understanding how employees react to corporate moral violations

This study investigated how employees react to corporate moral violations against external stakeholders, such as customers, the community, and the environment. Drawing from the deonance theory, we examined the relationships between employees' perceptions of corporate moral violations, their moral emotions (anger and sympathy), and their moral actions (external whistleblowing and compensating behavior) when they witness their company's ethical transgressions targeting external stakeholders. In addition, the study examined the moderating effects of employee-oriented corporate social responsibility and perceived moral violation intentionality on the impact of moral violation on employees’ emotional and behavioral reactions. The proposed model was tested using an online survey panel of 417 full-time U.S. workers. The results mostly supported the hypotheses, indicating that perceived corporate moral violation interacted with employee-oriented CSR and moral violation intentionality to affect employees' anger and sympathy, which, in turn, influenced their moral actions.

Tweeting under uncertainty: The relationship between uncertain language and negative emotions in the wild.

Despite decades of research characterizing the relationship between uncertainty and emotion, little is known about how these constructs interact in the wild. Using naturalistic, large-scale language produced on Twitter, we ask whether increases in environmental uncertainty and associated aversive emotional reactions can be captured by the millions of digital traces of people sharing their thoughts online. Analyzing more than 20 million tweets from more than 7.5 million unique users, we find that uncertainty expressions peak when environmental uncertainty is high. This effect, however, is modulated by the type of trigger that increases uncertainty. Pandemics (COVID-19 in 2020) and national U.S. elections (2021) exhibit an increase in uncertainty language and negative sentiment in the real world, illustrating the well-documented relationship between uncertainty and aversive emotional reactions acting in lockstep. In contrast, when uncertain events involve a moral violation (i.e., the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack), specific negative emotions (i.e., anger, fear, and moral outrage) sharply increase, while uncertainty language abruptly decreases. This reveals that in the real world, uncertainty and emotion have a more complex relationship than originally assumed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Different judgment frameworks for moral compliance and moral violation

In recent decades, the field of moral psychology has focused on moral judgments based on some moral foundations/categories (e.g., harm/care, fairness/reciprocity, ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity). When discussing the moral categories, however, whether a person judges moral compliance or moral violation has been rarely considered. We examined the extent to which moral judgments are influenced by each other across moral categories and explored whether the framework of judgments for moral violation and compliance would be different. For this purpose, we developed the episodes set for moral and affective behaviors. For each episode, participants evaluated valence, arousal, morality, and the degree of relevance to each of the Haidt's 5 moral foundations. The cluster analysis showed that the moral compliance episodes were divided into three clusters, whereas the moral violation episodes were divided into two clusters. Also, the additional experiment indicated that the clusters might not be stable in time. These findings suggest that people have different framework of judgments for moral compliance and moral violation.

Enhancing the Utility of the Moral Injury Experience Wheel: Manualized Applications for Diverse Contexts.

Moral injury has emerged as an important construct for understanding the distress experienced in the aftermath of a moral violation, initially among combat veterans and increasingly among other populations, such as healthcare workers and first responders. While numerous measures have been validated to assess for exposure to potentially morally injurious events and/or sequelae, additional tools are needed to facilitate nuanced discussion of the experience of moral injury in therapeutic encounters. The Moral Injury Experience Wheel (MIEW; Fleming, 2023) is an infographic instrument that is designed to elicit precise language and help differentiate feelings in an effort to process morally perplexing circumstances. This paper describes the contents and potential clinical applications of a newly developed manual to guide the use of the MIEW. The MIEW and manual are designed to be used independently or alongside existing moral injury interventions. A case study featuring the use of the MIEW and manual demonstrates how the tools can be used in a professional healthcare setting. Recommendations for moral injury care practitioners are provided.

How violation of consumers’ expectations causes perceived betrayal and related behaviors: Theoretical perspectives from expectancy violation theory

Expectancy violation theory was used as a theoretical foundation to predict the influence of brands' norms violation, expectation violation, and moral violation in developing luxury brands' consumers' betrayals. We examined the perceived influence of betrayal on consumers' behaviors, such as vindictive complaining and retaliatory behavior. The present framework also checked the boundary effects of post-purchase regret on the impact of perceived betrayal on vindictive complaining and retaliatory behavior. Data was collected from 378 luxury brand consumers using a web-administered questionnaire. We applied PLS-SEM using SmartPLS 4.0. To analyze the data. Our results revealed that predictors, i.e., norm violation, expectation violation, and moral violation, positively develop consumers' perceived betrayal. Perceived betrayal significantly triggers vindictive complaining and retaliatory behavior. This research found that moderating effects of post-purchase regret strengthen the association between consumers’ betrayal and behavioral outcomes. We enrich our understanding of betrayal and consumer psychology, identifying how positive outcomes cause negative emotions in consumer behavioral responses and offering strategies for managers of luxury brands. We also acknowledge shortcomings and highlight future avenues for research.

A Comparative Study of Luxury Brands’ PR Responses to Negative News about Endorsers in Two Categories of Legal and Moral Violations--Taking Prada as an Example

A Comparative Study of Luxury Brands’ PR Responses to Negative News about Endorsers in Two Categories of Legal and Moral Violations--Taking Prada as an Example

Building a Value-Based Workforce Through Islamic Work Value-Based Recruitment: A Conceptual Review

The increasing ethical infringements, moral violations, and disciplinary problems among employees point to the deteriorations in employee values. Hiring employees merely on common competency-based recruitment (CBR) versus value-based recruitment (VBR) ignores the critical role of values in guiding employee behaviours, thus contributing further to the problems. This study involves a qualitative approach using NVivo text analysis tool to analyse texts and word frequency from 44 references, including 35 journal articles, six policy papers, two books or book chapters and one conference proceedings. The results show that Public Sector ICT Management Review was the top journal with the highest coverage of the study’s main themes, followed by the Journal of Education for Teaching, the Human Resource Management Review, and the Advances in Health Science Education indicating the importance of the value-based workforce in these four areas of employment (i.e., public sector, education, human resource, and health). The word frequency analysis also shows the five most-used words were “values,” “work,” “based,” “selection,” and “recruitment.” These findings show that the references used in this study are valid and reliable relevant to the study’s main themes. Value-based workforce relates to value-based recruitment – building a value-based workforce begins with a good recruitment strategy. In the Islamic context, Islamic work values are highly influential and Islamic work-related values have been used as recruitment conditions for hiring employees during the Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) time and the rightly guided caliphs. If incorporated into the value- based model of recruitment, Islamic-related work values could potentially build a value- based workforce. This study has a significant implication to managers especially in finding good employees for the success of the organisation. Recruiting employees through value-based recruitment and selection is believed could reduce many work-related issues and improve organisational effectiveness. This study adds to the body of knowledge on value- based hiring by incorporating theories and Islamic work ideals, which can be used as a guide for future research.

Actualization of Islam: Conceptual Analysis and Operationalization of Intellectual Substantive Da'wah by Nurcholish Madjid In Indonesia

Islam is a religion that contains doctrine and historical values that are visible in missionary activities. This practice cannot be separated from two aspects of Islam including the development of ideas and social change. Therefore, this research aims to ensure that the practice of da'wah also encourages the development of Islamic thought patterns in the Indonesian context. By searching the literature and sharp interpretation with a hermetic approach to Nurcholish Madjid's preaching thoughts which are scattered in several of his writings and lectures. The results can be seen in the da'wah themes presented as a response to social changes that continue to develop, such as human rights, moral violations, corruption, environmental degradation, religious conflict, politics, intolerance, discrimination, the importance of quality education, and gender equality challenges played by Muslim intellectuals. In addition, ethical values in Islamic doctrine are observed and reconceptualized to ward off moral and social violations, correlated with existing challenges as done by Cak Nur (Nurcholish Madjid). Providing responsive and contextual da'wah practices as carried out by intellectuals appears to be more substantive and targets the conceptual and operational problems of society. Therefore, the contribution of da'wah activities is clearly visible in the change and progress of society.

Constitutional Values And Judges Morals In The Decision of The Constitutional Court Number 90/PUU-XXI/2023: Review of The Flow of Natural Law

The decision of the Honorary Council of the Constitutional Court stated that the Constitutional Court judges who examined case Number 90/PUU-XXI/2023 were proven to have violated the right to refuse. The right to refuse is part of the independent and impartial principle of the Constitutional Court. There has been a conflict of interest between the norms being tested and the Constitutional Court judges. Conflicts of interest are constitutional and moral violations. What are the juridical consequences of Constitutional Court Decision Number 90/PUU-XXI/2023 which violates the constitution and morals from the perspective of natural law philosophy? This research uses a normative juridical research method with a conceptual approach, a statutory approachs and a case approach. The results of the discussion have found that in the MKMK decision that the judge consciously and deliberately ignored constitutional principles regarding the right to refuse in Law Number 48 of 2009 concerning Judicial Power. Overruling the right to refuse is tantamount to overruling constitutional principles. Judges place constitutional values in practice as semantic values. Apart from that, there was a moral violation which was assessed by the lack of awareness not to review case Number 90/PUU-XXI/2023 due to a conflict of interest. Awareness comes from conscience and is closely related to integrity, independence and impartiality. The integrity of judges as enforcers and guardians of the constitution is at stake. Moral and legal principles in the constitution are two things that go hand in hand in natural law philosophy.

Decisional trade-offs towards doping and their association with moral attitudes and health risk perceptions: A mixed methods study

ABSTRACT The objective of the present research was to examine doping-related decisional trade-offs, and their relationship with health risk perceptions towards doping and moral attitudes in sport. A mixed methods sequential-explanatory design was used. In Study 1,249, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) athletes from 16 countries completed anonymous online questionnaires on decisional trade-offs related to doping, health risk beliefs towards doping, moral attitudes in sport, and socio-demographic variables. The results showed that almost 1 in 10 athletes would trade their life for sporting success, independently of the moral implications of their choice. When mortal threat was absent, 31.5% of the athletes would trade morality for sporting success. Decisional trade-off choices differentiated scores in moral attitudes, such as acceptance of cheating and keeping winning in proportion. In Study 2, 11 British competitive MMA athletes were interviewed about decisional trade-offs involving moral violations or mortal threats. Thematic analysis corroborated the Study 1 findings, with most athletes dismissing the doping choice involving a mortal threat but endorsing the one where the mortal threat was absent. Anti-doping education in MMA athletes should target the decision-making process underlying doping, with an emphasis on moral values and the adverse health risk effects of doping.

Reconceptualizing selective moral disengagement mechanisms as continuums of moral influence: a theoretical expansion

Abstract Mass communication researchers have applied Bandura’s selective moral disengagement (SMD) concept in diverse contexts to explain audiences’ acceptance of moral violations and reduced condemnation. Recent updates to moral psychology—specifically the application of social intuitionist theories—challenge SMD’s underlying assumptions, necessitating a reconceptualization. In this article, we incorporate modern social intuitionist theories of moral judgment into SMD’s underlying assumptions. We further propose a two-stage moral signal detection process consistent with current decision-making theory in order to explain how SMD reflects a modulation of both moral condemnation and moral commendation. Building on these extensions, we reconceptualize SMD’s eight original mechanisms as expanded continuums of moral influence applicable to diverse forms of moral perceptions and moral judgments. This reconceptualization of SMD removes unnecessary boundary conditions, improves the internal consistency of the theory, and can begin to resolve scholarly disagreements. We conclude the article by providing concrete suggestions for future empirical research.

Vicarious punishment of moral violations in naturalistic drama narratives predicts cortical synchronization

Punishment of moral norm violators is instrumental for human cooperation. Yet, social and affective neuroscience research has primarily focused on second- and third-party norm enforcement, neglecting the neural architecture underlying observed (vicarious) punishment of moral wrongdoers. We used naturalistic television drama as a sampling space for observing outcomes of morally-relevant behaviors to assess how individuals cognitively process dynamically evolving moral actions and their consequences. Drawing on Affective Disposition Theory, we derived hypotheses linking character morality with viewers’ neural processing of characters’ rewards and punishments. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine neural responses of 28 female participants while free-viewing 15 short story summary video clips of episodes from a popular US television soap opera. Each summary included a complete narrative structure, fully crossing main character behaviors (moral/immoral) and the consequences (reward/punishment) characters faced for their actions. Narrative engagement was examined via intersubject correlation and representational similarity analysis. Highest cortical synchronization in 9 specifically selected regions previously implicated in processing moral information was observed when characters who act immorally are punished for their actions with participants’ empathy as an important moderator. The results advance our understanding of the moral brain and the role of normative considerations and character outcomes in viewers’ engagement with popular narratives.

Report: China’s New AI Regulations

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has moved ahead of other jurisdictions in regulating Artificial Intelligence (AI) by enacting a set of regulations aimed at addressing risks associated with AI. This article reviews three key AI specific regulations enacted in the PRC in 2022 and 2023. Together these regulations set out comprehensive obligations on the use of generative AI and algorithmic recommendation services in the PRC. The obligations include general requirements such as to comply with the law and principles of fairness as well as to protect against incorrect political direction and violation of social morality. There are also more specific obligations to achieve those objectives. These include, ensuring the regulator has visibility of certain algorithms by requiring the filing of information about the relevant algorithms. Further there are specific obligations on service providers such as to label training data appropriately, take measures to screen illegal or harmful content, verify the identities of users for some services, protect against fake news and label artificial intelligence generated content as synthetic. The regulations also provide a suite of rights for users, including the right not to be targeted on the basis of their personal characteristics by services using AI algorithms. The obligations under these regulations are significant and it will be interesting to see how the PRC’s regulatory approach impacts the AI industry in the PRC in contrast to other jurisdictions where regulators are still looking at how to regulate AI or taking a different approach. PRC, China, Artificial Intelligence, AI Regulations

Adaptation of the CAD Scale to Japanese Parents: The Domains for Moral Violations in the CAD Triad Hypothesis

Adaptation of the CAD Scale to Japanese Parents: The Domains for Moral Violations in the CAD Triad Hypothesis