Dual pathways to engage in ‘Silent Marches’ against violence: moral outrage,moral cleansing and modes of identification

A survey (N = 120) examined variables that contribute to the willingness of people to engage in silent marches against violence in the Netherlands. As argued in Sacred Value Protection Model (SVPM) of Tetlock, Kristel, Elson, Green, and Lerner ( 2000 ) and moral mandate theory of Skitka, Bauman, and Sargis ( 2005 ), moral threats that are triggered by violent incidents, may indeed drive people to protest against such incidents. Our findings indicated dual pathways to such protests, that are all associated with reactive, angry empathic concerns. These concerns involve people's outrageous, punitive reactions towards offenders on behalf of the victims. These concerns are directly or indirectly related to people's participation intentions. That is, they directly influence the participation intention variable, or indirectly, through (re‐)establishing the belief in a just‐world, or through more fearful, self‐directed moral cleansing reactions. These latter reactions aim at reinforcing community‐shared moral standards. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dirty liberals! Reminders of physical cleanliness influence moral and political attitudes

Many moral codes place a special emphasis on bodily purity, and manipulations that directly target bodily purity have been shown to influence a variety of moral judgments. Across two studies, we demonstrated that reminders of physical purity influence specific moral judgments regarding behaviors in the sexual domain as well as broad political attitudes. In Study 1, individuals in a public setting who were given a reminder of physical cleansing reported being more politically conservative than did individuals who were not given such a reminder. In Study 2, individuals reminded of physical cleansing in the laboratory demonstrated harsher moral judgments toward violations of sexual purity and were more likely to report being politically conservative than control participants. Together, these experiments provide further evidence of a deep link between physical purity and moral judgment, and they offer preliminary evidence that manipulations of physical purity can influence general (and putatively stable) political attitudes.     

Level and Inequality of Happiness in Nations: Does Greater Happiness of a Greater Number Imply Greater Inequality in Happiness?

Utilitarians and egalitarians have different priorities. Utilitarians prioritize the greatest level of happiness in society and are prepared to accept inequality, while egalitarians prioritize the smallest differences and are willing to accept a loss of happiness for this purpose. In theory these moral tenets conflict, but do they really clash in practice? This question is answered in two steps. First I consider the relation between level and inequality of happiness in nations; level of happiness is measured using average responses to a survey question on life satisfaction and inequality is measured with the standard deviation. There appears to be a strong negative correlation; in nations where average happiness is high, the standard deviation tends to be low. This indicates harmony instead of tension. Secondly I consider the institutional factors that are likely to affect happiness. It appears that level and equality of happiness depend largely on the same institutional context, which is another indication for harmony. We may conclude that the discussion between utilitarians and egalitarians is of little practical importance. This conclusion implies that increasing income inequality can go together with decreasing inequality in happiness and this conclusion provides moral support for Governments developing modern market economics     

Do You Reap What You Sow? The Effect of Cyberostracism on Moral Impurity

Two experiments tested whether cyberostracism increases people’s perceived moral impurity and their tendency to purchase cleansing products. In both experiments, participants were first either ostracized or included in a web-based social interaction. Next, they completed self-report measures to assess their perceived moral impurity and tendency to purchase cleansing products. The results showed that participants who were ostracized reported a higher level of moral impurity and a higher tendency to purchase cleansing products. These findings advance our current understanding on the effect of online social interaction on people’s moral self-perception.     

Threats to Moral Identity: Testing the Effects of Incentives and Consequences of One's Actions on Moral Cleansing

Individuals engage in moral cleansing, a compensatory process to reaffirm one's moral identity, when one's moral self-concept is threatened. However, too much moral cleansing can license individuals to engage in future unethical acts. This study examined the effects of incentives and consequences of one's actions on cheating behavior and moral cleansing. Results found that incentives and consequences interacted such that unethical thoughts were especially threatening, resulting in more moral cleansing, when large incentives to cheat were present and cheating explicitly harmed others. Implications are discussed in terms of ethics training, using incentives as motivators, and the depersonalized norms of science.     

Striving for the moral self: the effects of recalling past moral actions on future moral behavior

People's desires to see themselves as moral actors can contribute to their striving for and achievement of a sense of self-completeness. The authors use self-completion theory to predict (and show) that recalling one's own (im)moral behavior leads to compensatory rather than consistent moral action as a way of completing the moral self. In three studies, people who recalled their immoral behavior reported greater participation in moral activities (Study 1), reported stronger prosocial intentions (Study 2), and showed less cheating (Study 3) than people who recalled their moral behavior. These compensatory effects were related to the moral magnitude of the recalled event, but they did not emerge when people recalled their own positive or negative nonmoral behavior (Study 2) or others' (im)moral behavior (Study 3). Thus, the authors extend self-completion theory to the moral domain and use it to integrate the research on moral cleansing (remunerative moral strivings) and moral licensing (relaxed moral strivings).     

“洗”出来的效应:清洁启动对道德判断作用方向不同的影响因素探析

"身体清洁与道德洁净"的隐喻联系被广泛应用于现实生活中。基于清洁启动与道德判断的关联性研究,身体清洁与道德判断存在两个不同的作用方向,即清洁启动之后是更为严苛还是更为宽松。文章从清洁启动对道德判断作用方向不同的影响因素出发,探讨和分析了以下5个潜在的因素:清洁启动前的初始情绪状态、不同清洁操纵方式、道德事件行为主体、道德事件类型及中介(道德自我意象、政治立场等)或调节变量(强迫倾向、完美人格、思维类型等),认为未来研究不仅要考虑这些影响因素,也应该重视清洁启动操纵上的规范化,同时关注清洁启动对特殊群体的作用(如罪犯、法官等)及注重文化上的适用性。。     

道德自我调节对亲社会行为和违规行为的影响

本文通过两个研究探讨道德自我调节对亲社会行为和违规行为的影响。研究一中,被试随机分为三组,分别抄写“正性特质词语”“负性特质词语”或“中性词语”,并回忆自己所经历的与关键词有关的事情。启动完成后,考察其捐助行为。结果发现,正性特质启动组被试愿意捐助的数目显著高于负性特质和中性词语启动组。研究二用同样的方法改变被试的道德自我知觉,然后对被试的作弊行为进行了考察。结果发现,正性特质启动组的作弊严重程度显著低于中性词语启动组,负性特质启动组的作弊发生率和作弊严重程度显著低于中性词语启动组。本研究表明,道德自我调节过程不一定遵循负反馈机制：虽然“道德净化效应”在本研究中得到了部分验证,但是我们的实验结果不符合“道德许可效应”的预期。     

The threat of moral refusers for one's self-concept and the protective function of physical cleansing

We investigated how people respond to moral threats and the consequences this has for one's moral self-concept. In two experiments, participants first tasted a sausage and were then confronted with a bogus participant who had refused to taste the sausage because of moral or non-moral reasons. People disliked the moral refuser more than the non-moral refuser. The self-threatening effect of having one's morals questioned was also reflected in specific patterns of cardiovascular responses and negatively affected participants' self-evaluations. We further show that the negative effects of a moral threat can be prevented by a simple intervention of physical cleansing: Participants who had cleansed their hands before being confronted with a moral refuser did not show the negative effects on self- and refuser evaluations. Importantly, the protective effects of physical cleansing were most pronounced for people with a strong moral identity. Taken together, these results underline the importance of one's self-concept when confronted with a moral refuser, and introduce an effective intervention to prevent these negative consequences.     

Do egalitarians always help the disadvantaged more than the advantaged? Testing a value‐norm conflict hypothesis in Malaysia

Do egalitarians always express greater compassion toward the disadvantaged than toward the advantaged? A closer look at existing scholarship on the topic suggests that they likely do. Here, we investigated whether such tendency is also apparent within interdependent, high power distance cultures where the high‐status privilege prevails. Given the emphasis on harmony in social relations in interdependent cultures, we reasoned that egalitarians might experience a dissonance between their private equity values and a societal norm prescribing high‐status privilege, which we refer to as the value‐norm conflict. We therefore proposed and found evidence in Malaysia (N = 273) that egalitarians succumbed to the normative high‐status privilege in their culture: They displayed greater compassion towards higher than lower status victims, but only when the political cost of doing so was low. Interestingly, anti‐egalitarians displayed equitable levels of compassion for high‐ and low‐status victims, but only when the political cost for taking such action also was low. Hence, we show that even egalitarians can, at times, favor the privileged and that anti‐egalitarians can act equitably, so long as the political cost of doing so is trivial for them.     

Bias in the use of base rates: Racial prejudice in decision-making

Two studies investigated biases in the use of base rate information when assessing the probability of a witness' accurate identification of a white or West Indian as a burglar. An adapted version of the Kahneman-Tversky cab problem was used, to provide a social decision in which biases could be measured against some normative standard. Ethnicity of youth (white/West Indian) and nature of base rate (incidental/causal) were manipulated in a 2 × 2 between-subjects design. A significant interaction effect revealed that subjects took no account of the base rate for a West Indian subject, but used the base rate only when it was causal and the youth was white. This ‘prejudice effect’ against a West Indian youth and ‘exoneration effect’ for a white youth were replicated in a second study, using a microcomputer and chronometric analyses. Results are discussed in terms of heuristic decision-making, social schemata, and the cognitive versus motivational bases of bias in the use of base rates.     

FEMINISM BETWEEN THE SHEETS: SEXUAL ATTITUDES AMONG FEMINISTS, NOnFEMINISTS, AND EGALITARIANS

To better understand the relation of feminist identification to sexuality, we compared the attitudes of feminist, egalitarian, and nonfeminist undergraduate women ( N = 342) in five domains: (a) erotophilia (one's positive affective or evaluative responses to sexual stimuli), (b) sexual assertiveness, (c) perceived self-efficacy for safer sex, (d) sexual satisfaction, and (e) support of the sexual double standard. Significant results of ANOVA analyses included: Feminists were more erotophilic than egalitarians and nonfeminists, egalitarians were the most confident in their ability to be assertive with a partner regarding condom use, and egalitarians and nonfeminists were more supportive of a traditional sexual double standard than feminists. Consistent with Zucker (2004) , we argue that a distinctive characteristic of egalitarians is that their acceptance of feminist values with regard to their own sexual lives does not translate into a critique of gendered sexual norms for other women.     

Hate Speech, the Priority of Liberty, and the Temptations of Nonideal Theory

Are government restrictions on hate speech consistent with the priority of liberty? This relatively narrow policy question will serve as the starting point for a wider discussion of the use and abuse of nonideal theory in contemporary political philosophy, especially as practiced on the academic left. I begin by showing that hate speech (understood as group libel) can undermine fair equality of opportunity for historically-oppressed groups but that the priority of liberty seems to forbid its restriction. This tension between free speech and equal opportunity creates a dilemma for liberal egalitarians. Nonideal theory apparently offers an escape from this dilemma, but after examining three versions of such an escape strategy, I conclude that none is possible: liberal egalitarians are indeed forced to choose between liberty and equality in this case and others. I finish the paper by examining its implications for other policy arenas, including markets in transplantable human organs and women’s reproductive services.     

Macbeth and the Joystick: Evidence for moral cleansing after playing a violent video game

The “Macbeth effect” denotes the phenomenon that people wish to cleanse themselves physically when their moral self has been threatened. In this article we argue that such a threat to one's moral self may also result from playing a violent video game, especially when the game involves violence against humans. The cleansing effect should be particularly strong among inexperienced players who do not play video games on a regular basis, because frequent players may apply other strategies to alleviate any moral concerns. Seventy students played one of two violent video games and were then asked to select 4 out of 10 gift products, half of which were hygiene products. Inexperienced players reported more moral distress when the game involved violence against humans (compared to violence against objects), and selected more hygiene products in this condition than frequent video game players. Frequent players, on the other hand, reported less moral distress, irrespective of the game they played.     

Claiming a moral minority, saccades help create a biased majority: Tracking eye movements to base rates in social predictions

How do people hold erroneous views about their own moral behavior? This study investigated the use of distributional information in self and social predictions by measuring eye movements to base rates. Across 15 scenarios, participants claimed moral superiority over a comparison peer by predicting that base rates would be less predictive of one’s own behaviors than a comparison peer’s. In support of the differential use of distributional information hypothesis, participants looked less often to base rate information when making self rather than social predictions. Eye movements mediated the relationship between target of the prediction and the strength of the relationship between base rates and behavioral likelihood estimates. Implications for self-deception in self and social judgment are discussed.     

Social schemata of peripheral changes in emotion

Psychophysiological research failed to establish consistent physiological patterns differentiating emotion. Recent data showed that people verbally report experiencing peripheral changes that differ among emotions. The present studies tested the hypothesis that these reports originate in social schemata. Study 1 showed that Ss' reports of peripheral changes experienced during actual emotion do not differ from those defined in social schemata. Studies 2 and 3 showed that these schemata are similar across cultures. Overall, these data suggest that (a) people can directly access schemata about peripheral changes in emotion, (b) people are likely to do so when they believe to be reporting actual memories of such changes, and (c) the specific patterns revealed by past research may reflect prototypical knowledge of emotion. Finally, the data highlight the various peripheral patterns as they exist in schematic knowledge of emotion.     

The Pareto Argument and Inequality

The Pareto argument for inequality holds that any change from a position of equality to one of inequality is justified so long as everyone benefits from the change. G.A. Cohen criticizes this argument (which he attributes to Rawls) on the ground that changes can normally be found which preserve both equality and Pareto-efficiency. However, this does not resolve the basic conflict between the two desiderata . Strong egalitarians hold that Pareto changes are not for the better if they increase inequality too greatly. Thus if the Pareto argument holds, then strong egalitarianism is unsustainable. I argue that egalitarians need not be troubled by the Pareto argument for inequality. The Pareto criterion would not be widely accepted unless it takes account of moral harms; but if it does take account of moral harms then there is no reason to doubt that egalitarian concerns can be incorporated into the Pareto argument.
email : p.shaw@philosophy.arts.gla.ac.uk     

身体清洁增加道德判断严苛性:来自元分析的证据

该研究采用元分析技术探讨身体清洁对道德判断影响及其调节因素。通过文献检索和筛选,共有14篇文献29个独立样本符合元分析标准(N=4184)。元分析结果显示,身体清洁对道德判断影响的效应量较小(d=-0.233),且身体清洁总体上可以增加道德判断的严苛性; 调节效应检验表明,身体清洁对道德判断的影响不受身体清洁方式、清洁启动方式与东西方文化背景的影响。     

At the edge of humanity: human stem cells, chimeras, and moral status

Experiments involving the transplantation of human stem cells and their derivatives into early fetal or embryonic nonhuman animals raise novel ethical issues due to their possible implications for enhancing the moral status of che chimeric individual. Although status-enhancing research is not necessarily objectionable from the perspective of the chimeric individual, there are grounds for objecting to it in the conditions in which it is likely to occur. Translating this ethical conclusion into a policy recommendation, however, is complicated by the fact that substantial empirical and ethical uncertainties remain about which transplants, if any, would significantly enhance the chimeric individual's moral status. Considerations of moral status justify either an early-termination policy on chimeric embryos, or, in the absence of such a policy, restrictions on the introduction of pluripotent human stem cells into early-stage developing animals, pending the resolution of those uncertainties.     

洗掉不愉快的经历，留住幸福的时刻——回忆情绪事件对人们清洗/保留倾向的影响

基于道德与清洗的联系,我们假设,人们可能在经历非道德范畴的负效价事件后也会引发出“清洗”的倾向,而在经历正效价事件后则会引发“保留”的倾向。三个实验来验证这个假设,结果表明,被试在回忆道德或非道德范畴的负效价事件时,都会更多地选择具有清洗功能的物品,表现出“清除”负效价事件的倾向;相反,被试回忆正效价事件时,则会倾向选择具有保留功能的物品,表现出将正效价事件“保留”的倾向。