A foundation beam for studying morality from a personological point of view: Are individual differences in moral behaviors and thoughts consistent?

Morality is a topic of burgeoning scientific interest, and the relevance of personological factors to moral behavior has interdisciplinary implications for the social sciences, public policy, and philosophy. However, relatively little research has investigated the role of personological factors in moral life, perhaps because of lingering skepticism about the robustness of moral traits. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether morality is consistent across many occasions of everyday life, implying that personological factors play an important role in moral behavior. A novel method of assessing moral behaviors was developed and employed in two experience sampling studies (4075 total observations). Results showed that moral behavior is consistent in many different ways, suggesting that personological factors substantially impact moral life.     

Why schema-violations are sometimes preferable to schema-consistencies: The role of interest and openness to experience

We investigated the appraisal processes and personality antecedents that regulate people’s attraction to schema-violations - targets and objects that disconfirm schema- and stereotype-based expectancies. In two studies a preference for schema-violations (vs. consistencies) correlated positively with openness to experience, and negatively with the need for structure. In the second study, schema-violations were seen as more surprising (by all individuals), decreasing intentions to approach schema-violations, but were also seen as more interesting (by those higher in openness to experience), increasing intentions to approach and accept schema-violations. This suggests that two opposing processes - appraisals of surprise and appraisals of interest - regulate reactions to schema-violations, and that these processes are bounded by individual differences in openness to experience.