A clean self can render harsh moral judgment

Physical cleanliness has many medical benefits, such as protection from the dangers of contagion. We explore a potential unintended consequence of cleanliness. Given the metaphorical association between physical cleanliness and moral purity (Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006), we contend that a clean self may also be linked to a virtuous self. This enhanced moral self-perception can in turn license harsher moral judgment. Three experiments found that cleanliness, whether induced via physical cleansing or through a visualization task, licensed severe judgment on morally contested issues such as abortion and pornography. Further, we found that an inflated moral self mediated the relationship between cleanliness and moral judgment. These results provide unique insight to the social significance of cleanliness and may have important implications for discrimination and prejudice.     

Negative stereotypes as motivated justifications for moral exclusion

We investigated the connection between moral exclusion of outgroups and on the one hand, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and social dominance orientation (SDO) on the other. We assumed that both RWA and SDO would increase the tendency to place other groups out of the scope of justice. However, we also tested whether negative stereotypes about an outgroup’s threatening and norm-violating misbehavior would serve as a justification for moral exclusion. These assumptions were tested in connection with Roma, Jewish, and Muslim people as target groups in the Hungarian context (N = 441). In line with our hypotheses, we found that both RWA and SDO had an indirect effect on moral exclusion mediated by negative stereotypes about the particular target group. Our findings suggested that negative stereotypes were more important legitimizing factors for RWA than for SDO. Our results highlight the benefits of interpreting the process of moral exclusion as an outcome of motivated social cognition.     

Political ideology predicts attitudes toward moral transgressors

We combine recent theoretical advances in the study of morality with a growing interest in the predictive power of political ideology to test new hypotheses concerning impression formation. In two experiments (total N = 3881), newly-formed attitudes depended upon United States citizens’ political ideology and the moral content of the attitude induction. Specifically, when forming impressions of a person violating moral foundations of Care/Fairness, political liberals disliked the person more than did conservatives. In contrast, when forming impressions of a person violating moral foundations of Loyalty/Authority/Purity, conservatives disliked the person more than did liberals. This work establishes that ideological differences are important not only for long-standing attitudes and judgments, but create attitudinal divides at the earliest stages of evaluation.     

The effects of interpersonal relationship and character gender on adolescents' resolutions of moral dilemmas

An experimental study using two forms of the Defining Issues Test [Rest, J. R. (1979). Revised manual for the Defining Issues Test. Minneapolis: Moral Research Project, University of Minnesota.], modified to present either a high degree of relationship among characters or a low degree of relationship among characters, was conducted with 114 college students. The gender of the characters in the dilemmas was also systematically varied. Both male and female students evidenced principled (Stages 5 and 6) reasoning more often when dilemma characters were male than when story characters were female. Participant gender and relationship condition were significant factors in the frequency of Stage 4 reasoning. Male students in the low-relationship condition evidenced Stage 4 (“Law and order”) reasoning most often when story characters were male, while male students, like female students in all conditions, showed Stage 4 reasoning more often when female characters were presented in the high-relationship condition. The degree to which moral decisions were supportive of an affected character revealed more support when story characters were female than when they were male. Results indicate that even in hypothetical situations, moral judgments vary with the gender of the person being judged and to some degree with the relationships among those involved in the dilemma. These findings are consistent with a view that multiple, equally valid approaches to moral judgment might exist and affect the development of male and female students differently.     

政治文明的伦理分析

政治明不是一种孤立的明,它与道德明有着十分密切的关系,它们有着共同的契合机制和互补机制;从西方政治明的发展来看,始终没有离开理性主义、制度主义、个体主义等伦理精神;政治要真正实现明,必须使政治意识要宽容、政治制度的制衡、政治行为要有序。     

Counterfeit Luxury Consumption in a Social Context: The Effects on Females’ Moral Disengagement and Behavior

What happens when females use counterfeit luxury products in a social context? The authors show that counterfeit users view social interactions they have with other people as a possible signal that their counterfeit product has been judged to be an authentic luxury product (high authenticity signal) or a counterfeit product (low authenticity signal). Low authenticity signals trigger higher levels of social anxiety than do high authenticity signals. And, higher levels of social anxiety result in decreases in moral disengagement regarding counterfeit purchases. The end result is that low authenticity signals lead to lower purchase intentions and actual spending on counterfeit luxury goods compared to high authenticity signals. In a final study, the authors use these findings to develop a new anticounterfeit advertising strategy, and show it to be effective in reducing females’ interest in purchasing counterfeit luxury products in the future.     

Religio-cultural factors as moral motivation among religiously committed Thai people: a grounded theory study

ABSTRACT

The central research question guiding this grounded theory study was: How do religiously committed Thai Protestant Christians and Thai Buddhists perceive their motivation for making moral decisions? Data for this grounded theory study were obtained through personal interviews with 24 participants willing to share their thoughts and experiences of moral motivation. Participants were adult Thai individuals who self-identify as religiously committed to Theravada Buddhism or Protestant Christianity. Although motivations were mixed and overlapped, both Buddhist and Christian participants were motivated by four predominant moral motivations: happiness and peace, karma or karma-like belief, a feeling of kreng jai (an emotion of deference and avoidance of conflict), and a concern for others. Two other less prominent categories of moral motivation were also found: Duty to moral law, and a regard for a divine person. Evidence was found that religio-cultural factors have a strong impact on moral reasoning and moral motivation.     

Do We Share a Project of Being in the World Well?

ABSTRACT

I question whether the flourishing that McMullin presents as negotiating the demands of three distinct normative domains is itself normative. If it is, I argue it must be incremental in some way to McMullin’s three normative domains, because there is no single, plausible, structural inter-relation between the domains. This leads to regress. If flourishing is not normative, then it undermines the unity of reason that is a cornerstone of McMullin’s account. These difficulties lead to further consideration of flourishing conceived, as McMullin does, as a project of living well in the world. What is the content of this project and what role can it play? If it is merely formal, i.e. without content, then it can be shared, but is empty, therefore without a role. If it has content, and so plays a role in balancing or unifying one’s responses to the normative domains, then that content comes, McMullin claims, from answers to the question, “Who am I?” However, I claim that this question and the answers it is likely to elicit cannot supply the content required. Even if it could, it could not do so to produce a project that is plausibly normative, leaving it thus disconnected from the normative domains. I conclude that the normative character of McMullin’s notion of flourishing cannot be made good. My tentative suggestions are to jettison flourishing as a central part of conceiving a life well-lived; or to swap Aristotle for Plato to supplant flourishing with the idea of a good life.     

Basic value orientations and moral foundations: Convergent or discriminant constructs?

This study examined the structural and genetic links between value orientations, based on the theory of basic values, and moral concerns, based on moral foundations theory. We hypothesized both structural and genetic convergence of Conservation (versus openness to change) with Binding foundations and of Self-transcendence (versus self-enhancement) with Individualizing foundations. We analyzed self- and informant ratings from 924 participants with extended multitrait-multirater modeling and ran twin model analyses on self-ratings from 555 twin pairs. For Conservation and Binding foundations, we found partial convergence across different rater perspectives and a substantial genetic overlap, but also distinct genetic factors. Self-transcendence and Individualizing foundations were found to be structurally divergent, but genetically linked. We discuss the conceptual and measurement-related implications of the findings.