What's Right
Disgust Sensitivity, Political Conservatism, and Voting
Yoel Inbar et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In two large samples (combined N = 31,045), we found a positive relationship between disgust sensitivity and political conservatism. This relationship held when controlling for a number of demographic variables as well as the "Big Five" personality traits. Disgust sensitivity was also associated with more conservative voting in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. In Study 2, we replicated the disgust sensitivity-conservatism relationship in an international sample of respondents from 121 different countries. Across both samples, contamination disgust, which reflects a heightened concern with interpersonally transmitted disease and pathogens, was most strongly associated with conservatism.
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Class and compassion: Socioeconomic factors predict responses to suffering
Jennifer Stellar et al.
Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous research indicates that lower-class individuals experience elevated negative emotions as compared with their upper-class counterparts. We examine how the environments of lower-class individuals can also promote greater compassionate responding - that is, concern for the suffering or well-being of others. In the present research, we investigate class-based differences in dispositional compassion and its activation in situations wherein others are suffering. Across studies, relative to their upper-class counterparts, lower-class individuals reported elevated dispositional compassion (Study 1), as well as greater self-reported compassion during a compassion-inducing video (Study 2) and for another person during a social interaction (Study 3). Lower-class individuals also exhibited heart rate deceleration - a physiological response associated with orienting to the social environment and engaging with others - during the compassion-inducing video (Study 2). We discuss a potential mechanism of class-based influences on compassion, whereby lower-class individuals' are more attuned to others' distress, relative to their upper-class counterparts.
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Hal Hershfield, Taya Cohen & Leigh Thompson
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, forthcoming
Abstract:
People who feel continuity with their future selves are more likely to behave in ethically responsible ways as compared to people who lack continuity with their future selves. We find that individual differences in perceived similarity to one's future self predicts tolerance of unethical business decisions (Studies 1a and 1b), and that the consideration of future consequences mediates the extent to which people regard inappropriate negotiation strategies as unethical (Study 2). We reveal that low future self-continuity predicts unethical behavior in the form of lies, false promises, and cheating (Studies 3 and 4), and that these relationships hold when controlling for general personality dimensions and trait levels of self-control (Study 4). Finally, we establish a causal relationship between future self-continuity and ethical judgments by showing that when people are prompted to focus on their future self (as opposed to the future), they express more disapproval of unethical behavior (Study 5).
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Mimicry and just world beliefs: Mimicking makes men view the world as more personally just
Mariëlle Stel et al.
British Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
People's just world beliefs are related to how they feel and behave towards others: the stronger people hold beliefs that the world treats them fairly, the more they feel and act pro-socially towards others. It is conceivable, therefore, that pro-social feelings and behaviours towards others can strengthen people's personal belief in a just world, especially when people expect these positive feelings to be returned. Because mimicry enhances pro-social feelings towards others, we argue that mimicry may strengthen peoples' personal just world beliefs via positive feelings for the mimicked person and the expectation that these positive feelings are returned. Moreover, we expect these effects to be more pronounced for men because men have stronger reciprocity beliefs than women. The results of three studies supported this line of reasoning, showing that mimicry made men believe more strongly that the world is personally just to them. Further support for our line of reasoning was obtained by positive feelings for the (non)mimicked person (Study 2) and reciprocity beliefs (Study 3) mediating the effects. Taken together, the findings suggest that mimicry makes men view the world as more just.
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Evidence that Killing Escalates Within-Subjects in a Bug-Killing Paradigm
Andy Martens & Spee Kosloff
Aggressive Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Prior research has examined killing behavior using a paradigm in which participants believe (falsely) that they are killing bugs. This work suggests that killing behavior escalates. In the present study, we sought to replicate the basic escalation effect within-subjects. Further, in doing so, we controlled for experimenter "sanctioning" of killing that may have differed with key between-subjects manipulations in the prior research. To control for this possible confound, the present experiment held experimenter instructions constant and examined whether killing naturally escalated within-subjects across two 12-sec bug-killing tasks. Additionally, to verify that escalation is due to killing per se and not just physical practice of the procedure, we manipulated whether the procedure was described as real killing or simulated killing. Results showed that when participants thought they were killing bugs, the number of bugs put into the grinder increased from the first to the second killing task. No such escalation occurred when participants performed the procedure while knowing the killing was simulated. Thus, killing of bugs escalates and is not simply a consequence of perceived sanctioning of killing by an experimenter or simulated practice of the procedure.
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Todd Armstrong & Brian Boutwell
Journal of Criminal Justice, January-February 2012, Pages 31-39
Purpose: The current work examined the association between low resting heart rate and perceptions of the costs and benefits of criminal behavior.
Methods: Data were gathered from a sample of students in introductory criminal justice classes. Perceptions of the costs and benefits of crime were measured in response to scenarios describing assault, theft and drunk driving.
Results: Those with low resting heart rate perceived a lower likelihood of sanction and were less likely to anticipate a sense of guilt/shame should they commit assault during a confrontation. Those with low resting heart rate were also more likely to indicate that they would commit the act described in the assault scenario. Anticipated guilt/shame mediated the relationship between low resting heart rate and intent to engage in assault.
Conclusions: Low resting heart rate was related to estimations of the costs and benefits of offending. Perceived costs (anticipated guilt/shame) mediated the relationship between resting heart rate and intent to commit assault.
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Don't Say You're Sorry Unless You Mean It: Pricing Apologies to Achieve Credibility
Murat Mungan
International Review of Law and Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Remorse and apologies by offenders have not been rigorously analyzed in the law and economics literature. This is perhaps because apologies are regarded as 'cheap talk' and are deemed to be non-informative of an individual's conscious state. In this paper, I develop a formal framework in which one can analyze remorse and apologies. I argue that legal procedures can be designed to price apologies, such that only truly remorseful individuals apologize. Hence, apologies would not be mere 'cheap talk' and could send correct signals regarding an offender's true conscious state, making them credible. This will lead victims, upon receiving apologies, to forgive offenders more frequently. Moreover, pricing apologies does not negatively impact the possibility of achieving optimal deterrence. An (arguably negative) effect of pricing apologies is its elimination of insincere apologies. If it is assumed that apologies, even if insincere, carry rehabilitative and/or palliative benefits, then the optimality of pricing apologies depends on a trade-off between achieving credibility and increasing such rehabilitative and palliative benefits.
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Reflection and Reasoning in Moral Judgment
Joseph Paxton, Leo Ungar & Joshua Greene
Cognitive Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
While there is much evidence for the influence of automatic emotional responses on moral judgment, the roles of reflection and reasoning remain uncertain. In Experiment 1, we induced subjects to be more reflective by completing the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) prior to responding to moral dilemmas. This manipulation increased utilitarian responding, as individuals who reflected more on the CRT made more utilitarian judgments. A follow-up study suggested that trait reflectiveness is also associated with increased utilitarian judgment. In Experiment 2, subjects considered a scenario involving incest between consenting adult siblings, a scenario known for eliciting emotionally driven condemnation that resists reasoned persuasion. Here, we manipulated two factors related to moral reasoning: argument strength and deliberation time. These factors interacted in a manner consistent with moral reasoning: A strong argument defending the incestuous behavior was more persuasive than a weak argument, but only when increased deliberation time encouraged subjects to reflect.
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Katharine Greenaway, Winnifred Louis & Michael Wohl
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present research identified why and under what conditions perpetrator groups expect forgiveness from victims when focused on common humanity. In Experiment 1 (N = 41), thinking about victims as fellow humans increased expectations of forgiveness among perpetrator group members. Experiment 2 (N = 74) revealed the important role of subjective temporal distance in qualifying the effect of appealing to common humanity. Forgiveness expectations increased when a transgression was perceived as temporally distant rather than close. Experiment 3 (N = 70) found that expecting forgiveness was associated negatively with remorse for wrongdoing and revealed reduced empathy for victims as a mediator of the effect. Taken together, the findings reveal that factors shown to encourage forgiveness among victims can also create corresponding expectations among perpetrators. Unfortunately, this process is more likely to damage than repair intergroup relations.
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The Effects of Mood on Moral Judgment: The Role of Self-Monitoring
Victoria Pagano & Kenneth DeBono
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, December 2011, Pages 2928-2942
Abstract:
After being induced, via film clips, into either a positive (happy) or negative (sad) mood, high and low self-monitors completed a moral reasoning task (the Defining Issues Test). The results indicate that mood had a significant impact on the moral decision making of low, but not high self-monitors. In particular, low self-monitors induced into a positive mood demonstrated more sophisticated and principled moral reasoning strategies than did low self-monitors induced into a negative mood. In contrast, the level of moral reasoning among high self-monitors did not differ significantly as a function of induced mood.
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Who makes utilitarian judgments? The influences of emotions on utilitarian judgments
So Young Choe & Kyung-Hwan Min
Judgment and Decision Making, October 2011, Pages 580-592
Abstract:
Recent research has emphasized emotion's role in non-utilitarian judgments, but has not focused much on characteristics of subjects contributing to those judgments. The present article relates utilitarian judgment to individual disposition to experience various emotions. Study 1 first investigated the relationship among state emotions and utilitarian judgment. Diverse emotions were elicited during judgment: guilt, sadness, disgust, empathy, anger, and anxiety, etc. Using psychological scales, Study 2 found that trait emotions predict the extent of utilitarian judgments, especially trait anger, trait disgust, and trait empathy. Unlike previous research that designated emotions only as factors mitigating utilitarian judgment, this research shows that trait anger correlates positively with utilitarian judgment. On the other hand, disgust and empathy correlated negatively. Guilt and shame - though previous research argued that their absence increased utilitarian judgment - appear unrelated to the extent of utilitarian judgment. These results suggest that people's emotional dispositions can affect their judgment. This finding might contribute to untangling the complex mechanisms of utilitarian judgments.
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Aberrant paralimbic gray matter in criminal psychopathy
Elsa Ermer et al.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Psychopaths impose large costs on society, as they are frequently habitual, violent criminals. The pervasive nature of emotional and behavioral symptoms in psychopathy suggests that several associated brain regions may contribute to the disorder. Studies employing a variety of methods have converged on a set of brain regions in paralimbic cortex and limbic areas that appear to be dysfunctional in psychopathy. The present study further tests this hypothesis by investigating structural abnormalities using voxel-based morphometry in a sample of incarcerated men (N = 296). Psychopathy was associated with decreased regional gray matter in several paralimbic and limbic areas, including bilateral parahippocampal, amygdala, and hippocampal regions, bilateral temporal pole, posterior cingulate cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex. The consistent identification of paralimbic cortex and limbic structures in psychopathy across diverse methodologies strengthens the interpretation that these regions are crucial for understanding neural dysfunction in psychopathy.