Commentaries and Rejoinder on

In the hope to resolve the two sets of opposing results concerning the effects of psychological distance and construal levels on moral judgment, Žeželj and Jokić (2014) conducted a series of four direct replications, which yielded divergent patterns of results. In our commentary, we first revisit the consistent findings that lower-level construals induced by How/Why manipulation lead to harsher moral condemnation than higher-level construals. We then speculate on the puzzling patterns of results regarding the role of temporal distance in shaping moral judgment. And we conclude by discussing the complexity of morality and propose that it may be important to incorporate cultural systems into the study of moral cognition.

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Replication of Experiments Evaluating Impact of Psychological Distance on Moral Judgment

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000188 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 45 (3) ◽

pp. 223-231 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Iris L. Žeželj ◽

Biljana R. Jokić

Keyword(s):

Moral Judgment ◽

Social Distance ◽

Psychological Distance ◽

Temporal Distance ◽

Construal Level ◽

Systematic Effect ◽

Replication Studies ◽

Opposite Conclusion ◽

Moral Transgressions ◽

Replication Of Experiments

Eyal, Liberman, and Trope (2008) established that people judged moral transgressions more harshly and virtuous acts more positively when the acts were psychologically distant than close. In a series of conceptual and direct replications, Gong and Medin (2012) came to the opposite conclusion. Attempting to resolve these inconsistencies, we conducted four high-powered replication studies in which we varied temporal distance (Studies 1 and 3), social distance (Study 2) or construal level (Study 4), and registered their impact on moral judgment. We found no systematic effect of temporal distance, the effect of social distance consistent with Eyal et al., and the reversed effect of direct construal level manipulation, consistent with Gong and Medin. Possible explanations for the incompatible results are discussed.

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On Disease and Deontology: Multiple Tests of the Influence of Disease Threat on Moral Vigilance

Social Psychological and Personality Science ◽

10.1177/1948550617733518 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 44-52 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Damian R. Murray ◽

Nicholas Kerry ◽

Will M. Gervais

Keyword(s):

Moral Judgment ◽

Disease Transmission ◽

Positive Relationship ◽

Moral Cognition ◽

Moral Foundations ◽

Multiple Tests ◽

Moral Domains

Threat has been linked to certain facets of moral cognition, but the specific implications of disease threat for moral judgment remain poorly understood. Across three studies, we investigated the role of perceived disease threat in shaping moral judgment and hypothesized that perceived disease threat would cause people to be more sensitive to moral violations (or more “morally vigilant”). All three studies found a positive relationship between dispositional worry about disease transmission and moral vigilance. Additional analyses suggested that this worry was more strongly related to vigilance toward binding moral foundations. Study 3 demonstrated that moral vigilance was higher in individuals for whom the threat of disease was experimentally made salient, relative to individuals in both a neutral and a nondisease threat condition. Taken together, these results suggest that perceived disease threat may influence people’s moral vigilance across moral domains.

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neurobiology supports virtue theory on the role of heuristics in moral cognition

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x05270097 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 28 (4) ◽

pp. 547-548 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

william d. casebeer

Keyword(s):

Moral Reasoning ◽

Moral Judgment ◽

Moral Theory ◽

Reflective Equilibrium ◽

Virtue Theory ◽

Moral Cognition ◽

Wide Reflective Equilibrium

sunstein is right that poorly informed heuristics can influence moral judgment. his case could be strengthened by tightening neurobiologically plausible working definitions regarding what a heuristic is, considering a background moral theory that has more strength in wide reflective equilibrium than “weak consequentialism,” and systematically examining what naturalized virtue theory has to say about the role of heuristics in moral reasoning.

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Effects of psychological distance on assessment of severity of water pollution

Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal ◽

10.2224/sbp.2014.42.1.69 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 69-78 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Wei Zhang ◽

Gui-Bing He ◽

Yue Zhu ◽

Long Cheng

Keyword(s):

Water Pollution ◽

Significant Influence ◽

Social Distance ◽

Psychological Distance ◽

Temporal Distance ◽

Severity Assessment ◽

Main Effect ◽

Probability Distance ◽

Degree Of Severity

We conducted 2 studies to investigate the role of psychological distance in the assessment of degree of severity of water pollution. In Study 1, 132 participants evaluated the severity of water pollution with 3 dimensions of psychological distance, that is, temporal, social, and probability, each comprising 3 levels. Results showed that temporal distance did not have a significant influence on the assessment of the severity of water pollution, whereas probability and social distance did. In Study 2, 146 participants evaluated the severity of water pollution in three 2 × 2 designs and one 2 × 2 × 2 design. Results demonstrated that, when the 3 psychological distances coexisted, the main effect of probability distance on severity assessment was significant, but neither temporal nor social distance had a significant effect.

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Moral Judgments of COVID-19 Social Distancing Violations: The Roles of Perceived Harm and Impurity

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ◽

10.1177/01461672211025433 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 014616722110254

Author(s):

Daniel L. Rosenfeld ◽

A. Janet Tomiyama

Keyword(s):

Moral Judgment ◽

Political Ideology ◽

Moral Judgments ◽

Moral Cognition ◽

Moral Foundations ◽

Total N ◽

Social Distancing ◽

Competing Hypotheses ◽

Moral Condemnation ◽

Perceived Harm

Can perceptions of impurity uniquely explain moral judgment? Or is moral judgment reducible to perceptions of harm? Whereas some perspectives posit that purity violations may drive moral judgment distinctly from harm violations, other perspectives contend that perceived harm is an essential precursor of moral condemnation. We tested these competing hypotheses through five preregistered experiments (total N = 2,944) investigating U.S. adults’ perceptions of social distancing violations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Perceived harm was more strongly related to moral judgment than was perceived impurity. Nevertheless, over and above perceived harm, perceived impurity reliably explained unique variance in moral judgment. Effects of perceived harm and impurity were significant among both liberal and conservative participants but were larger among liberals. Results suggest that appraisals of both harm and impurity provide valuable insights into moral cognition. We discuss implications of these findings for dyadic morality, moral foundations, act versus character judgments, and political ideology.

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What sentimentalists should say about emotion

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x18002601 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

Author(s):

Charlie Kurth

Keyword(s):

Moral Judgment ◽

Recent Work ◽

Relevant Information ◽

Moral Cognition ◽

Multilevel Structure

Abstract Recent work by emotion researchers indicates that emotions have a multilevel structure. Sophisticated sentimentalists should take note of this work – for it better enables them to defend a substantive role for emotion in moral cognition. Contra May's rationalist criticisms, emotions are not only able to carry morally relevant information, but can also substantially influence moral judgment and reasoning.

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