scholarly journals Morality, intentionality and intergroup attitudes

Behaviour ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 151 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 337-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Killen ◽  
Michael T. Rizzo
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
The Self ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Moral Concepts ◽  
The Core ◽  
Research With Children ◽  
New Evidence

Morality is at the core of what it means to be social. Moral judgments require the recognition of intentionality, that is, an attribution of the target’s intentions towards another. Most research on the origins of morality has focused on intragroup morality, which involves applying morality to individuals in one’s own group. Yet, increasingly, there has been new evidence that beginning early in development, children are able to apply moral concepts to members of an outgroup as well, and that this ability appears to be complex. The challenges associated with applying moral judgments to members of outgroups includes understanding group dynamics, the intentions of others who are different from the self, and having the capacity to challenge stereotypic expectations of others who are different from the ingroup. Research with children provides a window into the complexities of moral judgment and raises new questions, which are ripe for investigations into the evolutionary basis of morality.

scholarly journals Do Emotions Play an Essential Role in Moral Judgments?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William H.B. McAuliffe
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
The Self ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Psychology Research ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Core Concepts

The past few decades of moral psychology research have yielded empirical anomalies forrationalist theories of moral judgments. An increasing number of psychologists and philosophersargue that these anomalies are explained well by sentimentalism, the thesis that the presence ofan emotion is necessary for the formation of a sincere moral judgment. The present reviewreveals that while emotions and moral judgments indeed often co-occur, there is scant evidencethat emotions directly cause or constitute moral judgments. Research on disgust, anger,sympathy, and guilt indicates that people only reliably experience emotions when judgingconduct that is relevant to the welfare of the self and valued others. Moreover, many recentstudies have either failed to replicate or exposed crucial confounds in the most cited evidence insupport of sentimentalism. Moral psychologists should jettison sentimentalism, and focus insteadon how considerations of harm and welfare—the core concepts of rationalist theories— interactwith empirical beliefs to shape moral judgments.

scholarly journals Spacious Environments Make Us Tolerant—The Role of Emotion and Metaphor

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (19) ◽  
pp. 10530
Author(s):  
Chenjing Wu ◽  
Fuqun Liang ◽  
Xiaoling Liang ◽  
Chuangbing Huang ◽  
Hua Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Mediation Effect ◽  
Rating Score ◽  
Metaphor Processing ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
The Relationship

The physical environment plays an important role in moral cognition. Previous research has demonstrated that the physical environment affects individual moral judgment. Investigators have argued that the environment influences moral judgment through emotion and cognition, such as during metaphor processing. Following the intensification of urbanization and increases in population size, the phenomenon of a narrow environment has become more common. However, the relation between environmental spaciousness and moral judgment has not been thoroughly examined. We examined the effect of environmental spaciousness (spaciousness vs. narrowness) on moral judgments in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2. Results showed that participants report a higher rating score of moral judgment in more spacious environments compared with narrow environments. We further explored the roles of emotion and metaphor in the relation between environmental spaciousness and moral judgments. We found support for a partial mediation effect of emotion in the relationship between environmental spaciousness and moral judgment. The results also supported an association between the concept of spaciousness and tolerant cognition. Spacious environments may elicit positive emotions and more tolerant cognition, which in turn influences moral judgment. These results provide new evidence for the influence of the environment on moral judgments, and more attention may be warranted to incorporate this relationship in environmental design.

scholarly journals So Gross and Yet so Far Away

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 689-701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius van Dijke ◽  
Gijs van Houwelingen ◽  
David De Cremer ◽  
Leander De Schutter
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
The Self ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Trait Anger ◽  
Norm Violations ◽  
Corrupt Politician ◽  
Pathogen Avoidance ◽  
Moderating Role

People morally evaluate norm violations that occur at various distances from the self (e.g., a corrupt politician vs. a cheating spouse). Yet, distance is rarely studied as a moderator of moral judgment processes. We focus on the influence of disgust on moral judgments, as evidence here has remained inconclusive. Based on feelings as information theory and the notion that disgust evolved as a pathogen avoidance mechanism, we argue that disgust influences moral judgment of psychologically distant (vs. near) norm violations. Studies 1 and 3 show that trait disgust sensitivity (but not trait anger and fear) more strongly predicts moral judgment of distant than near violations. Studies 2 and 4 show that incidental disgust affects moral judgment of distant (vs. near) violations and that the moderating role of distance is mediated by involvement of others (vs. the self) in the evaluator’s conceptualization of the violation.

Do People Believe That They Are More Deontological Than Others?

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (8) ◽  
pp. 1308-1320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming-Hui Li ◽  
Li-Lin Rao
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Social Exchange ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Construal Level Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Protective Mechanism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Protected Values

The question of how we decide that someone else has done something wrong is at the heart of moral psychology. Little work has been done to investigate whether people believe that others’ moral judgment differs from their own in moral dilemmas. We conducted four experiments using various measures and diverse samples to demonstrate the self–other discrepancy in moral judgment. We found that (a) people were more deontological when they made moral judgments themselves than when they judged a stranger (Studies 1-4) and (b) a protected values (PVs) account outperformed an emotion account and a construal-level theory account in explaining this self–other discrepancy (Studies 3 and 4). We argued that the self–other discrepancy in moral judgment may serve as a protective mechanism co-evolving alongside the social exchange mechanism and may contribute to better understanding the obstacles preventing people from cooperation.

Is Empathy Required for Making Moral Judgments?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Deigh
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Psychopathic Personality ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Psychological Profile ◽  
Main Thesis ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Additional Support

This essay is a study of the nature of moral judgment. Its main thesis is that moral judgment is a type of judgment defined by its content and not its psychological profile. The essay arrives at this thesis through a critical examination of Hume’s sentimentalism and the role of empathy in its account of moral judgment. The main objection to Hume’s account is its exclusion of people whom one can describe as making moral judgments though they have no motivation to act on them. Consideration of such people, particularly those with a psychopathic personality, argues for a distinction between different types of moral judgment in keeping with the essay’s main thesis. Additional support for the main thesis is then drawn from Piaget’s theory of moral judgment in children.

Pathways to Success Through Identity-Based Motivation

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphna Oyserman
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Core ◽  
Very Young Children ◽  
The Future ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Fidelity Measures ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Taking Action ◽  
Minimal Effort

Everyone can imagine their future self, even very young children, and this future self is usually positive and education-linked. To make progress toward an aspired future or away from a feared future requires people to plan and take action. Unfortunately, most people often start too late and commit minimal effort to ineffective strategies that lead their attention elsewhere. As a result, their high hopes and earnest resolutions often fall short. In Pathways to Success Through Identity-Based Motivation Daphna Oyserman focuses on situational constraints and affordances that trigger or impede taking action. Focusing on when the future-self matters and how to reduce the shortfall between the self that one aspires to become and the outcomes that one actually attains, Oyserman introduces the reader to the core theoretical framework of identity-based motivation (IBM) theory. IBM theory is the prediction that people prefer to act in identity-congruent ways but that the identity-to-behavior link is opaque for a number of reasons (the future feels far away, difficulty of working on goals is misinterpreted, and strategies for attaining goals do not feel identity-congruent). Oyserman's book goes on to also include the stakes and how the importance of education comes into play as it improves the lives of the individual, their family, and their society. The framework of IBM theory and how to achieve it is broken down into three parts: how to translate identity-based motivation into a practical intervention, an outline of the intervention, and empirical evidence that it works. In addition, the book also includes an implementation manual and fidelity measures for educators utilizing this book to intervene for the improvement of academic outcomes.

The Limits of Emotion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua May
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Frontotemporal Dementia ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Moral Cognition ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Moral Concepts ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
The Brain

Empirical research apparently suggests that emotions play an integral role in moral judgment. The evidence for sentimentalism is diverse, but it is rather weak and has generally been overblown. There is no evidence that our moral concepts themselves are partly composed of or necessarily dependent on emotions. While the moral/conventional distinction may partly characterize the essence of moral judgment, moral norms needn’t be backed by affect in order to transcend convention. Priming people with incidental emotions like disgust doesn’t make them moralize actions. Finally, moral judgment can only be somewhat impaired by damage to areas of the brain that are generally associated with emotional processing (as in acquired sociopathy and frontotemporal dementia). While psychopaths exhibit both emotional and rational deficits, the latter alone can explain any minor defects in moral cognition.

Effect of Power on Moral Judgment

1978 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-394
Author(s):  
Russell Hamby
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Low Power ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Factorial Design ◽  
High Power ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Need For Power ◽  
Experimenter Effects

Ambiguous effects of power on attributions of moral responsibility for an accident are interpreted to result from the intervening effects of need for power, which is aroused by the anticipation of exercising power over another. 160 subjects from introductory social psychology classes participated in a questionnaire-type experiment comparing effects of high/low carelessness, severe/minor consequences, and high/low power of the attributor in a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design. In a follow-up experiment 30 subjects were assigned to conditions of high or low power, and their needs for power and moral attributions were measured. High power seemed to arouse need for power, which was curvilinearly related to moral judgments. Those high and low in need for power attributed more moral responsibility to the perpetrator of an accident than those with moderate levels of need for power. The results suggest complicated models of both moral judgments and experimenter effects related to the level or arousal of motivations.

scholarly journals Only the brave: improving self-rationing efficiency among discouraged Swiss SMEs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reto Wernli ◽  
Andreas Dietrich
Keyword(s):  
Unique Feature ◽  
Bank Loans ◽  
The Self ◽  
Bank Loan ◽  
Firm Characteristics ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Banking Market ◽  
Application Procedure ◽  
Discouraged Borrowers ◽  
New Evidence

AbstractWe conduct a survey among 1922 Swiss SMEs to analyze their access to bank loans. Credit-constrained SMEs are six times more likely to be discouraged than rejected. The most dominant reasons for being discouraged are too high collateral requirements, cumbersome application procedure, and the expectation of being turned down. Through a unique feature in the Swiss banking market, we also find new evidence for the importance of a strong firm–bank relationship. We challenge the assumption that discouraged borrowers are very similar to rejected borrowers. Our results indicate that the group of discouraged borrowers is more similar to the denied borrowers than to the group of approved borrowers, but only with respect to firm characteristics. For variables describing business development and firm–bank relationship, discouraged SMEs have less in common with credit-constrained firms than with their unconstrained counterparts. Even with a conservative prediction, about 60% of the discouraged firms would have obtained a bank loan if they had applied for one. The self-rationing mechanism observed is thus rather inefficient, and banks and policy makers should think about how to foster SMEs’ courage to apply for the bank loans they need.

scholarly journals Influence of Salt on the Self-Organization in Solutions of Star-Shaped Poly-2-alkyl-2-oxazoline and Poly-2-alkyl-2-oxazine on Heating

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1152
Author(s):  
Tatyana Kirila ◽  
Anna Smirnova ◽  
Alla Razina ◽  
Andrey Tenkovtsev ◽  
Alexander Filippov
Keyword(s):  
Phase Separation ◽  
Salt Concentration ◽  
Monomer Unit ◽  
Salt Content ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Phase Separation Temperature ◽  
The Core ◽  
Separation Temperature ◽  
Water Salt

The water–salt solutions of star-shaped six-arm poly-2-alkyl-2-oxazines and poly-2-alkyl-2-oxazolines were studied by light scattering and turbidimetry. The core was hexaaza[26]orthoparacyclophane and the arms were poly-2-ethyl-2-oxazine, poly-2-isopropyl-2-oxazine, poly-2-ethyl-2-oxazoline, and poly-2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline. NaCl and N-methylpyridinium p-toluenesulfonate were used as salts. Their concentration varied from 0–0.154 M. On heating, a phase transition was observed in all studied solutions. It was found that the effect of salt on the thermosensitivity of the investigated stars depends on the structure of the salt and polymer and on the salt content in the solution. The phase separation temperature decreased with an increase in the hydrophobicity of the polymers, which is caused by both a growth of the side radical size and an elongation of the monomer unit. For NaCl solutions, the phase separation temperature monotonically decreased with growth of salt concentration. In solutions with methylpyridinium p-toluenesulfonate, the dependence of the phase separation temperature on the salt concentration was non-monotonic with minimum at salt concentration corresponding to one salt molecule per one arm of a polymer star. Poly-2-alkyl-2-oxazine and poly-2-alkyl-2-oxazoline stars with a hexaaza[26]orthoparacyclophane core are more sensitive to the presence of salt in solution than the similar stars with a calix[n]arene branching center.

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