Disgust and Deontology: Trait Sensitivity to Contamination Promotes a Preference for Order, Hierarchy, and Rule-Based Moral Judgment

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Robinson ◽  
Xiaowen Xu ◽  
Jason E. Plaks
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Individual Difference ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Disgust Sensitivity ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
Individual Difference Variables ◽  
Specific Emotion ◽  
Moral Condemnation

Models of moral judgment have linked generalized emotionality with deontological moral judgment. The evidence, however, is mixed. Other research has linked the specific emotion of disgust with generalized moral condemnation. Here too, the evidence is mixed. We suggest that a synthesis of these two literatures points to one specific emotion (disgust) that reliably predicts one specific type of moral judgment (deontological). In all three studies, we found that trait disgust sensitivity predicted more extreme deontological judgment. In Study 3, with deontological endorsement and consequentialist endorsement operationalized as independent constructs, we found that disgust was positively associated with deontological endorsement but was unrelated to consequentialist endorsement. Across studies, the disgust–deontology link was mediated by individual difference variables related to preference for order (right-wing authoritarianism and intolerance for ambiguity). These data suggest a more precise model of emotion and moral judgment that identifies specific emotions, specific types of moral judgment, and specific motivational pathways.

Interpersonal Disgust, Ideological Orientations, and Dehumanization as Predictors of Intergroup Attitudes

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 691-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Hodson ◽  
Kimberly Costello
Keyword(s):  
Social Dominance ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Disgust Sensitivity ◽  
Group Representations ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism

Disgust is a basic emotion characterized by revulsion and rejection, yet it is relatively unexamined in the literature on prejudice. In the present investigation, interpersonal-disgust sensitivity (e.g., not wanting to wear clean used clothes or to sit on a warm seat vacated by a stranger) in particular predicted negative attitudes toward immigrants, foreigners, and socially deviant groups, even after controlling for concerns with contracting disease. The mechanisms underlying the link between interpersonal disgust and attitudes toward immigrants were explored using a path model. As predicted, the effect of interpersonal-disgust sensitivity on group attitudes was indirect, mediated by ideological orientations (social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism) and dehumanizing perceptions of the out-group. The effects of social dominance orientation on group attitudes were both direct and indirect, via dehumanization. These results establish a link between disgust sensitivity and prejudice that is not accounted for by fear of infection, but rather is mediated by ideological orientations and dehumanizing group representations. Implications for understanding and reducing prejudice are discussed.

Concern about salient pathogen threats increases sensitivity to disgust

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelby Boggs ◽  
Benjamin Ruisch ◽  
Russell Fazio
Keyword(s):  
Individual Difference ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Disgust Sensitivity ◽  
Local Ecology

Individuals vary substantially in their sensitivity to disgust—differences that have implications for intergroup attitudes, political ideology, and beyond. However, the source of this variability in disgust sensitivity remains a subject of debate. In this work, we test the hypothesis that sensitivity to disgust is "calibrated" by an individual's concern about disease threats in their local ecology. Leveraging the COVID-19 pandemic, we obtain strong support for this hypothesis, finding that disgust sensitivity increased following the COVID-19 outbreak and that the degree of this increase was moderated by an individual's subjective concern about contracting the disease. This work fills a longstanding theoretical gap regarding the sources of variability in disgust sensitivity, while challenging the view that disgust sensitivity is an immutable individual difference. Given the role of disgust in motivating intergroup prejudice and right-wing ideologies, we anticipate that these increases in disgust sensitivity are likely to have important downstream societal implications.

Structural Modeling of Generalized Prejudice

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Bäckström ◽  
Fredrik Björklund
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Structural Models ◽  
Model Fit ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Target Groups ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
Individual Difference Variables ◽  
The Relationship

Structural equation modeling on questionnaire data showed that prejudice toward different target groups can be represented in terms of a general prejudice factor. Distinction of classical and modern prejudice only increased model fit marginally. In two separate samples (paper and pencil vs. Internet) several structural models of the relationship between key individual difference variables and prejudice were tested, revealing highly similar results. Social dominance orientation, empathy, and right-wing authoritarianism had direct effects on generalized prejudice. The effect of participant sex on generalized prejudice, where the men scored higher, was largely mediated by empathy. The benefit of including empathy in structural models of prejudice is emphasized.

Right–Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation Differentially Moderate Intergroup Effects on Prejudice

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 583-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Duckitt ◽  
Chris G. Sibley
Keyword(s):  
Individual Difference ◽  
Social Dominance ◽  
Economically Disadvantaged ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Immigrant Group ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
Alternative Approach

Research has shown that two individual difference dimensions, Right–Wing authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), consistently predict prejudice. Traditionally it has been assumed that RWA and SDO both index generalized dispositions to dislike outgroups and those who differ, and therefore predict prejudice similarly. An alternative approach suggests that RWA and SDO express different motivational bases for prejudice that differentially interact with intergroup conditions to predict prejudice. This was tested by investigating students’ reactions to varying descriptions of a bogus immigrant group. As hypothesized, the degree to which RWA and SDO predicted opposition to the immigrants was differentially contingent on the degree to which the immigrants were described as economically competitive, socially threatening (deviant) and socio–economically disadvantaged. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

scholarly journals Reevaluating Moral Disgust: Sensitivity to Many Affective States Predicts Extremity in Many Evaluative Judgments

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin F. Landy ◽  
Jared Piazza
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Disgust Sensitivity ◽  
Psychological Construct ◽  
Evaluative Judgments ◽  
Moral Disgust ◽  
Moral Condemnation ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
General Association

Disgust-sensitive individuals are particularly morally critical. Some theorists take this as evidence that disgust has a uniquely moral form: disgust contributes to moralization even of pathogen-free violations, and disgust’s contribution to moralization is unique from other emotional states. We argue that the relationship between disgust sensitivity (DS) and moral judgment is not special in two respects. First, trait sensitivity to many other affective states, beyond disgust, predicts moral evaluations. Second, DS also predicts nonnormative evaluative judgments. Four studies supported these hypotheses, using multiple measures of DS, and judgments of moral violations (Studies 1 and 4), conventional violations (Study 1), imprudent actions (Study 1), competence (Study 2), and aesthetic evaluations (Study 3). Our findings call into question the usefulness of “moral disgust” as a psychological construct by showing that the relationship between DS and moral condemnation is one instantiation of a more general association between affect and judgment.

Self-Reported Sense of Smell Predicts Disgust Sensitivity and Disgust Reactivity

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 191-195
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. Kelley ◽  
Adrienne L. Crowell
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Individual Difference ◽  
Olfactory Stimulus ◽  
Disgust Sensitivity ◽  
Sense Of Smell ◽  
Olfactory Ability ◽  
Good Proxy ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract. Two studies tested the hypothesis that self-reported sense of smell (i.e., metacognitive insight into one’s olfactory ability) predicts disgust sensitivity and disgust reactivity. Consistent with our predictions two studies demonstrated that disgust correlates with self-reported sense of smell. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated, from an individual difference perspective, that trait-like differences in disgust relate to self-reported sense of smell. Physical forms of disgust (i.e., sexual and pathogen disgust) drove this association. However, the association between self-reported sense of smell and disgust sensitivity is small, suggesting that it is likely not a good proxy for disgust sensitivity. The results of Study 2 extended this finding by demonstrating that individual differences in self-reported sense of smell influence how individuals react to a disgusting olfactory stimulus. Those who reported having a better sense of smell (or better insight into their olfactory ability) found a disgusting smell significantly more noxious as compared to participants reporting having a poor sense of smell (or poor insight into their olfactory ability). The current findings suggest that a one-item measure of self-reported sense of smell may be an effective tool in disgust research.

Commentaries and Rejoinder on

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Han Gong ◽  
Douglas L. Medin ◽  
Tal Eyal ◽  
Nira Liberman ◽  
Yaacov Trope ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Psychological Distance ◽  
Temporal Distance ◽  
Moral Cognition ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
Moral Condemnation ◽  
Construal Levels

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.

Individual Difference Variables as Predictors of Error during Multitasking

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Oberlander ◽  
Frederick L. Oswald ◽  
David Z. Hambrick ◽  
L. Andrew Jones
Keyword(s):  
Individual Difference ◽  
Individual Difference Variables
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