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Murray S, Jiménez-Leal W, Amaya S. Within your rights: Dissociating wrongness and permissibility in moral judgement. BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2024; 63:340-361. [PMID: 37694975 DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12680] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2022] [Revised: 04/24/2023] [Accepted: 08/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/12/2023]
Abstract
Are we ever morally permitted to do what is morally wrong? It seems intuitive that we are, but evidence for dissociations among judgement of permissibility and wrongness is relatively scarce. Across four experiments (N = 1438), we show that people judge that some behaviours can be morally wrong and permissible. The dissociations arise because these judgements track different morally relevant aspects of everyday moral encounters. Judgements of individual rights predicted permissibility but not wrongness, while character assessment predicted wrongness but not permissibility. These findings suggest a picture in which moral evaluation is granular enough to express reasoning about different types of normative considerations, notably the possibility that people can exercise their rights in morally problematic ways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samuel Murray
- Laboratorio de Emociones y Juicios Morales, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
- Philosophy Department, Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
| | - William Jiménez-Leal
- Laboratorio de Emociones y Juicios Morales, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
- Department of Psychology, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - Santiago Amaya
- Laboratorio de Emociones y Juicios Morales, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
- Department of Philosophy, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
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2
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Fitouchi L, André JB, Baumard N. The puritanical moral contract: Purity, cooperation, and the architecture of the moral mind. Behav Brain Sci 2023; 46:e322. [PMID: 37789526 DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x23001188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/05/2023]
Abstract
Commentators raise fundamental questions about the notion of purity (sect. R1), the architecture of moral cognition (sect. R2), the functional relationship between morality and cooperation (sect. R3), the role of folk-theories of self-control in moral judgment (sect. R4), and the cultural variation of morality (sect. R5). In our response, we address all these issues by clarifying our theory of puritanism, responding to counter-arguments, and incorporating welcome corrections and extensions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Léo Fitouchi
- Département d'études cognitives, Institut Jean Nicod, École normale supérieure, Université PSL, EHESS, CNRS, Paris, France ; https://sites.google.com/view/leofitouchi/home ; http://jb.homepage.free.fr/ ; https://nicolasbaumards.org/
| | - Jean-Baptiste André
- Département d'études cognitives, Institut Jean Nicod, École normale supérieure, Université PSL, EHESS, CNRS, Paris, France ; https://sites.google.com/view/leofitouchi/home ; http://jb.homepage.free.fr/ ; https://nicolasbaumards.org/
| | - Nicolas Baumard
- Département d'études cognitives, Institut Jean Nicod, École normale supérieure, Université PSL, EHESS, CNRS, Paris, France ; https://sites.google.com/view/leofitouchi/home ; http://jb.homepage.free.fr/ ; https://nicolasbaumards.org/
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3
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Gray K, DiMaggio N, Schein C, Kachanoff F. The Problem of Purity in Moral Psychology. PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW 2023; 27:272-308. [PMID: 36314693 PMCID: PMC10391698 DOI: 10.1177/10888683221124741] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/22/2023]
Abstract
Academic AbstractThe idea of "purity" transformed moral psychology. Here, we provide the first systematic review of this concept. Although often discussed as one construct, we reveal ~9 understandings of purity, ranging from respecting God to not eating gross things. This striking heterogeneity arises because purity-unlike other moral constructs-is not understood by what it is but what it isn't: obvious interpersonal harm. This poses many problems for moral psychology and explains why purity lacks convergent and divergent validity and why purity is confounded with politics, religion, weirdness, and perceived harm. Because purity is not a coherent construct, it cannot be a distinct basis of moral judgment or specially tied to disgust. Rather than a specific moral domain, purity is best understood as a loose set of themes in moral rhetoric. These themes are scaffolded on cultural understandings of harm-the broad, pluralistic harm outlined by the Theory of Dyadic Morality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kurt Gray
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
| | | | - Chelsea Schein
- The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
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4
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Schwartz SA, Inbar Y. Is it good to feel bad about littering? Conflict between moral beliefs and behaviors for everyday transgressions. Cognition 2023; 236:105437. [PMID: 36989917 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105437] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2022] [Revised: 03/04/2023] [Accepted: 03/06/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023]
Abstract
People sometimes do things that they think are morally wrong. We investigate how actors' perceptions of the morality of their own behaviors affects observer evaluations. In Study 1 (n = 302), we presented participants with six different descriptions of actors who routinely engaged in a morally questionable behavior and varied whether the actors thought the behavior was morally wrong. Actors who believed their behavior was wrong were seen as having better moral character, but their behavior was rated as more wrong. In Study 2 (n = 391) we investigated whether perceptions of actor metadesires were responsible for the effects of actor beliefs on character judgments. We used the same stimuli and measures as in Study 1 but added a measure of the actor's perceived desires to engage in the behaviors. As predicted, the effect of actors' moral beliefs on judgments of their moral character was mediated by perceived metadesires. In Study 3 (n = 1092) we replicated these findings in a between-participants design and further found that the effect of actor beliefs on act and character judgments was moderated by participant beliefs about the general acceptability of the behavior.
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5
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Piazza J, Sousa P. Minimal criteria for an impurity domain of morality. Trends Cogn Sci 2023; 27:514-516. [PMID: 37068989 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.03.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2023] [Revised: 03/21/2023] [Accepted: 03/23/2023] [Indexed: 04/19/2023]
Abstract
There is much disagreement about the claim that impurity constitutes a moral domain. We propose a set of minimal criteria that could help re-orient the field to a direction of consensus in the assessment of this claim. We illustrate how the criteria apply to aspects of the current literature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jared Piazza
- Lancaster University, Department of Psychology, Bailrigg, Lancaster, UK.
| | - Paulo Sousa
- Queen's University Belfast, Institute of Cognition and Culture, Belfast, UK
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6
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Klebl C, Rhee JJ, Greenaway KH, Luo Y, Bastian B. Physical Attractiveness Biases Judgments Pertaining to the Moral Domain of Purity. PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN 2023; 49:282-295. [PMID: 34964373 DOI: 10.1177/01461672211064452] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
Research on the Beauty-is-Good stereotype shows that unattractive people are perceived to have worse moral character than attractive individuals. Yet research has not explored what kinds of moral character judgments are particularly biased by attractiveness. In this work, we tested whether attractiveness particularly biases moral character judgments pertaining to the moral domain of purity, beyond a more general halo effect. Across four preregistered studies (N = 1,778), we found that unattractive (vs. attractive) individuals were judged to be more likely to engage in purity violations compared with harm violations and that this was not due to differences in perceived moral wrongness, weirdness, or sociality between purity and harm violations. The findings shed light on how physical attractiveness influences moral character attributions, suggesting that physical attractiveness particularly biases character judgments pertaining to the moral domain of purity.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Yin Luo
- The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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7
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Just wrong? Or just WEIRD? Investigating the prevalence of moral dumbfounding in non-Western samples. Mem Cognit 2023:10.3758/s13421-022-01386-z. [PMID: 36650349 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-022-01386-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
Moral dumbfounding occurs when people maintain a moral judgment even though they cannot provide a reason for this judgment. Dumbfounded responding may include admitting to not having reasons, or the use of unsupported declarations ("It's just wrong") as justification for a judgment. Published evidence for dumbfounding has drawn exclusively on samples of WEIRD backgrounds (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic), and it remains unclear to what extent the phenomenon is generalizable to other populations. Furthermore, the theoretical implications of moral dumbfounding have been disputed in recent years. In three studies we apply a standardized moral dumbfounding task, and show evidence for moral dumbfounding in a Chinese sample (Study 1, N = 165), an Indian sample (Study 2, N = 181), and a mixed sample primarily (but not exclusively) from North Africa and the Middle East (MENA region, Study 3, N = 264). These findings are consistent with a categorization theories of moral judgment.
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8
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Jiang S, Ding S, Ding D. The effect of faith in intuition on moral judgment: The mediating role of perceived harm. Front Psychol 2022; 13:1084907. [PMID: 36582338 PMCID: PMC9792666 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1084907] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2022] [Accepted: 11/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
This study aimed to explore the relationship between faith in intuition and moral judgment and the underlying mechanism among Chinese college students using a questionnaire and experimental method. The results showed that levels of faith in intuition predicted more moral wrongness regarding ambiguous hurtful behaviors than unambiguous ones. Additionally, the perceived harm mediated the effect of individuals' levels of faith in intuition on moral wrongness regarding ambiguous harm behaviors but not regarding unambiguous harm behaviors. The results of this study provide empirical evidence on the relationship between faith in intuition and moral judgment in Chinese culture and have implications for future studies of moral judgments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shanshan Jiang
- Business School, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Shang Ding
- Department of Psychology, School of Education Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
| | - Daoqun Ding
- Department of Psychology, School of Education Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China,Center for Mind and Brain Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China,*Correspondence: Daoqun Ding,
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9
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Fitouchi L, André JB, Baumard N. Moral disciplining: The cognitive and evolutionary foundations of puritanical morality. Behav Brain Sci 2022; 46:e293. [PMID: 36111617 DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x22002047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Why do many societies moralize apparently harmless pleasures, such as lust, gluttony, alcohol, drugs, and even music and dance? Why do they erect temperance, asceticism, sobriety, modesty, and piety as cardinal moral virtues? According to existing theories, this puritanical morality cannot be reduced to concerns for harm and fairness: It must emerge from cognitive systems that did not evolve for cooperation (e.g., disgust-based "purity" concerns). Here, we argue that, despite appearances, puritanical morality is no exception to the cooperative function of moral cognition. It emerges in response to a key feature of cooperation, namely that cooperation is (ultimately) a long-term strategy, requiring (proximately) the self-control of appetites for immediate gratification. Puritanical moralizations condemn behaviors which, although inherently harmless, are perceived as indirectly facilitating uncooperative behaviors, by impairing the self-control required to refrain from cheating. Drinking, drugs, immodest clothing, and unruly music and dance are condemned as stimulating short-term impulses, thus facilitating uncooperative behaviors (e.g., violence, adultery, free-riding). Overindulgence in harmless bodily pleasures (e.g., masturbation, gluttony) is perceived as making people slave to their urges, thus altering abilities to resist future antisocial temptations. Daily self-discipline, ascetic temperance, and pious ritual observance are perceived as cultivating the self-control required to honor prosocial obligations. We review psychological, historical, and ethnographic evidence supporting this account. We use this theory to explain the fall of puritanism in western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies, and discuss the cultural evolution of puritanical norms. Explaining puritanical norms does not require adding mechanisms unrelated to cooperation in our models of the moral mind.
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Affiliation(s)
- Léo Fitouchi
- Département d'études cognitives, Institut Jean Nicod, ENS, EHESS, PSL University, CNRS, Paris, France. ; https://sites.google.com/view/leofitouchi ; http://jb.homepage.free.fr/ ; https://nicolasbaumards.org/
| | - Jean-Baptiste André
- Département d'études cognitives, Institut Jean Nicod, ENS, EHESS, PSL University, CNRS, Paris, France. ; https://sites.google.com/view/leofitouchi ; http://jb.homepage.free.fr/ ; https://nicolasbaumards.org/
| | - Nicolas Baumard
- Département d'études cognitives, Institut Jean Nicod, ENS, EHESS, PSL University, CNRS, Paris, France. ; https://sites.google.com/view/leofitouchi ; http://jb.homepage.free.fr/ ; https://nicolasbaumards.org/
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10
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Does more moral equal less corruption? The different mediation of moral foundations between economic growth and corruption in China. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03735-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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11
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Tepe B, Karakulak A. Being Watched by God Versus a Third Person: Which Agent Lowers the Perceived Likelihood of Immoral Behaviors? SOCIAL COGNITION 2022. [DOI: 10.1521/soco.2022.40.4.336] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
With three experimental studies using data from young adults living in a highly religious context, namely Turkey (N = 483), the current research examines how being watched by a third person versus God affects the perceived likelihood ratings of harmful versus impure immoral behaviors. We hypothesized that respondents would expect others to more strongly refrain from acting immorally when they believed they were being watched by God compared to a third person, and that this effect would be more pronounced for impure compared to harmful moral transgressions. The God condition was perceived as more effective than the third-person surveillance condition when immoral behaviors were harmful. However, for severe impure transgressions, neither surveillance condition was perceived as effective. We discuss our findings in light of contemporary morality research, outline the role of possible cultural and individual-level boundary conditions, and highlight the scientific and practical contributions of our research to the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beyza Tepe
- Department of Psychology, Bahcesehir University
| | - Arzu Karakulak
- Department of Psychology, Bahcesehir University and Istanbul Policy Center, Sabanci University
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12
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Kemper NS, Campbell DS, Reiman AK. See something, say something? exploring the gap between real and imagined moral courage. ETHICS & BEHAVIOR 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/10508422.2022.2104282] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Nathan S. Kemper
- Department of Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York
| | - Dylan S. Campbell
- Department of Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York
| | - Anna-Kaisa Reiman
- Department of Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York
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13
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Cognitive processes in imaginative moral shifts: How judgments of morally unacceptable actions change. Mem Cognit 2022; 50:1103-1123. [PMID: 35532831 PMCID: PMC9083480 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-022-01315-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
How do people come to consider a morally unacceptable action, such as “a passenger in an airplane does not want to sit next to a Muslim passenger and so he tells the stewardess the passenger must be moved to another seat”, to be less unacceptable? We propose they tend to imagine counterfactual alternatives about how things could have been different that transform the unacceptable action to be less unacceptable. Five experiments identify the cognitive processes underlying this imaginative moral shift: an action is judged less unacceptable when people imagine circumstances in which it would have been moral. The effect occurs for immediate counterfactuals and reflective ones, but is greater when participants create an immediate counterfactual first, and diminished when they create a reflective one first. The effect also occurs for unreasonable actions. We discuss the implications for alternative theories of the mental representations and cognitive processes underlying moral judgments.
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14
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Shirai R, Ogawa H. Morality extracted under crowding impairs face identification. Iperception 2022; 13:20416695221104843. [PMID: 35782829 PMCID: PMC9243483 DOI: 10.1177/20416695221104843] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2022] [Accepted: 05/17/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
We investigated whether morality associated with faces is perceptible even under
less optimal visual conditions such as crowding. A facial image was paired with
a sentence describing an immoral act or a neutral act. Participants imagined the
person performing the actions described in the sentence during the learning
phase. Then, in the crowding phase, the target face was briefly presented in the
left or right peripheral visual fields. Participants were required to judge the
gender or morality of the target face in Experiment 1 and to choose the target
face from two faces in Experiment 2. In both experiments, flankers were
presented around the target face in the flanker condition, whereas no flankers
were presented in the no-flanker condition. Experiment 1 indicated that the
accuracy of judgments about the morality of a crowded face was higher for
immoral faces than for neutral faces. This demonstrates that morality is
preferentially extracted even when conscious access to facial representations is
limited. Experiment 2 showed that the accuracy of selecting the flanked face
from two faces was higher for neutral faces than for immoral faces. These
indicated that the morality processed under the crowding impaired the
discrimination of the facial identity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Risako Shirai
- Waseda University, Japan;
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan
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15
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Abstract
Observed variability and complexity of judgments of "right" and "wrong" cannot be readily accounted for within extant approaches to understanding moral judgment. In response to this challenge, we present a novel perspective on categorization in moral judgment. Moral judgment as categorization (MJAC) incorporates principles of category formation research while addressing key challenges of existing approaches to moral judgment. People develop skills in making context-relevant categorizations. They learn that various objects (events, behaviors, people, etc.) can be categorized as morally right or wrong. Repetition and rehearsal result in reliable, habitualized categorizations. According to this skill-formation account of moral categorization, the learning and the habitualization of the forming of moral categories occur within goal-directed activity that is sensitive to various contextual influences. By allowing for the complexity of moral judgments, MJAC offers greater explanatory power than existing approaches while also providing opportunities for a diverse range of new research questions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cillian McHugh
- Department of Psychology, University of Limerick
- Social Psychology & Cognition Lab, University of Limerick (SOCOUL)
- Centre for Social Issues Research, University of Limerick
| | - Marek McGann
- Department of Psychology, Mary Immaculate College
| | - Eric R. Igou
- Department of Psychology, University of Limerick
- Social Psychology & Cognition Lab, University of Limerick (SOCOUL)
- Health Research Institute, University of Limerick
| | - Elaine L. Kinsella
- Department of Psychology, University of Limerick
- Centre for Social Issues Research, University of Limerick
- Health Research Institute, University of Limerick
- Research on Influence, Social Networks, & Ethics (RISE) Lab
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16
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Pennycook G. A framework for understanding reasoning errors: From fake news to climate change and beyond. ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.aesp.2022.11.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
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17
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Goranson A, O’Fallon C, Gray K. The moral identity picture scale (MIPS): Measuring the full scope of moral identity. SELF AND IDENTITY 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/15298868.2021.1990118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Amelia Goranson
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, United States
| | - Connor O’Fallon
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, United States
| | - Kurt Gray
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, United States
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18
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Hodson G. Pushing Back Against the Microaggression Pushback in Academic Psychology: Reflections on a Concept-Creep Paradox. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2021; 16:932-955. [PMID: 34498532 DOI: 10.1177/1745691621991863] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Echoing the 1960s, the 2020s opened with racial tensions boiling. The Black Lives Matter movement is energized, issuing pleas to listen to Black voices regarding day-to-day discrimination and expressing frustrations over the slow progress of social justice. However, psychological scientists have published only several opinion pieces on racial microaggressions, primarily objections, and strikingly little empirical data. Here I document three trends in psychology that coincide with the academic pushback against microaggressions: concept-creep concerns, especially those regarding expanded notions of harm; the expansion of right-leaning values in moral judgments (moral foundations theory); and an emphasis on prejudice symmetry, with the political left deemed equivalently biased against right-leaning targets (e.g., the rich, police) as the right is against left-leaning targets (e.g., Black people, women, LGBT+ people). Psychological scientists have ignored power dynamics and have strayed from their mission to understand and combat prejudice against disadvantaged populations, rendering researchers distracted and ill-equipped to tackle the microaggression concept. An apparent creep paradox, with calls to both reduce (e.g., harm) and expand (e.g., liberal prejudices, conservative moral foundations) concepts, poses a serious challenge to research on prejudice. I discuss the need for psychology to better capture Black experiences and to "tell it like it is" or risk becoming an irrelevant discipline of study.
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19
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Hartman R, Blakey W, Gray K. Deconstructing moral character judgments. Curr Opin Psychol 2021; 43:205-212. [PMID: 34418790 DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.07.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2021] [Revised: 07/09/2021] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
People often make judgments of others' moral character - an inferred moral essence that presumably predicts moral behavior. We first define moral character and explore why people make character judgments before outlining three key elements that drive character judgments: behavior (good vs. bad, norm violations, and deliberation), mind (intentions, explanations, capacities), and identity (appearance, social groups, and warmth). We also provide taxonomy of moral character that goes beyond simply good vs. evil. Drawing from the theory of dyadic morality, we outline a two-dimensional triangular space of character judgments (valence and strength/agency), with three key corners - heroes, villains, and victims. Varieties of perceived moral character include saints and demons, strivers/sinners and opportunists, the nonmoral, virtuous, and culpable victims, and pure victims.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel Hartman
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Will Blakey
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Kurt Gray
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA.
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20
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Rosenfeld DL, Tomiyama AJ. Moral Judgments of COVID-19 Social Distancing Violations: The Roles of Perceived Harm and Impurity. PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN 2021; 48:766-781. [PMID: 34247528 DOI: 10.1177/01461672211025433] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
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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21
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Hennig M, Hütter M. Consequences, Norms, or Willingness to Interfere: A proCNI Model Analysis of the Foreign Language Effect in Moral Dilemma Judgment. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
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22
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Beal B. The nonmoral conditions of moral cognition. PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/09515089.2021.1942811] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Bree Beal
- Department of English, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA
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23
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Zapko-Willmes A, Schwartz SH, Richter J, Kandler C. Basic value orientations and moral foundations: Convergent or discriminant constructs? JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2021.104099] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Ståhl T. The amoral atheist? A cross-national examination of cultural, motivational, and cognitive antecedents of disbelief, and their implications for morality. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0246593. [PMID: 33626046 PMCID: PMC7904147 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2020] [Accepted: 01/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
There is a widespread cross-cultural stereotype suggesting that atheists are untrustworthy and lack a moral compass. Is there any truth to this notion? Building on theory about the cultural, (de)motivational, and cognitive antecedents of disbelief, the present research investigated whether there are reliable similarities as well as differences between believers and disbelievers in the moral values and principles they endorse. Four studies examined how religious disbelief (vs. belief) relates to endorsement of various moral values and principles in a predominately religious (vs. irreligious) country (the U.S. vs. Sweden). Two U.S. M-Turk studies (Studies 1A and 1B, N = 429) and two large cross-national studies (Studies 2-3, N = 4,193), consistently show that disbelievers (vs. believers) are less inclined to endorse moral values that serve group cohesion (the binding moral foundations). By contrast, only minor differences between believers and disbelievers were found in endorsement of other moral values (individualizing moral foundations, epistemic rationality). It is also demonstrated that presumed cultural and demotivational antecedents of disbelief (limited exposure to credibility-enhancing displays, low existential threat) are associated with disbelief. Furthermore, these factors are associated with weaker endorsement of the binding moral foundations in both countries (Study 2). Most of these findings were replicated in Study 3, and results also show that disbelievers (vs. believers) have a more consequentialist view of morality in both countries. A consequentialist view of morality was also associated with another presumed antecedent of disbelief-analytic cognitive style.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomas Ståhl
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
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25
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Niemi L, Leone C, Young L. Linguistic Evidence for the Dissociation Between Impurity and Harm: Differences in the Duration and Scope of Contamination Versus Injury. SOCIAL COGNITION 2021. [DOI: 10.1521/soco.2021.39.1.117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous research has shown that harm and impurity are relevant to a different extent across individuals and transgressions. However, the source of these differences is still unclear. Here, we combine language analysis and social-moral psychology to articulate the core defining features of impurity versus harm. In Study 1 (a–c), we found systematic variation in language use, indicating that people infer that contamination, unlike injury, affects a target completely and irreversibly, rendering them a transmitter of contamination. In Study 2 (a–b), we investigated how evoking intuitions about these core features of contamination—completeness, irreversibility, and transferability—influences judgments of impurity and harm. We found that implying effects on a target were complete and irreversible altered judgments of impurity, but not harm. Overall, our research supports the conclusion that impurity and harm are substantially distinct in cognition and moral judgment; unlike harm, impurity connotes negative effects that spread continually across space and time.
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26
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Vanaman ME, Chapman HA. Disgust and disgust-driven moral concerns predict support for restrictions on transgender bathroom access. Politics Life Sci 2020; 39:200-214. [PMID: 33231037 DOI: 10.1017/pls.2020.20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Many U.S. states have proposed policies that restrict bathroom access to an individual's birth sex. These policies have had widespread effects on safety for transgender and gender-nonconforming people, as well as on state economies. In this registered report, we assessed the role of disgust in support for policies that restrict transgender bathroom access. We found that sensitivity to pathogen disgust was positively associated with support for bathroom restrictions; sexual and injury disgust were unrelated. We also examined the role of disgust-driven moral concerns, known as purity concerns, as well as harm-related moral concerns in support for bathroom restrictions. While concerns about harm to cisgender and transgender people predicted support for bathroom restrictions, purity was a much stronger predictor. Also, purity partially mediated the link between pathogen disgust and support for bathroom restrictions, even after accounting for harm concerns. Findings and implications are discussed.
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27
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Margoni F, Surian L. Question framing effects and the processing of the moral–conventional distinction. PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.1080/09515089.2020.1845311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Margoni
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
| | - Luca Surian
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
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28
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Reexamining the role of intent in moral judgements of purity violations. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2020.104043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
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Abstract
Research on morality has increased rapidly over the past 10 years. At the center of this research are moral judgments-evaluative judgments that a perceiver makes in response to a moral norm violation. But there is substantial diversity in what has been called moral judgment. This article offers a framework that distinguishes, theoretically and empirically, four classes of moral judgment: evaluations, norm judgments, moral wrongness judgments, and blame judgments. These judgments differ in their typical objects, the information they process, their speed, and their social functions. The framework presented here organizes the extensive literature and provides fresh perspectives on measurement, the nature of moral intuitions, the status of moral dumbfounding, and the prospects of dual-process models of moral judgment. It also identifies omitted questions and sets the stage for a broader theory of moral judgment, which the coming decades may bring forth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bertram F Malle
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA;
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30
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Arden MD, Rabinovitz S. Child Sexual Abuse and the Moralization of Purity. JOURNAL OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 2020; 29:697-716. [PMID: 31751186 DOI: 10.1080/10538712.2019.1694118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2019] [Revised: 10/15/2019] [Accepted: 11/09/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Recent studies were able to associate disgust with the moral domain of purity, as well as a heightened sensitivity to disgust with sexual victimization. However, no empirical evidence has yet to document the exact relation between sexual victimization and its impact on the moralization of purity. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the relationship between child sexual abuse (CSA) and the moral domain of purity, by means of judgments toward three different types of disgust: pathogen, sexual and moral. To test this, The Three Domains of Disgust Scale (TDDS) was given to both CSA participants (n = 29) and to a non-sexually abused population (N-SAP; n = 31). . Results have shown a statistically significant difference between the CSA and N-SAP groups on the combined dependent variables (i.e., pathogen, sexual and moral disgust). However, only the sexual disgust domain, out of the other two domains has been found to hold significance. Furthermore, consistent with previous empirical findings, similar gender patterns of moral judgments have been found between the two groups (i.e., CSA and N-SAP), though with a statistical significance only in the sexual domain. Implications of these findings are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mattan D Arden
- School of Criminology, University of Haifa , Haifa, Israel
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31
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Feldman G. Personal Values and Moral Foundations: Examining Relations and Joint Prediction of Moral Variables. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PERSONALITY SCIENCE 2020. [DOI: 10.1177/1948550620933434] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
I examined the relationship between personal values and moral foundations by conducting a mini meta-analysis of the values–foundations links in five large-scale cross-cultural samples (overall N = 32,492). I further tested whether the two theories predicted unique variance in moral variables. I found support for values and foundations as unique constructs with consistent and theoretically meaningful relationships. Broadly, self-transcendence versus self-enhancement values dimensions were associated with individualizing foundations, whereas conservation versus openness-to-change values dimensions were associated with binding foundations. Links between values and foundations categories followed the expected theoretical values theory circumplex structure sinusoidal pattern. Dimensions of the two theories predicted unique variance in morality attitudes, behavior, and individual differences. All materials, data sets, and code are available on https://osf.io/6qs5g/ .
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Affiliation(s)
- Gilad Feldman
- Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, Pok Fo Lam, Hong Kong SAR
- Department of Work and Social Psychology, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
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32
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Edem Fiagbenu M, Proch J, Kessler T. Stimulus sampling and other recommendations for assessing domain-general processes of attitude formation through exploration: Reply to Ruisch, Shook, and Fazio (2020). Br J Psychol 2020; 112:362-365. [PMID: 32710643 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12470] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2020] [Revised: 07/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
In response to Ruisch et al., 2020, British Journal of Psychology, we propose that the assessment of domain-general ideological differences requires systematic stimulus sampling. We argue that there is currently no evidence that the 'neutral' BeanFest assesses domain-general ideological differences and that Ruisch et al., 2020, British Journal of Psychology findings do not address the mechanism(s) underlying our findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Edem Fiagbenu
- International Max Planck Research School on Adapting Behavior in a Fundamentally Uncertain World, Jena, Germany.,Department of Social Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
| | - Jutta Proch
- Department of Social Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
| | - Thomas Kessler
- International Max Planck Research School on Adapting Behavior in a Fundamentally Uncertain World, Jena, Germany.,Department of Social Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
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34
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Sweetman J, Newman GA. Attentional efficiency does not explain the mental state × domain effect. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0234500. [PMID: 32542051 PMCID: PMC7295218 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2020] [Accepted: 05/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The reduced importance of intent when judging purity (vs. harm) violations is some of the strongest evidence for distinct moral modules or systems: moral pluralism. However, research has indicated that some supposed differences between purity and harm moral domains are due to the relative weirdness of purity vignettes. This weirdness might lead to a failure to attend to or correctly process relevant mental state information. Such attentional failures could offer an alternative explanation (to separate moral systems) for the reduced exculpatory value of innocent intentions for purity violations. We tested if the different role of intent in each domain was moderated by individual differences in attentional efficiency, as measured by the Attention Network Task. If attentional efficiency explains the reduced exculpatory value of innocent intentions in purity (vs. harm) violations, then we would expect those high (vs. low) in attentional efficiency not to show the reduced exculpatory effect of innocent intentions in the purity (vs. harm) domain. Consistent with moral pluralism, results revealed no such moderation. Findings are discussed in relation to various ways of testing domain-general and domain-specific accounts of the mental state × domain effect, so that we might better understand the architecture of our moral minds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph Sweetman
- Department of Psychology, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom
| | - George A. Newman
- Department of Psychology, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom
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35
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Sweetman J, Newman GA. Replicating different roles of intent across moral domains. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2020; 7:190808. [PMID: 32537185 PMCID: PMC7277250 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.190808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2019] [Accepted: 05/01/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Whether moral cognition is underpinned by distinct mental systems that process different domains of moral information (moral pluralism) is an important question for moral cognition research. The reduced importance of intent (intentional versus accidental action) when judging purity (e.g. incest), when compared with harm (e.g. poisoning), moral violations is, arguably, some of the strongest experimental evidence for distinct moral systems or 'foundations'. The experiment presented here is a replication attempt of these experimental findings. A pre-registered replication of Experiment 1B from the original article documenting this effect was conducted in a sample of N = 400 participants. Findings from this successful replication are discussed in terms of theoretical and methodological implications for approaches to moral cognition.
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36
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Hester N, Gray K. The Moral Psychology of Raceless, Genderless Strangers. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2020; 15:216-230. [DOI: 10.1177/1745691619885840] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Moral psychology uses tightly controlled scenarios in which the identities of the characters are either unspecified or vague. Studies with raceless, genderless strangers help to highlight the important structural elements of moral acts (e.g., intention, causation, harm) but may not generalize to real-world judgments. As researchers have long shown, social judgments hinge on the identities (e.g., race, gender, age, religion, group affiliation) of both target and perceiver. Asking whether people generally condemn “shooting someone” is very different from asking whether liberals as opposed to conservatives condemn “a White police officer shooting a Black suspect.” We argue for the importance of incorporating identity into moral psychology. We briefly outline the central role of identity in social judgments before reviewing current theories in moral psychology. We then advocate an expanded person-centered morality—synthesizing moral psychology with social cognition—to better capture everyday moral judgments.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kurt Gray
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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37
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Beal B. What Are the Irreducible Basic Elements of Morality? A Critique of the Debate Over Monism and Pluralism in Moral Psychology. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2019; 15:273-290. [DOI: 10.1177/1745691619867106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
The debate between monists and pluralists in moral psychology has been framed as an argument over the number of “irreducible basic elements” that can be used to describe the extent of the moral domain: Do all moral values ultimately reduce to one principle (i.e., monism), or are there multiple irreducibly distinct moral values (i.e., pluralism)? I critique the premise of this debate, arguing that the breadth of the moral domain cannot be adequately represented, understood, or explained in terms of moral values. Instead, an adequate account of moral psychology must explain moral phenomena in terms of more basic elements: ontological frames.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bree Beal
- Department of English, Clemson University
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38
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Cornwell JFM, Higgins ET. Beyond Value in Moral Phenomenology: The Role of Epistemic and Control Experiences. Front Psychol 2019; 10:2430. [PMID: 31736829 PMCID: PMC6831825 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02430] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2019] [Accepted: 10/14/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Many researchers in moral psychology approach the topic of moral judgment in terms of value-assessing outcomes of behaviors as either harmful or helpful, which makes the behaviors wrong or right, respectively. However, recent advances in motivation science suggest that other motives may be at work as well-namely truth (wanting to establish what is real) and control (wanting to manage what happens). In this review, we argue that the epistemic experiences of observers of (im)moral behaviors, and the perceived epistemic experiences of those observed, serve as a groundwork for understanding how truth and control motives are implicated in the moral judgment process. We also discuss relations between this framework and recent work from across the field of moral psychology, as well as implications for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- James F. M. Cornwell
- Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, United States
| | - E. Tory Higgins
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States
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39
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Wagemans FM, Brandt MJ, Zeelenberg M. Weirdness of disgust sensitivity items predicts their relationship to purity moral judgments. PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2018.07.042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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40
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Rottman J, Young L. Specks of Dirt and Tons of Pain: Dosage Distinguishes Impurity From Harm. Psychol Sci 2019; 30:1151-1160. [PMID: 31242081 DOI: 10.1177/0956797619855382] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Levels of moral condemnation often vary with outcome severity (e.g., extreme destruction is morally worse than moderate damage), but this is not always true. We investigated whether judgments of purity transgressions are more or less sensitive to variation in dosage than judgments of harm transgressions. In three studies, adults ( N = 426) made moral evaluations of harm and purity transgressions that systematically varied in dosage (frequency or magnitude). Pairs of low-dosage and high-dosage transgressions were presented such that the same sets of modifiers (e.g., “occasionally” vs. “regularly,” “small” vs. “large”) or amounts (e.g., “millimeter” vs. “centimeter”) were reused across moral domains. Statistical interactions between domain and dosage indicated robust distinctions between the perceived wrongness of high-dosage and low-dosage harms, whereas moral evaluations of impure acts were considerably less influenced by dosage. Our findings support the existence of a cognitive distinction between purity-based and harm-based morals and challenge current wisdom regarding relationships between intentions and outcomes in moral judgment.
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41
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Liuzza MT, Olofsson JK, Cancino-Montecinos S, Lindholm T. Body Odor Disgust Sensitivity Predicts Moral Harshness Toward Moral Violations of Purity. Front Psychol 2019; 10:458. [PMID: 30890987 PMCID: PMC6412480 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00458] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2018] [Accepted: 02/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Detecting pathogen threats and avoiding disease is fundamental to human survival. The behavioral immune system (BIS) framework outlines a set of psychological functions that may have evolved for this purpose. Disgust is a core emotion that plays a pivotal role in the BIS, as it activates the behavioral avoidance motives that prevent people from being in contact with pathogens. To date, there has been little agreement on how disgust sensitivity might underlie moral judgments. Here, we investigated moral violations of "purity" (assumed to elicit disgust) and violations of "harm" (assumed to elicit anger). We hypothesized that individual differences in BIS-related traits would be associated with greater disgust (vs. anger) reactivity to, and greater condemnation of Purity (vs. Harm) violations. The study was pre-registered (https://osf.io/57nm8/). Participants (N = 632) rated scenarios concerning moral wrongness or inappropriateness and regarding disgust and anger. To measure individual differences in the activation of the BIS, we used our recently developed Body Odor Disgust Scale (BODS), a BIS-related trait measure that assesses individual differences in feeling disgusted by body odors. In line with our predictions, we found that scores on the BODS relate more strongly to affective reactions to Purity, as compared to Harm, violations. In addition, BODS relates more strongly to Moral condemnation than to perceived Inappropriateness of an action, and to the condemnation of Purity violations as compared to Harm violations. These results suggest that the BIS is involved in moral judgment, although to some extent this role seems to be specific for violations of "moral purity," a response that might be rooted in disease avoidance. Data and scripts to analyze the data are available on the Open Science Framework (OSF) repository: https://osf.io/tk4x5/. Planned analyses are available at https://osf.io/x6g3u/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Tullio Liuzza
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Università degli Studi Magna Græcia di Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy
| | | | | | - Torun Lindholm
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
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42
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Piazza J, Sousa P, Rottman J, Syropoulos S. Which Appraisals Are Foundational to Moral Judgment? Harm, Injustice, and Beyond. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PERSONALITY SCIENCE 2018. [DOI: 10.1177/1948550618801326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Harm-centric accounts of judgments of moral wrongdoing argue that moral judgments are fundamentally based on appraisals of harm. However, past research has failed to operationally discriminate harm appraisals from appraisals related to injustice. Four studies carefully discriminated harm qua pain/suffering from injustice, alongside appraisals related to impurity, authority, and disloyalty. Appraisals of injustice outperformed appraisals of harm as independent predictors of the judged wrongness of recalled offenses (Study 1). Studies 2a, 2b, and 3 extended these findings using a diverse range of wrongful acts and two different cultural samples—the United States and Greece. In addition to the strong relevance of injustice appraisals, these latter studies uncovered substantial contributions of impurity and authority appraisals. The results inform debates on moral pluralism and the foundations of moral cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jared Piazza
- Department of Psychology, Fylde College, Lancaster University, Lancaster, Lancashire, United Kingdom
| | - Paulo Sousa
- Institute of Cognition and Culture, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
| | - Joshua Rottman
- Department of Psychology, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, USA
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43
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Franchin L, Geipel J, Hadjichristidis C, Surian L. Many moral buttons or just one? Evidence from emotional facial expressions. Cogn Emot 2018; 33:943-958. [PMID: 30200861 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2018.1520078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
We investigated whether moral violations involving harm selectively elicit anger, whereas purity violations selectively elicit disgust, as predicted by the Moral Foundations Theory (MFT). We analysed participants' spontaneous facial expressions as they listened to scenarios depicting moral violations of harm and purity. As predicted by MFT, anger reactions were elicited more frequently by harmful than by impure actions. However, violations of purity elicited more smiling reactions and expressions of anger than of disgust. This effect was found both in a classic set of scenarios and in a new set in which the different kinds of violations were matched on weirdness. Overall, these findings are at odds with predictions derived from MFT and provide support for "monist" accounts that posit harm at the basis of all moral violations. However, we found that smiles were differentially linked to purity violations, which leaves open the possibility of distinct moral modules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Franchin
- a Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences , University of Trento , Rovereto (Trento) , Italy
| | - Janet Geipel
- b Department of Psychology , University of Chicago , Chicago , IL , USA
| | - Constantinos Hadjichristidis
- c Department of Economics and Management , University of Trento , Trento , Italy.,d Centre for Decision Research, University of Leeds , Leeds , UK
| | - Luca Surian
- a Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences , University of Trento , Rovereto (Trento) , Italy
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44
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On an Observer’s Reaction to Hearing of Someone Harming Him or Herself. PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s12646-018-0444-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/16/2022] Open
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45
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Kollareth D, Kikutani M, Shirai M, Russell JA. Do community and autonomy moral violations elicit different emotions? INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2018; 54:612-620. [PMID: 29888537 DOI: 10.1002/ijop.12504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2017] [Accepted: 04/19/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
According to one important set of theories, different domains of immorality are linked to different discrete emotions-panculturally. Violations against the community elicit contempt, whereas violations against an individual elicit anger. To test this theory, American, Indian and Japanese participants (N = 480) indicated contempt and anger reactions (with verbal rating and face selection) to both the types of immorality. To remedy method problems in previous research, community and autonomy violations were created for the same story-frame, by varying the target to be either the community or an individual. Community and autonomy violations did not differ significantly in the emotion elicited: overall, both types of violations elicited more anger than contempt (and more negative emotion of any kind than positive emotion). By verbal rating, Americans and Indians reported more anger than contempt for both types of violation, whereas Japanese reported more contempt than anger for both types. By face selection, the three cultural groups selected anger more than contempt for both types of violation. The results speak against defining distinct domains of morality by their association with distinct emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mariko Kikutani
- Department of Social Psychology, Toyo University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Mariko Shirai
- Department of Psychology, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - James A Russell
- Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA
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46
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Watkins HM, Laham S. The influence of war on moral judgments about harm. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2018. [DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Hanne M. Watkins
- Department of Psychology University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA
| | - Simon Laham
- Department of Psychology University of Melbourne Melbourne Victoria Australia
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47
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Hoover J, Johnson K, Boghrati R, Graham J, Dehghani M. Moral Framing and Charitable Donation: Integrating Exploratory Social Media Analyses and Confirmatory Experimentation. COLLABRA-PSYCHOLOGY 2018. [DOI: 10.1525/collabra.129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Do appeals to moral values promote charitable donation during natural disasters? Using Distributed Dictionary Representation, we analyze tweets posted during Hurricane Sandy to explore associations between moral values and charitable donation sentiment. We then derive hypotheses from the observed associations and test these hypotheses across a series of preregistered experiments that investigate the effects of moral framing on perceived donation motivation (Studies 2 & 3), hypothetical donation (Study 4), and real donation behavior (Study 5). Overall, we find consistent positive associations between moral care and loyalty framing with donation sentiment and donation motivation. However, in contrast with people’s perceptions, we also find that moral frames may not actually have reliable effects on charitable donation, as measured by hypothetical indications of donation and real donation behavior. Overall, this work demonstrates that theoretically constrained, exploratory social media analyses can be used to generate viable hypotheses, but also that such approaches should be paired with rigorous controlled experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joe Hoover
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, US
| | - Kate Johnson
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, US
| | - Reihane Boghrati
- Department of Computer Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, US
| | - Jesse Graham
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, US
| | - Morteza Dehghani
- Department of Psychology and Computer Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, US
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Crone DL, Bode S, Murawski C, Laham SM. The Socio-Moral Image Database (SMID): A novel stimulus set for the study of social, moral and affective processes. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0190954. [PMID: 29364985 PMCID: PMC5783374 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190954] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2017] [Accepted: 12/22/2017] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
A major obstacle for the design of rigorous, reproducible studies in moral psychology is the lack of suitable stimulus sets. Here, we present the Socio-Moral Image Database (SMID), the largest standardized moral stimulus set assembled to date, containing 2,941 freely available photographic images, representing a wide range of morally (and affectively) positive, negative and neutral content. The SMID was validated with over 820,525 individual judgments from 2,716 participants, with normative ratings currently available for all images on affective valence and arousal, moral wrongness, and relevance to each of the five moral values posited by Moral Foundations Theory. We present a thorough analysis of the SMID regarding (1) inter-rater consensus, (2) rating precision, and (3) breadth and variability of moral content. Additionally, we provide recommendations for use aimed at efficient study design and reproducibility, and outline planned extensions to the database. We anticipate that the SMID will serve as a useful resource for psychological, neuroscientific and computational (e.g., natural language processing or computer vision) investigations of social, moral and affective processes. The SMID images, along with associated normative data and additional resources are available at https://osf.io/2rqad/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Damien L. Crone
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Stefan Bode
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Carsten Murawski
- Department of Finance, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Simon M. Laham
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
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Giner-Sorolla R, Kupfer T, Sabo J. What Makes Moral Disgust Special? An Integrative Functional Review. ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.aesp.2017.10.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/05/2022]
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Gray K. How to Map Theory: Reliable Methods Are Fruitless Without Rigorous Theory. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2017; 12:731-741. [DOI: 10.1177/1745691617691949] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Good science requires both reliable methods and rigorous theory. Theory allows us to build a unified structure of knowledge, to connect the dots of individual studies and reveal the bigger picture. Some have criticized the proliferation of pet “Theories,” but generic “theory” is essential to healthy science, because questions of theory are ultimately those of validity. Although reliable methods and rigorous theory are synergistic, Action Identification suggests psychological tension between them: The more we focus on methodological details, the less we notice the broader connections. Therefore, psychology needs to supplement training in methods (how to design studies and analyze data) with training in theory (how to connect studies and synthesize ideas). This article provides a technique for visually outlining theory: theory mapping. Theory mapping contains five elements, which are illustrated with moral judgment and with cars. Also included are 15 additional theory maps provided by experts in emotion, culture, priming, power, stress, ideology, morality, marketing, decision-making, and more (see all at theorymaps.org ). Theory mapping provides both precision and synthesis, which helps to resolve arguments, prevent redundancies, assess the theoretical contribution of papers, and evaluate the likelihood of surprising effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kurt Gray
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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