Consensus, controversy, and chaos in the attribution of characteristics to the morally exceptional

OBJECTIVE

What do people see as distinguishing the morally exceptional from others? To handle the problem that people may disagree about who qualifies as morally exceptional, we asked subjects to select and rate their own examples of morally exceptional, morally average, and immoral people.

METHOD

Subjects rated each selected exemplar on several enablers of moral action and several directions of moral action. By applying the logic underlying stimulus sampling in experimental design, we evaluated perceivers' level of agreement about the characteristics of the morally exceptional, even though perceivers rated different targets.

RESULTS

Across three studies, there was strong subjective consensus on who is morally exceptional: those who are empathetic and prone to guilt, those who reflect on moral issues and identify with morality, those who have self-control and actually enact moral behaviors, and those who care about harm, compassion, fairness, and honesty. Deep controversies also existed about the moral directions pursued by those seen as morally exceptional: People evaluated those who pursued similar values and made similar decisions more favorably.

CONCLUSION

Strong consensus suggests characteristics that may push a person to go beyond normal expectations, that the study of moral exceptionality is not overly hindered by disagreement over who is morally exceptional, and that there is some common ground between disagreeing camps.

Why moral psychology needs personality psychology

People vary in how they perceive, think about, and respond to moral issues. Clearly, we cannot fully understand the psychology of morality without accounting for individual differences in moral functioning. But decades of neglect of and explicit skepticism toward such individual differences has resulted in a lack of integration between moral psychology and personality psychology-the study of psychological differences between people. In recent years, these barriers to progress have started to break down. This special issue aims to celebrate and further increase the visibility of the personality psychology of morality. Here, we introduce the articles in this special issue by highlighting some important contributions a personality-based perspective has to offer moral psychology-particularly in comparison to the currently prominent social psychological approach. We show that personality psychology is well-placed to (a) contribute toward a rigorous empirical foundation for moral psychology, (b) tackle the conceptualization and assessment of stable moral tendencies, (c) assess the predictive validity of moral traits in relation to consequential outcomes, (d) uncover the mechanisms underlying individual differences in moral judgments and behavior, and (e) provide insights into moral development. For these reasons, we believe that moral psychology needs personality psychology to reach its full scholarly potential.

Hiding in plain view: An historical perspective on the study of morality in personality psychology

OBJECTIVE

We aim to identify the major ideas and trends in the study of morality within personality psychology over the past 100 years.

METHOD

Our historical review is organized into three sections, examining moral dimensions in personality from the standpoints of the person as (1) a social actor (moral traits), (2) a motivated agent (the mental infrastructure of morality), and (3) an autobiographical author (moral life stories).

RESULTS

Within the field of personality psychology, a great deal of research into morality has been hiding for decades in plain view. Accordingly, we trace the history of research on socialization and instrumental competence, altruism, moral traits and virtues, the dimensions of morality inherent in the authoritarian personality, personal values, moral reasoning, moral intuitions, and the life stories constructed by people who have distinguished themselves for moral excellence, as evidenced in extraordinary bravery, compassion, or generativity.

CONCLUSIONS

In a multitude of ways, human beings express and experience individual differences in their moral engagement of the world, all of which fall within the purview of personality psychology.

Is "sadistic pleasure" a contrived process of signaling one's antagonism?

OBJECTIVE

Sadistic pleasure presumably incorporates processes that support an authentic enjoyment of others' pain. However, antagonism confirmation theory, grounded in social-psychological theorizing on identity maintenance and the notion of ego-syntonicity, suggests that individuals higher in sadism report greater pleasure in response to others' pain because such reports are immoral responses that confirm their self-views. This alternative conception has yet to be tested.

METHOD

In two preregistered experiments (total N = 968), participants completed measures of sadism, read about situations involving others' pain, and rated their pleasure. We manipulated the extent to which pleasure from others' pain could be used to signal morality or antagonism.

RESULTS

We found that relatively sadistic people indicated greater pleasure across the studies but, like relatively non-sadistic people, they altered their pleasure ratings to signal greater morality or less antagonism.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings fail to support antagonism confirmation theory, but they support recent perspectives on sadism that suggest that sadistic people may occasionally care about seeming moral (or not seeming antagonistic) and that sadism may be somewhat ego-dystonic in this respect.

On the Highway to Hell: Slippery Slope Perceptions in Judgments of Moral Character

Across four studies, we test the hypothesis that people exhibit "slippery slope" thinking in their judgments of moral character-that is, do observers judge that a person who behaves immorally will become increasingly immoral over time? In Study 1, we find that a person who commits an immoral act is judged as more likely to behave immorally and as having a worse character in the future than in the past. In Study 2, we find that it is the commission of an immoral act specifically-rather than merely attempting an immoral act-that drives this slippery slope effect. In Study 3, we demonstrate that observers judge the moral agent as more likely to commit acts of greater severity further in time after the initial immoral act. In Study 4, we find that this effect is driven by an anticipated corrupting of moral character, related to perceptions of the agent's guilt.

How Much Is Enough? The Relationship Between Prosocial Effort and Moral Character Judgments

The amount of effort required to bring about a prosocial outcome can vary from low-handing a stranger the wallet she just dropped-to high-spending days tracking down the owner of a lost wallet. The goal of the current research is to characterize the relationship between prosocial effort and moral character judgments. Does more prosocial effort always lead to rosier moral character judgments? Across four studies (N = 1,658), we find that moral character judgments increase with prosocial effort to a point and then plateau. We find evidence that this pattern is produced, in part, by descriptive and prescriptive norms: exceeding descriptive norms increases moral character judgments, but exceeding prescriptive norms has the opposite effect, which leads to a tapering off of moral character judgments at higher levels of effort.

Target Happiness Attenuates Perceivers' Moral Condemnation of Prejudiced People

Five experiments (combined N = 4,915) tested the prediction that the moral boost of happiness would persist for social targets with moral failings. In Studies 1 and 2, White and Black participants, respectively, judged happy (versus unhappy) racist targets more morally good. In Study 3, happy (versus unhappy) racist targets were judged more morally good and less (more) likely to engage in racist (good) behavior. Behavioral expectations explained the link between happiness and moral evaluations. Study 4 replicated Studies 1 to 3 in the context of sexism. In Study 5, happy (versus unhappy) targets who engaged in racially biased behavior were evaluated as more morally good, and this effect was explained by behavioral forecasts. Happiness boosts attributions of moral goodness for prejudiced people and does so via expectations for future behavior. Future directions are discussed.

Perceived Power Polarizes Moral Evaluations

We show an interactive effect of perceiver-target similarity in ideological beliefs and target power on impressions of target morality. Consistent with prior research, perceivers rated targets with dissimilar ideologies as less moral than targets with similar ideologies, but this difference in ratings was magnified for powerful targets relative to less powerful targets. We argue that these results emerged because perceivers expected similar-ideology, powerful (vs. powerless) targets to help the self more, and expected dissimilar-ideology, powerful (vs. powerless) targets to hurt the self more. We establish this effect when people evaluate politicians (Study 1), groups, and individuals (Studies 2a-2b); demonstrate its predictive power over other kinds of interpersonal similarity; and show that it affects morality judgments uniquely when compared with other consequential dimensions of social evaluation. Finally, we manipulated power experimentally and showed the interaction when the difference between high- and low-power manipulations was controlled over just $1 (Studies 3-4).

Prescription for Love: An Experimental Investigation of Laypeople's Relative Moral Disapproval of Love Drugs

New technologies regularly bring about profound changes in our daily lives. Romantic relationships are no exception to these transformations. Some philosophers expect the emergence in the near future of love drugs: a theoretically achievable biotechnological intervention that could be designed to strengthen and maintain love in romantic relationships. We investigated laypeople's resistance to the use of such technologies and its sources. Across two studies (Study 1, French and Peruvian university students, N after exclusion = 186; Study 2, Amazon Mechanical Turk sample, N after exclusion = 693, pre-registered), we found that the use of love drugs designed to strengthen and maintain love in romantic relationships are considered as more morally problematic than psychological therapy with the same aim. In Study 2, we show that this last effect is partially due to the fact that the love resulting from the use of love drugs is perceived as less authentic, intense, and durable. We discuss the specific role of authenticity in the relative moral disapproval of love drugs.

The costs of lying: Consequences of telling lies on liar's self-esteem and affect

Deceiving others is generally viewed as immoral. However, most people lie on a daily basis. This article examines the psychological consequences for the liars themselves, as they are participating in what is generally perceived as immoral behaviour. More specifically, this article focuses on the effects of lying on the liar's self-esteem and affect. We tested if lying, in comparison to telling the truth, lowers people's self-esteem and increases negative experienced affect. In total, three cross sectional and one longitudinal studies were conducted (N = 783). Results showed that lying decreased people's self-esteem and increased negative affect, regardless of the type of lie (self-centred vs. other-oriented). Furthermore, lying on a given day decreased people's self-esteem compared to their self-esteem on the previous day and to their average level of self-esteem across 5 days.

Surveying the Moral Landscape: How Ethical Frameworks Influence the Structure of Return-to-Sport Decision Making

SYNOPSIS: Similar to all areas of health care, sports medicine has ethical considerations when making decisions-return to sport being one. Despite a general consensus on criteria to determine when an athlete is ready to return to sport, there are various scenarios that clinicians encounter that may not fall into a clear "yes" or "no" decision. These scenarios leave the clinician asking what is the "right" decision in a given circumstance? A line of questioning that invokes a moral dimension in supporting athletes when they are returning to sport. To address the moral aspect of a clinical decision, ethical frameworks and theories can guide decisions and resolve ethical dilemmas. The aim of this Viewpoint is to briefly describe 4 ethical frameworks and explore how they might apply in a clinical scenario to guide different ethical analyses and influence the final decision. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2024;54(4):1-4. Epub 14 February 2024. doi:10.2519/jospt.2024.12310.

A search for commonalities in defining the common good: Using folk theories to unlock shared conceptions

Throughout the course of scholarly history, some concepts have been notoriously hard to define. The 'common good' is one such concept. While the common good has a long and contested scholarly history, social psychology research on folk theories - lay beliefs that represent an individual's informal and subjective understanding of the world - may provide a key for unlocking this nebulous concept. In the current paper, we analysed lay definitions of the common good using the linguistic inquiry and word count's meaning extraction method. From a nationally representative Australian sample of open-ended text responses (n = 14,303), we uncovered a consistent conceptual structure, with nine themes corresponding to three core aspects: (i) outcomes and objects, (ii) principles and processes and (iii) stakeholders and beneficiaries. From this, we developed a working definition of the folk concept of the common good: 'achieving the best possible outcome for the largest number of people, which is underpinned by decision-making that is ethically and morally sound and varies by the context in which the decisions are made'. A working definition benefits the academic community and society more broadly, particularly when diverse stakeholders come together to act for the common good to address shared challenges.

Impacts of Unethical Behavior on Self-Esteem: A Contingent Dual-Process Model

Previous studies have reported mixed findings on how and why unethical behavior affects self-esteem. To address this issue, a contingent dual-process model is proposed and tested. The model postulates a negative impact of unethical behavior on self-esteem through decreased morality, a positive effect through increased competence, and the relative strength of these two paths depending on system-justifying motives. Studies using unethical behavior for self-interest (Studies 1 and 2), involving ingroup interest (Study 3), and measuring (Studies 1 and 3) and manipulating general system justification (Study 2) provide support for the model. By identifying the effects of system-justifying motives and linking the two competing paths, the model reconciles inconsistencies in previous research regarding how self-esteem is influenced by unethical behavior and reveals the underlying mechanism of this association. Accordingly, the current research constructs a motivational and superordinate framework to clarify the dynamic consequences of unethical behavior.

Understanding moral distress in home-care nursing: An interview study

BACKGROUND

Moral distress is a far-reaching problem for nurses in different settings as it threatens their health.

AIM

This study examined which situations lead to moral distress in home-care nursing, how and with which consequences home-care nurses experience moral distress, and how they cope with morally stressful situations and the resulting moral distress.

RESEARCH DESIGN

A qualitative interview study with reflexive thematic analysis was used.

PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 home-care nurses in Germany.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The study was approved by the Data Protection Office and Ethics Committee of the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

FINDINGS

Twenty (14 female and 6 male) home-care nurses were interviewed between April and August 2023 at their chosen location. The situations leading to moral distress were inadequate care of the person in need of care, not being able to protect one's health, extended responsibility for the entire care arrangement, work-privacy conflicts, and conflicts between the understanding of care or professional ethics and the performance and billing system. The nurses experienced moral distress as they worked alone and provided care in the patient's territory. Short- and long-term strains with destructive cognitions, negative emotions, physical symptoms, and health consequences were reported. They faced challenges in coping with moral distress on institutional and individual levels.

CONCLUSIONS

In cases of tension between the service and billing system and the understanding of these nurses' care services, moral distress is unavoidable. Alternative forms of organization and billing modalities, such as payment by time and the expansion and refinancing of service, should be implemented. The latter relates to systematic case and ethics meetings. Further, a transfer of medical activities, such as the prescription of wound material to registered nurses, could prevent morally stressful situations and improve patients' quality of care.

System circumvention: Dishonest-illegal transgressions are perceived as justified in non-meritocratic societies

Does believing that "effort doesn't pay" in society shape how people view dishonest-illegal transgressions? Across five studies, we show that when people view societal success as non-meritocratic-that is, more dependent on luck and circumstances than on hard work-they are more lenient in their moral judgements of dishonest-illegal transgressions. Perceiving society as non-meritocratic predicted greater justifiability of dishonest-illegal transgressions in the United States (Study 2), and across 42 countries (N = 49,574; Study 1). And inducing participants to view society as non-meritocratic increased justifiability of others' dishonest-illegal transgressions, via greater feelings of sympathy (Studies 3 and 4). Next, we investigated the contours of these effects. Perceiving societal success as non-meritocratic rather than based on hard work causes people to view dishonest-illegal transgressions as more justifiable if they are perpetrated by the poor, but not the rich (Study 4), and if the dishonest-illegal transgressions are related to economic striving, such as money laundering and dealing illegal drugs (Study 5). In sum, when people see a social system as unfair, they show greater tolerance for dishonest-illegal transgressions perpetrated to circumvent the system.

An all-embracing science: The anthropological conception of Paolo Mantegazza

This paper deals with the anthropological conception of the first modern Italian anthropologist, Paolo Mantegazza (1831-1910). We will begin by contextualizing the status of anthropology in Italy during the second half of the 19th century. Subsequently, we will delve into some of the inspirations that led the Italians to have such a multifaceted conception of the discipline. Next, we will outline the content of this approach and clarify the meaning of "omnicomprehensive science." From there, we will come to understand the reason for the variety of interests of the anthropologist, who aimed to study the human being in all aspects of life. We will then mention the moral objective present in his professional journey: through an understanding of the complexity of human life, the anthropologist wanted to contribute to the progress and well-being of society; in other words, to "living well."

Gratitude Is Morally Sensitive

Helping acts, however well intended and beneficial, sometimes involve immoral means or immoral helpers. Here, we explore whether help recipients consider moral evaluations in their appraisals of gratitude, a possibility that has been neglected by existing accounts of gratitude. Participants felt less grateful and more uneasy when offered immoral help (Study 1, N = 150), and when offered morally neutral help by an immoral helper (Study 2, N = 172). In response to immoral help or helpers, participants were less likely to accept the help and less willing to strengthen their relationship with the helper even when they accepted it. Study 3 (N = 276) showed that recipients who felt grateful when offered immoral help were perceived as less likable, less moral, and less suitable as close relationship partners than those who felt uneasy by observers. Our results demonstrate that gratitude is morally sensitive and suggest this might be socially adaptive.

Values in Context: The (Dis)connections Between Moral Foundations and Moral Conviction

Moral foundations theory (MFT) argues that liberals and conservatives form different moral positions because liberals emphasize the values of harm and fairness, whereas conservatives emphasize the values of group loyalty, authority, and purity. In five studies (total N = 3,327), we investigated whether political orientation moderated the relationship between the perceived relevance of each moral foundation and moral conviction (i.e., the extent to which one perceives their attitude as based on morality) across four issues. Political differences in this relationship emerged but were inconsistent across issues and did not always align with the predictions of MFT or several other theoretical explanations. Our findings together with previous research indicate that MFT may do a better job predicting attitude position than it does predicting whether people perceive that their attitudes are moral convictions, and that some foundations may reflect conventional rather than moral values (e.g., authority).

A test of the Morality-Agency-Communion (MAC) model of respect and liking across positive and negative traits

The Morality-Agency-Communion (MAC) model of respect and liking suggests that traits linked with morality are important for respect and liking; traits related to competence or assertiveness are important for respect and traits related to warmth are important for liking. However, tests of this model have tended not to consider traits related to immorality, incompetence, lack of assertiveness or coldness. This study addressed this issue by utilizing a within-subjects design in which participants were required to rate their respect and liking for individuals with specific trait types across four categories (moral; competence; assertiveness; and warmth) at three levels (positive, negative and neutral). The central tenets of the MAC model were supported for 'positive' traits (morality, competence, assertiveness and warmth). However, for 'negative' traits (immorality, incompetence and lack of assertiveness), individuals were similarly not liked and not respected. Individuals who were cold were respected more than liked. The findings of this study extend the MAC model by indicating that the amount that individuals are respected versus liked depends not only on trait type but also whether a trait is positive or negative.

Neural perspectives on morality due to beguiling mechanisms

We consider deception an example of behavior that challenges traditional explanations of moral behavior. Beguiling mechanisms, by which we mean deceptiveness with charming seduction for diversion, subtly influence moral sensitivity and judgment in moral dilemma situations. The duality of beguiling mechanisms is important to grasp, including how they relate to the ambiguity of situations. Further, we view moral behavior as quasi-adaptive, affectively based, and reliant on the processes of social cognition, arising out of a set of domain-general primitive predispositions that aggregate to produce moral "mindsets" and increasingly complex moral actions. Building on recent theoretical developments, contend that morality involves a complex heterarchical-hierarchical neurological architecture, where activity is dynamically and contextually dependent, as well as dependent on evolved brain structures and early life year socialization. We contribute to conceptualizing moral behavior from an integrated modern neural perspective. This provides a balance between moral decisions as situational, emotional, and genetically completed non-conscious processes, and the more traditional view of conscious reasoning. Beguiling mechanisms illustrate an integrative model of morality, consistent with emerging insights from affective and cognitive neuroscience.

EEG Correlates of Moral Decision-Making: Effect of Choices and Offers Types

Background: Moral decision-making consists of a complex process requiring individuals to evaluate potential consequences of personal and social decisions, including applied organizational contexts.Methods: This research aims to investigate the behavioral (offer responses and reaction times, RTs) and electrophysiological (EEG) correlates underlying moral decision-making during three different choice conditions (professional fit, company fit, and social fit) and offers (fair, unfair, and neutral).Results: An increase of delta and theta frontal activity (related to emotional behavior and processes) and beta frontal and central activity (linked to cognitive and attentional processes) was found. A left beta, delta, and theta frontal activity was observed for fair offers in professional fit conditions, while increased right frontal delta and theta activity was found in response to unfair offers in company fit conditions. Also, an increase of left delta and theta parietal activity for unfair offers in social fit condition was detected. Finally, higher accepted responses were found for fair and neutral offers in professional and social fit conditions, with increased RTs for unfair offers suggesting decisions' cognitive load and complexity.Conclusions: By revealing a greater involvement of left and right frontal areas in decision-making processes based on choices and offers, personal interest evaluations and emotional values, and of parietal areas in more prosocial and altruistic moral behavior, current findings provide information about the neural and behavioral correlates underlying company moral behavior.

The Moral Psychology of Artificial Intelligence

Moral psychology was shaped around three categories of agents and patients: humans, other animals, and supernatural beings. Rapid progress in artificial intelligence has introduced a fourth category for our moral psychology to deal with: intelligent machines. Machines can perform as moral agents, making decisions that affect the outcomes of human patients or solving moral dilemmas without human supervision. Machines can be perceived as moral patients, whose outcomes can be affected by human decisions, with important consequences for human-machine cooperation. Machines can be moral proxies that human agents and patients send as their delegates to moral interactions or use as a disguise in these interactions. Here we review the experimental literature on machines as moral agents, moral patients, and moral proxies, with a focus on recent findings and the open questions that they suggest.

Social Media and Morality

Nearly five billion people around the world now use social media, and this number continues to grow. One of the primary goals of social media platforms is to capture and monetize human attention. One means by which individuals and groups can capture attention and drive engagement on these platforms is by sharing morally and emotionally evocative content. We review a growing body of research on the interrelationship of social media and morality as well its consequences for individuals and society. Moral content often goes viral on social media, and social media makes moral behavior (such as punishment) less costly. Thus, social media often acts as an accelerant for existing moral dynamics, amplifying outrage, status seeking, and intergroup conflict while also potentially amplifying more constructive facets of morality, such as social support, prosociality, and collective action. We discuss trends, heated debates, and future directions in this emerging literature.

Ethical reasoning versus empathic bias: a false dichotomy?

Does empathy necessarily impede equity in altruism? Emerging findings from cognitive and affective science suggest that rationality and empathy are mutually compatible, contradicting some earlier, prominent arguments that empathy impedes equitable giving. We propose alternative conceptualizations of relationships among empathy, rationality, and equity, drawing on interdisciplinary advances in altruism research.

Personal Misconduct Elicits Harsher Professional Consequences for Artists (vs. Scientists): A Moral-Decoupling Process

Recent years have brought increased accountability for personal misconduct, yet often, unequal consequences have resulted from similar offenses. Findings from a unique archival data set (N = 619; all university faculty) and three preregistered experiments (N = 2,594) show that the perceived artistic-versus-scientific nature of the offender's professional contributions influences the professional punishment received. In Study 1, analysis of four decades of university sexual-misconduct cases reveals that faculty in artistic (vs. scientific) fields have on average received more severe professional consequences. Study 2 demonstrates this experimentally, offering mediational evidence that greater difficulty morally decoupling art (vs. science) contributes to the phenomenon. Study 3 provides further evidence for this mechanism through experimental moderation. Finally, Study 4 shows that merely framing an individual's work as artistic versus scientific results in replication of these effects. Several potential alternative mechanisms to moral decoupling are tested but not supported. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Moral distress among critical care nurses before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review

Moral distress has emerged as a significant concern for critical care nurses, particularly due to the complex and demanding care provided to critically ill patients in critical care units. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new ethical challenges and changes in clinical practice, further exacerbating the experience of moral distress among these nurses. This systematic review compares the factors influencing moral distress among critical care nurses before and during the COVID-19 pandemic to gain a comprehensive understanding of the impact of the pandemic on moral distress. For this systematic review, PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, Web of Science, medRxiv, bioRxiv, Embase, and Google Scholar were all utilized in the search. The search covered articles published from 2012 to December 2022, encompassing a 10-year timeframe to capture relevant research on moral distress among critical care nurses. In total, 52 articles were included in this systematic review. The findings indicate that personal, caring-related, and organizational factors can influence nurses' moral distress. Before the pandemic, factors including futile and end-of-life care, conflicts with physicians, nurse performance and authority, poor teamwork, decision-making regarding treatment processes and patient care, limited human resources and equipment, medical errors, patient restraints, and nurses' age and work experience affect critical care nurses' moral distress. Similarly, during the COVID-19 pandemic, factors contributing to moral distress include futile and end-of-life care, fear of contracting and spreading COVID-19, decision-making about treatment processes, poor teamwork, and being female. This study revealed that the factors contributing to moral distress were approximately similar in both periods. Futile care and end-of-life issues were critical care nurses' primary causes of moral distress. Implementing prevention strategies and reducing these underlying factors could decrease this major issue and improve the quality of care.

Effects of morality and reputation on sharing behaviors in human-robot teams

Introduction

The relationship between robots and humans is becoming increasingly close and will become an inseparable part of work and life with humans and robots working together. Sharing, which involves distributing goods between individuals and others, involves individuals as potential beneficiaries and the possibility of giving up the interests of others. In human teams, individual sharing behaviors are influenced by morality and reputation. However, the impact on individuals' sharing behaviors in human-robot collaborative teams remains unclear-individuals may consider morality and reputation differently when sharing with robot or human partners. In this study, three experiments were conducted using the dictator game paradigm, aiming to compare the effects and mechanisms of morality and reputation on sharing behaviors in human and human-robot teams.

Methods

Experiment 1 involving 18 participants was conducted. Experiment 2 involving 74 participants was conducted. Experiment 3 involving 128 participants was conducted.

Results

Experiment 1 validated the differences in human sharing behaviors when the agents were robots and humans. Experiment 2 verifies that moral constraints and reputation constraints affect sharing behaviors in human-robot teams. Experiment 3 further reveals the mechanism of differences in sharing behaviors in human-robot teams, where reputation concern plays a mediating role in the impact of moral constraint on sharing behaviors, and the agent type plays a moderating role in the impact of moral constraint on reputation concern and sharing behaviors.

Discussion

The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of the interaction mechanism of human-robot teams. In the future, the formulation of human-robot collaborative team rules and the setting of interaction environments can consider the potential motivation of human behavior from both morality and reputation perspectives and achieve better work performance.

To bridge or not to bridge: Moral Judgement in Cocaine Use Disorders, a case-control study on human morality

BACKGROUND

In the "Dual-Process theory", morality is characterized by the interaction between an automatic-emotional process, mediated by the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) and linked to personal-deontological decisions, and a rational-conscious one, mediated by the Dorso-Lateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) and linked to impersonal-utilitarian decisions. These areas are altered by chronic use of cocaine, with a possible impact on moral decision-making.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the difference between a group of Cocaine Use Disorder (CUD) patients and a control group in moral decision-making.

METHODS

Subjects with CUD were compared to an equal-sized healthy group regarding their moral decision-making. Trolley and Footbridge Moral Dilemmas were administered to each group. The quality of the answer (yes or no) and the time needed to answer were recorded.

RESULTS

The recruited group includes 72 subjects, 36 with CUD and 36 healthy subjects (average age of 39.51 ± 9.89). In the Trolley dilemma, almost all the subjects (97.3%) answered "yes", while in the Footbridge dilemma CUD subjects answered "yes" more often (52.7%) than the healthy group (19.4%).

CONCLUSION

For strong emotional dilemmas (Footbridge), cocaine users answered "yes" with a higher frequency compared to healthy subjects, highlighting a wider utilitarian tendency in decision-making and a poor emotional participation.

When Does Catholic Social Teaching Imply a Duty to be Vaccinated for the Common Good?

In 2017, Carson and Flood outlined a general duty to be vaccinated, arguing from Catholic social teaching on justice, love, solidarity and the common good. This necessarily relied on assumptions about the typical nature of vaccination, assumptions which do not always hold true in concrete situations. I identify twelve criteria that, where they hold, strengthen the particular duty to be vaccinated, and, if not met, weaken or reverse it. These pertain to the biological agent which vaccination aims to protect against, the vaccine and its supply, the costs and benefits of vaccination to the individual and society, and the alternative courses of action. The two-way relationship between the moral duty to be vaccinated and vaccine mandates is discussed. Individuals and policy-makers need to know these criteria - and be provided the necessary information to evaluate vaccination against them - in order to make a truly rational judgement.

Creative thinking does not promote dishonesty

We assessed the relation of creativity and unethical behaviour by manipulating the thinking style of participants (N = 450 adults) and measuring the impact of this manipulation on the prevalence of dishonest behaviour. Participants performed one of three inducer tasks: the alternative uses task to promote divergent thinking, the remote associates task to promote convergent thinking, or a simple classification task for rule-based thinking. Before and after this manipulation, participants conducted the mind game as a straightforward measure of dishonesty. Dishonest behaviour increased from before to after the intervention, but we found no credible evidence that this increase differed between induced mindsets. Exploratory analyses did not support any relation of trait creativity and dishonesty either. We conclude that the influence of creative thinking on unethical behaviour seems to be more ambiguous than assumed in earlier research or might be restricted to specific populations or contexts.

Addressing challenges to carrying out intervention programs with youth populations: Successes and strategies

We identify five challenges notoriously faced by researchers conducting youth intervention studies: access to the target population, successful recruitment, ensuring continued attendance, promoting engaged, enthused, and task-focused participation, and efficient data collection. To ensure research quality, we have devised strategies to address these obstacles. Successes and lessons are included from The Compass Project (TCP), a 9-week morality strengthening program designed to facilitate positive attitudinal and behavioral outcomes in young people. Despite four of the five identified challenges being overcome in TCP, the fifth challenge of data collection was insurmountable as many participants failed to complete questionnaire scales. We propose that researchers build on our success by building rapport and trust with participants and youth organizations and building a participant sense of community, and improve upon our design by scrutinizing the format, accessibility, and length of data measures. Ultimately, tests of whether intervention programs can result in positive outcomes in the lives of young people hinge on adequately overcoming the identified challenges. Implementation of the proposed strategies will be instrumental to allow for meaningful and powerful statistical analyses to more accurately gauge the positive impact of intervention programs on young people's lives.

Incivility in COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Discourse and Moral Foundations: Natural Language Processing Approach

BACKGROUND

Vaccine hesitancy poses a substantial threat to efforts to mitigate the harmful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. To combat vaccine hesitancy, officials in the United States issued vaccine mandates, which were met with strong antivaccine discourse on social media platforms such as Reddit. The politicized and polarized nature of COVID-19 on social media has fueled uncivil discourse related to vaccine mandates, which is known to decrease confidence in COVID-19 vaccines.

OBJECTIVE

This study examines the moral foundations underlying uncivil COVID-19 vaccine discourse. Moral foundations theory poses that individuals make decisions to express approval or disapproval (ie, uncivil discourse) based on innate moral values. We examine whether moral foundations are associated with dimensions of incivility. Further, we explore whether there are any differences in the presence of incivility between the r/coronaviruscirclejerk and r/lockdownskepticism subreddits.

METHODS

Natural language processing methodologies were leveraged to analyze the moral foundations underlying uncivil discourse in 2 prominent antivaccine subreddits, r/coronaviruscirclejerk and r/lockdownskepticism. All posts and comments from both of the subreddits were collected since their inception in March 2022. This was followed by filtering the data set for key terms associated with the COVID-19 vaccine (eg, "vaccinate" and "Pfizer") and mandates (eg, "forced" and "mandating"). These key terms were selected based on a review of existing literature and because of their salience in both of the subreddits. A 10% sample of the filtered key terms was used for the final analysis.

RESULTS

Findings suggested that moral foundations play a role in the psychological processes underlying uncivil vaccine mandate discourse. Specifically, we found substantial associations between all moral foundations (ie, care and harm, fairness and cheating, loyalty and betrayal, authority and subversion, and sanctity and degradation) and dimensions of incivility (ie, toxicity, insults, profanity, threat, and identity attack) except for the authority foundation. We also found statistically significant differences between r/coronaviruscirclejerk and r/lockdownskepticism for the presence of the dimensions of incivility. Specifically, the mean of identity attack, insult, toxicity, profanity, and threat in the r/lockdownskepticism subreddit was significantly lower than that in the r/coronaviruscirclejerk subreddit (P<.001).

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that moral foundations may play a substantial role in the presence of incivility in vaccine discourse. On the basis of the findings of the study, public health practitioners should tailor messaging by addressing the moral values underlying the concerns people may have about vaccines, which could manifest as uncivil discourse. Another way to tailor public health messaging could be to direct it to parts of social media platforms with increased uncivil discourse. By integrating moral foundations, public health messaging may increase compliance and promote civil discourse surrounding COVID-19.

Paragons of character-Character strengths and well-being of moral, creative, and religious exemplars

OBJECTIVE

Which traits best describe individuals who are recognized as exemplary in different domains? And can self-rated positively valued personality traits distinguish such individuals from the general population?

BACKGROUND

The study of exemplary individuals' personality traits traditionally focused on general and broad traits. Using character strengths, which are narrower and designed to describe desirable behavior, could provide new insights.

METHOD

In this study, we examined 204 outstanding individuals-exemplars who received or were nominated for a public award recognizing their exemplary behavior (e.g., a Carnegie Rescuers Award; n = 119), individuals holding a patent (n = 62), and individuals living in a religious order (n = 23). We compared these exemplars to comparison samples matched based on demographic variables. All participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing character strengths and well-being (e.g., satisfaction with life).

RESULTS

Results showed that the three groups of exemplars differed meaningfully in their character strengths and well-being from the matched comparison groups. Compared with matched counterparts, moral exemplars scored higher on the strengths related to the virtues of courage, humanity, and justice as well as the character strength of humility, creative exemplars scored higher on the character strengths of creativity and honesty, and religious exemplars scored higher on gratitude and spirituality.

CONCLUSION

Overall, our findings suggest that character strengths are a useful framework for studying exemplary behavior.

A multidimensional implicit approach to gender stereotypes

Research has widely explained gender inequalities in terms of gender stereotypes, according to which women are considered more nurturing, empathic, and emotional but less competent - than men. Recent evidence highlights that especially women are portrayed along multiple dimensions. In this research, we adopted an implicit Semantic Misattribution procedure to detect whether gender stereotypes have a multidimensional structure and are differently attributed to men and women. Results showed that Competence and Dominance-related terms were considered more masculine ones. In contrast, Morality and Physical Attractiveness were attributed to feminine ideograms to a higher and significant extent than masculine ones. Sociability was related to feminine and masculine ideograms almost to the same extent. The gathered evidence provided a multidimensional picture even composed of more judgment dimensions with reference to women highlighting how it can be difficult for them to meet all those multiple expectancies.

'So Help Me God'? Does oath swearing in courtroom scenarios impact trial outcomes?

In countries such as Britain and the US, court witnesses must declare they will provide truthful evidence and are often compelled to publicly choose between religious ("oath") and secular ("affirmation") versions of this declaration. Might defendants who opt to swear an oath enjoy more favourable outcomes than those who choose to affirm? Two preliminary, pre-registered survey studies using minimal vignettes (Study 1, N = 443; Study 2, N = 913) indicated that people associate choice of the oath with credible testimony; and that participants, especially religious participants, discriminate against defendants who affirm. In a third, Registered Report study (Study 3, N = 1821), we used a more elaborate audiovisual mock trial paradigm to better estimate the real-world influence of declaration choice. Participants were asked to render a verdict for a defendant who either swore or affirmed, and were themselves required to swear or affirm that they would try the defendant in good faith. Overall, the defendant was not considered guiltier when affirming rather than swearing, nor did mock-juror belief in God moderate this effect. However, jurors who themselves swore an oath did discriminate against the affirming defendant. Exploratory analyses suggest this effect may be driven by authoritarianism, perhaps because high-authoritarian jurors consider the oath the traditional (and therefore correct) declaration to choose. We discuss the real-world implications of these findings and conclude the religious oath is an antiquated legal ritual that needs reform.

Myth of objectivity and the origin of symbols

An age-old challenge in epistemology and moral philosophy is whether objectivity exists independent of subjective perspective. Alfred North Whitehead labeled it a "fallacy of misplaced concreteness"; after all, knowledge is represented elusively in symbols. I employ the free energy principle (FEP) to argue that the belief in moral objectivity, although perhaps fallacious, amounts to an ancient and universal human myth that is essential for our symbolic capacity. To perceive any object in a world of non-diminishing (perhaps irreducible) uncertainty, according to the FEP, its constituent parts must display common probabilistic tendencies, known as statistical beliefs, prior to its interpretation, or active inference, as a stable entity. Behavioral bias, subjective emotions, and social norms scale the scope of identity by coalescing agents with otherwise disparate goals and aligning their perspectives into a coherent structure. I argue that by declaring belief in norms as objective, e.g., expressing that a particular theft or infidelity was generally wrong, our ancestors psychologically constructed a type of identity bound only by shared faith in a perspective that technically transcended individual subjectivity. Signaling explicit belief in what were previously non-symbolic norms, as seen in many non-human animals, simulates a top-down point of view of our social interactions and thereby constructs our cultural niche and symbolic capacity. I demonstrate that, largely by contrasting with overly reductive analytical models that assume individual rational pursuit of extrinsic rewards, shared belief in moral conceptions, i.e., what amounts to a religious faith, remains a motivational cornerstone of our language, economic and civic institutions, stories, and psychology. Finally, I hypothesize that our bias for familiar accents (shibboleth), plausibly represents the phylogenetic and ontogenetic contextual origins of our impulse to minimize social surprise by declaring belief in the myth of objectivity.

The role of empathy in trolley problems and variants: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The role of empathy in morality is a subject of ongoing scientific debate due to the lack of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on this topic. To address this gap, we conducted a PRISMA-based systematic quantitative review to investigate the role of empathy in moral judgements, decision-making, and inclinations using trolley problems and variants, which are popular types of moral dilemmas that explore utilitarianism and deontology. We searched for articles in four databases (PsycINFO, Pubmed, WorldWideScience, and Scopus) and performed citation searches. Out of 661 records, we selected 34 that studied the associations between empathy and moral judgements, moral decision-making, and/or moral inclinations. Six meta-analyses and systematic reviews of these records consistently showed small to moderate associations between affective empathy and these moral parameters, particularly in personal moral dilemmas involving intentional harm (although some approaches highlighted more complex associations between these parameters). Regarding other empathy domains, most studies found limited or insignificant links between cognitive empathy domains and moral judgements, decision-making, and inclinations. We discuss the nuances and implications of these results.

Reflections on the relational ontology of medical assistance in dying

Canadian nursing practice has been profoundly influenced by the legalization of medical assistance in dying in 2016, requiring that nurses navigate new and sometimes highly challenging experiences. Findings from our longitudinal studies of nurses' experiences suggest that these include deep emotional responses to medical assistance in dying, an urgency in orchestrating the perfect death, and a high degree of relational impact, both professionally and personally. Here we propose a theoretical explanation for these experiences based upon a relational ontology. Drawing upon the work of Wildman, we understand a relational ontology to be one in which relationships are more fundamentally central than the conceptual entities that provide the context to practice. It is in a relationship that conceptual entities, and their affiliated values, are created and recreated. Seen as causal, relationships have ontological status, with important implications for how we consider the concepts of death, suffering, and time in this context. From a conceptual perspective, suffering is primarily self-defined based upon personal histories, time reflects the potential remaining until death, and death is primarily biological and amoral, although social discourses of a good and bad death surround the death trajectory. However, within a relational ontology of medical assistance in dying, these understandings shift. Death becomes primarily social rather than biological, suffering is shared, and time until death is now clearly delimited. Accordingly, nurses assume a profound responsibility for influencing outcomes that are authentically person-centered. These understandings provide important insights into nurses' experiences, enabling us to recognize the causal effects, both intended and unintended, of nurses' relational practices amidst the complexities of assisted death. Drawing on such a perspective, we find implications for how we provide spaces for nurses to reflect on, and have conversations about, their experiences with some of the greatest mysteries of life-death, suffering, and time.

Detection of intimate partner aggression through dark personality and moral disengagement

Health professionals are often the first to detect abuse. Intimate partner aggression can be approached by studying the personality of the aggressor. From this perspective, dark personality and the use of moral disengagement mechanisms are two key variables. In this study, information was collected from 348 individuals, mostly women, and a questionnaire was applied to determine what their sexual behavior was like with their partner. The Short Dark Tetrad (SD4) test was used to identify dark personality and the Propensity to Moral Disengagement to identify moral disengagement. Data were collected via Google forms and multivariate decision tree analysis (CHAID growth method) was performed. Results show that men score higher on the variables of dark personality variables and use of moral disengagement mechanisms than on the three variables that, along with sex, increase the presence of dark personality and moral disengagement mechanisms: infidelity, pornography consumption, and maintaining homosexual relationships. Infidelity and pornography consumption are characteristics present in all dimensions of dark personality. Moreover, these three variables are defining characteristics of relationships with high sadism scores. Nursing staff are possibly able to detect the presence of these variables in aggressors and thus initiate a process of victim protection. Therefore, this study proposes that nursing staff should be trained to perform this detection.

Emphasizing Similarities Between Politically Opposed Groups and Their Influence in Perceptions of the Political Opposition: Evidence From Five Experiments

Across five experiments (four pre-registered, N = 4,431), we investigate whether emphasizing similarities between Republicans and Democrats can improve intergroup relations between the two groups. Members of both groups who were presented with evidence emphasizing similarities rather than differences in the psychological attitudes of both parties reported greater inclusion of the political opposition in the self, greater belief that common ground can be reached for major social issues, and warmer feelings toward the opposition. Inclusion of the political outgroup in the self mediated the effect of the similarities condition on additional outcomes, relating to more positive and less threatening perceptions of political opposition members. These findings held even when compared with a baseline condition with no information presented to participants. We conclude that by emphasizing the study of group similarities and by disseminating research in a way that highlights similarities, researchers could reduce intergroup hostilities in the political domain.

Adolescents view social exclusion based on social class as more wrong than do children

Psychological attitudes about social status hierarchies and social mobility often reflect stereotypic expectations about competencies and entitlements based on inequalities. Children who experience exclusion based on social class are at risk of experiencing a lack of opportunities, contributing to societal disparities. Recently, developmental science has examined the origins of attitudes that contribute to social exclusion, reflecting moral judgments about fairness as well as societal and group-based concerns about norms and intergroup dynamics. This study investigated children's reasoning about intergroup exclusion by focusing on social class as a potential exclusion criterion for children and adolescents in peer contexts in Türkiye, an understudied context for research. Participants living in a metropolitan area of Türkiye (N = 270) between the ages of 8-10 (Mage = 9.80; SD = .77; 53.5% girls) and 14-16 (Mage = 15.51; SD = .93, 61.7% girls) from lower and higher socioeconomic backgrounds were asked for their exclusion evaluations, emotion attributions, related justifications, and individual solutions. While participants overall viewed social class-based social exclusion as wrong, adolescents typically viewed it as more wrong than did children. Adolescents focused on unfair treatment and discrimination, whereas children focused on interpersonal aspects of social exclusion more frequently. Older participants from lower socioeconomic status (SES) viewed the excluders' intentions as discriminatory more often than did older participants from higher SES who desired to protect the status quo. These findings shed new light on how children and adolescents evaluate societal-based biases contributing to peer social exclusion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Cooking skills modify the association between oral health and mortality

Poor oral health has been linked to an increased risk of mortality. People with good cooking skills may be able to cope with problems caused by oral dysfunction, such as restricted food choice. This study investigated whether cooking skills modified the association between oral health status and mortality. A 3-year follow-up was conducted among participants of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, a population-based cohort study of Japanese adults aged 65-101 years. Oral health assessment comprised number of teeth and three oral functions (awareness of swallowing difficulty, decline in masticatory function, and dry mouth). Cooking skills were assessed using a valid scale adapted for Japanese participants. Mortality from 2016 to 2019 was analysed for 10,121 respondents. Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios for mortality risk adjusting for potential confounders, including sociodemographic factors and health status. During the follow-up, there were 488 deaths (4.8% of all participants). Both fewer teeth and poor oral function were associated with a greater mortality risk. Cooking skills modified the association only for oral function. Stratification by cooking skill score showed that the hazard ratios for ≥2 oral difficulties (vs. none) was 2.06 (95% confidence interval: 1.43-2.96) among those with low cooking skills and 1.25 (95% confidence interval: 0.92-1.71) among those with high cooking skills after adjusting for potential confounders. Improving cooking skills may be key to mitigating health risks owing to poor oral functions.

Perceived contact with friends from lower socioeconomic status reduces exclusion based on social class

This study investigated children's and adolescents' reasoning about intergroup exclusion based on social class from educational opportunities in Türkiye. The role of children's and adolescents' perceived contact with friends from different socioeconomic backgrounds on their evaluations of exclusion and personal solutions to the exclusion was also examined. Participants (N = 270) included 142 children (8-10 years old, Mage = 9.80; SD = 0.82; 53.5% girls) and 128 adolescents (14-16 years old, Mage = 15.46; SD = 0.91, 61.7% girls) from lower (N = 144) and higher (N = 126) socioeconomic backgrounds. Results showed that while most participants viewed social class-based exclusion as wrong, adolescents were more likely to view it as wrong than were children. Adolescents from lower SES approached social class-based exclusion as less acceptable than did adolescents from higher SES who referred to expectations about conformity to authority and the status quo. Moderation analyses showed that for adolescents from higher SES, higher perceived contact with friends from lower SES was associated with decreased acceptability of exclusion and increased motivation to provide equity. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Overall, adolescents living in a country with economic instability evaluated social class-based exclusion from educational opportunities among peers as unfair and wrong. Adolescents from lower SES viewed social class-based exclusion as less acceptable than did adolescents from higher SES. Adolescents from higher SES expected that excluders' intentions were motivated by conforming to authority and supporting the status quo more frequently than did children. For adolescents from higher SES, perceived contact with friends from lower SES was associated with decreased acceptability of exclusion and increased motivation to provide equity.

Toward a Comprehensive, Data-Driven Model of American Political Goals: Recognizing the "Values" and "Vices" Within Both Liberalism and Conservativism

When a person indicates they are "liberal" or "conservative," an important part of what they are communicating is their goals for how they would like society to be structured. However, past theories have described these goals in dramatically different fashions, suggesting that either conservativism or liberalism reflects a divisive or unifying goal. To help overcome this impasse, we systematically compared a broad, representative sample of all possible higher-order goals (drawn a previous lexical investigation of more than 1,000 goals) to the political ideology of American adults (total n = 1,588). The results of five studies suggested that proposals from competing theories are all partially correct. Conservativism simultaneously reflects the unifying "value" of Tradition, as well as the divisive "vice" of Elitism; while Liberalism simultaneously reflects the unifying "value" of Inclusiveness, and the divisive "vice" of Rebellion. These results help to integrate proposals from previous competing theories into a single framework.

Time and Punishment: Time Delays Exacerbate the Severity of Third-Party Punishment

Punishments are not always administered immediately after a crime is committed. Although scholars and researchers claim that third parties should normatively enact punishments proportionate to a given crime, we contend that third parties punish transgressors more severely when there is a time delay between a transgressor's crime and when they face punishment for it. We theorize that this occurs because of a perception of unfairness, whereby third parties view the process that led to time delays as unfair. We tested our theory across eight studies, including two archival data sets of 160,772 punishment decisions and six experiments (five preregistered) across 6,029 adult participants. Our results suggest that as time delays lengthen, third parties punish transgressors more severely because of increased perceived unfairness. Importantly, perceived unfairness explained this relationship beyond other alternative mechanisms. We explore potential boundary conditions for this relationship and discuss the implications of our findings.

Google is Free: Moral Evaluations of Intergroup Curiosity

Two experiments investigated how evaluations of intergroup curiosity differed depending on whether people placed responsibility for their learning on themselves or on outgroup members. In Study 1, participants (n = 340; 51% White-American, 49% Black-American) evaluated White actors who were curious about Black culture and placed responsibility on outgroup members to teach versus on themselves to learn. Both Black and White participants rated the latter actors as more moral, and perceptions of effort mediated this effect. A follow-up preregistered study (n = 513; 75% White-American) asked whether perceptions of greater effort cause greater perceptions of moral goodness. Replicating Study 1, participants rated actors as more moral when they placed responsibility on themselves versus others. Participants also rated actors as more moral when they exerted high versus low effort. These results clarify when and why participants view curiosity as morally good and help to strengthen bridges between work on curiosity, moral cognition, and intergroup relations.

The (moral) language of hate

Humans use language toward hateful ends, inciting violence and genocide, intimidating and denigrating others based on their identity. Despite efforts to better address the language of hate in the public sphere, the psychological processes involved in hateful language remain unclear. In this work, we hypothesize that morality and hate are concomitant in language. In a series of studies, we find evidence in support of this hypothesis using language from a diverse array of contexts, including the use of hateful language in propaganda to inspire genocide (Study 1), hateful slurs as they occur in large text corpora across a multitude of languages (Study 2), and hate speech on social-media platforms (Study 3). In post hoc analyses focusing on particular moral concerns, we found that the type of moral content invoked through hate speech varied by context, with Purity language prominent in hateful propaganda and online hate speech and Loyalty language invoked in hateful slurs across languages. Our findings provide a new psychological lens for understanding hateful language and points to further research into the intersection of morality and hate, with practical implications for mitigating hateful rhetoric online.

Caring for relations and organizational success-conceptualization of an Augustinian leadership scale

While making great strides in recent decades to connect leadership and human flourishing, the positive leadership literature has yet to focus on the aspect of the communal. Based on a close reading of Augustine's works, this paper examines Augustinian leadership and emphasizes the importance of a view on leadership that aims at community building and contains an ethical framework characterized by veracity. This leadership style is founded on caritas (Gr.: agape, Eng.: love) as the main motive for leaders. Based on Augustine's thinking, this kind of love is defined as a way to attain knowledge. We identify four subconstructs to constitute an Augustinian leadership scale: Centrality of the community, Veracity, Empathy and Success (through temperance). We provide theoretical grounds for the distinctiveness of this leadership construct as compared with neighboring constructs. Finally, we propose a testable framework of Augustinian leadership with a direct effect on affective commitment as well as a mediated effect, and with a sense of belonging as the mediating variable. We provide ideas for future research and present practical implications of the theoretical insights on Augustinian leadership.

Understanding the Magnitude of Hypocrisy in Moral Contradictions: The Role of Surprise at Violating Strong Attitudes

Although two people could both enact similar forms of hypocrisy, one person might be judged as more hypocritical than the other. The present research advances a novel, theoretical explanation for a paradigmatic instance of this: the increased hypocrisy ascribed to contradicting a morally (vs. nonmorally) based attitude. In contrast to prior explanations, the present research shows that people infer targets holding morally (vs. nonmorally) based attitudes are more difficult to change. Consequently, when people are hypocritical on these stances, it elicits greater surprise, which amplifies the perceived hypocrisy. Through both statistical mediation and experimental moderation, we provide evidence for this process and show how our explanation generalizes to understanding heightened hypocrisy in other contexts, too (i.e., violating nonmoral attitudes held with certainty vs. uncertainty). Altogether, we provide an integrative, theoretical lens for predicting when moral and nonmoral acts of hypocrisy will be perceived as particularly hypocritical.

Decolonising the psychology curriculum: a perspective

Decolonisation seeks to reverse the impact of colonisation on minoritised groups. Governments, healthcare institutions, criminal justice and education systems have procedures and protocols deep-rooted in colonisation and operate through a western lens. Decolonisation reaches beyond increasing inclusivity and aims to re-establish history through the experiences and perspective of those most affected. As with many disciplines, core theories, practices and interventions within Psychology, an ethnocentric viewpoint has been used, continuously reinstated through its curriculum. With awareness around diversification and increase in varying demands, it is important that the Psychology curriculum evolves to suit the needs of its' users. Many recommendations for decolonising the curriculum are trivial surface changes. These involve including required bibliography from diverse minority authors within the modules syllabuses or organising a one-off lecture or workshop from a minority ethnic speaker. Some universities have also suggested that lecturers participate in self-awareness practices to ensure they understand decolonisation to appropriately address it through their teaching, whilst others have provided checklists against which they can check the inclusivity of their modules. All these alterations fail to target the root of the problem. To properly reverse the effects of colonisation within the curriculum it would be necessary to re-evaluate the Westernised history that has been retold for years and teach past events through the experiences of those who suffered. Research into how decolonisation can occur in a structured and comprehensive way is necessary to enable the redress for abolition of colonial practices on a global scale.