Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-23T13:54:36.364Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Moral psychology biases toward individual, not systemic, representations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2023

Irein A. Thomas ,
Nick R. Kay  and
Kristin Laurin Open the ORCID record for Kristin Laurin [Opens in a new window]
Irein A. Thomas
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada irein.thomas@ubc.ca nick.kay@ubc.ca klaurin@psych.ubc.ca; https://magiclab.psych.ubc.ca/
Nick R. Kay
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada irein.thomas@ubc.ca nick.kay@ubc.ca klaurin@psych.ubc.ca; https://magiclab.psych.ubc.ca/
Kristin Laurin
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada irein.thomas@ubc.ca nick.kay@ubc.ca klaurin@psych.ubc.ca; https://magiclab.psych.ubc.ca/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We expand Chater & Loewenstein's discussion of barriers to s-frames by highlighting moral psychological mechanisms. Systemic aspects of moralized social issues can be neglected because of (a) the individualistic frame through which we perceive moral transgressions; (b) the desire to punish elicited by moral emotions; and (c) the motivation to attribute agency and moral responsibility to transgressors.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 46 , 2023 , e178
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

IAT and NRK contributed equally and share first authorship.

References

Clark, C. J., Chen, E. E., & Ditto, P. H. (2015). Moral coherence processes: Constructing culpability and consequences. Current Opinion in Psychology, 6, 123–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, C. J., Luguri, J. B., Ditto, P. H., Knobe, J., Shariff, A. F., & Baumeister, R. F. (2014). Free to punish: A motivated account of free will belief. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(4), 501.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clifford, S. (2019). How emotional frames moralize and polarize political attitudes. Political Psychology, 40(1), 75–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cushman, F., Knobe, J., & Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (2008). Moral appraisals affect doing/allowing judgments. Cognition, 108(1), 281–289.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
D'Amore, C., van Zomeren, M., & Koudenburg, N. (2022). Attitude moralization within polarized contexts: An emotional value-protective response to dyadic harm cues. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 48(11), 1566–1579. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211047375CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feinberg, M., Kovacheff, C., Teper, R., & Inbar, Y. (2019). Understanding the process of moralization: How eating meat becomes a moral issue. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117(1), 50–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ginther, M. R., Hartsough, L. E. S., & Marois, R. (2022). Moral outrage drives the interaction of harm and culpable intent in third-party punishment decisions. Emotion, 22(4), 795–804.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodwin, G. P., Piazza, J., & Rozin, P. (2014). Moral character predominates in person perception and evaluation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(1), 148–168.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gray, K., Young, L., & Waytz, A. (2012). Mind perception is the essence of morality. Psychological Inquiry, 23(2), 101–124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kominsky, J. F., Phillips, J., Gerstenberg, T., Lagnado, D., & Knobe, J. (2015). Causal superseding. Cognition, 137, 196–209.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Konishi, N., Oe, T., Shimizu, H., Tanaka, K., & Ohtsubo, Y. (2017). Perceived shared condemnation intensifies punitive moral emotions. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 7289.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rhee, J. J., Schein, C., & Bastian, B. (2019). The what, how, and why of moralization: A review of current definitions, methods, and evidence in moralization research. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 13(12), e12511. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12511CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rozin, P., Lowery, L., Imada, S., & Haidt, J. (1999). The CAD triad hypothesis: A mapping between three moral emotions (contempt, anger, disgust) and three moral codes (community, autonomy, divinity). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(4), 574–586.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wisneski, D. C., & Skitka, L. J. (2017). Moralization through moral shock: Exploring emotional antecedents to moral conviction. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(2), 139–150.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Young, L., & Phillips, J. (2011). The paradox of moral focus. Cognition, 119(2), 166–178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed