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Moral anger, but not moral disgust, responds to intentionality

Russell, Pascale S., Giner-Sorolla, Roger (2011) Moral anger, but not moral disgust, responds to intentionality. Emotion, 11 (2). pp. 233-240. ISSN 1528-3542. (doi:10.1037/a0022598) (KAR id:32966)

Abstract

We propose that, when people judge moral situations, anger responds to the contextual cues of harm and intentionality. On the other hand, disgust responds uniquely to whether or not a bodily norm violation has occurred; its apparent response to harm and intent is entirely explained by the co-activation of anger. We manipulated intent, harm, and bodily norm violation (eating human flesh) within a vignette describing a scientific experiment. Participants then rated their anger, disgust, and moral judgment, as well as various appraisals. Anger responded independently of disgust to harm and intentionality, while disgust responded independently of anger only to whether or not the act violated the bodily norm of cannibalism. Theoretically relevant appraisals accounted for the effects of harm and intent on anger; however, appraisals of abnormality did not fully account for the effects of the manipulations on disgust. Our results show that anger and disgust are separately elicited by different cues in a moral situation.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1037/a0022598
Uncontrolled keywords: anger, disgust, intentionality, moral emotions, contextual cues, judgment, Anger, Disgust, Intention, Judgment, Morality, Contextual Associations, Cues, Responses
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User: Roger Giner-Sorolla
Date Deposited: 14 Jan 2013 13:24 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:10 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/32966 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Giner-Sorolla, Roger.

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6690-8842
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