So gross and yet so far away: psychological distance moderates the effect of disgust on moral judgment

Tools

Van Dijke, M. ORCID: 0000-0001-9974-5050, Van Houwelingen, G., De Cremer, D. and De Schutter, L., 2017. So gross and yet so far away: psychological distance moderates the effect of disgust on moral judgment. Social Psychological and Personality Science. ISSN 1948-5506

Preview

Text
PubSub9552_VanDijke.pdf - Pre-print
Download (356kB) | Preview

Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617722198

Abstract

People morally evaluate norm violations that occur at various distances from the self (e.g. a corrupt politician vs. a cheating spouse). Yet, distance is rarely studied as a moderator of moral judgment processes. We focus on the influence of disgust on moral judgments, as evidence here has remained inconclusive. Based on feelings as information theory and the notion that disgust evolved as a pathogen avoidance mechanism we argue that disgust influences moral judgment of psychologically distant (vs. near) norm violations. Study 1 and 3 show that trait disgust sensitivity (but not trait anger and fear) more strongly predicts moral judgment of distant than near violations. Study 2 and 4 show that incidental disgust affects moral judgment of distant (vs. near) violations and that the moderating role of distance is mediated by involvement of others (vs. the self) in the evaluator’s conceptualization of the violation.

Item Type:

Journal article

Alternative Title:

Disgust and distance [running title]

Publication Title:

Social Psychological and Personality Science

Creators:

Van Dijke, M., Van Houwelingen, G., De Cremer, D. and De Schutter, L.

Publisher:

SAGE

Date:

16 August 2017