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

Van Dijke, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/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

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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
ISSN:	1948-5506
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1177/1948550617722198 DOI
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Jill Tomkinson
Date Added:	21 Nov 2017 16:39
Last Modified:	21 Nov 2017 16:39
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/32072

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