The myth of harmless wrongs in moral cognition: Automatic dyadic completion from sin to suffering.

Gray, Kurt; Schein, Chelsea; Ward, Adrian F.

doi:10.1037/a0036149

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

2014

DOI: 10.1037/a0036149

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The myth of harmless wrongs in moral cognition: Automatic dyadic completion from sin to suffering.

Kurt Gray¹,

Chelsea Schein²,

Adrian F. Ward

³

Abstract: When something is wrong, someone is harmed. This hypothesis derives from the theory of dyadic morality, which suggests a moral cognitive template of wrongdoing agent and suffering patient (i.e., victim). This dyadic template means that victimless wrongs (e.g., masturbation) are psychologically incomplete, compelling the mind to perceive victims even when they are objectively absent. Five studies reveal that dyadic completion occurs automatically and implicitly: Ostensibly harmless wrongs are perceived to have … Show more

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Cited by 315 publications

(347 citation statements)

References 180 publications

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“…We found no interaction between judgments of harmfulness and whether an act was self-directed versus dyadic. In other words, judgments of how harmful an act was predicted moral judgment to a similar extent for both self-directed and dyadic contexts, consistent with recent work suggesting that harm plays a primary role in moral judgments across domains [41,45]. Critically, however, we did observe a significant interaction between judgments of impurity and whether or not an act was self-directed.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

The relevance of moral norms in distinct relational contexts: Purity versus harm norms regulate self-directed actions

Dungan

¹

,

Chakroff

²

,

Young

³

2017

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Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

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“…We found no interaction between judgments of harmfulness and whether an act was self-directed versus dyadic. In other words, judgments of how harmful an act was predicted moral judgment to a similar extent for both self-directed and dyadic contexts, consistent with recent work suggesting that harm plays a primary role in moral judgments across domains [41,45]. Critically, however, we did observe a significant interaction between judgments of impurity and whether or not an act was self-directed.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

The relevance of moral norms in distinct relational contexts: Purity versus harm norms regulate self-directed actions

Dungan

¹

,

Chakroff

²

,

Young

³

2017

Get access via publisher Add to dashboard Cite

Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

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“…In this study, there was no main effect of target group membership on moral judgement, such that the ingroup transgressor was only judged more harshly when the transgression was relationally framed. Theoretically, this finding is consistent with previous research by highlighting the importance of the interpersonal nature of moral judgements (e.g., Gray et al., 2014; Rai & Fiske, 2011; Tepe & Aydinli‐Karakulak, 2019) suggesting that differences in moral judgements are stronger when the relational components of a moral transgression are salient.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Morality's role in the Black Sheep Effect: When and why ingroup members are judged more harshly than outgroup members for the same transgression

Tang

¹

,

Shepherd

²

,

Kay

³

2023

Euro J Social Psych

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Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

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“…In line with moralization literature (Feinberg et al., 2019; Gray et al., 2014), we find that higher perception of risks is associated with higher moral relevance. Contrary to the existing literature and our predictions, we find that lower (not higher) perception of benefits is associated with higher moral relevance.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…People who based their attitudes on the moral foundations of Harm, Purity, Authority, and Loyalty were also more moralized, which ties into moral judgment literature (e.g., Graham et al., 2011). In line with moralization literature (e.g., Gray et al., 2014), we find that overall higher perception of risks is associated with higher moral relevance. Overall, perception of benefits was negatively associated with moral relevance.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Moral relevance varies due to inter‐individual and intra‐individual differences across big data technology domains

Kodapanakkal

¹

,

Brandt

²

,

Kogler

³

et al. 2022

Euro J Social Psych

Get access via publisher Add to dashboard Cite

Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

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