1Department of People, Organizations, and Society, Grenoble École de Management.
Psychol Sci. 2014 Mar;25(3):702-10. doi: 10.1177/0956797613514092. Epub 2014 Jan 16.
In the research presented here, we tested the idea that a lack of material resources (e.g., low income) causes people to make harsher moral judgments because a lack of material resources is associated with a lower ability to cope with the effects of others' harmful behavior. Consistent with this idea, results from a large cross-cultural survey (Study 1) showed that both a chronic (due to low income) and a situational (due to inflation) lack of material resources were associated with harsher moral judgments. The effect of inflation was stronger for low-income individuals, whom inflation renders relatively more vulnerable. In a follow-up experiment (Study 2), we manipulated whether participants perceived themselves as lacking material resources by employing different anchors on the scale they used to report their income. The manipulation led participants in the material-resources-lacking condition to make harsher judgments of harmful, but not of nonharmful, transgressions, and this effect was explained by a sense of vulnerability. Alternative explanations were excluded. These results demonstrate a functional and contextually situated nature of moral psychology.
在本研究中，我们验证了这样一种观点，即物质资源匮乏（如低收入）会导致人们做出更严厉的道德判断，因为物质资源匮乏与应对他人有害行为的能力降低有关。一项大型跨文化调查（研究 1）的结果与这一观点一致，表明慢性（由于低收入）和情境性（由于通货膨胀）物质资源匮乏都与更严厉的道德判断有关。对于低收入者来说，通货膨胀的影响更为强烈，因为通货膨胀使他们相对更脆弱。在一项后续实验（研究 2）中，我们通过在参与者用来报告收入的量表上使用不同的锚点来操纵他们是否认为自己缺乏物质资源。这种操纵使处于物质资源匮乏条件下的参与者对有害但非有害的违规行为做出了更严厉的判断，这种影响可以用脆弱感来解释。排除了其他替代解释。这些结果表明道德心理学具有功能性和情境性。
