Department of Psychology, University of Toronto.
Emotion. 2014 Apr;14(2):341-8. doi: 10.1037/a0035120. Epub 2014 Feb 10.
Although there is an emerging consensus that disgust plays a role in human morality, it remains unclear whether this role is limited to transgressions that contain elements of physical disgust (e.g., gory murders, sexual crimes), or whether disgust is also involved in "pure" forms of morality. To address this issue, we examined the relationship between individual differences in the tendency to experience disgust toward physical stimuli (i.e., trait physical disgust) and reactions to pure moral transgressions. Across two studies, individuals higher in trait physical disgust judged moral transgressions to be more wrong than did their low-disgust counterparts, and were also more likely to moralize violations of social convention. Controlling for gender, trait anxiety, trait anger, and social conservatism did not eliminate trait disgust effects. These results suggest that disgust's role in morality is not limited to issues of purity or bodily norms, and that disgust may play a role in setting the boundaries of the moral domain.
尽管人们越来越认为厌恶感在人类道德中起着作用，但尚不清楚这种作用是否仅限于包含身体厌恶元素的违规行为（例如血腥谋杀、性犯罪），或者厌恶感是否也涉及“纯粹”形式的道德。为了解决这个问题，我们研究了个体对身体刺激产生厌恶感的倾向（即特质身体厌恶感）的个体差异与对纯粹道德违规行为的反应之间的关系。在两项研究中，特质身体厌恶感较高的个体比低厌恶感的个体认为道德违规行为更错误，也更有可能将违反社会习俗视为不道德。控制性别、特质焦虑、特质愤怒和社会保守主义并不能消除特质厌恶感的影响。这些结果表明，厌恶感在道德中的作用不仅限于纯洁或身体规范，厌恶感可能在确定道德领域的界限方面发挥作用。
