1 School of Psychology, University of Kent.
2 Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College, City University of New York.
Psychol Sci. 2017 Jan;28(1):80-91. doi: 10.1177/0956797616673193. Epub 2016 Dec 8.
Previous studies support a link between moral disgust and impurity, whereas anger is linked to harm. We challenged these strict correspondences by showing that disgust is activated in response to information about moral character, even for harm violations. By contrast, anger is activated in response to information about actions, including their moral wrongness and consequences. Study 1 examined disgust and anger in response to an action that suggests bad moral character (animal cruelty) versus an action that is seen as inherently more wrong (domestic abuse). Animal cruelty was associated with more disgust than domestic abuse was, whereas domestic abuse was associated with more anger. Studies 2 and 3 manipulated character by varying the agent's desire to cause harm and also varied the action's harmful consequences. Desire to harm predicted only disgust (controlling for anger), whereas consequences were more closely related to anger (controlling for disgust). Taken together, these results indicate that disgust arises in response to evidence of bad moral character, not just to impurity.
先前的研究支持道德厌恶感与不洁之间的联系，而愤怒则与伤害有关。我们通过展示厌恶感会因有关道德品质的信息而被激活，即使是针对伤害违规行为，从而挑战了这些严格的对应关系。相比之下，愤怒会因有关行为的信息而被激活，包括其道德错误和后果。研究 1 考察了对暗示不良道德品质的行为（虐待动物）与被视为内在更错误的行为（家庭暴力）的反应中的厌恶感和愤怒感。与家庭暴力相比，虐待动物会引起更多的厌恶感，而家庭暴力则会引起更多的愤怒感。研究 2 和 3 通过改变施害者造成伤害的欲望以及改变行为的有害后果来操纵性格。伤害欲望仅能预测厌恶感（控制愤怒感），而后果则与愤怒感更密切相关（控制厌恶感）。综合这些结果表明，厌恶感是对不良道德品质的证据的反应，而不仅仅是不洁。
