Hartsough Lauren E S, Ginther Matthew R, Marois René
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, PMB 407817, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN, 37240, United States of America.
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, PMB 407817, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN, 37240, United States of America.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2020 Apr;205:103060. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103060. Epub 2020 Mar 25.
Social norm violations provoke strong emotional reactions that often culminate in punishment of the wrongdoer. This is true not only when we are the victims of the norm violation (second-party), but also when witnessing a complete stranger being victimized (third-party). What remains unclear, however, is whether second- and third-party punishments are associated with different emotions. To address this question, here we examine how subjects respond affectively to both second- and third-party norm violations in an economic game. Our results indicate that while second- and third-parties respond to norm violations by punishing wrongdoers similarly, they report experiencing distinct emotional states as a result of the violation. Specifically, we observed a cross-over interaction between anger and moral outrage depending on the party's context: while anger was more frequently reported for second- than for third-party violations, moral outrage was more evoked by third-party than second-party violations. Disgust and sadness were the most prevalently reported emotions, but their prevalence were unaffected by party contexts. These results indicate that while responses to second- and third-party violations result in similar punishment, they are associated with the expression of distinct affective palettes. Further, our results provide additional evidence that moral outrage is a critical experience in the evaluation of third-party wrongdoings.
违反社会规范会引发强烈的情绪反应，这种反应往往以对违规者的惩罚告终。不仅当我们是规范违反的受害者时（第二方）是如此，而且当目睹一个完全陌生的人受到伤害时（第三方）也是如此。然而，尚不清楚的是，第二方和第三方惩罚是否与不同的情绪相关联。为了解决这个问题，我们在此研究了在经济博弈中，受试者如何对第二方和第三方规范违反做出情感反应。我们的结果表明，虽然第二方和第三方通过惩罚违规者对规范违反做出类似反应，但他们报告称因违规而经历了不同的情绪状态。具体而言，我们观察到愤怒和道德义愤之间存在一种交叉交互作用，这取决于当事人的情境：虽然第二方违规比第三方违规更常引发愤怒，但第三方违规比第二方违规更能唤起道德义愤。厌恶和悲伤是报告中最普遍出现的情绪，但它们的普遍程度不受当事人情境的影响。这些结果表明，虽然对第二方和第三方违规的反应会导致类似的惩罚，但它们与不同情感组合的表达相关联。此外，我们的结果提供了额外的证据，表明道德义愤是评估第三方不当行为时的一种关键体验。
