Department of Psychology, 2152University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Evol Psychol. 2021 Apr-Jun;19(2):14747049211021524. doi: 10.1177/14747049211021524.
Prior research has indicated that disease threat and disgust are associated with harsher moral condemnation. We investigated the role of a specific, highly salient health concern, namely the spread of the coronavirus, and associated COVID-19 disease, on moral disapproval. We hypothesized that individuals who report greater subjective worry about COVID-19 would be more sensitive to moral transgressions. Across three studies ( = 913), conducted March-May 2020 as the pandemic started to unfold in the United States, we found that individuals who were worried about contracting the infectious disease made harsher moral judgments than those who were relatively less worried. This effect was not restricted to transgressions involving purity, but extended to transgressions involving harm, fairness, authority, and loyalty, and remained when controlling for political orientation. Furthermore, for Studies 1 and 2 the effect also was robust when taking into account the contamination subscale of the Disgust Scale-Revised. These findings add to the growing literature that concrete threats to health can play a role in abstract moral considerations, supporting the notion that judgments of wrongdoing are not based on rational thought alone.
先前的研究表明，疾病威胁和厌恶与更严厉的道德谴责有关。我们调查了一种特定的、高度显著的健康问题，即冠状病毒的传播及其相关的 COVID-19 疾病，对道德不赞成的影响。我们假设，那些报告对 COVID-19 更大的主观担忧的人对道德违规会更敏感。在 2020 年 3 月至 5 月进行的三项研究中（n = 913），随着大流行病在美国开始蔓延，我们发现，那些担心感染传染病的人比那些相对不担心的人做出了更严厉的道德判断。这种影响不仅限于涉及纯洁的违规行为，还扩展到涉及伤害、公平、权威和忠诚的违规行为，并且在控制政治取向时仍然存在。此外，对于研究 1 和 2，当考虑到修订后的厌恶量表的污染子量表时，该效应也很稳健。这些发现增加了越来越多的关于具体的健康威胁可以在抽象的道德考虑中发挥作用的文献，支持了这样一种观点，即对不当行为的判断不仅仅基于理性思维。
