Corradi Guido, Aguilar Pilar, Aguiar Fernando, Olivera-La Rosa Antonio
BEATLES Research Group, University of Balearic Islands, Illes Balears, Spain.
Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
PLoS One. 2025 Aug 27;20(8):e0328392. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0328392. eCollection 2025.
Disgust influences how people perceive and judge moral violations. Individuals who are more sensitive to disgust often judge such violations more harshly. This sensitivity may change depending on the context, like the age of the person committing the act. However, there's limited and inconsistent evidence on how disgust sensitivity and feelings of disgust affect moral judgments toward older adults. This study aimed to find out if disgust sensitivity and induced feelings of disgust affect moral judgments differently based on the age of the person involved. Specifically, we examined whether people relate their disgust sensitivity differently when judging actions by young versus old individuals and whether showing disgusting images influences the harshness of moral judgments differently depending on the actor's age. We conducted a preregistered experiment with 235 adult participants. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: "Old" or "Young." They read 24 stories about moral violations committed by either old or young individuals. Before each story, participants were briefly shown an image that was either disgusting, sad, or neutral. They then rated the acceptability of the behavior on a scale. Participants also filled out questionnaires measuring their disgust sensitivity, attitudes toward age, and emotions toward young and old people. The findings showed that higher disgust sensitivity was linked to harsher moral judgments, regardless of the age of the person committing the violation. This means that how sensitive someone is to disgust affects their moral judgments in the same way for both young and old actors. However, when participants were shown disgusting images before reading about an older person committing a moral violation, they judged the behavior less harshly compared to when the actor was young. This effect was not seen with sad or neutral images. There was also no significant interaction between the type of image shown and the participant's disgust sensitivity. The study suggests that disgust has a complex role in moral judgments. While personal sensitivity to disgust leads to harsher judgments no matter who is involved, feelings of disgust induced by images can influence judgments differently based on the age of the person committing the act.
厌恶会影响人们对道德违规行为的认知和评判。对厌恶更为敏感的个体往往会更严厉地评判此类违规行为。这种敏感性可能会因情境而异，比如实施行为者的年龄。然而，关于厌恶敏感性和厌恶情绪如何影响对老年人的道德评判，相关证据有限且不一致。本研究旨在探究厌恶敏感性和诱发的厌恶情绪是否会根据所涉人员的年龄对道德评判产生不同影响。具体而言，我们考察了人们在评判年轻人与老年人的行为时，其厌恶敏感性的关联方式是否不同，以及展示令人厌恶的图片是否会根据行为者的年龄对道德评判的严厉程度产生不同影响。我们对235名成年参与者进行了一项预先注册的实验。参与者被随机分为两组：“老年组”或“青年组”。他们阅读了24个关于老年人或年轻人实施道德违规行为的故事。在每个故事之前，参与者会被短暂展示一张令人厌恶、悲伤或中性的图片。然后他们会在一个量表上对行为的可接受性进行评分。参与者还填写了问卷，以测量他们的厌恶敏感性、对年龄的态度以及对年轻人和老年人的情绪。研究结果表明，无论违规行为实施者的年龄如何，较高的厌恶敏感性都与更严厉的道德评判相关。这意味着，某人对厌恶的敏感程度对年轻人和老年行为者的道德评判影响方式相同。然而，当参与者在阅读关于老年人实施道德违规行为的故事之前看到令人厌恶的图片时，与行为者为年轻人的情况相比，他们对该行为的评判没那么严厉。悲伤或中性图片则未出现这种效果。所展示图片的类型与参与者的厌恶敏感性之间也没有显著的交互作用。该研究表明，厌恶在道德评判中具有复杂的作用。虽然个人对厌恶的敏感性无论涉及何人都会导致更严厉的评判，但图片诱发的厌恶情绪会根据行为实施者的年龄对评判产生不同影响。
