engleski

Tears and Disgust: Emotional Basis of Our Moral Compass?

Recently, there is increasing evidence that emotions play a significant role in our prosocial and moral functioning. Connections were found in particular between physical and moral disgust as well as between being moved and elevation and prosocial behavior. These studies were mainly experimental showing that the induction of those specific emotions resulted in a positive effect on moral judgment and/or prosocial behavior. Chapman and Anderson (2014) additionally reported cross- sectional evidence that individuals high in trait physical disgust rated moral transgressions to be more wrong than did low trait disgust individuals. The current investigation aims to replicate and extend Chapman and Anderson’s study. We hypothesized that both the tendency to experience physical disgust and crying proneness would independently predict moral judgment and self- reported prosocial behavior. We included both students and participants from the (Dutch) general population (85 men and 238 women ; age range: 14 – 79 years). Disgust proneness, crying proneness, and social desirability were predictors, whereas moral judgment and prosocial behavior were the dependent variables. Both dependent variables were very modestly positively correlated (r = .248, p <. 001). The results of two regression analyses partly confirmed our expectations. Regarding moral judgement, after controlling for age, gender, and social desirability, disgust (beta = .204 ; t = 3.688 ; p < 001) and crying proneness (beta = .120 ; t = 2.097 ; p = .037) both contributed significantly to the amount of explained variance. Concerning prosocial behavior, it appeared that, again after taking into account age, gender, and social desirability, crying proneness was the strongest predictor (beta = .213 ; t = 3.651 ; p <.001) with an additional significant negative contribution of disgust (beta = -.132 ; t = -2.352 ; p = .019). In conclusion, the present findings replicated previous US findings and revealed an additional possible important role for crying proneness as a determinant of moral and prosocial functioning.

tears, individual differences, pro-social behavior

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