The Association between Disgust Propensity and the Moral Foundations in making Moral Judgements. Jack W. Hill-Rennie The University of Melbourne Student Number: 766488 Subject: Personality and Social Psychology 20009 Tutorial Time: Friday 11am-1pm Word Count: 2131 Abstract The emotion disgust is an omnipresent feeling that dwells inside every person. Previous studies have shown that there are relationships between disgust and the moral domains outlined in (Graham, Nosek, Haidt, Iyer, Koleva & Ditto 2011). This study looks at four domains in particular and attempts to confirm previously proposed associations as well as develop others. It was hypothesised that Disgust Propensity would be positively correlated with each of the four domains. The participants, who were 596 undergraduate students, were instructed to complete several online questionnaires relating to the study.(This The vast majority of findings were consistent with past literature. The results indicated a significant positive correlation for all of the moral domains except Harm. Since some of the results were barely significant it would be beneficial to alter some of the methodology and rerun the study to grasp a better understanding of potential relationships between disgust and the moral domains. Keywords: disgust propensity, moral domains In the last century the majority of Moral Psychology has been focussed on reason and its role in the production of moral judgement. The use of reasoning
Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development has served as basis of the investigation of many issues related to morality. Building on Piaget’s belief that the moral judgment of children derived from their cognitive development, Kohlberg attend to identify cognitive stages that underline the development of moral thinking.
What is morality? Where does our sense of morality come from and why is it important for us to know? The cognitive scientist, psychologist, linguist, and scholar, Steven Pinker discusses this in his essay, “The Moral Instinct”. In this essay, Pinker claims that our morality sense is innate, it constantly changes, and it is universal among each culture. Pinker also explains that moral sense shapes our judgement as it is something that we value and seek in other people. The science of the moral sense is important since it shows how morality impacts our actions and it explains why we act in certain ways.
While the participants of this study may have higher NFC as university students, their likelihood of wanting to engage in effortful thinking does not reflect a high cognition in dilemmas. In addition, having the participants to rate their response does not engage cognitive thinking or moral emotions as much as being forced with a yes-no option in a situation. One would feel urgency to make an instantaneous decision, rather than to take time and weigh their affective or rational judgement. According to Haidt’s Social Intuition Model(2001), moral emotion fuels moral judgement, giving moral responses while reasoning is a post-hoc process to provide rational support to responses. Reasoning process may not be activated until after utilitarian response is made which is slower and requires effort; responses are then made by
This paper explores the things that have influenced my moral worldview. It includes insight on what I consider when making decisions. I discuss who and what I look too when deciding my morals and what I consider to be right and wrong.
Throughout the course of history, there have been many philosophers with different ideologies. These philosophers have written various works to spread and support their ideologies. One philosopher who wrote about moral thinking and judgement was Hume, supporting his ideologies in An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. In this written work he stated that the ultimate source of moral judgement was feelings. Additionally, he states that an individual’s moral thinking was influenced by reason.
Conclusion (based on the evidences): morality is universal, innate, and can be affected by physical factors.
Morality can be shown, and express in different ways. Some argue that a sense of morality has been present since born, while others argue that this sense comes after experiences. In the text, “’The Moral Instinct’ (2008)” Steve Pinker argues that, moral sense has been a science that every individual create in their own in order to focus on ethics, separately of what society has established as the rights and wrongs. Giving numerous experiments that support his claim, Pinker creates a strong essay e that explains morality. Nevertheless, Pinker’s claim can be compared to other ideas. The text “The moral life of babies (2010)” by Paul Bloom extends Pinker’s argument by saying that “humans do have rudimental moral sense from the very start of life.” In the other hand the text, “ Can You Call Nine Year Old a Psycopat (2012)” Jennifer Kahn complicates Pinkers text by giving opposite evidence referring to the low levels of cortisol and below-normal function in the amygdala, provoking a lack of processing fear and social emotions towards situations. In this essay I would be creating a comparison between ideas and how they support or oppose each other’s by their evidence and claims, in order to see if this comparation creates a new perspective in my opinion of Pinker’s argument.
In his commentary, Are Moral Judgments Good or Bad Things? (2017), Robb Willer explains that moral judgements can be beneficial to human beings. He supports his claim first, by explaining the opposing point then refuting it; later, he reports and experiment supporting his claim. His purpose is to show readers that moral judgements are positive and not always negative. Although his viewpoint is very straightforward, he is able to attract a wide rage of readers due to his research.
Morality is defined as a system or code that we humans use to differentiate between right and wrong. This system could be derived from a number of factors: religion, culture, and upbringing. It is difficult enough to determine what an individual's morals are, but going further to determine how we came to possess those morals is even more ambitious. Still, regardless of its difficulty, this subject consumes many philosophers and psychologists. One such moral psychologists, Jonathan Haidt, is theorizing the possibility of evolution causing ones morality. Haidt is a moral psychologist at the Universtiy of Virgina further believes that complex social structures such as religion and politics as well as our need for social structures affect
To begin, it is crucial to understand the controversy between the disgust advocates and disgust skeptics before presenting Kelly’s own position on the issue. Overall, advocates propose that an emotion, such as disgust, is a mechanism adequate enough to direct one’s moral evaluations. Disgust advocates support the
At eighteenth century, the cost of increasing development of capitalism is anomie: people chasing material life insanely even sacrifice others’ benefits. Because of this, Adam Smith, a successful philosopher and economist, released that the original morality principle was not suitable for that society anymore, and it needed to build another new theory system to suit the developing society. He wrote two masterpieces that proposed his ideas: The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which discusses the human development by analysing the human emotion, and The Wealth of Nations, which summarises the development of capitalism and it is also a foundation for today’s economy. This essay will analyse the self-interest, plays as a motivator role in morality and economy field, and benefits the development in that society. Moreover, will suggest some limitations of Smith’s idea.
The findings suggest that emotions, disgust in particular, interacts with moral judgment. The fourth level of analysis is behavior. Inbar, Pizarro & Bloom (2008) examined the role of disgust and moral judgment in politics. Inbar et al., (2008) contended that individuals that identify as politically conservative would have a stronger disgust sensitivity than liberals. Prior studies suggest that conservatives view the maintenance of the moral good as relevant in deciding if an action was right or wrong. Participants were given a scale to determine disgust sensitivity and a scale to determine political orientation. The results suggest that disgust sensitivity predicts conservatism. In a follow up study, Inbar et al., (2008) gave an expanded disgust sensitivity scale and political orientation scale. They also included a political issue questioner, where participants rated his or her view on a variety of political issues ranging from gay marriage to the economy. Participants higher in disgust sensitivity were more opposed to gay marriage and abortion, as well as tax cuts. Proneness to disgust was also associated with greater self-reported political conservatism. These findings suggest that disgust sensitivity plays a role in moral judgment, and in
This paper will examine the normative question “should disgust influence our considered moral judgments?” Daniel Kelly addresses in chapter five of his book, Yuck!, in two profoundly opposite views. These two views are between the moral disgust advocate who say, “yes” to the question and the moral disgust skeptics who say “no”. We will discuss these two very different views in depth, what Kelly’s views are, his account of the nature of disgust, and lastly, how he uses the Entanglement thesis and Co-opt thesis view to debunk the moral disgust advocates view on disgust.
The findings confirmed the hypotheses that disgust propensity (DP) will be positively correlated with purity sensitivity on the MFQ, and trait anger (TA) would be positively correlated with harm sensitivity on the MFQ. Previous research incorporated Shweder’s (1990) three ethics into particualr emotions: contempt to ‘community’, anger to ‘autonomy’, and disgust to ‘divinity’ (Rozin et al.,). The MFT further elaborated on the moral foundation: Community into Ingroup/Loyalty and Authority/Respect, autonomy into Harm/Care and Fairness/Reciprocity, and divinity into Purity (Haidt & Graham, 2007). If the moral foundation theory (MFT) construct is a valid extension of Shweder’s ethics, the same emotions associated with each ethic should also be linked to their corresponding foundations, as evaluated by the
Morality is an important component of a human being because it helps shape the ethical foundation that every human being has. Whether to be good, evil, honest, or deceitful are just some of the traits morality helps us develop. Thus, it is evident that morality is a crucial component of a human being. However, what ultimately drives moral action? This question is debated and investigated against many philosophers, a few of them being Thomas Hobbes, Frans de Waal, and David Hume.