The present study investigates how agents and the moral valence of the acts affect moral judgments when two consecutively behaviors are perceived, with each describing morally salient behaviors done by the same or different agent(s). Participants had to rate the likableness/pleasantness of the agents/behaviors. Behavioral results indicated that rating the likableness of the agent was mainly depended on the morally diagnostic character of the agent while rating the pleasantness of the behaviors was mainly depended on the moral valence of the behaviors per se.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs an important cognitive bias, the framing effect shows that our decision preferences are sensitive to the verbal description (i.e., frame) of options.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF"Social mindfulness" refers to being thoughtful of others and considering their needs before making decisions, and can be characterized by low-cost and subtle gestures. The present study compared the behavioral and neural responses triggered by observing others' socially mindful/unmindful choices and how these responses were modulated by the social status of the agency. At the behavioral level, observing socially mindful choices made observers feel better, rate the actors as more likable, and behave more cooperatively than did observing socially unmindful choices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study investigated how pain appraisals from other individuals modulated self-pain anticipation and perception. Appraisals of pain intensity from 10 other individuals were presented before the participants received identical electrical pain stimulation themselves. In reality, the presented other's pain appraisals, with either low or high in mean and variance, were generated by the experimenter, and were randomly paired with the subsequent electrical stimulation at either low or high intensity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe person-centered account of moral judgments is important since immoral behaviors are diagnostic of an individual's character. The present study explored how the professional stereotypes associated with the agents shaped the way people perceiving moral/immoral behaviors. The behavioral ratings and neural responses (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMoral contagion is a phenomenon in which individuals or objects take on the moral essence of the people who are associated with them. Previous studies have found that individuals value objects associated with moral and likable people more than those associated with immoral and dislikable people. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this "moral contagion effect" have not yet been explored.
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