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Atari M, Mehl MR, Graham J, Doris JM, Schwarz N, Davani AM, Omrani A, Kennedy B, Gonzalez E, Jafarzadeh N, Hussain A, Mirinjian A, Madden A, Bhatia R, Burch A, Harlan A, Sbarra DA, Raison CL, Moseley SA, Polsinelli AJ, Dehghani M. The paucity of morality in everyday talk. Sci Rep 2023; 13:5967. [PMID: 37045974 PMCID: PMC10097712 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-32711-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2022] [Accepted: 03/30/2023] [Indexed: 04/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Given its centrality in scholarly and popular discourse, morality should be expected to figure prominently in everyday talk. We test this expectation by examining the frequency of moral content in three contexts, using three methods: (a) Participants' subjective frequency estimates (N = 581); (b) Human content analysis of unobtrusively recorded in-person interactions (N = 542 participants; n = 50,961 observations); and (c) Computational content analysis of Facebook posts (N = 3822 participants; n = 111,886 observations). In their self-reports, participants estimated that 21.5% of their interactions touched on morality (Study 1), but objectively, only 4.7% of recorded conversational samples (Study 2) and 2.2% of Facebook posts (Study 3) contained moral content. Collectively, these findings suggest that morality may be far less prominent in everyday life than scholarly and popular discourse, and laypeople, presume.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Atari
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.
- Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
| | - Matthias R Mehl
- Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
| | - Jesse Graham
- Department of Management, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA
| | - John M Doris
- Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Johnson College of Business, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA
- Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA
| | - Norbert Schwarz
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
- Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Aida Mostafazadeh Davani
- Department of Computer Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
- Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Ali Omrani
- Department of Computer Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
- Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Brendan Kennedy
- Department of Computer Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
- Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Elaine Gonzalez
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Nikki Jafarzadeh
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Alyzeh Hussain
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Arineh Mirinjian
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Annabelle Madden
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Rhea Bhatia
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Alexander Burch
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Allison Harlan
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - David A Sbarra
- Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
| | - Charles L Raison
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA
| | | | | | - Morteza Dehghani
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
- Department of Computer Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
- Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
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Niemi L, Doris JM, Graham J. Who attributes what to whom? Moral values and relational context shape causal attribution to the person or the situation. Cognition 2023; 232:105332. [PMID: 36508991 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105332] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2022] [Revised: 11/16/2022] [Accepted: 11/17/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Eight preregistered studies (total N = 3,758) investigate the role of values and relational context in attributions for moral violations, focusing on the following questions: (1) Do people's values influence their attributions? (2) Do people's relationships with the violator (self, close other, distant other) influence their attributions? (3) Do the principles intrinsic to the violated values (e.g., loyalty to close others) further influence their attributions? We found that participants were more likely to attribute violations by distant others to the person committing the violation, rather than the situation in which the violation occurred, when participants endorsed the violated values themselves. The tendency to make dispositional attributions did not obtain for violations of participants' less highly endorsed moral values or non-moral values. Relationship with the violator also influenced participants' attributions-participants were more likely to attribute their own and close others' moral violations to situational factors, relative to distant others' violations. This relational pattern was pronounced for violations of "binding" moral values, in which protection of personal relationships and groups is primary. Collectively, these results support a relational-values account of causal attribution for moral violations, whereby attributions systematically vary based on (1) the relevance of the violated values to the attributor's moral values, (2) the attributor's personal relationship to the violator, and (3) an interaction between (1) and (2) such that the principles intrinsic to the violated values influence the effects of one's relationship to the violator.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Niemi
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, United States of America; Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University, United States of America.
| | - John M Doris
- Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University, United States of America; Department of Philosophy, Cornell University, United States of America
| | - Jesse Graham
- Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, United States of America
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Abstract
Messaging from U.S. authorities about COVID-19 has been widely divergent. This research aims to clarify popular perceptions of the COVID-19 threat and its effects on victims. In four studies with over 4,100 U.S. participants, we consistently found that people perceive the threat of COVID-19 to be substantially greater than that of several other causes of death to which it has recently been compared, including the seasonal flu and automobile accidents. Participants were less willing to help COVID-19 victims, who they considered riskier to help, more contaminated, and more responsible for their condition. Additionally, politics and demographic factors predicted attitudes about victims of COVID-19 above and beyond moral values; whereas attitudes about the other kinds of victims were primarily predicted by moral values. The results indicate that people perceive COVID-19 as an exceptionally severe disease threat, and despite prosocial inclinations, do not feel safe offering assistance to COVID-19 sufferers. This research has urgent applied significance: the findings are relevant to public health efforts and related marketing campaigns working to address extended damage to society and the economy from the pandemic. In particular, efforts to educate the public about the health impacts of COVID-19, encourage compliance with testing protocols and contact tracing, and support safe, prosocial decision-making and risk assessment, will all benefit from awareness of these findings. The results also suggest approaches, such as engaging people's stable values rather than their politicized perspectives on COVID-19, that may reduce stigma and promote cooperation in response to pandemic threats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Niemi
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States.,Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States
| | - Kevin M Kniffin
- Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States
| | - John M Doris
- Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States.,Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States
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Woolfolk RL, Hannah ST, Wasserman R, Doris JM. Attributions of Responsibility for Military Misconduct: Constraint, Identification, and Severity. Military Psychology 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/08995605.2020.1838876] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Sean T. Hannah
- School of Business, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
| | - Rachel Wasserman
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
| | - John M. Doris
- Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
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Mooijman M, Meindl P, Oyserman D, Monterosso J, Dehghani M, Doris JM, Graham J. Resisting temptation for the good of the group: Binding moral values and the moralization of self-control. J Pers Soc Psychol 2017; 115:585-599. [PMID: 28604018 DOI: 10.1037/pspp0000149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
When do people see self-control as a moral issue? We hypothesize that the group-focused "binding" moral values of Loyalty/betrayal, Authority/subversion, and Purity/degradation play a particularly important role in this moralization process. Nine studies provide support for this prediction. First, moralization of self-control goals (e.g., losing weight, saving money) is more strongly associated with endorsing binding moral values than with endorsing individualizing moral values (Care/harm, Fairness/cheating). Second, binding moral values mediate the effect of other group-focused predictors of self-control moralization, including conservatism, religiosity, and collectivism. Third, guiding participants to consider morality as centrally about binding moral values increases moralization of self-control more than guiding participants to consider morality as centrally about individualizing moral values. Fourth, we replicate our core finding that moralization of self-control is associated with binding moral values across studies differing in measures and design-whether we measure the relationship between moral and self-control language across time, the perceived moral relevance of self-control behaviors, or the moral condemnation of self-control failures. Taken together, our findings suggest that self-control moralization is primarily group-oriented and is sensitive to group-oriented cues. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Peter Meindl
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
| | | | | | | | - John M Doris
- Department of Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis
| | - Jesse Graham
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California
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Abstract
Despite decades of interest in moral character, comparatively little is known about moral behavior in everyday life. This paper reports a novel method for assessing everyday moral behaviors using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR)-a digital audio-recorder that intermittently samples snippets of ambient sounds from people's environments-and examines the stability of these moral behaviors. In three samples (combined N = 186), participants wore an EAR over one or two weekends. Audio files were coded for everyday moral behaviors (e.g., showing sympathy, gratitude) and morally-neutral comparison language behaviors (e.g., use of prepositions, articles). Results indicate that stable individual differences in moral behavior can be systematically observed in daily life, and that their stability is comparable to the stability of neutral language behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathryn L Bollich
- Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - John M Doris
- Department of Philosophy and Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology Program, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
| | - Simine Vazire
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
| | - Charles L Raison
- Department of Human Development and Family Studies, School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA,
| | - Joshua J Jackson
- Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Matthias R Mehl
- Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
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Cameron CD, Payne BK, Doris JM. Morality in high definition: Emotion differentiation calibrates the influence of incidental disgust on moral judgments. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.02.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Woolfolk RL, Doris JM, Darley JM. Identification, situational constraint, and social cognition: Studies in the attribution of moral responsibility. Cognition 2006; 100:283-301. [PMID: 16087171 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2005.05.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 80] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2004] [Revised: 04/04/2005] [Accepted: 05/25/2005] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
In three experiments we studied lay observers' attributions of responsibility for an antisocial act (homicide). We systematically varied both the degree to which the action was coerced by external circumstances and the degree to which the actor endorsed and accepted ownership of the act, a psychological state that philosophers have termed "identification." Our findings with respect to identification were highly consistent. The more an actor was identified with an action, the more likely observers were to assign responsibility to the actor, even when the action was performed under constraints so powerful that no other behavioral option was available. Our findings indicate that social cognition involving assignment of responsibility for an action is a more complex process than previous research has indicated. It would appear that laypersons' judgments of moral responsibility may, in some circumstances, accord with philosophical views in which freedom and determinism are regarded to be compatible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert L Woolfolk
- Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
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Abstract
Recent policy debates in the US over access to mental health care have raised several philosophically complex ethical and conceptual issues. The defeat of mental health parity legislation in the US Congress has brought new urgency and relevance to theoretical and empirical investigations into the nature of mental illness and its relation to other forms of sickness and disability. Manifold, nebulous, and often competing conceptions of mental illness make the creation of coherent public policy exceedingly difficult. Referencing a variety of approaches to ethical reflection on health care, and drawing from the empirical literature on therapeutic efficacy and economic efficiency, we argue that differential rationing, 'disparity,' is unjustifiable.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert L Woolfolk
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, 18 Turner Court, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
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Dore MM, Doris JM. Preventing child placement in substance-abusing families: research-informed practice. Child Welfare 1998; 77:407-426. [PMID: 9666552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
The authors present finding from their study of a placement prevention program designed to facilitate addiction treatment for substance-abusing mothers and other primary caregivers reported for child maltreatment. Relationships between involvement in the program, the status of addiction treatment, and the variety of outcomes for caregivers and their children were tested. Findings indicate that nearly half of the participants were able to complete addiction treatment and achieve sobriety. Those who used the program's child day care component were three times more likely to complete treatment. Implications for confronting the problem of substance-abusing caregivers in the child welfare system are drawn.
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Affiliation(s)
- M M Dore
- Columbia University School of Social Work, New York, NY, USA
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Abstract
Studies of the link between parental substance abuse and child maltreatment suggest that chemical dependence is present in at least half of the families who come to the attention of child welfare authorities for child abuse and neglect. Parental substance abuse is thought to be a primary factor in greatly increased rates of children entering foster care over the past decade. It is also a clear risk factor for child mental health problems and poor developmental outcomes in children. At the same time, however, minimal attention is often given to training child protective services workers and other child welfare personnel in identifying and confronting substance abuse in families on their caseloads. The authors explore standardized methods developed for screening for substance abuse among various populations and suggest ways of adapting these screening devices for families reported for child maltreatment. They identify assessment and treatment considerations in substance abusing families as well.
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Affiliation(s)
- M M Dore
- Columbia University School of Social Work, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
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Affiliation(s)
- J M Thomassin
- Service O.R.L., Hôpital Sainte Marguerite, Marseille, France
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Abstract
A study was conducted for the purpose of comparing mesiodistal tooth widths between a group of patients with good tooth alignment and a group of patients with crowded dental arches. Crowded arches were defined as those with more than 4 mm. of space deficiency. The hypothesis tested was whether the arches with more than 4 mm. of crowding consistently had larger teeth than the ones with lesser or no crowding. The difference in sizes between the groups (forty males and forty females) for all teeth measured was found to be statistically significant (p less than 0.001). The multivariate data analysis indicated that the two groups were derived from two different populations and that the maxillary lateral incisors and second premolars and the mandibular canines and premolars were particularly different in these groups. It was also determined that the teeth in males were uniformly larger than in females, but not to a statistically significant level. There was less correlation, however, between the sex and the status of the tooth alignment in dental arches, so that both sexes had similar distribution of crowding versus noncrowding. On the basis of this study of eighty North American Caucasians, it is suggested that one should consider the sum of mesiodistal widths of teeth, in addition to the arch length analysis, in formulating an orthodontic treatment plan. When the cumulative tooth mass of the twenty permanent teeth is 140 mm. or more, the clinician may want to consider extraction therapy for such a case.
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