With a clean conscience: cleanliness reduces the severity of moral judgments.

Full Abstract

Theories of moral judgment have long emphasized reasoning and conscious thought while downplaying the role of intuitive and contextual influences. However, recent research has demonstrated that incidental feelings of disgust can influence moral judgments and make them more severe. This study involved two experiments demonstrating that the reverse effect can occur when the notion of physical purity is made salient, thus making moral judgments less severe. After having the cognitive concept of cleanliness activated (Experiment 1) or after physically cleansing themselves after experiencing disgust (Experiment 2), participants found certain moral actions to be less wrong than did participants who had not been exposed to a cleanliness manipulation. The findings support the idea that moral judgment can be driven by intuitive processes, rather than deliberate reasoning. One of those intuitions appears to be physical purity, because it has a strong connection to moral purity.

Author information

Author/s: Schnall, Simone (S); Benton, Jennifer (J); Harvey, Sophie (S);

Affiliation: University of Plymouth, School of Psychology, Portland Square, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, United Kingdom. simone.schnall(-atsign-)plymouth.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Journal: Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS (Psychol Sci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Dec; vol 19 (issue 12) : pp 1219-22

Dates: Created 2009/01/05; Completed 2009/04/24;

PMID: 19121126, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 4/24/2009, IMS Date: 24 Apr 2009 00:00:00)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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