While previous literature successfully demonstrates that racial prejudice is nourished and augmented by conventional societal notions of morality, it rarely explicates the social psychological mechanisms underlying this process. We know a relationship exists between racial prejudice and morality, but we do not fully understand how society's moral codes become operational within the human mind, and thus, how intractable they might be. My dissertation bridges this gap by developing `apathetic racism theory', an interdisciplinary approach that combines neurological and sociological theories and methodologies, suggesting that moral apathy towards blacks constitutes the main mechanism for contemporary racism. The theory distinguishes between two forms of racism that rely on distinct neural processes: a) sympathetic gradationalism towards the middle class (for which the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is pivotal) and b) blended racism against the upper and lower classes (for which the amygdala and the insula are crucial). Using three experiments: 1) a pictorial vignette study, 2) a lesion study with patients with damage to the hypothesized brain regions, and 3) a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study, this dissertation provides partial support to my theory. By shedding light on some of the unexplored emotional mechanisms of race bias, this dissertation elucidates how seemingly positive evaluations of members of racial out-groups might actually sustain a racially inequitable status-quo.

Responses to norm violators are poorly understood. On one hand, norm violators are perceived as powerful, which may help them to get ahead. On the other hand, norm violators evoke moral outrage, which may frustrate their upward social mobility. We addressed this paradox by considering the role of culture. Collectivistic cultures value group harmony and tight cultures value social order. We therefore hypothesized that collectivism and tightness moderate reactions to norm violators. We presented 2,369 participants in 19 countries with a norm violation or a norm adherence scenario. In individualistic cultures, norm violators were considered more powerful than norm abiders and evoked less moral outrage, whereas in collectivistic cultures, norm violators were considered less powerful and evoked more moral outrage. Moreover, respondents in tighter cultures expressed a stronger preference for norm followers as leaders. Cultural values thus influence responses to norm violators, which may have downstream consequences for violators' hierarchical positions.

This study examined the development of sharing and its associations with moral emotions in an ethnically diverse sample of 244 4-, 8-, and 12-year-old children. Sharing was measured through participants’ allocation of resources in the dictator game. Participants completed self-report measures of sympathy and anticipated their negatively and positively valenced moral emotions (i.e., guilt and pride) following actions that either violated or upheld moral norms. Results demonstrated an age-related increase in sharing between ages 4 and 8. For children with low levels of sympathy, sharing was predicted by negatively valenced moral emotions following the failure to perform prosocial duties. Sympathy also emerged as a significant predictor of sharing behaviour in early childhood. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to children’s developing norms of fairness and the emergence of two compensatory emotional pathways to altruistic sharing, one via sympathy and one via negatively valenced moral emotions.

This study examined the development of sharing and its associations with moral emotions in an ethnically diverse sample of 244 4-, 8-, and 12-year-old children. Sharing was measured through participants’ allocation of resources in the dictator game. Participants completed self-report measures of sympathy and anticipated their negatively and positively valenced moral emotions (i.e., guilt and pride) following actions that either violated or upheld moral norms. Results demonstrated an age-related increase in sharing between ages 4 and 8. For children with low levels of sympathy, sharing was predicted by negatively valenced moral emotions following the failure to perform prosocial duties. Sympathy also emerged as a significant predictor of sharing behaviour in early childhood. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to children’s developing norms of fairness and the emergence of two compensatory emotional pathways to altruistic sharing, one via sympathy and one via negatively valenced moral emotions.

The purpose of this project is to develop a theory of collective resentment. Collective resentment, on my view, is resentment that is felt and expressed by individuals in response to a perceived threat to a collective to which they belong. This is particularly important for understanding resentments that arise from social vulnerability, resentments which are often about membership within a particular social group. In this thesis, I develop my theory of collective resentment and apply it to understand the resentments of indigenous and settler Canadians in response to the Indian Residential Schools. I then explore the relationship between resentment and different kinds of responsibility, including the responsibility to relinquish inappropriate resentment and the responsibility to give resentments uptake. I conclude that focusing on the resentments that persist in indigenous-settler relations, and specifically the collective resentments that dominate the political landscape, brings us a lot further in understanding how to move from hostility and hopelessness toward peaceful coexistence.

The roles of shame and guilt, and their relationships to empathy, have not been modelled adequately as key factors in moral decision-making in the study of violence. This research will test the different roles of empathy, shame, and guilt in violence decision-making using a Situational Action Theory perspective. Qualitative in-depth interviews were carried out with a violent offender subsample taken from the longitudinal Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+) in order to explore the role of moral emotion in specific real-life violent events. In addition, quantitative questionnaire indices enable comparison of the violent offender subsample with the remaining PADS+ study sample. Persistent offenders report significantly lower levels of empathy, shame and guilt on the quantitative indices, and weak empathy, shame, and guilt in their detailed recollections of specific acts of violence, e.g., “there’s not much guilt involved in the whole situation to be honest” (Sam, interview 39). The primary conclusion is that individuals with weak empathy, shame, and guilt are more likely to commit acts of violence. These study findings give insight into the real world, situational application of empathy, shame, and guilt, and provide strong support for the role of weak morality in violence decision-making.

Moral identity, moral personality, and moral emotion have all been suggested to influence moral behavior individually, however, the results have been mixed and contradictory. Furthermore, they have never been tested together to determine their relative contribution in predicting moral decision-making. An anonymous online survey was administered to undergraduate students (N = 432). Moral Reasoning was assessed by a series of six hypothetical moral dilemmas. Participants were asked which of two choices they would prefer, one being a more deontological choice, in other words, follow a principle such as “tell the truth”, and the other being a more utilitarian choice, such as “lie to spare a person’s feelings”. In addition, participants were asked how confident they felt that they made the right choice in each dilemma. Other measures in the survey battery included Moral Identity which has two subscales, one for Moral Importance, or the degree to which they feel being a moral person is important, and one for Moral Expression, or the degree to which they try to behave consistently with their moral values; a survey of Moral Emotion with subscales for Shame and Guilt; and a measure of Moral Personality variables otherwise known as the dark tetrad: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Sadism, and Psychopathy. Age and moral expression were the only significant predictors of utilitarian choices on hypothetical moral dilemmas. Although guilt was also correlated with utilitarianism, it failed to be a significant factor when all variables were combined into one regression equation. The degree of confidence participants expressed in their decisions on the hypothetical moral dilemmas was correlated with shame and moral importance, however, none of the morality variables was a significant predictor of confidence ratings when entered together into a regression equation. Possible reasons for the lack of significant results are explored and suggestions for future studies are suggested.

In organizations, it is inevitable that some business activities might seem unfair to subordinates. Social accounts—the explanations managers give their subordinates for those decisions—are known to be a useful tool for managing subordinates’ fairness concerns. Over three decades of research, we learn that social accounts are effectiveness in improving subordinates’ fairness perceptions and reducing their negative reactions. Yet, we have only limited understanding about how social accounts affect the perceptions and behaviors of managers—those who construct and give them. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the extent to which constructing accounts affects account-givers’ perceptions and behaviors. Drawing on research in social account and behavioral ethics, a model was developed to test the positive effect of constructing accounts on unethical behavior (direct effect) through moral disengagement and guilt (indirect effect). In respect to account types, it was hypothesized that constructing justifications would lead to higher moral disengagement, less guilt, and more unethical behavior, compared with constructing excuses. Account feedback was hypothesized to moderate the indirect effects of justifications and excuses on unethical behaviors such that account acceptance would strengthen moral disengagement and weaken guilt, and in turn, increase unethical behavior. Two experimental designed studies were conducted to test these hypotheses. In Study 1, utilizing a sample of 128 management students, constructing accounts was found to have a positive effect on unethical behavior (i.e., nepotism) with guilt but not moral disengagement explaining some of the variances in this relation. In contrast to my hypotheses, constructing excuses was found to increase guilt more than constructing justifications. Using a sample of 136 management students, Study 2 generally replicated the results found in Study 1: constructing accounts was found to increase unethical behavior (i.e., dishonesty) through guilt, with excuses having a greater effect. This dissertation concludes with a discussion on contributions, practical implications, limitations, and the direction for future research on social accounts and behavioral ethics. / Ph. D.

Behavior-analytic accounts of rule-adherence behavior suggest that rule-governance is a general class of functional (i.e., instrumental) behavior maintained by social consequences (Baum, 2005; Malott & Suarez, 2004; Jacobs et al., in prep.). Evolutionary Life-History (LH) theory suggests that LH strategy may underlie variation in rule-adherence behavior. Based on an integration of these two theories, a theoretical structural model of rule-governance was developed and tested. The structure of this model was used to develop follow-up experiments to test particularly salient links in the model. Consistent with theory, the structural model indicated that slow LH strategy directly and indirectly (through increased moral emotions and increased executive functioning) contributed to strength of rule-governance. Two experiments failed to replicate previously demonstrated effects of executive function depletion or moral identity priming (on moral behavioral outcome measures). Further, self-report measures of slow LH strategy, executive functioning, and rule-governance did not predict prosocial (donating) or rule-defiance (cheating) behavior in laboratory tasks. The limitations of relying solely on either self-report or behavioral tasks of unknown external validity are discussed.

Guilt theoretically functions to motivate reparative behaviors, which, in turn, theoretically function to alleviate guilt and prevent psychopathology. Although several empirical studies in adults have demonstrated that guilt and reparative behaviors function as theorized, research has not investigated causal relations between guilt and reparative behaviors in children. Thus, this study examined whether guilt motivates children’s reparative behaviors, and whether their reparative behaviors successfully alleviate guilty feelings. Six-to ten-year olds (N = 97) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. In the experimental condition, children were led to believe that they had transgressed to cause a peer’s distress. Children self-reported their guilt feelings following the pretend transgression, and then had the opportunity to repair the transgression by giving stickers and writing a note to the victimized peer. Following the repair opportunity, children self-reported their guilt a second time. Children in the experimental condition (i.e., children who felt guilty) engaged in greater reparative behavior relative to children in a no-guilt condition who were led to believe that they had caused a peer’s positive emotions. Further, children in the experimental condition reported reduced guilt at the second measurement, whereas children in the no-repair condition (who were led to believe that they had transgressed but were not be given a repair opportunity) did not report reduced guilt over time. Results demonstrate that guilt and reparative behaviors function as theorized in children and may begin to inform reparative interventions aimed at preventing unalleviated, maladaptive guilt and psychopathology.