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Actions and Outcomes: The Evaluative Function of Moral Emotions

Results from 10 empirical studies and 1 review article are described and can be summarized as follows: Only moral emotions represent an evaluation of person's behavior, whereas non-moral emotion provide information about outcomes. Positive moral emotions (e.g. pride, respect) signal that a person's (self or other) behavior was right, whereas negative moral emotions (e.g., guilt, indignation) signal that a person's behavior was wrong. These evaluations and signals are elicited by judgments of ought, goal attainment and effort (see Heider, 1958). Some moral emotions (e.g., shame or admiration) are also elicited by judgments on a person's ability. A person's responsibility (Weiner, 1995, 2006) and the perceived morality of a person's behavior (i.e., with regard to rightness and wrongness) represent further cognitive antecedents of moral emotions. Some moral emotions (e.g., regret, sympathy) are also influenced by a person's empathy (see Paulus, 2009) towards others. There are specific moral emotions that are closely connected to help-giving (e.g., sympathy), whereas other moral emotions are more closely related to reward (e.g., admiration) or punishment (e.g., anger). With regard to the cognitive effort underlying emotions, moral emotions require more cognitive effort (i.e., longer reaction times) than non-moral emotions.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa.de:bsz:ch1-qucosa-156245
Date25 November 2014
CreatorsTscharaktschiew, Nadine
ContributorsTU-Chemnitz, Fakultät für Human- und Sozialwissenschaften, Prof. Dr. Udo Rudolph, Prof. Dr. Udo Rudolph, Prof. Dr. Josef Krems
PublisherUniversitätsbibliothek Chemnitz
Source SetsHochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typedoc-type:doctoralThesis
Formatapplication/pdf, application/zip, text/plain, application/zip

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