Emotions in Sexual Morality:Testing the Separate Elicitors of Anger and Disgust
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2012
Keywords
Anger, Disgust, Morality, Appraisals, Sexual behaviour
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2011.645278
Abstract
Recent work suggests that negative moral judgements of sexual activities are informed by disgust and anger. A correlational study (N=62) and an experiment (N=176) examined the specific antecedents that elicit these distinct, though correlated, moral emotions. Participants in Study 1 rated their emotional reactions to, and judgements of, 10 sexual scenarios. Across scenarios, judgements of abnormality predicted disgust independent of anger, and judgements of harm/rights violation predicted anger independent of disgust. Study 2 replicated these results in an experimental design. Participants rated their emotions and judgements in response to behaviours that varied in degree of potential sexual morality violation (non-sexual, heterosexual, homosexual) and rights violation (no harm, indirect harm, direct harm). Judgement of rights violation mediated the effects of harm on anger. Judgements of abnormality, but not other antecedents proposed to elicit moral disgust, mediated the effects of sexual immorality on disgust.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Cognition and Emotion, v. 26, issue 7, p. 1208-1222
Scholar Commons Citation
Giner-Sorolla, Roger; Bosson, Jennifer K.; Caswell, T. Andrew; and Hettinger, Vanessa E., "Emotions in Sexual Morality:Testing the Separate Elicitors of Anger and Disgust" (2012). Psychology Faculty Publications. 1160.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/psy_facpub/1160
