Hypnotic disgust makes moral judgments more severe.
Highly hypnotizable participants were given a posthypnotic suggestion to feel a flash of disgust whenever they read an arbitrary word. They were then asked to rate moral transgressions described in vignettes that either did or did not include the disgust-inducing word. Two studies show that moral judgments can be made more severe by the presence of a flash of disgust. These findings suggest that moral judgments may be grounded in affectively laden moral intuitions.
Wheatley
Thalia
T
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. wheatley@nih.gov
Haidt
Jonathan
J
D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006990:Hypnosis / Q000379:methods*; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D012919:Social Behavior