title: The moral emotions: a social-functionalist account of anger, disgust, and contempt.
abstract: Recent research has highlighted the important role of emotion in moral judgment and decision making (Greene, Sommerville, Nystrom, Darley, & Cohen, 2001; Haidt, 2001). What is less clear is whether distinctions should be drawn among specific moral emotions. Although some have argued for differences among anger, disgust, and contempt (Rozin, Lowery, Imada, & Haidt, 1999), others have suggested that these terms may describe a single undifferentiated emotional response to morally offensive behavior (Nabi, 2002). In this article, we take a social-functionalist perspective, which makes the prediction that these emotions should be differentiable both in antecedent appraisals and in consequent actions and judgments. Studies 1-3 tested and found support for our predictions concerning distinctions among antecedent appraisals, including (a) a more general role for disgust than has been previously been described, (b) an effect of self-relevance on anger but not other emotions, and (c) a role for contempt in judging incompetent actions. Studies 4 and 5 tested and found support for our specific predictions concerning functional outcomes, providing evidence that these emotions are associated with different consequences. Taken together, these studies support a social-functionalist account of anger, disgust, and contempt and lay the foundation for future research on the negative interpersonal emotions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stanford University, USA. chutcher@hss.caltech.edu
authors.forename: Cendri A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Hutcherson
authors.forename: James J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Gross
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009014:Morals; D012941:Social Responsibility; D055815:Young Adult