title: Immorality East and West: Are Immoral Behaviors Especially Harmful, or Especially Uncivilized?
abstract: What makes some acts immoral? Although Western theories of morality often define harmful behaviors as centrally immoral, whether this is applicable to other cultures is still under debate. In particular, Confucianism emphasizes civility as fundamental to moral excellence. We describe three studies examining how the word immoral is used by Chinese and Westerners. Layperson-generated examples were used to examine cultural differences in which behaviors are called "immoral" (Study 1, n = 609; Study 2, n = 480), and whether "immoral" behaviors were best characterized as particularly harmful versus uncivilized (Study 3, N = 443). Results suggest that Chinese were more likely to use the word immoral for behaviors that were uncivilized, rather than exceptionally harmful, whereas Westerners were more likely to link immorality tightly to harm. More research into lay concepts of morality is needed to inform theories of moral cognition and improve understanding of human conceptualizations of social norms.
authors.affiliation: The Hong Kong Institute of Education, People's Republic of China buchtel@ied.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Emma E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Buchtel
authors.affiliation: University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
authors.forename: Yanjun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yanjie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: East China Normal University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sang
authors.affiliation: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Sylvia Xiaohua
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Michael Harris
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Bond
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: culture; lay concepts; lay prototypes; morality; virtue ethics