Pain Sensitivity is Associated with Moral Judgment

Moral psychologists often identify harm perception as a core consideration in moral deliberation. Since pain tends to be a ubiquitous form of harm, pain experiences are likely to activate cognitive harm templates. We examined whether pain sensitivity was associated with individual differences in moral judgement. In Study 1, higher pain sensitivity was positively associated with greater perceived relevance of binding foundations and greater support of all moral foundations. Pain sensitivity predicted greater condemnation of moral transgressions involving binding foundations and greater approval of utilitarian behaviour on moral dilemmas. However, it was unclear whether this effect on moral dilemmas was driven by salience, utilitarian content, or goal-oriented language. Study 2 manipulated question wording in dilemmas without changing details of dilemmas themselves. Participants with higher pain sensitivity indicted higher approval of the behaviours described in moral dilemmas regardless of question wording, suggesting that salience, not utilitarian content, was driving these results.M.A