On the emotions linked to morality

Thesis advisor: James A. RussellTheories in moral psychology propose a link between emotions and moral judgments. This dissertation presents a series of studies examining whether different discrete emotions are each linked to a different discrete moral content. Some of the studies tested a proposal called CAD: an acronym for the theory that contempt is linked to violations in the community domain (C), anger is linked to violations in the autonomy domain (A), and disgust is linked to violations in the divinity domain (D). Other studies further focused on the emotion disgust: Whether acts or issues that remind humans of their animal nature elicit disgust and whether the English concept of disgust refers to a single emotional experience pan-culturally. In most of the studies we recruited participants both from America and from India (N = 3893). The findings challenged any clean mappings between different discrete emotions and different contents of moral violations. Instead, moral violations were associated with a range of negative emotions rather than with a specific one. There was no support for the hypothesis that acts or issues that remind us of our animal nature elicit disgust, and the English concept disgust, as referring to unclean substances and moral violations, is equivalent to similar concepts in two Indian languages.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Psychology

On the set of emotions with facial signals

Which, if any, emotions have a facial signal? Studies from AI to Zoology sometimes presuppose an answer to this question. According to one important and influential research program, the basic (fundamental and discrete) emotions can be identified by their possession of a biologically based unique and universally recognized facial signal. To the classic set of six such emotions, researchers recently advanced 12 new candidates, which were examined in the present study with a standard free-labeling procedure in three samples: English-speaking Americans (n = 200), Mandarin-speaking Chinese (n = 101), and Malayalam-speaking Indians (n = 200). In the three samples, respectively, a majority of respondents chose the predicted label for only one, one, and none of the 12 faces. That is, a majority of respondents failed to choose the predicted label for 11 of the 12 faces in the English-speaking (proportion of respondents range for the 11: .04 to .45) and Mandarin-speaking (proportion of respondents range for the 11: .00 to .44) samples; a majority of respondents failed to choose the predicted label for any of the 12 faces in the Malayalam-speaking sample (proportion of respondents range: .00 to .42). The modal choice in the three samples was the predicted label for five, six, and one, respectively, of the 12 faces. “Recognition” of the predicted emotion was negligible (< 15% of respondents) for five, eight (two of which were modal), and 10, respectively, of the 12 faces.¿Cuáles emociones, si las hay, tienen una señal facial? Los estudios desde la IA hasta la zoología a veces presuponen una respuesta a esta pregunta. Según un importante e influyente programa de investigación, las emociones básicas (fundamentales y discretas) pueden identificarse por la posesión de una señal facial única y universalmente reconocida con base biológica. Al conjunto clásico de seis de estas emociones, los investigadores presentaron recientemente 12 nuevos candidatos, que fueron examinados en el presente estudio con un procedimiento estándar de etiquetado libre en tres muestras: estadounidenses de habla inglesa (n = 200), chinos de habla mandarín (n = 101), e indios de habla malayalam (n = 200). En las tres muestras, respectivamente, la mayoría de los encuestados eligió la etiqueta prevista sólo para una, una y ninguna de las 12 caras. Es decir, la mayoría de los encuestados no eligieron la etiqueta prevista para 11 de las 12 caras de habla inglesa (la proporción de encuestados oscila entre 0,04 y 0,45) y mandarín (la proporción de encuestados oscila entre 0,04 y 0,45). 11: .00 a .44) muestras; la mayoría de los encuestados no eligieron la etiqueta prevista para ninguna de las 12 caras en la muestra de habla malayalam (la proporción de encuestados varía: 0,00 a 0,42). La elección modal en las tres muestras fue la etiqueta prevista para cinco, seis y una, respectivamente, de las 12 caras. El "reconocimiento" de la emoción predicha fue insignificante (<15% de los encuestados) para cinco, ocho (dos de los cuales eran modales) y 10, respectivamente, de las 12 caras.2022-2