Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms cause distress for 5-20% of individuals worldwide. Cognitive models of PTSD emphasize negative social cognitions about the world, and recent research suggests a relatively unexplored moral dimension. In this study, we test whether perceived moral transgressions mediated the relationship between PTSD symptoms and distress, using both correlational and experimental data., Participants recruited via MTurk (N = 400) completed measures of PTSD symptoms and perceived transgressions of others in the past week, read randomly assigned news vignettes, with and without transgressions, and endorsed current distress levels. We will present study design and preliminary regressions results
