Tainting the soul : Purity concerns predict moral judgments 4 of suicide

27 Moral violations are typically defined as actions that harm others. However, suicide is 28 considered immoral even though the perpetrator is also the victim. To determine whether 29 concerns about purity rather than harm predict moral condemnation of suicide, we 30 presented American adults with obituaries describing suicide or homicide victims. While 31 harm was the only variable predicting moral judgments of homicide, perceived harm 32 (toward others, the self, or God) did not significantly account for variance in moral 33 judgments of suicide. Instead, regardless of political and religious views and contrary to 34 explicit beliefs about their own moral judgments, participants were more likely to morally 35 condemn suicide if they (i) believed suicide tainted the victims’ souls, (ii) reported greater 36 concerns about purity in an independent questionnaire, (iii) experienced more disgust in 37 response to the obituaries, or (iv) reported greater trait disgust. Thus, suicide is deemed 38 immoral to the extent that it is considered impure. 39 ! 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.