Two prominent theories offer different perspectives on the role of harm in moral cognition. Dyadic morality suggests that harm-related concerns are pervasive, whereas moral pluralism suggests that these concerns apply only to canonically harmful violations (e.g., murder), and not impure violations (e.g., suicide). Rottman et al. (2014) contrast these two theories by examining moral judgments of...

The concept of bracketed morality has received empirical support in several sport studies (e.g., Bredemeier & Shields, 1986a, 1986b). However, these studies have focused on moral reasoning. In this research, we examined bracketed morality with respect to moral behavior in sport and university contexts, in two studies. Male and female participants (Study 1: N = 331; Study 2: N = 372) completed q...

What makes humans moral beings? This question can be understood either as a proximate ‘how’ question or as an ultimate ‘why’ question. The ‘how’ question is about the mental and social mechanisms that produce moral judgments and interactions, and has been investigated by psychologists and social scientists. The ‘why’ question is about the fitness consequences that explain why humans have morali...

Brosnan's research on chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys provides invaluable clues to unlocking the complex nature of human morality. Elaborating upon her claims, we explore the role of emotions in basic social interactions, social regulation processes, and morality, all of which may be crucial to both human and nonhuman communities. We then turn to a conceptualization of teasing and play as foru...

Understanding what drives narrative appeal is a major focus of entertainment research. Disposition theory proposes that appeal is a function of the dispositions viewers hold towards characters, which are in turn driven by viewer perceptions of character morality and outcomes experienced by characters. However, the manner in which dispositions change overtime has not been extensively researched....

This paper is about the consequences of the transition to a market economy upon the individuals’ understandings of themselves, the others and of the new capitalist ‘regime’ in the Romanian setting. For some, the new regime is a positive experience and its upholding morality a more enriching experience than anything before. We label these individuals, ‘the winners’ of the transition: most of the...

proposition, to the issue of racial discrimination? At what level of abstraction, in other words, should conventional morality be read? We believe that one who holds the abstract opinion but denies the more specific one holds inconsistent opinions. Does that entitle us, in computing the conventional morality, to disregard one of them? Which one? At least in part, our disagreement with those who...

Refl ecting on the signifi cance of his early research on the neuropsychology of moral judgment, Joshua Greene (2007) raises an important and increasingly pressing kind of question: “ Where does one draw the line between correcting the nearsightedness of human moral nature and obliterating it completely? ” and goes on to more directly wonder “ How far can the empirical debunking of human moral ...

The ability to reason well is central to the concept of intelligence, but intelligence alone will not guarantee morality. To recognise the ‘right’ choice and to judge our own and others’ actions, is to make an act of reason. To choose to value morality and to make the ‘right’ choice is an act of character. The link between intelligence and choice “makes the whole idea of morality possible in th...

This article investigates whether there is an underlying morality in the ways that human beings seek to obtain economic security within our imperfect economy, which can be illuminated through evolutionary biology research. Two research questions are the focus of the analysis: (1) What is the transaction cognitive machinery that is specialized for the entrepreneurial task of exchange-based secur...