The processing of moral transgressions: Investigating the role of affective evaluation

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Currently, there is an ongoing debate concerning the functional role of emotion in moral judgment and decision-making (JDM). Thus, emotions may either (a) play a causal role, (b) exert a moderating influence, or (c) merely reflect an epiphenomenal by-product of moral JDM. Even if one assumes that emotions play a critical role in JDM, so far the mechanisms underlying their influence on moral information processing have remained unclear. In the present project, we are specifically interested in the question of whether affective processes and states assumed to be involved in moral JDM do indeed precede the decision process, as assumed by two prominent theories of moral judgment (social-intuitivist model of Haidt and dual-process theory of Greene and colleagues). Hence, we aim at examining the time-course of moral processing in paradigms that give us access to the underlying mental processes and (affective) states in close temporal proximity to their elicitation. A further goal is to assess the impact of emotion-related dimensions (arousal, valence, motivational tendency) on moral JDM for different types of moral (or socio-normative) materials. To address these questions, we employ different vignettes and task paradigms, analysing psychophysiological measures (event-related potentials, electrodermal activity, facial muscle activity) in addition to behavioural ones (response time).