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

目前，关于情绪在道德判断和决策中的功能作用一直存在争议。因此，情绪可能(a)发挥因果作用，(b)发挥调节作用，或(c)仅仅反映道德JDM的副现象产物。即使有人假设情绪在JDM中起着关键作用，到目前为止，情绪影响道德信息处理的潜在机制仍不清楚。在本项目中，我们特别感兴趣的问题是，正如两种著名的道德判断理论（Haidt的社会直觉主义模型和Greene及其同事的双重过程理论）所假设的那样，被认为涉及道德JDM的情感过程和状态是否确实先于决策过程。因此，我们的目标是在范式中检查道德加工的时间过程，这些范式使我们能够接近其启发的潜在心理过程和（情感）状态。进一步的目标是评估情绪相关维度（唤醒、效价、动机倾向）对不同类型道德（或社会规范）材料的道德JDM的影响。为了解决这些问题，我们采用了不同的小片段和任务范式，分析了心理生理指标（事件相关电位、皮电活动、面部肌肉活动）以及行为指标（反应时间）。

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).