The role of negative moral emotions (anger and disgust) in ethical decision making

摘要

Moral emotions are subset of basic emotions and linked to the interests or welfare either of society as a whole or at least of persons other than the judge or agent. These are emotions that respond to moral transgression or motivate individuals to choose a certain moral behavior. The purpose of this research is to observe the role of moral emotions (especially negative moral emotions) in ethical decision making. Ethical decision making is a decision upon options which comply to society or group' standard or conduct. The research was conducted in experimental setting (post facto experimental method) with a control group. Sampling was conducted using availability sampling and the subjects were 137 students of Psychology Faculty of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta. Moral emotions as treatment were inducted using three vignettes with different impact on subject's emotion. Ethical decision making will be assessed by several items with ethical dilemmas. Data analysis was conducted using one way ANOVA. The results showed different moral emotions have different effect on the ethical decision making. Disgust as a moral emotion affects ethical decision making significantly greater than anger. Theoretical and applied implementation of the results by this research also will be discussed.