Just an anger synonym? Moral context influences predictors of disgust word use

Abstract

Are verbal reports of disgust in moral situations specific indicators of the concept of disgust, or are they used metaphorically to refer to anger? In this experiment, participants read scenarios describing a violation of a norm either about the use of the body (bodily moral) or about harm and rights (socio-moral). They then expressed disgust and anger on verbal scales, and through facial expression endorsement measures. The use of disgust words in the socio-moral condition was largely predicted by anger words and only secondarily by disgust faces, whereas in the bodily moral condition the use of disgust words was predicted to a similar extent by disgust faces and anger words. Angry faces, however, never predicted disgust words independently of anger words. These results support a middle-ground position in which disgust words concerning socio-moral violations are not entirely a metaphor for anger, but bear some relationship to other representations of disgust. In the case of socio-moral violations, however, the use of disgust language is more strongly related to anger language, and less strongly to facial representations of disgust than in the case of bodily moral violations.

Keywords:

• Anger
• Disgust
• Morality
• Facial expressions
• Emotion language

Notes

¹Because more than one set of expressive elements can lead to a facial expression being perceived as angry or disgusted, it is important to examine the component action units (AU) of our stimuli according to the Facial Affect Coding System (FACS; Ekman & Rosenberg, 2005). In development of the MSFDE, posers were trained to activate specific key action units for each expression, which were then verified by two coders; expressions that were not successfully identified by both coders were not used (Hess, personal communication, 2010). The target AUs for anger were 4, 5b and 23, respectively showing wrinkled/lowered brow, slightly raised eyelids, and tightened lips; the target AUs for disgust were 9d and 25, respectively showing wrinkled nose and parted lips (in all three disgust faces the teeth were visible). Although AU10, upper lip raise, is an expression common to a

number of disgust contexts including violations of the body's integrity, of body-related morality, and of personal contamination, it is also characteristic of angry expressions (Rozin, Lowery, & Ebert, 1994). The MSFDE posers were not instructed to include AU10, possibly because it did not distinguish between anger and disgust. Thus, the expressions of anger (furrowed brow, tightened lips) and disgust (raised nose, loose and parted lips with only upper teeth visible) were intended to be distinctive, avoiding confusion from inclusion of the ambiguous AU10 in both expressions.

²A similar analysis adding the Sadness and Pity word indexes as predictors revealed a very similar pattern to the one presented. The indexes of sadness and pity words did not produce any significant main effects (all Bs < 0.12, all ps > .30) and they did not interact with any of the other variables (all Bs < 0.06, all ps > .73).