When inspiration comes with baggage: how prior moral transgressions affect feelings of elevation and disgust

Abstract

Informed by negativity bias and partisan motivated processing, an online experiment (N = 710) tested how past moral behaviors affect feelings of elevation and disgust across in-group and out-group politicians. Results revealed that past immoral behavior had a slightly larger effect on moral emotions than past altruistic behavior, in line with the predictions of negativity bias. Effects of moral behavior on elevation and disgust were consistent across Republican and Democratic politicians, possibly suggesting that partisan motivated processing is context dependent.

KEYWORDS:

• Disgust
• Elevation
• Morality
• Negativity Bias
• Partisan Motivated Processing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.