Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions

Figures & data

Table 1. Mean ratings for the permissibility of the actions in the pre-test scenarios. The selected scenarios are marked with an asterisk (*). The scale is from −5 (morally totally wrong) to +5 (morally totally right).

Scenario	Mean	Median	Mode	SD
Neutral
Matti	−2.33	−2	−1	1.58
Eerik	−1.22	−1	−2	1.75
Pekka	−1.15	−1	−1	1.47
Laura*	−0.98	−1	−1	1.50
Simo*	−0.70	−1	−1	2.58
Kauko*	−0.57	−1	−1	1.83
Maj-Lis*	0.37	0	0	1.57
Maija*	0.39	0	−1	2.06
Sofia*	0.58	0	0	1.87
Henry	1.94	0	0	2.26
Mikko	2.13	0	0	2.44
Esa	2.41	3	0	2.34
Right
Stefan*	4.41	5	5	1.07
Elina	4.70	5	5	0.84
Wrong
Jesse	−4.56	−5	−5	0.72
Heli*	−4.15	−5	−5	1.22

Table 2. Stimuli used for emotional induction.

Experimental	Control	Semantic category
Fly maggots in dog food	Butterfly	Insect
Severe dermatophytosis in nails of the foot	Female feet in sandals	Body part
Infected wound in the sole of a foot	Bare male feet on sand	Body part
Human faeces in a toilet seat	Clean bathroom sink	Toilet furniture
Very bad teeth	Neutral female face	Body part
A large neoplastic tumour in armpit	Healthy arm	Body part

Table 3. Key participant characteristics in the matched sample (n = 81).

	Left-Right		Liberal-Conservative		DS		Age		Sex (male / female)
	Exp	Cont	Exp	Cont	Exp	Cont	Exp	Cont	Exp	Cont
Mean / Frequency	−3.38	4.64	−26.11	−20.75	40.5	38.97	29.62	29.81	19/26	16/20
SD	33.87	34.42	31.83	36.78	16.34	13.35	8.48	10.81	-	-
Min	−65	−69	−78	−78	1	9	19	19	-	-
Max	66	59	40	59	69	61	51	60	-	-

Table 4. Differences between the experienced affect between the experimental and control group. Rank-Biserial correlation (r_RB) was used as an estimate of standardised effect size.

	Mean (SD)					95% CI for rRB
	Exp	Cont	U	p	rRB	Lower	Upper	${\eta }_p^2$	BF₁₀
Happy	2.53 (1.12)	2.47 (1.25)	815	.97	.006	−0.24	.25	.001	.24
Surprised	2.20 (.99)	1.69 (1.23)	983	.050	.248	−0.00	.47	.052	1.47
Disgust	1.16 (1.17)	.43 (.82)	1084	.002	.376	0.14	.57	.112	14.45
Fear	.96 (1.07)	.46 (.74)	1003	.022	.274	0.02	.49	.067	2.50
Sorrow	.38 (.78)	.40 (.70)	766	.79	−.028	−0.28	.23	.000	0.24
Angry	.56 (.97)	.34 (.68)	848	.46	.077	−0.18	.32	.015	0.40

Note. U-tests were used due to non-normality of the variables.

Table 5. Morality ratings for all scenarios in the experimental and control conditions. Positive values represent morally right and negative morally wrong judgments.

	M (SD)
	Experimental	Control
Neutral
Simo	1.47 (28.88)	−0.14 (31.63)
Sofia	3.53 (23.90)	8.08 (22.02)
MajLis	13.69 (30.99)	15.14 (31.68)
Laura	−6.80 (32.17)	−10.58 (24.05)
Maija	0.11 (31.32)	0.39 (32.85)
Kauko	9.38 (35.37)	6.11 (29.06)
Mean Morality	3.56 (17.11)	3.17 (13.42)
Wrong
Heli	−56.8 (25.59)	−59.69 (24.61)
Right
Stefan	67.49 (18.69)	71.86 (9.37)

Table 6. Key participant characteristics by Group in Experiment 2.

	Left-Right		Liberal-Conservative		Age		Education		Income
	Exp	Cont	Exp	Cont	Exp	Cont	Exp	Cont	Exp	Cont
Mean	2.26	2.19	2.32	2.28	34.91	35.15	2.98	3.01	2.04	2.14
SD	.66	.60	.67	.63	12.33	11.39	.88	.88	.93	.98
Min	1.46	1.46	1.84	1.84	18	18	1	1	1	1
Max	3.67	3.67	4.15	4.15	71	71	4	4	5	5

Table 7. Self-reported mood at the end of Experiment 2.

	Mean (SD)					95% CI for rRB
	Exp	Cont	W	p	rRB	Lower	Upper	${\eta }_p^2$	BF10
Happy	2.50 (1.07)	2.70 (1.08)	26828	.048	.091	−.003	.18	.008	.61
Surprised	2.17 (1.16)	1.90 (1.09)	20962	.009	−.12	−.21	−.026	.014	2.20
Disgust	2.13 (1.20)	1.37 (.79)	15084	<.001	−.35	−.43	−.26	.12	>100
Fear	1.66 (.94)	1.59 (.98)	22820	.21	−.037	−.13	.056	.001	.14
Sorrow	2.00 (1.14)	1.90 (1.11)	22988	.30	−.046	−.14	.048	.002	.17
Angry	1.56 (.89)	1.41 (.78)	22317	.071	−.083	−.18	.011	.007	.46

Table 8. Ratings of the individual scenarios and means by Group.

	M (SD)
	Experimental	Control
Neutral
Simo	3.18 (1.40)	3.18 (1.42)
Sofia	3.80 (1.36)	3.91 (1.42)
MajLis	4.88 (1.30)	4.69 (1.30)
Laura	3.78 (1.61)	3.85 (1.37)
Maija	3.37 (1.55)	3.38 (1.39)
Kauko	4.08 (1.54)	3.90 (1.43)
Mean Neutral	3.84 (1.12)	3.83 (.97)
Wrong
Simo	1.66 (.89)	1.87 (1.20)
Sofia	1.93 (1.02)	1.56 (.77)
MajLis	1.78 (.92)	1.93 (1.14)
Laura	2.91 (1.30)	2.78 (1.33)
Maija	1.85 (1.26)	1.70 (.93)
Kauko	2.71 (1.49)	2.75 (1.38)
Mean Wrong	2.14 (.78)	2.10 (.74)
Extremely wrong
Pekka	1.09 (.48)	1.02 (.15)
Anu	1.17 (.51)	1.17 (.41)

Data availability statement

The data and materials that support the findings of this study are openly available in OSF at https://osf.io/wbyfu/, reference number DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/WBYFU.