The Influence Of Social Group Information On Moral Judgment And It’s Foreign Language Effect

Moral judgment is a process in which individuals evaluate right and wrong,good and evil,and make judgments and choices,based on certain social systems,norms and self-moral value orientation.One of the key points of moral research is to explore the influencing factors to individual moral judgment,including individual factors such as emotion and cognition,situational factors such as the type of dilemma,the degree of injury and the type of language,and social factors such as culture and social group information.Although the phenomenon that language affects one’s moral judgment(the moral foreign language effect)has been discovered in recent years,foreign languages,especially English,have popularized in China rapidly these years,suggesting that we should pay attention to the influence of language in moral judgment.Unfortunately,most of the current studies on the moral foreign language effect are from western countries,the differences between Chinese and Western cultures may lead to different moral judgments and foreign language effects.Furthermore,studies on the conformity of moral judgment at home and abroad are rising lately.As social animals,people rarely make important decisions only by themselves,studies have also found that even moral judgment are influenced by the opinions or choices of others.However,there is little study on the conformity of individual moral judgment in different language environments and the influence of social group information on the moral foreign language effect.With the increasing of international communication and the popularizing of foreign language,this topic is worth further studying.Thus in this study,six small experiments in three sub-studies were conducted to explore the influence of social group information on moral judgment and it’s foreign language effects.Among them,Using widely recognized moral dilemma materials,Research 1 required participants to make moral judgments in different language situations to explore whether individual moral judgment is affected by the language types that describe materials or not,that is,the existence of the moral foreign language effect.Using widely recognized moral dilemma materials,Research 2required participants to make moral judgments in different language situations while providing social group information,and discussed the influence of language type on individual moral judgment with social group information.Using widely recognized moral dilemma materials,Research 3 required participants to make moral judgments in different language situations while providing social group information and its rational or emotional arguments,and discussed the influence of language type on individual moral judgment under the situation of social group information with reasons.Finally,adding the conformity index,our study analyzed three sub-studies together,and drawn following conclusions:(1)The situational factors of moral dilemma affect individual moral judgment:The type of moral dilemmas affects individual moral judgment,individuals tend to make more deontological judgments in the personal moral dilemma than the impersonal moral dilemma.The degree of the harmful consequences affects individual moral judgment,the more harmful consequences of the innocent has(from injury to disability and to death),the more deontological judgments individuals tend to make.Moreover,language affects individual moral judgment in personal moral dilemma,namely the foreign language effect,and the effect still exists when the harmful consequences are less severe than death(disability),however,when the harmful consequences are less severe and permanent than death(injury),the foreign language effect disappear.Meanwhile,these results indicate that emotion plays a key role in moral judgment and it’s foreign language effect.(2)Social group information affects individual moral judgment,that is to say,there are conformity in individual moral judgment,even in an anonymous environment: Individuals tend to make larger conformity in the impersonal moral dilemma than the personal moral dilemma.In the impersonal moral dilemma,individuals tend to make more and larger conformity when social group information is accompanied by an emotional or rational argument than under social group information only.In the personal moral dilemma,individuals tend to make larger conformity under utilitarian group information than deontological group information,shows an asymmetric conformity,that is to say,more utilitarian conformity.(3)Social group information affects the moral foreign language effect: The moral foreign language effect still exists under utilitarian group information,however,the effect disappear under utilitarian group information with rational arguments.The effect all disappear under deontological group information with or without emotional arguments.Meanwhile,these results indirectly indicate that emotion and cognition both play an important role in the moral foreign language effect.