The Effects Of Cleanliness Initiation And Moral Event Types On Moral Judgment: The Moderating Effect Of Emotions

Moral judgment refers to an individual’s evaluation of whether a behavior,situation,or event is moral based on their internalized principles and prior experiences.From an embodied cognition perspective,moral judgment and behavior are not only based on rational and logical thinking,but also influenced by bodily sensations.Cleanliness behavior is an important research area because it can map from physical cleanliness to psychological purity,and affect subsequent behavior.Moreover,different types of moral events(pure vs.non-pure)may lead to different moral judgments.Previous research has shown that different valences and types of emotions can also influence moral judgment,and the presence of emotions may affect the direction of the effect of cleanliness on moral judgment.This study aims to examine the effects of cleanliness and moral event types on moral judgment,and to further clarify the influence of emotions on the relationship between cleanliness and moral judgment.Two experiments were designed to investigate the relationships among cleanliness,moral event types,and emotions.Experiment 1 compared the differences in moral judgment among different cleanliness induction methods and different types of moral events,to explore the roles of cleanliness and moral event types in moral judgment.A2(event type: pure vs.non-pure)× 3(cleanliness induction method: direct cleaning,cognitive cleaning,no cleaning)mixed design was adopted.The results showed that cleanliness induction and moral event types have significant effects on moral judgment,and there is an interaction effect between cleanliness induction and moral event types.Direct cleaning induction leads to stricter moral judgments in the pure moral event type.Experiment 2,based on the results of Experiment 1,included emotional factors and examined the effects of cleanliness induction on moral judgment under different emotional valences.A 2(cleanliness induction: direct cleaning vs.no cleaning)× 4(emotion: disgust,anger,joy,neutral)between-subjects design was used.The results showed that due to the “clean slate” effect of cleanliness,direct cleaning induction leads to more lenient moral judgments under disgust and anger,and stricter moral judgments under joy.Thus,the effects of cleanliness induction on moral judgment vary depending on the emotional valence,and emotions play a moderating role in the relationship between cleanliness induction and moral judgment.In summary,this study provides comprehensive evidence that cleanliness induction and moral event types have significant effects on moral judgment,and there is an interaction effect between them.Emotions play a moderating role in the relationship between cleanliness induction and moral judgment.The study supports the social intuitionist theory that bodily cleanliness can facilitate individuals’ processing of moral event information and enable them to make better use of intuition in making judgments.