Research on pain judgement has shown that several features of a target influence empathy for others’ pain. Considering the pivotal role of morality in social judgement, we investigated whether judgements of others’ social and physical suffering vary as a function of the target's moral status. Study 1 manipulated the moral characteristics of an unknown other and found that participants ascribed less social (but not physical) suffering to a target depicted as lacking moral status rather than to a target high in morality. Study 2 added a control condition in which no information about the target's moral qualities was provided, and showed that the effect of morality on social pain judgements was driven by the depiction of the target as lacking moral traits. Study 3 revealed the specific role of morality, as information on another evaluative dimension (i.e., competence) had no effects on pain judgements. Study 4 showed that social targets perceived as lacking moral qualities are thought to experience less social pain than highly moral targets because of their perceived lower level of humanity. Overall, our findings suggest that social (but not physical) pain might represent a capacity that is denied to social targets that are perceived low in morality.

Bad guys suffer less (social pain): moral status influences judgements of others' social suffering / Riva, Paolo; Brambilla, Marco; Vaes, Jeroen Andre Filip. - In: BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY. - ISSN 0144-6665. - 55:1(2016), pp. 88-108. [10.1111/bjso.12114]

Bad guys suffer less (social pain): moral status influences judgements of others' social suffering

Vaes, Jeroen Andre Filip
2016-01-01

Abstract

Research on pain judgement has shown that several features of a target influence empathy for others’ pain. Considering the pivotal role of morality in social judgement, we investigated whether judgements of others’ social and physical suffering vary as a function of the target's moral status. Study 1 manipulated the moral characteristics of an unknown other and found that participants ascribed less social (but not physical) suffering to a target depicted as lacking moral status rather than to a target high in morality. Study 2 added a control condition in which no information about the target's moral qualities was provided, and showed that the effect of morality on social pain judgements was driven by the depiction of the target as lacking moral traits. Study 3 revealed the specific role of morality, as information on another evaluative dimension (i.e., competence) had no effects on pain judgements. Study 4 showed that social targets perceived as lacking moral qualities are thought to experience less social pain than highly moral targets because of their perceived lower level of humanity. Overall, our findings suggest that social (but not physical) pain might represent a capacity that is denied to social targets that are perceived low in morality.
2016
1
Riva, Paolo; Brambilla, Marco; Vaes, Jeroen Andre Filip
Bad guys suffer less (social pain): moral status influences judgements of others' social suffering / Riva, Paolo; Brambilla, Marco; Vaes, Jeroen Andre Filip. - In: BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY. - ISSN 0144-6665. - 55:1(2016), pp. 88-108. [10.1111/bjso.12114]
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Riva_et_al-2016-British_Journal_of_Social_Psychology.pdf

Solo gestori archivio

Tipologia: Versione editoriale (Publisher’s layout)
Licenza: Tutti i diritti riservati (All rights reserved)
Dimensione 225.97 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
225.97 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11572/164696
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? 4
  • Scopus 34
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 30
social impact