The Influence Of Nostalgia On Moral Judgment: The Mediating Role Of Empathy

Moral judgment refers to the psychological process of judging and evaluating individuals and their behaviors according to certain moral standards.According to dual processing model of moral judgment,emotional factors and cognitive factors are important factors affecting moral judgment.The former is related to deontological moral judgment,while the latter is related to utilitarian moral judgment.Nostalgia,as an emotion commonly experienced by people in daily life,plays an important role in enhancing social bonds,increasing empathy and promoting prosocial behaviors.However,few studies have explored the effect of nostalgia on moral judgments.The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of nostalgia on moral judgments and the role of empathy in this effect.In the first study,350 college students were surveyed by using moral judgment materials compiled by Conway(2013),the Southampton Nostalgia Scale and Empathic Concern Questionnaire.The purpose of the survey was to explore the influence of trait nostalgia on moral judgment and the mediating role of empathy.Based on the process dissociation method,the data were analyzed.The results showed that trait nostalgia and empathy was positively correlated with deontological moral judgments,but not with utilitarian moral judgments.Empathy played a mediating role in trait nostalgia and deontological moral judgments.In the second study,120 college students were randomly divided into a nostalgic group and a control group with 60 students in each group.The subjects were manipulated by an event reflection task,and their empathy was measured by a state empathic adjective check list.Finally,the subjects were given a moral judgment task.The second study aimed to explore the influence of experimentally induced state nostalgia on moral judgments and the mediating role of empathy.The results showed that there were significant differences in deontological moral judgments between the nostalgia group and the control group,and empathy plays a mediating role between state nostalgia and deontological moral judgment.Analyzing the data based on the CNI model,the results showed that there were significant differences between the nostalgia group and the control group in their sensitivity to moral norms,but no significant differences in their sensitivity to outcomes and their general preference for actions and non-actions.The main conclusions of the study are as follows:1.Nostalgia has no significant difference in gender,grade,specialty and origin.2.There are differences in gender and major types of empathy,female students are significantly higher than male students,and liberal arts students are significantly higher than engineering students.3.Moral judgment has no significant difference in gender,grade and origin,but has significant difference in specialty.Compared with science students,liberal arts students are more inclined to deontological moral judgment.4.Nostalgia has a significant positive correlation with empathy and can enhance empathy.5.Nostalgia is significantly positively correlated with deontological moral judgments,but not with utilitarian moral judgments.Nostalgia increases deontological moral judgment.6.Empathy mediates the effect of nostalgia on deontological moral judgments.Nostalgia can influence deontological moral judgments through empathy.7.Nostalgia is associated with an individual’s sensitivity to moral norms,not with sensitivity to consequences,and not with a general preference for action and inaction.