The Moderation Of Mindfulness On Embodied Effect From Disgust In Moral Judgment

The rise of embodied cognition theory opens a new chapter in moral judgment research.Experienced from the original philosophical speculation to the dual-process theory which reconcile the arguments about the roles of emotion and reasoning play,embodied cognition consider that cognition based on the body and the environment has broaden the field of moral judgment research,the category of disembodied mind has entered the embodied cognition.Numerous studies have shown that individuals' perceptions of body,such as taste,temperature,body movements,and light,can affect their moral judgments,namely the embodied effect.Disgust because of its strong physical experience becomes one of the important aspects in moral judgment study.A large number of studies have shown that participants in disgust tend to make more severe moral judgments because of the physical disgust regardless of whether the moral events have any aversion.However,this process of polarization of moral judgments induced by extraneous disgust is automatic and unconscious.Such cognitive biases will result in negative attitudes and negative social problems such as hostility and discrimination,which detrimental to create a harmonious and friendly socialist community.The mindfulness derived from Buddhist core meditation was introduced to psychology at the end of the last century,has been one of the important concepts and techniques of modern psychotherapy.Mindfulness as a self-regulatory method in which the individual consciously maintains attention and does not make any judgments on the current experience can become an independent variable in this study in to verify the hypothesis that it can modulate automatic transference of disgust into moral judgment,thereby promoting the deepening of mindfulness applications and moral judgment study.This study was based on the experiments of three groups of 203 participants(including 48 meditation laymen and 155 undergraduates)drew the following conclusions,First,in the context of Chinese culture the embodied effect of disgust in moral judgment was proved in either personal or impersonal moral dilemma besides non-moral scenarios.Second,the modulation of dispositional mindfulness did not meet the cross-cultural consensus assumption.The disgust induction made moral judgments more severe for the high “non-reacting” participants.Third,short-term mindfulness intervention had a significant effect.Individual's immediate state of mindfulness could prevent automatic transference of disgust into moral judgment.After intervention,there was no significant difference between participants under disgust induction and the control group.Mindfulness training regulates the embodied effect of moral judgments.The results of this study will enrich the theory and techniques of mental health practice and provided technical support for building a harmonious and friendly socialist community relationship.