The Effect Of Moral Perception On Moral Behavior And Moral Judgment

Moral psychology is one of the important domains of psychological science.In daily life people often encounter issues about moral judgment and moral decision.Classical philosophers concerned the ethical meaning of morality,while psychologists mainly focused on the mental mechanism of moral judgment.In recent decades,new methods emerged constantly,providing empirical evidence for moral psychological theories.Moral perception is a kind of cognitive ability to identify moral properties.People maintain their moral self-image on a certain level and adjust subsequent behavior via moral perception,sometimes uses this representation strategy to explain the behavior of othersMoral sensitivity,which Sparks and Hunt define as the ability to identify moral issues and the ascription of importance to them.Recalling immoral issus would affect people's subsequent behavior.It seems that the cognition to moral behavior improves people's moral sensitivity after the recalling tasks.Participants tend to think about issues from moral level when they primed by situation related to moral,and then perform at a higher level of moral sensitivity.People engage in more prosocial behavior when they inspired by the promoted moral sensitivity.Previous studies focused on the negative feedback mechanism of moral self.while the current study extent the boundary of moral perception,explore whether the ascension of moral sensitivity,which affects participants' subsequent moral judgment,would also be promoted by other people's behavior.The effect of moral perception and its mediator was revealed via 3 studies.Study 1 tests the effect of moral perception on moral behavior by different priming events(immoral versus neutral).Recalling immoral events activated greater desire for cleansing products,and greater likelihood of helping.Study 2 shows the effect of moral perception on moral judgment by different priming events(immoral versus neutral).It seems that moral perception polarizes individuals' moral judgment on moral dilemma.Study 3 manipulated different events(immoral versus neutral)of different subject(self versus others),then explored the effect of moral perception on participants' intent of moral behavior and moral sensitivity.This effect increased participants' moral sensitivity,which letting them more likely to engage in moral behavior in the future.Studies lead to the following conclusions:(1)Priming moral perception promotes people's moral behavior.(2)Priming moral perception increase moral sensitivity.(3)Moral perception polarized individuals' moral judgment on moral dilemma(4)Moral sensitivity performs mediator between the moral perception and moral behavior.