The Effects Of Carriers And Social Distance On Judgment Of Moral Transgressions Of College Students

In recent years,with the rapid development of technology and communication industry and the popularity of large screen smartphones,people's moral judgment is no longer limited to the paper surface,more under the phone screen.Does the change of presentation carrier affect people's moral judgment? Some studies have pointed out that people tend to read fragmented information quickly on their phones as a "shallow read ",and that people experience a "narrowing effect" when they read and make decisions on their phones.These factors will lead to more abstract,higher-level mental representation,more rigorous moral judgment,and an inclination to judge the moral transgressions as more immoral.Some other studies have proved that people's moral judgment on the behaviors of different moral degrees will also be significantly different under different social distances,which is an essential dimension of psychological distance.Whether the carrier and social distance will produce interaction is also worthy of attention.According to the analysis above,this study assumes that the carrier has an effect on construal level of individuals' mental representation,then affecting their moral judgment,and the carrier and the social distance will jointly have an impact on the moral judgment.Based on Construal Level Theory(CLT),the paper questionnaire and the mobile electronic questionnaire are used to explore the influence of the social distance under different carriers on the moral judgment of the moral transgressions of different degrees,measuring time as supporting,and three experiments were designed.Experiment One explores whether the mental representation of the moral transgressions under two carriers accords with CLT.Using two-factor mixed experimental design with carrier(2: phone screen vs.paper surface)* moral transgression story(5: story 1-5),carrier as between-subject factor,120 college students were randomly selected from three universities in Inner Mongolia as the subjects.The results showed that: when the subjects read the moral transgressions under phone screen,they were more inclined to characterize it as a high construal level,and the time of use was significantly shorter than that under paper surface;the mental representation of the moral transgressions under different carriers accords with CLT.Experiment Two explores the impact on moral judgment of moral transgressions of different degrees under two carriers.Using two-factor mixed experimental design with carrier(2: phone screen vs.paper surface)* degree of moral transgressions(3: low vs.middle vs.high),carrier as between-subject factor,150 college students were randomly selected from three universities in Inner Mongolia as the subjects.The results showed that: the subjects had lower acceptability to the same moral transgression behavior and had shorter time of use under the mobile screen;the acceptability of the subject to the moral transgressions of the middle degree was significantly lower under the phone screen than that when presented on paper surface,but the difference at the low and high degrees between carriers was not significant.Experiment Three explores the influence of social distance on moral judgment of moral transgressions of different degrees under two carriers.Using three-factor mixed experimental design with carrier(2: phone screen vs.paper surface)* degree of moral transgressions(3: low vs.middle vs.high)* social distance(2: friend vs.stranger),only degree of moral transgressions as withinsubject factor,300 college students were randomly selected from three universities in Inner Mongolia as the subjects.The results showed that: the acceptability of the subject to the moral transgressions was significantly lower,and shorter time was used under the phone screen than that under the paper surface,both significantly showed at moral transgressions of the low degree;when the social distance was far(moral transgressions performed by stranger),the acceptability of the subject to the moral transgressions was significantly lower especially at the low and middle degrees,and shorter time was used;the moral judgment under the phone screen was more severe than that under paper surface.