| Moral outrage is a emotion centered around others,which can uphold social fairness and justice.In practical life,individuals,as a third party,are willing to make altruistic actions by sacrificing their own interests under the drive of moral outrage.These actions usually include two forms: thirdparty compensation and third-party punishment.Third-party compensation maintains justice by compensating the victim with what they deserve,while third-party punishment is to restore justice by giving the violator due punishment.Research has found that third parties,as bystanders to unfair events,have a close relationship between their altruistic behavior and Belief in a just world(BJW).Meanwhile,previous research has found that people have different sensitivities to fairness in situations involving loss and gain,resulting in different emotional experiences and behavioral preferences.Therefore,whether the influence of moral outrage on third-party altruistic behavior is affected by an individual’s BJW and the distribution situation is worth investigating.This study will explore the specific impact of moral outrage on third-party compensation and punishment behaviors through three experiments based on the dictator game,and examine the moderating effect of BJW on the relationship between moral outrage and third-party compensation and punishment behaviors,while also considering the secondary moderating effect of the distribution situation in this model.Experiment 1 employed a third-party compensation task in a dictator game to investigate the impact of moral outrage on third-party compensation,as well as the moderating effects of BJW and distribution situation.The experiment is a mixed design of 2(moral outrage: present,absent)X 2(distribution situation: gain,loss),in which moral outrage is a between-subject variable,BJW and allocation context are within-subject variables.The dependent variables are compensation rate and compensation intensity.A total of 130 participants took part in the study,which consisted of three phases: phase one measured BJW,phase two involved reading corresponding scenario materials and measuring moral outrage,and phase three involved completing the third-party compensation task in a gain or loss context to measure third-party compensation behavior,including compensation rate and intensity.The results showed that moral outrage had a significant effect on both compensation rate and intensity.BJW had a negative moderating effect on the relationship between moral outrage and third-party compensation rate but had no effect on the relationship between moral outrage and third-party compensation intensity.Distribution situation did not have a moderating effect on the relationship between BJW and moral outrage and compensation rate but played a secondary moderating role in the framework of BJW,moral anger,and compensation intensity.Experiment 2 utilized the third-party punishment task of the dictator game to investigate the influence of moral outrage on third-party punishment,as well as the moderating effects of BJW and distribution situation.The experiment was a 2(moral outrage: present,absent)x 2(distribution situation: gain,loss)mixed design,with moral outrage as the between-subject variable,BJW and distribution situation as the within-subjects variables.The dependent variables were punishment rate and punishment intensity.A total of 128 participants completed the experiment in three phases:phase one measured BJW,phase two involved reading relevant contextual materials and measuring moral outrage,and phase three consisted of completing the third-party punishment task in a gain or loss context to measure third-party punishment behavior,including punishment rate and intensity.The results indicated that moral outrage had a significant impact on both third-party punishment rate and intensity.BJW had a negative moderating effect on the relationship between moral outrage and third-party punishment rate and intensity.Distribution situation played a secondary moderating role in the relationship between BJW,moral outrage,and punishment rate,and had no effect on the relationship between BJW,moral outrage,and punishment intensity.Experiment 3 employed a third-party compensation and punishment task in a dictator game to investigate the effects of moral outrage on third-party compensation and punishment and the moderating role of BJW and distribution situation.The experiment had a 2(moral outrage: present,absent)× 2(distribution situation: gain,loss)mixed design,with moral outrage as the betweensubject variable,BJW and distribution situation as the within-subjects variables.and the dependent variables were punishment rate,compensation rate,punishment intensity,and compensation intensity.A total of 134 participants were included in the experiment,which consisted of three phases.Phase one measured BJW,phase two involved reading relevant scenario materials and measuring moral outrage,and phase three involved completing the third-party compensation and punishment task in a gain or loss context and measuring third-party compensation and punishment behavior,including compensation rate and intensity and punishment rate and intensity.The results showed that moral outrage had a significant impact on third-party punishment rate and intensity but not on third-party compensation rate and intensity.BJW positively moderated the relationship between moral outrage and punishment rate but had no effect on the relationship between moral outrage and punishment intensity.At the same time,moral outrage’s effect on compensation rate and intensity was not moderated by BJW.Distribution situation played a secondary moderating role under the framework of BJW in relation to the moderation of moral outrage and punishment rate and had no effect on the relationship between BJW and moral outrage,punishment intensity,and third-party compensation behavior.The research conclusion is as follows:(1)Moral outrage can enhance third-party compensation behavior and was negatively moderated by the BJW.The loss context in the distribution situation affected the moderating effect of the BJW.(2)Moral outrage can enhance third-party punishment behavior and was negatively moderated by the BJW.The gain context in the distribution situation affected the moderating effect of the BJW.(3)When there were both compensation and punishment behavior options,moral outage enhanced third-party punishment behavior and had no significant effect on third-party compensation behavior.Additionally,the relationship between moral outrage and third-party punishment behavior was positively moderated by the BJW.The gain context in the distribution situation affected the moderating effect of the BJW. |
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