Immorality East and West: Are immoral behaviors especially harmful, or especially uncultured?

Buchtel, E.; Guan, Y.; Peng, Q.; Su, Y.; Sang, B.; Chen, S.X.; Bond, M.H.

Abstract

What makes some acts immoral? Although Western theories of morality often define harmful behaviors as centrally immoral, whether this is applicable to other cultures is still under debate. In particular, Confucianism emphasizes civility as fundamental to moral excellence. We describe three studies examining how the word immoral is used by Chinese and Westerners. Layperson-generated examples were used to examine cultural differences in which behaviors are called “immoral” (Study 1, n = 609; Study 2, n = 480), and whether “immoral” behaviors were best characterized as particularly harmful versus uncivilized (Study 3, N = 443). Results suggest that Chinese were more likely to use the word immoral for behaviors that were uncivilized, rather than exceptionally harmful, whereas Westerners were more likely to link immorality tightly to harm. More research into lay concepts of morality is needed to inform theories of moral cognition and improve understanding of human conceptualizations of social norms.

Citation

Buchtel, E., Guan, Y., Peng, Q., Su, Y., Sang, B., Chen, S., & Bond, M. (2015). Immorality East and West: Are immoral behaviors especially harmful, or especially uncultured?. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(10), 1382-1394. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215595606

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 19, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Aug 7, 2015
• Publication Date: 2015-10
• Deposit Date: May 12, 2016
• Journal: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
• Print ISSN: 0146-1672
• Electronic ISSN: 1552-7433
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 41
• Issue: 10
• Pages: 1382-1394
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215595606
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1404694