The effects of emotion and social consensus on moral decision-making
Dawei Wang, Xiangwei Kong, Xinxiao Nie, Yuxi Shang, Shike Xu, Yingwei He, Phil Maguire, Yixin Hu
Abstract
This study investigated the influence of different emotions and social consensus on moral decision-making using a mixed 2 (emotion: positive, negative) × 2 (social consensus: high, low) experimental design. The results showed that the main effect of social consensus was significant: the moral decision-making level of participants under the condition of low social consensus was lower than that of participants under the condition of high social consensus, while no main effect of emotion emerged. Second, the results showed that emotion and social consensus have interactive effects on moral decision-making. When social consensus was high, there was no significant difference in moral decision-making between individuals with positive emotions and individuals with negative emotions. When social consensus was low, individuals with negative emotions were more likely to make immoral decisions than individuals with positive emotions. These results reveal that emotion and social consensus work together in affecting moral decision-making.