{"title":"Linguistic Evidence for the Dissociation Between Impurity and Harm: Differences in the Duration and Scope of Contamination Versus Injury","authors":"Laura Niemi, C. Leone, L. Young","doi":"10.1521/SOCO.2021.39.1.117","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Previous research has shown that harm and impurity are relevant to a different extent across individuals and transgressions. However, the source of these differences is still unclear. Here, we combine language analysis and social-moral psychology to articulate the core defining features of impurity versus harm. In Study 1 (a–c), we found systematic variation in language use, indicating that people infer that contamination, unlike injury, affects a target completely and irreversibly, rendering them a transmitter of contamination. In Study 2 (a–b), we investigated how evoking intuitions about these core features of contamination—completeness, irreversibility, and transferability—influences judgments of impurity and harm. We found that implying effects on a target were complete and irreversible altered judgments of impurity, but not harm. Overall, our research supports the conclusion that impurity and harm are substantially distinct in cognition and moral judgment; unlike harm, impurity connotes negative effects that spread continually across space and time.","PeriodicalId":48050,"journal":{"name":"Social Cognition","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Cognition","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1521/SOCO.2021.39.1.117","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
Previous research has shown that harm and impurity are relevant to a different extent across individuals and transgressions. However, the source of these differences is still unclear. Here, we combine language analysis and social-moral psychology to articulate the core defining features of impurity versus harm. In Study 1 (a–c), we found systematic variation in language use, indicating that people infer that contamination, unlike injury, affects a target completely and irreversibly, rendering them a transmitter of contamination. In Study 2 (a–b), we investigated how evoking intuitions about these core features of contamination—completeness, irreversibility, and transferability—influences judgments of impurity and harm. We found that implying effects on a target were complete and irreversible altered judgments of impurity, but not harm. Overall, our research supports the conclusion that impurity and harm are substantially distinct in cognition and moral judgment; unlike harm, impurity connotes negative effects that spread continually across space and time.
期刊介绍:
An excellent resource for researchers as well as students, Social Cognition features reports on empirical research, self-perception, self-concept, social neuroscience, person-memory integration, social schemata, the development of social cognition, and the role of affect in memory and perception. Three broad concerns define the scope of the journal: - The processes underlying the perception, memory, and judgment of social stimuli - The effects of social, cultural, and affective factors on the processing of information The behavioral and interpersonal consequences of cognitive processes.