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Distinct affective responses to second- and third-party norm violations.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2020 Apr; 205:103060.AP

Abstract

Social norm violations provoke strong emotional reactions that often culminate in punishment of the wrongdoer. This is true not only when we are the victims of the norm violation (second-party), but also when witnessing a complete stranger being victimized (third-party). What remains unclear, however, is whether second- and third-party punishments are associated with different emotions. To address this question, here we examine how subjects respond affectively to both second- and third-party norm violations in an economic game. Our results indicate that while second- and third-parties respond to norm violations by punishing wrongdoers similarly, they report experiencing distinct emotional states as a result of the violation. Specifically, we observed a cross-over interaction between anger and moral outrage depending on the party's context: while anger was more frequently reported for second- than for third-party violations, moral outrage was more evoked by third-party than second-party violations. Disgust and sadness were the most prevalently reported emotions, but their prevalence were unaffected by party contexts. These results indicate that while responses to second- and third-party violations result in similar punishment, they are associated with the expression of distinct affective palettes. Further, our results provide additional evidence that moral outrage is a critical experience in the evaluation of third-party wrongdoings.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Hartsough LES
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, PMB 407817, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN, 37240, United States of America. Electronic address: lauren.hartsough@vanderbilt.edu.
Ginther MR
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, PMB 407817, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN, 37240, United States of America.
Marois R
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, PMB 407817, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN, 37240, United States of America.

MeSH

AdultAngerEmotionsFemaleHumansMaleMoralsPunishmentSocial Norms

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Randomized Controlled Trial

Language

eng

PubMed ID

32220766

Citation

Hartsough, Lauren E S., et al. "Distinct Affective Responses to Second- and Third-party Norm Violations." Acta Psychologica, vol. 205, 2020, p. 103060.
Hartsough LES, Ginther MR, Marois R. Distinct affective responses to second- and third-party norm violations. Acta Psychol (Amst). 2020;205:103060.
Hartsough, L. E. S., Ginther, M. R., & Marois, R. (2020). Distinct affective responses to second- and third-party norm violations. Acta Psychologica, 205, 103060. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103060
Hartsough LES, Ginther MR, Marois R. Distinct Affective Responses to Second- and Third-party Norm Violations. Acta Psychol (Amst). 2020;205:103060. PubMed PMID: 32220766.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Distinct affective responses to second- and third-party norm violations. AU - Hartsough,Lauren E S, AU - Ginther,Matthew R, AU - Marois,René, Y1 - 2020/03/25/ PY - 2019/04/15/received PY - 2020/03/04/revised PY - 2020/03/09/accepted PY - 2020/3/30/pubmed PY - 2020/9/9/medline PY - 2020/3/30/entrez KW - Emotions KW - Moral outrage KW - Punishment KW - Second-party KW - Third-party SP - 103060 EP - 103060 JF - Acta psychologica JO - Acta Psychol (Amst) VL - 205 N2 - Social norm violations provoke strong emotional reactions that often culminate in punishment of the wrongdoer. This is true not only when we are the victims of the norm violation (second-party), but also when witnessing a complete stranger being victimized (third-party). What remains unclear, however, is whether second- and third-party punishments are associated with different emotions. To address this question, here we examine how subjects respond affectively to both second- and third-party norm violations in an economic game. Our results indicate that while second- and third-parties respond to norm violations by punishing wrongdoers similarly, they report experiencing distinct emotional states as a result of the violation. Specifically, we observed a cross-over interaction between anger and moral outrage depending on the party's context: while anger was more frequently reported for second- than for third-party violations, moral outrage was more evoked by third-party than second-party violations. Disgust and sadness were the most prevalently reported emotions, but their prevalence were unaffected by party contexts. These results indicate that while responses to second- and third-party violations result in similar punishment, they are associated with the expression of distinct affective palettes. Further, our results provide additional evidence that moral outrage is a critical experience in the evaluation of third-party wrongdoings. SN - 1873-6297 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/32220766/Distinct_affective_responses_to_second__and_third_party_norm_violations_ L2 - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0001-6918(19)30151-9 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -