AUTHOR=Kayyal Mary H. , Pochedly Joseph , McCarthy Alyssa , Russell James A. 

TITLE=On the limits of the relation of disgust to judgments of immorality

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=6

YEAR=2015

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00951

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00951

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>Two correlational studies (<italic>n</italic>s = 400; 90) examined the association of judgments of immorality and disgust (hypothesized in much current research and theory). Across 40 scenarios in Study 1, immorality was positively correlated with negative emotions, especially anger. With anger partialed, disgust was significantly, but weakly, correlated with immorality, <italic>r</italic>(38) = 0.22, <italic>p &lt;</italic> 0.05. Study 2 asked whether the immorality-disgust correlation is due to a confound: immoral events often include elements implicitly or explicitly implying pathogens, such as blood or semen. Across 22 scenarios, those implying pathogens were associated with disgust, but those without pathogens, whether moral or immoral, rarely were. We propose that the relation between disgust and immorality is largely coincidental, resulting from (a) using the word <italic>disgust</italic> to express anger with or even dislike of immoral acts and (b) the presence of incidental elements capable of eliciting disgust.</p>