Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · 2015 · 109 citations · 48 references
Social SciencesAnthropologySocial PsychologyCultureEthicsMoral PsychologyCross-cultural EthicsIntercultural EthicsMoral CognitionMoral NormsMoral PhilosophyNormative EthicsConfucian EthicsConfucian PhilosophyCross-cultural Moral JudgmentsCross-cultural Moral ReasoningMoral CultureMoral ExcellenceMoral Reasoning Across CulturesMoral Responsibility Across Cultures
The study examines how concepts of immorality differ across cultures, noting that Western theories focus on harm while Confucianism emphasizes civility. The authors aim to investigate how Chinese and Westerners use the term immoral and highlight the need for further research into lay moral concepts. The studies used layperson-generated examples to compare Chinese and Western definitions of immorality, assessing whether it reflects harm or uncivilized conduct. Chinese respondents labeled uncivilized acts as immoral more often, while Western respondents associated immorality primarily with harmful acts.
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.
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