Hanah Chapman (1), Oct. 1, 2012: "Moral Disgust Discussed: Emotional and Cognitive Contributions to Human Morality."
Description
Being lied to, cheated upon, stolen from—these are among life’s most emotional experiences, and even watching them happen to someone else can trigger strong feelings. Recent work has confirmed the important role of emotion in human morality, but less is known about precisely which emotions are involved and how emotion exerts its influence. In this talk, I discuss the role of distinct emotions in morality, with a focus on disgust. I also describe a new line of research that aims to examine how emotion and cognition interact to give moral values their special weight in decision-making. Taken together, these two lines of work suggest that both emotion and cognition are key contributors to human morality.