The Orthogonality of Praise and Condemnation in Moral Judgment

The present studies examined whether the tendency to praise others for positive (i.e., moral) behaviors correlates with the tendency to condemn others for negative (i.e., immoral) behaviors. Across three studies, factor analyses revealed that these tendencies are orthogonal. The results refute the h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social psychological & personality science 2010-10, Vol.1 (4), p.302-310
Main Authors: Wiltermuth, Scott S., Monin, Benoît, Chow, Rosalind M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Caregiving
Factor analysis
Internalization
Moral aspects
Moral behaviour
Moral judgment
Moral judgments
Morality
Praise
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Summary:The present studies examined whether the tendency to praise others for positive (i.e., moral) behaviors correlates with the tendency to condemn others for negative (i.e., immoral) behaviors. Across three studies, factor analyses revealed that these tendencies are orthogonal. The results refute the hypothesis that simply caring deeply about morality leads individuals to praise moral behaviors and condemn immoral ones. The research instead suggests that individuals who are most praising of positive behavior are not necessarily those who are most condemning of negative behavior, because orthogonal conceptions of morality influence each type of judgment. Although the tendency to condemn depends on how much one personally cares about morality (internalization), the tendency to praise seems to depend on one’s public moral persona (symbolization).
ISSN:1948-5506
1948-5514
DOI:10.1177/1948550610363162