People More Afraid of Catching COVID-19 Are More Judgmental

Researchers studying how we make moral judgments found that people who were more concerned about getting COVID-19 were more likely to disapprove of the misdeeds of others, no matter what they did wrong.

The researchers say their findings are evidence that our morality is shaped by different emotions and intuitions, of which health and safety concerns are prominent. This means that our judgments about misconduct are not completely rational.

The study, published today (June 8, 2021) in the journal Evolutionary Psychology, didn’t focus on behaviors related to the pandemic itself — such as social distancing — but took into account a wide range of moral transgressions.

Between March and May 2020, more than 900 study participants in the US were shown a series of scenarios and asked to rate them on a scale from “not wrong at all” to “extremely wrong.” This allowed the researchers to measure participants’ responses to five key moral principles: harm, fairness, intra-group loyalty, reverence for authority, and purity.

Example scenarios are one of loyalty: “You see a man leaving his family business to work for their main competitor;” and one of honesty: “You see a tenant bribing a landlord to be the first to repaint his apartment.”

People who were more concerned about catching COVID-19 rated the behavior in these scenarios as more wrong than those who were less concerned.

“There is no rational reason to judge others for worrying about getting sick during the pandemic,” said Professor Simone Schnall of the University of Cambridge’s Department of Psychology, senior author of the report.

She added: “These influences on judgments happen outside of our conscious awareness. If we feel that our well-being is threatened by the coronavirus, we are also likely to feel more threatened by the misbehavior of others – it’s an emotional bond.”

The findings add to a growing body of evidence of a link between physical disgust — an emotion designed to save us from harm — and moral condemnation.

“Disgust is an emotion that we think evolved to protect us from harm – for example, avoiding a filthy toilet that could infect us with disease. But now we’re applying it to social situations too, and we may feel physically repulsive.” by other people’s behavior,” said Robert Henderson, a PhD student and Gates Scholar in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the report.

He added: “The link between concerns about COVID-19 and moral condemnation is about risks to well-being. If you’re more aware of health risks, you’re also more aware of social risks — people whose behavior can harm you.”

Reference: June 8, 2021, Evolutionary Psychology.
DOI: 10.1177/14747049211021524