122 - David Pizarro: Moral Psychology, Praise & Blame, Disgust & Politics
Aug 2, 2023
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David Pizarro, Professor of Psychology at Cornell University, discusses moral psychology, praise, blame, social cognition, and the relationship between disgust and political affiliation. They explore the concept of morality, intuition in psychology, asymmetries in praise and blame judgments, blaming non-human objects, AI rights, the evolution and usage of disgust, linguistic relativism, and the impact of disgust on moral judgment and political orientation.
There is an asymmetry in the perception of blame and praise, with blame being more leniently assigned when actions are driven by strong emotions compared to reasoned judgment, highlighting the complex nature of moral judgments.
Blaming non-human objects, such as pets or inanimate objects, can occur due to our tendency to assign agency and blame to them, raising questions about the concept of blame and the role of agency in moral judgments.
Studies investigating blame and praise often involve presenting participants with scenarios to capture their judgments, allowing researchers to better understand the psychological factors influencing blame and praise.
Deep dives
Asymmetry in Blame and Praise
Studies have shown that there is an asymmetry in how blame and praise are perceived. When someone's actions are driven by strong emotions, they tend to be blamed less than when they act out of reasoned judgment. However, when it comes to praise, the same leniency is not applied. This suggests that there are different criteria for blame and praise, and that we are more focused on the outcome when it comes to praise rather than considering the role of emotions. This asymmetry in the perception of blame and praise has been observed in various scenarios and highlights the complex nature of our moral judgments.
Blaming Non-Human Objects
Blaming and getting angry at non-human objects, like pets or even inanimate objects, can also occur. For example, people may scold their pets for making mistakes, or get angry at a malfunctioning computer or robot. While it is natural for humans to treat these objects as if they have agency and to assign blame to them, it raises interesting questions about the concept of blame and the role of agency in our moral judgments. Some argue that belief in agency is a crucial factor in blaming non-human objects, while others believe that blame can still be assigned without attributing true agency. Understanding the dynamics of blame in these situations can help us explore the boundaries of our moral judgments.
Exploring the Psychological Construct
Researchers have conducted studies to investigate the perception and measurement of blame and praise. These studies often involve presenting participants with scenarios in which emotional or reasoned actions lead to positive or negative outcomes. Through various questionnaires and scales, researchers aim to capture participants' judgments of blame and praise. By assessing the consistency and correlation of these judgments, it is possible to better understand the underlying psychological construct and the factors that influence blame and praise.
The Intersection of Neuroscience and Psychology
While neuroscience can provide insights into the neural processes associated with blame and praise, it may not offer a complete understanding of the psychological aspects of these judgments. The rich field of psychology, with its focus on behavior and subjective experience, provides a more comprehensive account of blame and praise. Although neuroscientific research can offer additional evidence and support for psychological theories, it is often psychology that lays the groundwork for understanding blame and praise.
Disgust as a Universal Emotion
Disgust is an emotion that is sensitive to contamination and serves as an emotional response to stimuli that can potentially threaten us, such as parasites or poisons. It is associated with a strong avoidance motivation and has been found to be a universal emotion that emerges in childhood. Different cultures tend to find the same things disgusting, such as feces, pus, and blood. The emotion of disgust serves as an evolved response to keep us from ingesting things that could harm us, even before the development of the germ theory of disease.
Disgust Sensitivity and Political Orientation
Disgust sensitivity, which refers to the extent to which individuals are easily disgusted, has been found to have a small but consistent relationship with political orientation. People who report higher levels of disgust sensitivity tend to lean more politically conservative, while those with lower levels of disgust sensitivity are more likely to lean liberal. This finding suggests that disgust sensitivity may be linked to differences in risk perception, with conservatives being more alert to potential threats and favoring more conservative and traditional approaches to avoid them.
David Pizarro is Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. While he teaches and publicly discusses a wide variety of material in the discipline, his primary research interest is in moral judgment. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss some of the conceptual underpinnings of moral psychology before turning to the research on praise, blame, social cognition, and the relationship between disgust and political affiliation. David is also the co-host of two podcasts, Very Bad Wizards with Tamler Sommers and Psych with Paul Bloom.
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.
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