Egoism in anger: Does justice sensitivity stir anger as feeling moral?

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  • 怒りの利己性：公正敏感さは怒りの道徳感を誘起するか
  • イカリ ノ リコセイ : コウセイ ビンカン サ ワ イカリ ノ ドウトクカン オ ユウキ スル カ

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Studies on anger have repeatedly assumed the existence of moral outrage, which is defined as the anger that results from witnessing a violation of a moral standard. However, recent research has found that more anger may be evoked by the unjustified treatment of one’s self or a member of one’s group, and not by the violation of a moral standard per se (e.g., Batson, Chao, & Givens, 2009). This is termed as personal anger. In our current study, we focused on justice sensitivity as a personality disposition and predicted that moral outrage would be a conditional emotional reaction that would be evoked only in individuals with high justice sensitivity. Japanese participants were asked to read a fictitious newspaper report describing an abduction case. For half the participants, the abducted victim was described as Japanese; for the remaining half, Slovenian. They were then asked to report their corresponding anger. Results indicated that even participants with high justice sensitivity reported more anger only when the victim of the abduction was Japanese. The finding that justice sensitivity did not lead to the evocation of moral outrage suggests that personal anger is an exceedingly prevalent and powerful emotion, which may be differentiated from moral outrage.

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