AFFECT, CULTURE, AND MORALITY, OR IS IT WRONG TO EAT YOUR DOG

Are disgusting or disrespectful actions judged to be moral violations, even when they are harmless? Stories about victimless yet offensive a ctions (such as cleaning one's toilet with a flag) were presented to B razilian and U.S. adults and children of high and low socioeconomic st atus (N = 360). Results show that college students at elite universiti es judged these stories to be matters of social convention or of perso nal preference. Most other Ss, especially in Brazil, took a moralizing stance toward these actions. For these latter Ss, moral judgments wer e better predicted by affective reactions than by appraisals of harmfu lness. Results support the claims of cultural psychology (R. A. Shwede r, 1991a) and suggest that cultural norms and culturally shaped emotio ns have a substantial impact on the domain of morality and the process of moral judgment. Suggestions are made for building cross-culturally valid models of moral judgment.