On Judging the Immorality of Someone Having Taken His or Her Own Life

Kollareth, Dolichan; Allam, Alexandra; Russell, James A.

doi:10.1521/soco.2019.37.6.547

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…The general association between suicide and sacredness legitimizes the religiously toned nature of our immorality manipulation; nonetheless, our findings should be tested for their generalizability to immorality manipulations that are not religiously toned. For example, Kollareth et al (2019) showed with non-religious scenario stimuli that the intentionality of suicides predicted their judged immorality and did so independent of key purity/sanctity-related emotional reactions; interestingly, their findings suggest the possibility that, in our study, the pairing of immorally depicted suicides with the phrase "committed suicide" reflects an association between the perceived intentionality of a suicide and the agentic connotation of the term "committed," a possibility supported by our qualitative findings. On the scenario-based portion of the study, participants rated the likelihood that family members would use statements containing "committed suicide" or "died by suicide"; they did not judge their own views toward these language forms and their own language usage was not assessed.…”

Section: Limitationssupporting

confidence: 74%

“…It felt like [my loved one] committed a crime – robbery, rape, or murder. Sheehan et al., 2018, p. 335 Suicide is a cause of death and our language should reflect this; people die by suicide. Nielsen et al., 2016, p. 4Many people hold stigmatizing attitudes toward suicide (Carpiniello & Pinna, 2017; Cvinar, 2005); as examples, suicide is judged as morally wrong (Kollareth et al., 2019; Rottman et al., 2014) and people who die by suicide are often seen as selfish and weak (Batterham et al., 2013). Qualitative studies of the lived experience of suicide attempt survivors or family members of those who died by suicide also show that suicide is associated with significantly negative perceptions (e.g., Sheehan et al., 2017; Sheehan et al., 2018).…”

Section: The Language Of Suicidementioning

confidence: 99%

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Depicted Immorality Influences the Perceived Applicability of the Phrase "Committed Suicide"

Howell

Cowan-Nelson

Cobuz

2022

Crisis

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Abstract. Background: "Committed suicide" is often deemed less acceptable than alternative phrases, but such judgments vary widely across individuals. Aim: We tested whether the endorsement of statements containing "committed suicide" is greater when a suicide death is depicted as immoral. We also assessed the degree of immorality suggested by the free-standing phrases "committed suicide" and "died by suicide." Method: Undergraduate participants ( N = 154) read scenarios of a suicide depicted as immoral and one depicted more neutrally and judged the applicability of statements employing either "committed suicide" or "died by suicide" to each scenario. Participants next chose between the free-standing phrases "committed suicide" or "died by suicide" in terms of which connoted immorality and provided written justifications for their choices. Results: Participants judged "committed suicide" statements to be most applicable to the immoral-suicide scenario. A large majority of participants chose "committed suicide" over "died by suicide" as connoting immorality and participants' justifications for this choice revealed several meaningful themes. Limitations: Our manipulation of immorality employed religious overtones and our participants were undergraduate students. Conclusions: Findings contribute to the empirical basis for concerns regarding the phrase "committed suicide," with implications for stigma reduction and help-seeking.

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Section: Limitationssupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: The Language Of Suicidementioning

confidence: 99%

Depicted Immorality Influences the Perceived Applicability of the Phrase "Committed Suicide"

Howell

Cowan-Nelson

Cobuz

2022

Crisis

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“…In support of this view, Rottman et al (2014) found a link between the disgust emotional reaction and condemnation of suicide: When reading suicide obituaries, a feeling of disgust significantly predicted moral condemnation of suicide. However, another study failed to replicate this finding with grossed out: feeling disgust, but not grossed out, significantly predicted condemnation of suicide (Kollareth, Allam, & Russell, 2017).…”

Section: General Discussion and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disgust and the sacred: Do people react to violations of the sacred with the same emotion they react to something putrid?

Kollareth

Russell

2019

Emotion

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Disgust has been hypothesized to be uniquely linked to violations of a distinct moral domain (called divinity, purity, or sacred) aimed at preserving one's body from contamination with pathogens and preserving one's soul from violations of what is sacred. Here we examined whether the same emotion-core disgust-occurs when witnessing both types of violation, and we proposed a specific method for doing so. In two studies (N = 160; 240), American and Indian participants indicated their emotional reaction to (stories depicting) sacred or nonsacred violations, each either with or without pathogens. Both Americans and Indians felt "grossed out" (a term for core disgust) by events with pathogens (whether violations of the sacred or not). They felt disgusted and angered, but not grossed out, by violations of the sacred. For both Americans and Indians, grossed out was never the modal emotion when a sacred violation did not involve pathogens. Results were inconsistent with a focus on any single emotion: sacred violations were associated with several different negative emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record

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“…This is an interesting and important insight, but the research is weakened somewhat by its reliance on correlational designs. Follow-up research using experimental methods tested whether suicide shows two hallmarks of purity violations -they elicit disgust, and wrongness judgments of them are insensitive to intentions (Kollareth et al, 2019). Across five studies, suicide generally did not show these purity hallmarks.…”

Section: Prior Research On Normative Judgments Of Suicide and Self-harmmentioning

confidence: 99%

What drives opposition to suicide? Two exploratory studies of normative judgments

Landy

Shah

2022

Judgm. decis. mak.

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The act of suicide is commonly viewed as wrong in some sense, but it is not clear why this is. Based on past empirical research and philosophical theorizing, we test ten different explanations for why suicide is opposed on normative grounds. Using a within-subjects design, Study 1 showed that seven out of ten manipulations had significant effects on normative judgments of suicide: time left to live, lack of close social relationships, a history of prior immoral behavior, the manner in which the suicide is committed, painful, incurable medical issues, impulsive decision-making, and the actor’s own moral-religious background. However, in all cases, the act of suicide was still considered wrong, overall. Using a between-subjects design, Study 2 tested the combined effect of the seven significant manipulations from Study 1. In combination, the seven manipulations eliminated opposition to suicide, on average. Implications for moral psychology and suicide prevention are discussed.

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On Judging the Immorality of Someone Having Taken His or Her Own Life

Cited by 5 publications

References 60 publications

Depicted Immorality Influences the Perceived Applicability of the Phrase "Committed Suicide"

Depicted Immorality Influences the Perceived Applicability of the Phrase "Committed Suicide"

Disgust and the sacred: Do people react to violations of the sacred with the same emotion they react to something putrid?

What drives opposition to suicide? Two exploratory studies of normative judgments

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