The level of construal involved in the elicitation of core versus moral disgust.

Abstract

Previous research has distinguished between core disgust, elicited by revolting physical objects like spoiled food, and sociomoral disgust, elicited by violations of social norms or moral principles. We suggest that different levels of construal are involved in the elicitation of core disgust and moral disgust. Specifically, we predicted that the elicitation of core disgust involves more concrete than abstract construal, while the elicitation of moral disgust involves more abstract than concrete construal. On that basis, we examined whether changing the level at which the eliciting situation is construed has a different effect on the intensity of core disgust and moral disgust. In Experiment 1, we found that core disgust is associated more with concreteness than abstractness, whereas moral disgust is associated more with abstractness than concreteness. Next, we found that scenarios (Experiment 2) and images (Experiment 3) that elicit core disgust are construed more concretely and less abstractly, while scenarios and images that elicit moral disgust are construed more abstractly and less concretely. In the 2 final experiments we manipulated construal level and found that the elicitation of core disgust depends on concrete construal more than the elicitation of moral disgust (Experiment 4), while the elicitation of moral disgust depends on abstract construal more than the elicitation of core disgust (Experiment 5). These findings suggest that because core disgust and moral disgust differ in the construal level of their elicitors, changing the level at which the eliciting object is construed differently affects the intensity of core disgust and moral disgust.

Emotion Regulation by Psychological Distance and Level of Abstraction: Two Meta-Analyses

“…For each study, we coded the construal involved in the elicitation of the emotion (low level, high level, and unknown). The coding was based on a detailed protocol (see https://osf.io/3kjbs/) 13 that was developed based on the literature (e.g., Agerström et al, 2012; Bornstein et al, 2021; Doré et al, 2015; Katzir & Eyal, 2013; Moran et al, 2021; Tracy & Robins, 2007; E. Watkins, 2004).…”

“…In our discussion on how different classes of emotions relate to construal level, we focus on basic versus self-conscious emotions (e.g., Ekman, 1999; Tracy & Robins, 2007), primary versus secondary emotions (e.g., Leyens et al, 2001), and other emotions that do not fall into specific classifications, such as regret about actions versus inactions (Valenti et al, 2011), sadness versus anxiety (Doré et al, 2015), and core versus moral disgust (Moran et al, 2021).…”

“…Studies find that people experience basic emotions such as joy (Karsh & Eyal, 2015), pleasure (Agerström et al, 2012), core disgust (Moran et al, 2021), anger (Agerström et al, 2012; Bornstein et al, 2021), sadness (Agerström et al, 2012), and fear (Bornstein et al, 2021) when they engage in low-level construal more than high-level construal. In addition, research shows that people experience self-conscious emotions such as pride (Karsh & Eyal, 2015), shame, and guilt (Agerström et al, 2012; Bornstein et al, 2021) when they engage in high-level construal more than low-level construal.…”

“….”). Finally, Moran et al (2021, Experiment 4) manipulated level of abstraction by presenting images in color versus Black and White. H.…”

“…Lee et al (2014) find color images promote more concrete construal, whereas black and white images promote more abstract construal. In a different study, Moran et al (2021, Experiment 5) manipulated level of abstraction by having participants either focus on the specific components of an image (i.e., abstract processing) or think about a superordinate category to which the image belongs (i.e., concrete processing), a manipulation adapted from Fujita et al (2006).…”