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Support for children's rights is greater among children raised in democratic environments. The present two studies examined children's endorsements and predictors of children's rights. Five democratic competences taken from the Council of Europe's Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture served as predictors. We tested the models in a sample of children raised in five European countries and a sample raised in an African country, seeking to extend our model beyond the Global North. In Study 1, we found four of these five competences, namely, higher valuing of cultural diversity, civic‐mindedness, cultural openness and empathy significantly predicted higher endorsements of rights in children from Bulgaria, Italy, Norway, Romania and Spain (7–11‐year‐olds; N = 292). In Study 2, we found higher valuing of cultural diversity significantly predicted higher endorsements of rights in Nigerian children (7–14‐year‐olds; N = 84). Supporting Social Cognitive Domain Theory, children in both studies endorsed nurturance rights more than self‐determination rights. Inclusion of children from the Global North and South enabled us to determine whether patterns of rights endorsements were similar for children from both samples. Overall, this research presents novel findings on the salience of valuing cultural diversity in support for children's rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic has impacted the world in many ways; for example, evidence from the United Kingdom indicates that higher rates of discriminatory behaviours against immigrants have been recorded during this period. Prior research suggests that political orientation and trust are instrumental in discriminatory beliefs against immigrants. A longitudinal study (six waves and a follow‐up) was conducted in the United Kingdom during the COVID‐19 pandemic (September 2020–August 2021) using convenience sampling (N = 383). The hypotheses enquired about whether political orientation predicts trust in government, trust in science and discriminatory beliefs. Multilevel regression and mediation analyses were conducted, using repeated measures nested within individuals. It was found that conservative views are associated with higher discriminatory beliefs, lower trust in science and higher trust in government. Furthermore, trust in science promotes reduction of discrimination, whereas trust in government, increases discriminatory beliefs. However, a nuance revealed by an interaction effect, shows that a positive alignment between political and scientific authorities may be required to reduce prejudice against immigrants. Exploratory multilevel mediation showed that trust is a mediator between political orientation and discriminatory beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the recent upswing in research interest on the moral implications of disgust, there has been uncertainty about what kind of situations elicit moral disgust and whether disgust is a rational or irrational player in moral decision making. We first outline the benefits of distinguishing between bodily violations (e.g., sexual taboos, such as pedophilia and incest) and nonbodily violations (e.g., deception or betrayal) when examining moral disgust. We review findings from our lab and others' showing that, although many existing studies do not control for anger when studying disgust, disgust at nonbodily violations is often associated with anger and hard to separate from it, while bodily violations more consistently predict disgust independently of anger. Building on this distinction, we present further empirical evidence that moral disgust, in the context of bodily violations, is a relatively primitively appraised moral emotion compared to others such as anger, and also that it is less flexible and less prone to external justifications. Our review and results underscore the need to distinguish between the different consequences of moral emotions. (Contains 1 table.)

Hope, gratitude, fear, and disgust may all be key to encouraging preventative action in the context of COVID-19. We pre-registered a longitudinal experiment, which involved monthly data collections from September 2020 to September 2021 and a six-month follow-up. We predicted that a hope recall task would reduce negative emotions and elicit higher intentions to engage in COVID-19 preventative behaviours. At the first time point, participants were randomly allocated to a recall task condition (gratitude, hope, or control). At each time point, we measured willingness to engage in COVID-19 preventative behaviours, as well as experienced hope, gratitude, fear, and disgust. We then conducted a separate, follow-up study in February 2022, to see if the effects replicated when COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed in the UK. In the main study, contrary to our pre-registered hypothesis, we found that a gratitude recall task elicited more willingness to engage in COVID-19 preventative behaviours in comparison to the neutral recall task. We also found that experienced gratitude, hope, and fear were positively related to preventative action, while disgust was negatively related. These results present advancement of knowledge of the role of specific emotions in the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breastfeeding has many known benefits, but rates vary globally. We propose two main reasons why psychological theory and interventions have not been successful to date in explaining breastfeeding behaviours. Specifically, prior research underestimates the importance of (1) specific emotions and (2) wider injunctive influences (i.e., societal and moral norms about what women feel they ought to be doing) in the breastfeeding experience. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies that explored whether injunctive norms and/ or specific emotions are associated with breastfeeding behaviours (i.e., intentions, initiation and duration). Seventy-two papers were included in this review; data were extracted and quality appraisals conducted for all included studies. A meta-analysis of effect sizes was performed with the quantitative data. A convergent qualitative synthesis of the data was conducted, resulting in the following line of argument: Breastfeeding is a social behaviour and not a personal/individual behaviour. From this line of argument, three themes with associated sub-themes were developed, highlighting the importance of both specific emotions and injunctive norms on breastfeeding behaviours. These influences are discussed in relation to both theoretical and practical implications, as well as future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally the rates of breastfeeding duration are extremely low and postnatal mental health issues are common. As a result, it is important to examine the emotions that underlie these matters. Across two studies (one correlational study N = 160 and one experimental study N = 118), we examined participants' experiences of shame and guilt when feeding their baby, and the relationship between these emotions with breastfeeding behaviors and internalized stigma. We also examined the psychosocial factors that predict internalized stigma, and whether shame and guilt mediate these relationships. We focused on three factors that have been shown to be associated with internalized stigma in other domains: self‐esteem and social support (Study 1), as well as self‐efficacy (Study 2). Multiple regression revealed that experienced guilt uniquely predicted a shorter duration of exclusive breastfeeding (Study 1). Higher self‐efficacy (Study 2), self‐esteem, and perceived social support (Study 1) predicted lower internalized stigma of feeding choice. We found that shame was a mediator for the self‐esteem and internalized stigma relationship (Study 1), while guilt was a mediator for the self‐efficacy and internalized stigma relationship (Study 2). Our findings highlight the importance of experienced shame and guilt in mothers' infant feeding experiences. The current results can inform future research and the design of interventions to improve breastfeeding rates and reduce feelings of stigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural conceptions of morality are grounded in diverse moral foundations, but moral identity research often assumes that individualizing concerns are the universal basis for morality. Moral identity scales grounded only in individualizing foundations risk liberal ethnocentrism, to the extent that binding foundations emphasized in collectivist cultures are overlooked. Three hundred and ninety‐five Saudi Arabian and UK participants completed prejudice and moral identity measures, which either narrowly measured only individualizing foundations or broadly measured both binding and individualizing foundations. The broader measure had greater power to predict prejudice scores in both countries, particularly in Saudi Arabia. Generally, moral identities grounded in individualizing foundations predicted less prejudice, while moral identities grounded in binding foundations predicted higher prejudice in both countries. Individualizing measures of moral identity may assess ethnocentric concepts, but recognizing morality grounded in binding considerations may taint the category of moral identity with self‐concepts that are associated with greater—not less—ethnocentrism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does information about agents' past violations influence people's expectations about their future actions? We examined this question, with a focus on the contrast between past harmful and past impure actions. Participants' judgments reflected two independent influences: action consistency and expectation asymmetry. An expectation asymmetry was observed across seven studies, including two pilot studies and two supplemental studies: impure agents were judged as more likely to be harmful than harmful agents were judged likely to be impure. This expectation asymmetry is not due to an expectation that impure agents will be globally deviant, i.e., likely to commit all kinds of violations (Study 1), nor is it due to differences in the perceived wrongness or weirdness of harmful versus impure acts (Study 2). Study 3 demonstrated that this asymmetry is not attributable to the perceived harmfulness of impure actions; only impure agents, and not harmful agents, were expected to be more harmful than they were previously. These findings highlight an important asymmetry in the way people make predictions about future wrongdoing: immoral agents are expected to behave consistently, and are also expected to be harmful, regardless of their prior violation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anger and disgust may have distinct roles in sexual morality; here, we tested hypotheses regarding the distinct foci, appraisals, and motivations of anger and disgust within the context of sexual offenses. We conducted four experiments in which we manipulated whether mutual consent (Studies 1–3) or desire (Study 4) was present or absent within a counter-normative sexual act. We found that anger is focused on the injustice of non-consensual sexual acts, and the transgressor of the injustice (Studies 1 and 3). Furthermore, the sexual nature of the act was not critical for the elicitation of anger—as anger also responded to unjust acts of violence (Study 3). By contrast, we hypothesised and found that disgust is focused on whether or not a person voluntarily engaged in, desired or consented to a counter-normative sexual act (Studies 2–4). Appraisals of abnormality and degradation were the primary appraisals of disgust, and the sexual nature of the act was a critical elicitor of disgust (Study 3). A final study ruled out victimisation as the mechanism of the effect of consent on disgust and indicated that the consenter's sexual desire was the mechanism (Study 4). Our results reveal that anger and disgust have differential roles in consent-related sexual offenses due to the distinct appraisals and foci of these emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• Moral concern was found to be an additional influence on insect consumption. • Exposure to others consuming insects does not impact one's own willingness. • Exposure to others consuming insects reduces disgust and increases acceptability. • However, exposure only impacts beliefs under very specific circumstances. Disgust, social influence, and moral concern seem to play a pivotal role in insect consumption. Research examining these factors, particularly in the UK, is currently lacking. As a result, two studies were conducted to examine the perceived barriers and benefits of insect consumption, and how disgust can be counteracted. First, a cross-sectional study (N = 600) showed that disgust and moral concerns were unique predictors of individual's willingness to consume insect products. Second, we conducted an experiment (N = 519) to examine whether knowledge that someone else consumes an insect-based product impacts one's own willingness to consume insects. In this study we replicated Hartmann, Ruby, Schmidt, and Siegrist (2018) methodology of giving information about an insect consumer but added details about the individuals' occupation and what type of product they consumed, examining how these factors impacted individual's willingness to consume insect-based products. We found that this information did not impact willingness to consume; however, it did influence feelings of disgust and perceived acceptability. This study also replicated the first study by demonstrating that disgust and moral concern are barriers to insect consumption. We hope the current findings trigger future research to examine how disgust can be counteracted, and to better understand the role of moral concern in insect consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined mother-child talk about disgust. A total of 68 mothers and their 4-, ( M age = 55.72 months, SD = 4.13), 6- ( M age = 77.70 months, SD = 5.45), and 8- ( M age = 100.90 months, SD = 4.61) year-old children discussed four tasks relating to moral and pathogen disgust. Tasks comprised labeling facial expressions of emotions, generating items that would make participants disgusted or angry, identifying moral and pathogen transgressions as either causing anger or disgust, and finally rating the degree to which moral and pathogen transgressions were disgusting and justifying their responses. Mother-child dyads recognized the facial expression of happiness more accurately than that of disgust, but disgust was recognized equally well as expressions of sadness and anger across all age groups. Dyads associated moral transgressions with anger, whereas they associated pathogen transgressions with disgust. Finally, mothers and children and mothers individually rated pathogen transgressions as more disgusting than moral transgressions. Taken together, findings show that moral disgust is understood at a later age and is only used metaphorically, if at all, in children as old as 8 years old. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Anger may be more responsive than disgust to mitigating circumstances in judgements of wrongdoing. We tested this hypothesis in two studies where we had participants envision circumstances that could serve to mitigate an otherwise wrongful act. In Study 1, participants provided moral judgements, and ratings of anger and disgust, to a number of transgressions involving either harm or bodily purity. They were then asked to imagine and report whether there might be any circumstances that would make it all right to perform the act. Across transgression type, and controlling for covariance between anger and disgust, levels of anger were found to negatively predict the envisioning of mitigating circumstances for wrongdoing, while disgust was unrelated. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings to less serious transgressions, using a continuous measure of mitigating circumstances, and demonstrated the impact of anger independent of deontological commitments. These findings highlight the differential relationship that anger and disgust have with the ability to envision mitigating factors.