Evil joy is hard to share: Negative affect attenuates interpersonal capitalizing on immoral deeds.

Abstract

Capitalization is an interpersonal process in which individuals (capitalizers) communicate their accomplishments to others (responders). When these attempts to capitalize are met with enthusiastic responses, individuals reap greater personal and social benefits from the accomplishment. This research integrated the interpersonal model of capitalization with moral foundations theory to examine whether accomplishments achieved through immoral (vs. moral) means disrupt the interpersonal processes of capitalization. We hypothesized that an accomplishment achieved through immoral (vs. moral) means would suppress the positive affective response often reaped from capitalizing on good news. We conducted two, mixed-methods experiments in which individuals interacted with a stranger (Study 1) or with their romantic partner (Study 2). We found that responders exhibited greater self-reported negative emotions, avoidance motivation, and arousal when reacting to capitalizers’ immoral (vs. moral) accomplishments. In turn, greater negative affect predicted less enthusiastic verbal responses to capitalization attempts. In Study 2 we found that immoral accomplishments increased avoidance motivation, which contrary to our expectations, increased expressions of happiness. These studies reveal that the moral means by which accomplishments are achieved can disrupt the interpersonal process of capitalization.

Explaining Political Polarization Over Abortion

“…Our studies are based on the assumption that fundamental moral values can shape both political orientation and support for abortion. They easily trigger affective processes (Misiak, Behnke, Peters et al, 2023), have their specific neurobiological underpinnings (Marczak et al, 2019), and are heritable (Zakharin & Bates, 2022). Such a strong biological predisposition suggests that moral values have greater potential to influence political orientation than vice versa.…”