Magnificent Moral Beauty: The Trait of Engagement with Moral Beauty

Diessner, Rhett

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-32333-2_7

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 51 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Strohminger, Lewis, and Meyer (2017) found that mirth increased permissiveness for utilitarian solutions to moral dilemmas [ 32 ], and disgust led participants to make harsh judgments for immoral behaviors [ 43 ]. In other research, beauty, or the lack thereof, was found to activate positive and negative emotions, respectively [ 44 ]. People who experience positive emotions exhibit significantly more unusual cognition [ 45 ], such as being more flexible and tolerant [ 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Environmental Aesthetic Value Influences the Intention for Moral Behavior: Changes in Behavioral Moral Judgment

2021

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The environment affects moral behavior. Previous research found that a beautiful environment leads to pro-social behavior, which is related to behavioral intention. However, the effect of environmental aesthetic value on immoral and moral behavior remains unclear. Therefore, in the present study, we explored the effect of environmental aesthetic value on behavioral intention and its possible mechanisms. We conducted four experiments. Experiment 1 adopted the priming paradigm and IAT paradigm to explore the relationship between environmental aesthetic value and behavioral intention. It used photographs of the environment as priming stimuli and scene drawings of behavior as target stimuli. The results showed that participants had a higher intention to engage in moral behavior in an environment with a high aesthetic value, and a lower intention to engage in immoral behavior, compared to in an environment with a low aesthetic value. Similarly, an environment with a low aesthetic value was related to immoral behavior. Experiment 2 further explored the possible mechanism for the above results: changes in moral judgment. The results showed that moral judgment in different environments may lead to different behavioral intentions. The current study extends prior research by demonstrating the effect of environmental aesthetic value on behavioral intention and moral judgment, and good knowledge about the relationship between environmental aesthetic value and moral behavior. In addition, it provides a new hypothesis for the relationship between environment and behavior according to the results of the environment–behavior matching hypothesis, which can provide a new perspective on moral education.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Environmental Aesthetic Value Influences the Intention for Moral Behavior: Changes in Behavioral Moral Judgment

2021

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…All of these adjectives have positive connotations, which corresponds with the general characteristics of the concept of beauty as a concept that refers to positive evaluative appraisals (Skov & Nadal, 2021). It was found that beauty is closely associated with the concepts of goodness (Han & Laurent, 2023), morality (Diessner, 2019), and health (Little et al, 2011); people who are considered to be beautiful are thought to be more intelligent and trustworthy (Corbett, 2009), and they generally benefit from enhanced positivity (Griffin & Langlois, 2006). The existence of these links can be explained through the action of several psychological mechanisms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Semantic Differential of the Concept of Beauty

Demuthova,

Andrej Demuth

2023

J. Adv. Res. Soc. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study focuses on an exploration of the concept of beauty using the semantic differential method. 2,080 participants (53.46% were female) aged 18 to 89 (M = 41.36 years; SD = 16.48) were asked to evaluate the concept of beauty using twenty-one bipolar adjectives across three semantic differential dimensions – activity, evaluation, and potency. The results indicate that the most descriptive adjectives used to describe beauty are: pleasant, inviting, good, inspiring, pure, and kind, indicating that the concept of beauty is mostly associated with positive connotations. Furthermore, the majority of the characteristic adjectives are related to the evaluation dimension, in which statistically significant differences were identified in the evaluations made by men and women. Women perceive beauty as a concept that is significantly more strongly associated with evaluative judgments than men (p <.01). The potential of the semantic differential method can be used to compare the meaning of the concept of beauty with synonymous and oppositional concepts.

show abstract

“…Evaluations of moral character bear on evaluations of physical attractiveness, which may be underpinned by the engagement of shared neurocognitive mechanisms when making moral and aesthetic judgments. Functional neuroimaging evidence finds that moral and aesthetic judgments implicate overlapping regions of the medial orbitofrontal cortex (Diessner, 2019, p. 186; Luo et al, 2019; Tsukiura & Cabeza, 2011; Wang et al, 2015) and amygdala (Bzdok et al, 2011; Workman et al, 2021). This overlap may have an evolutionary basis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is good is beautiful (and what isn’t, isn’t): How moral character affects perceived facial attractiveness.

He¹,

Workman²,

He³

et al. 2024

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A well-documented "beauty-is-good" stereotype is expressed in the expectation that physically attractive people have more positive characteristics. Recent evidence also finds that unattractive faces are associated with negative character inferences. Is what is good (bad) also beautiful (ugly)? Whether this conflation of aesthetic and moral values is bidirectional is not known. This study tested the hypothesis that complementary "good-is-beautiful" and "bad-is-ugly" stereotypes bias aesthetic judgments. Using highly controlled face stimuli, this pre-registered study examined whether moral character influences perceptions of attractiveness for different ages and sexes of faces. Compared to faces paired with non-moral vignettes, those paired with prosocial vignettes were rated significantly more attractive, confident, and friendlier.The opposite pattern characterized faces paired with antisocial vignettes. A significant interaction between vignette type and the age of the face was detected for attractiveness.Moral transgressions affected attractiveness more negatively for younger than older faces. Sex-related differences were not detected. These results suggest information about moral character affects our judgments about facial attractiveness. Better people are considered more attractive. These findings suggest that beliefs about moral goodness and physical beauty influence each other bidirectionally.

show abstract

Magnificent Moral Beauty: The Trait of Engagement with Moral Beauty

Cited by 4 publications

References 51 publications

Environmental Aesthetic Value Influences the Intention for Moral Behavior: Changes in Behavioral Moral Judgment

Environmental Aesthetic Value Influences the Intention for Moral Behavior: Changes in Behavioral Moral Judgment

Semantic Differential of the Concept of Beauty

What is good is beautiful (and what isn’t, isn’t): How moral character affects perceived facial attractiveness.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About