Moral disgust and anger across borders: Linking to forms of aggressive punishment in Western, East Asian, and cross-cultural contexts
Anger and disgust are core moral emotions, yet they serve distinct functions in moral punishment. This talk synthesizes findings from a series of studies across Western and 9 East Asian populations, focusing on how these emotions guide aggressive behavior and social inference. In two projects conducted in the Netherlands, the UK, and the US (total N > 2,800), we found consistent functional divergence: anger was associated with both direct and indirect aggression, whereas disgust was linked primarily to indirect forms of punishment (e.g., gossip, exclusion). These patterns emerged in both emotional experience and third-party observation and anticipation. To test the generalizability of these findings beyond WEIRD samples, we conducted two large-scale studies in Japan (N = 1,231; N = 930)—a high-context Eastern culture with strong emotional restraint. Despite these differences, the results closely replicated Western patterns: anger predicted both direct and indirect aggression, while disgust remained tied to indirect motives. Observers also inferred aggression from emotion expressions in consistent ways. We conclude with a preview of an ongoing Dutch–Japanese study on the cross-cultural perception of moral emotional expressions. While anger and disgust may serve stable social functions, we test whether cultural differences in expression and perception lead to mismatches, asymmetries, or variation in interpretive consistency. These perception gaps may distort moral inference across cultures and offer a new lens on intergroup processing—highlighting the role of emotion signaling in shaping social understanding across borders.