Beyond outrage: Observers anticipate different behaviors from expressors of anger versus disgust The modern world affords unprecedented opportunities for individuals to express themselves. The widespread distribution of one specific type of expression – moral outrage – has consequences for social and political harmony. The current investigation contributes to better understanding these consequences by examining what […]

Are people more averse to microbe-sharing with ethnic outgroup members Intergroup biases are widespread across cultures and time. The current study tests an existing hypothesis that has been proposed to explain such biases: the mind has evolved to interpret outgroup membership as a cue to pathogen threat. In this registered report, we test a core […]

Retesting the Hypothesis of Behavioral Immune System as the Basis of Intergroup Biases during a Pandemic Lei Fan & Joshua M. Tybur Intergroup biases are thought to (partially) emerge from the behavioral immune system. We conducted two studies – one longitudinal study and one experiment – to test this hypothesis from two different perspectives. The […]

Pathogen Disgust Sensitivity But Not Explicit Disease Concerns Predicts Immigration Attitudes During a Pandemic Lei Fan & Joshua M. Tybur Intergroup biases are thought to partially emerge from the behavioral immune system. The current longitudinal study (assessed at three time points of the COVID-19 pandemic – May 2020, N1 = 998; February 2021, N2 = […]

25th March, 2022, Social Psychology Talk Series at School of Psychology, University of Kent Moral Emotions Communicate Aggressions in Moral Punishment Punishment typically follows from other-condemning moral emotions. Several studies indicated that emotions motivate punishment, with some suggesting that punishment expresses moral emotions, especially anger and moral disgust. Although some work referred to “outrage” as […]

Visiting Research/Study Fund for PhD Candidate. Granted by the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Visiting Infomation: March – April 2022, School of Psychology, University of Kent. Host: Prof. Dr. Roger Giner-Sorolla Funding Amount: EUR 4.000

What motivates direct and indirect punishment? Extending the ‘intuitive retributivism’ hypothesis Catherine Molho, Mathias Twardawski, & Lei Fan In human societies, moral offenses are often met with punishment. Punishers may be motivated by retribution—i.e., wanting to repay the harm done—and/or general deterrence—i.e., wanting to prevent onlookers from committing similar offenses in the future. Punishment motivated […]