Ana P. Gantman

The moral pop-out effect: Enhanced perceptual awareness of morally relevant stimuli

People perceive religious and moral iconography in ambiguous objects, ranging from grilled cheese to bird feces. In the current research, we examined whether moral concerns can shape awareness of perceptually ambiguous stimuli. In three experiments, we presented masked moral and non-moral words around the threshold for conscious awareness as part of a lexical decision task. Participants correctly identified moral words more frequently than non-moral words-a phenomenon we term the moral pop-out effect. The moral pop-out effect was only evident when stimuli were presented at durations that made them perceptually ambiguous, but not when the stimuli were presented too quickly to perceive or slowly enough to easily perceive. The moral pop-out effect was not moderated by exposure to harm and cannot be explained by differences in arousal, valence, or extremity. Although most models of moral psychology assume the initial perception of moral stimuli, our research suggests that moral beliefs and values may shape perceptual awareness.

Why did I do that? Explaining actions activated outside of awareness

We review the latest research investigating how people explain their own actions when they have been activated nonconsciously. We will discuss evidence that when nonconsciously activated behavior is unexpected (e.g., norm- violating, against self -standards), negative affect arises and triggers confabulations aimed to explain the behavior. Nonconsciously activated behaviors may provide a window into everyday confabulation of (erroneous) explanations for behavior, which may also affect self-knowledge. Implications for self-concept formation and intentionality are discussed.

See for Yourself: Perception Is Attuned to Morality.

Perception appears preferentially attuned to moral content. Firestone and Scholl recently claimed that moral perception does not exist. We invite readers to evaluate the evidence for themselves. We fail to see how hitting a small child does not pertain to morality, knowing that expectations of justice affect attention is unexciting, or formal claims about similarity can be made without randomly assigning people to conditions or even presenting similar data. Research on moral perception has the potential to inform our understanding of morality and perception, and may have important consequences for policy.

Exposure to Justice Alters Moral Word Detection

Prominent models of moral psychology have largely ignored the relationship between morality and perception. Yet, moral judgment and decision-making often requires that people detect the presence of morally relevant information. The current research examines whether the detection of moral words can be shaped by top-down motives. In two experiments, we examined whether satiating (vs. activating) justice needs diminishes detection of moral words. People who saw a CrimeStoppers advertisement in which a majority (vs. minority) of wanted murderers had been brought to justice exhibited reduced detection of moral words (Experiment 1). Similarly, people who read that an assailant was arrested (vs. escaped punishment) exhibited reduced detection of moral words (Experiment 2). These findings suggest that satiating (vs. activating) justice motives can reduce the frequency with which moral (vs. non-moral) words reach the threshold for per-ceptual awareness. Implications for models of moral psychology, particularly the role of percep-tion in morality, are discussed.