Moral outrage drives the interaction of harm and culpable intent in third-party punishment decisions.

The willingness of humans to engage in third-party punishment (TPP)-a lynchpin of our society-critically depends on the interaction between the wrongdoer's intent and the harm that he caused. But what compels us to punish such individuals when we are unaffected by their harms? Inconsistent with the idealized notion that TPP decisions are based on purely cognitive reasoning, intended harmful acts elicit strong emotional reactions in third-party decision makers. While these emotional responses are now believed to be a driving force in TPP decision making, there is debate about what emotions may be motivating this behavior. Here we show that-unlike anger, contempt, and disgust-moral outrage is evoked by the integration of culpable intent and severe harm, and that the expression of moral outrage alone mediates the relationship between this integrative process and punishment decisions. Sadness had the opposite effect of dampening punishment in response to accidental harms. We take these findings to indicate that moral outrage expresses the interaction of intent and harm in driving third-party punishment behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Distinct affective responses to second- and third-party norm violations.

Social norm violations provoke strong emotional reactions that often culminate in punishment of the wrongdoer. This is true not only when we are the victims of the norm violation (second-party), but also when witnessing a complete stranger being victimized (third-party). What remains unclear, however, is whether second- and third-party punishments are associated with different emotions. To address this question, here we examine how subjects respond affectively to both second- and third-party norm violations in an economic game. Our results indicate that while second- and third-parties respond to norm violations by punishing wrongdoers similarly, they report experiencing distinct emotional states as a result of the violation. Specifically, we observed a cross-over interaction between anger and moral outrage depending on the party's context: while anger was more frequently reported for second- than for third-party violations, moral outrage was more evoked by third-party than second-party violations. Disgust and sadness were the most prevalently reported emotions, but their prevalence were unaffected by party contexts. These results indicate that while responses to second- and third-party violations result in similar punishment, they are associated with the expression of distinct affective palettes. Further, our results provide additional evidence that moral outrage is a critical experience in the evaluation of third-party wrongdoings.

"We Don't Really Do Anything Unless it's Really Bad": Understanding Adolescent Sun Protective Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors in the U.S.

Risk factors for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, include lifetime sun exposure and a history of sunburns. However, a minority of adolescents report consistent engagement in sun protective behaviors. The few sun protection interventions that have targeted adolescents have had little effect on behavior change, which suggests that a better understanding of the issue, especially from the adolescents' perspective, is needed. Although efforts to qualitatively examine adolescent sun protection have been carried out in a handful of countries, no studies to date have focused on U.S. adolescents. We conducted focus groups with 44 6th-8th grade students in Colorado to explore their sun protection knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. Results supported previous findings that adolescents do not engage in regular skin protection but have experienced the negative consequences of sun exposure (e.g., severe sun burns, and blistering). In addition, participants demonstrated limited and sometimes inaccurate knowledge about the long-term risks of sun exposure, as well as effective methods of sun protection. Barriers to engaging in sun protective behaviors included a desire to tan, inconvenience, and physical discomfort. Facilitators included peer and family encouragement, previous experience with sunburns and/or skin cancer, and knowledge of potential consequences. These findings provide valuable insights that can inform future intervention and research related to sun protection among U.S. adolescents.