Bad taste and moral judgment

Research conducted in recent years shows that there is a connection between a feeling of physical disgust, which results from smelling repulsive odors, and moral judgment. For example, in one of the studies it was found that subjects who stayed during an experiment in a smelly room judged more harshly when they answered a variety of moral questions (for example, is a member of Congress allowed to take a bribe?) than the judgment of subjects who were not exposed to the shameful odors. Another study found a connection between a good and pleasant smell and moral behavior. Subjects who stayed in a room that smelled pleasantly of cleanliness expressed a greater willingness to volunteer and donate their money to charity than subjects who stayed in a room with a neutral smell.

Now, in the new study Askin, Kachinik and Prinz examine the question of whether there is a connection not only between smell and moral judgment, but also between taste and moral judgment? Will drinking drinks that taste repulsive lead to a stricter moral judgment, while drinking sweet drinks will lead to a lighter moral judgement?

A question of taste

54 participants participated in the study. Upon coming to the experimental laboratory, the subjects received a glass of drink and were divided into three groups without their knowledge. The first group received a sweet drink, the second group received a drink with an unpleasant taste, while the third group, the control group, received water.

In the second phase of the experiment, the participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire examining moral judgments. The questionnaire included several short sections describing various moral transgressions, for example a lawyer who preyed on a victim in a hospital emergency room; A member of Congress who accepts a bribe; A student steals books from a library; Or a man eating his dog that died earlier. After reading each passage, the participants were asked to rate on a scale the degree of morality of each act described. During the reading of the passages, the subjects were asked to drink a second glass of drink (with the same taste as the first), to make sure that the taste would remain in their mouths during the making of the moral judgments.

Afterwards, the participants were asked to fill out a short demographic questionnaire, and among other things, they were asked how they define themselves politically: conservative or liberal. At the end of the experiment, the subjects were asked to rate the degree of sweetness/disgust (or neutrality) of the drinks they sipped, this to make sure that the operation was indeed successful (that is, that a drink that the researchers defined as having a repulsive taste was indeed experienced as such).

Tell me what you like, and I'll tell you who you are

The analysis of the results of the experiment shows that subjects who drank the drink with the repulsive taste rated the moral transgressions more severely than subjects who drank a neutral drink or a sweet drink.

Does the feeling of disgust (due to drinking a drink with a repulsive taste) affect differently the moral judgments made by people who define themselves as politically conservative or liberal? From the analysis of the findings, it becomes clear that the answer to this is positive: due to drinking a drink with a repulsive taste, people who define themselves as conservatives judged the moral transgressions more harshly than people who define themselves as liberals.

In conclusion, the results of the experiment show that a physical feeling of disgust that occurs before and during a moral judgment intensifies the feeling of moral disgust from the described transference. Moreover, this effect is more pronounced among people with conservative political views. The explanation for this is still not fully clear, but one reason may be that based on the value system they believe in, conservatives may have more sensitive morals (than liberals).

The research findings have some practical implications. For example, before rendering a verdict, should judges avoid eating foods or drinking particularly sweet or bitter drinks? And more broadly, will children's preferences for certain flavors affect their moral development? And in the famous saying of the art critic and thinker John Ruskin:

"Taste is not only a part of morality and its marker, but it is the only morality. The first and last test question for every living being is: 'What do you like?' Tell me what you like, and I'll tell you what you are." (Free translation from: Ruskin, John. Traffic, The Crown of Wild Olive And The Cestus of Aglaia. Ed. Ernst Rhys. London: JM Dent & Sons, 1915.).