Blood is thicker: Moral spillover effects based on kinship

Eric Luis Uhlmann (), Luke Lei Zhu, David A. Pizarro and Paul Bloom
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Eric Luis Uhlmann: GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Luke Lei Zhu: UBC - University of British Columbia [Canada]
David A. Pizarro: Department of Psychology - Cornell University [New York]
Paul Bloom: Yale University [New Haven]

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Abstract: Three empirical studies document the intuitive spillover of moral taint from a person who engages in immoral acts to another individual who is related by ties of blood kinship. In Study 1, participants were more likely to recommend that the biological grandchild of a wrongdoer, compared to a non-biological grandchild, help the descendants of his grandfather's victims. In Study 2, participants were more willing to hold two long-lost identical twins in custody for a crime committed by one twin than to hold two perfect look-alikes for a crime committed by one look-alike. Study 3 provides direct evidence that spillover effects based on blood kinship are manifested in an intuitive sense of moral taint.

Keywords: Moral cognition; Spillover effects; Kinship; Blood ties; Psychological essentialism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-08
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Cognition, 2012, 124 (2), pp.239-243. ⟨10.1016/j.cognition.2012.04.010⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00713552

DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.04.010

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