Jacob Foster
Pronouns: He/Him/His
UROP Fellowship: Community College Summer Fellowship Program
Grand Rapids Community College
Research Mentor(s): Janet Kim, Ethan Kross
Department of Psychology
Presentation Date: Thursday, July 30, 2020 | Session 3 | Presenter: 7
Authors: Jacob Foster
Abstract
Dealing with what is and is not moral is often difficult, and that difficulty can be exacerbated when it involves someone close to us. This is especially pertinent in today’s world, where we interact on a global scale. Here, we look to identify how the effect of close others alters our moral actions and how to regulate the emotions surrounding the interactions with those close others by reviewing the current research. Researchers found that the effect of close others altered how we view moral situations and often caused us to overlook immoral acts and even protect the close others from punishment (Weidman, Sowden, Berg, & Kross, 2019). We found, through analysis of literature that this can be potentially regulated by both the language we use to describe moral situations and the internal self-talk utilized to process the emotions attached to a moral situation (Freitas, Descioli, Nemirow, Massenkoff, & Pinker, 2017; Orvell, Ayduk, Moser, Gelman, & Kross, 2019). It seems that shifting the language we use to describe a situation from transitive to intransitive verbs can affect the perception of the moral context surrounding a situation. The research surrounding self-talk regarding generic “you” could also grant individuals the ability to regulate their emotions in order to confront a close other on their moral wrongdoings. Furthermore, the language used to describe the individual engaging in immoral behavior may also have an effect on one’s own perception and decision making regarding both the self and the immoral act. (Bryan, Adams, & Monin, 2013). We suggest utilizing a combination of these tactics in order to deal with moral problems, especially those involving close others.
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Research Disciplines
Social Sciences
