Blood is thicker: Moral spillover effects based on kinship

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-bio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognition 2012-08, Vol.124 (2), p.239-243
Main Authors: Uhlmann, Eric Luis, Zhu, Luke (Lei), Pizarro, David A., Bloom, Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Blood ties
Business administration
Crime
Crime - psychology
domain_shs.gestion.man-re
Empirical research
Ethics
Evidence
Family - psychology
Family Relationship
Family studies
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Grandchildren
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Intuition
Kinship
Male
Middle Aged
Miscellaneous
Moral cognition
Moral Issues
Morality
Morals
Psychological essentialism
Psychological factors
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Social psychology
Spillover effects
Spillovers
Twins
Victims
Victims of Crime
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0010-0277
1873-7838
DOI:10.1016/j.cognition.2012.04.010