Study: Expressing moral outrage may largely just be self-serving

A five-part study found that people who express moral outrage may just be trying to quell their own guilty feelings. A five-part study found that people who express moral outrage may just be trying to quell their own guilty feelings. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Study: Expressing moral outrage may largely just be self-serving 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

People who show anger over moral issues not directly affecting them may actually be emoting in an effort to quell their own guilt, be it consciously or unconsciously, according to a new study.

The conclusion reached by psychology professors Zachary Rothschild, of Maine's Bowdoin College, and Lucas A. Keefer, from the University of Southern Mississippi, came as the result of five separate studies measuring subjects' empathy, anger and guilt.

In each study, participants were given a fictional news article related to one of two topics. Half of the participants reading about one of the topics, climate change, were told that the biggest drivers of human-made climate change were Americans. The other half were told that the Chinese were responsible.

Half of those reading the other topic, labor exploitation, were given another fictional story about the ways in which a Apple Inc. apathetically utilizes sweat shops and the poor working conditions for employees. The other half of the participants were set up to self-reflect on how they contribute to the labor exploitation of others, including children.

After reading these articles, participants were asked to respond to a survey measuring how angry they were with a given third party (like "multinational corporation" Apple, for instance), how much of a desire they had to "punish" someone more directly involved, and how much individual guilt they feel for their own indirect involvement.

As the researchers found, feelings of personal guilt increased a person's level of outrage at a third party.

Among those who received the climate change articles, participants who read that Americans were the biggest drivers of man-made climate change were angrier at third party "multinational oil companies" than those who read that the Chinese were to blame.

The researchers also found that those participants who felt guilt over their own complicity, particularly in labor exploitation, were more likely to express anger and an urge to punish third parties.

See a more in-depth summary of the results here, or the full study here at Motivation and Emotion.