Is Moral Disgust Socially Learned?

The present study examined mother-child talk about disgust. A total of 68 mothers and their 4-, (M-age = 55.72 months, SD = 4.13), 6- (M-age = 77.70 months, SD = 5.45), and 8- (M-age = 100.90 months, SD = 4.61) year-old children discussed four tasks relating to moral and pathogen disgust. Tasks comprised labeling facial expressions of emotions, generating items that would make participants disgusted or angry, identifying moral and pathogen transgressions as either causing anger or disgust, and finally rating the degree to which moral and pathogen transgressions were disgusting and justifying their responses. Mother-child dyads recognized the facial expression of happiness more accurately than that of disgust, but disgust was recognized equally well as expressions of sadness and anger across all age groups. Dyads associated moral transgressions with anger, whereas they associated pathogen transgressions with disgust. Finally, mothers and children and mothers individually rated pathogen transgressions as more disgusting than moral transgressions. Taken together, findings show that moral disgust is understood at a later age and is only used metaphorically, if at all, in children as old as 8 years old.

Automated summary

This study explored the discussions about disgust between mothers and children. The findings revealed that mother-child dyads were less accurate in recognizing expressions of disgust compared to expressions of happiness. Dyads associated moral transgressions with anger and pathogen transgressions with disgust. Additionally, both mothers and children rated pathogen transgressions as more disgusting than moral transgressions.