Everyday moral transgressions (EMTs): Investigating the morality of everyday behaviors

The vignette is a mainstay of contemporary psychological research on morality. However, many commonly used moral vignettes depict situations that people are unlikely to encounter in their daily lives. In this exploratory investigation, we sought to develop a series of moral vignettes that more closely resemble everyday life. In Study 1, our aim was to assemble an inventory of common situations that arouse people's moral concerns. Participants read 70 vignettes and indicated whether the behaviors depicted therein were morally relevant. In Study 2, we compared the most immoral vignettes from Study 1 to a series of vignettes from the moral psychology literature. As expected, participants rated the behaviors depicted in our vignettes as being less morally wrong but more typical than those depicted in existing stimuli. These findings indicate that many everyday events arouse people's moral concerns and suggest that stimuli like our everyday moral transgressions may be of great utility to researchers studying the psychology of morality.

Automated summary

This study aimed to develop a series of moral vignettes that are more representative of everyday life. In Study 1, participants read 70 vignettes and determined the moral relevance of the depicted behaviors. In Study 2, the most immoral vignettes from Study 1 were compared to vignettes from the moral psychology literature. The findings suggest that everyday events arouse people's moral concerns and highlight the potential utility of stimuli like everyday moral transgressions in the study of moral psychology.