The Role of Affect in Determining the Attributional Weight of Immoral Behaviors

Theories about why immoral behaviors carry a large amount of attributional weight tend to emphasize traditional cognitive variables. In contrast, the authors propose that the degree of negative affect that these behaviors induce in observers is largely responsible for their attributional weight. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate an association between the amount of negative affect induced by immoral behaviors and their attributional weight. Studies 3 and 4 provide causal evidence for this idea by either "adding in" or "taking away" the negative affect associated with immoral behaviors to influence their attributional weight. Finally, Study 5 demonstrates that negative affect can be induced through a variety of negative emotions (disgust, sadness, and fear), with similar results. It is argued that it is difficult to account for these data solely on the basis of traditional cognitive variables, and so a theory that includes an emphasis on affect as a causal variable is desirable.