Alcohol and morality: one alcoholic drink is enough to make people declare to harm others and behave impurely.
Alcohol
Moral foundations
Moral judgment
Placebo
Sacredness
Journal
Psychopharmacology
ISSN: 1432-2072
Titre abrégé: Psychopharmacology (Berl)
Pays: Germany
ID NLM: 7608025
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Oct 2023
Oct 2023
Historique:
received:
15
08
2022
accepted:
30
07
2023
medline:
19
9
2023
pubmed:
9
8
2023
entrez:
9
8
2023
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
We aimed to understand if alcohol intoxication affects the willingness to violate moral foundations (care, fairness, authority, loyalty, and purity). We conducted a laboratory study (N = 387) with three randomized groups: alcohol intoxication, placebo, and control, measuring the sacralization of moral foundations via the Moral Foundations Sacredness Scale. The study showed intoxicated participants sacralized moral foundations of care and purity more often than participants from control and placebo groups. It means participants declared more willing to physically harm other people and animals and behave impurely, e.g., doing deviant sexual behaviors or selling their souls. No differences related to fairness, authority, and loyalty were found. Our study helps to understand the decision processes underlying immoral behaviors, including crimes. We showed that even one drink makes people change their judgments about what is right and wrong (in the cases of harmful and impure behaviors), and because this kind of judgment precedes immoral behaviors, our results may help explain why some people under the influence of alcohol break the rules by doing things which they would never do when sober.
Identifiants
pubmed: 37555928
doi: 10.1007/s00213-023-06438-z
pii: 10.1007/s00213-023-06438-z
pmc: PMC10506948
doi:
Types de publication
Randomized Controlled Trial
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
2163-2172Subventions
Organisme : Metropolitan Science Support Fund
ID : R.W./12/2021
Informations de copyright
© 2023. The Author(s).
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