The Effect of Emotional Experiences on the Personal / Impersonal Moral Judgment based on the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) and Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)

Authors
Sohrab, Amiri
Jafar, Hassani
Mohammed Hossein, Abdolahi
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to test the convergence hypothesis with the emotions, the role of positive and the negative emotional experiences in moral judgment based on the moderating role of Behavioral Activation System (BAS) and Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS). First, 600 persons from Kharazmi University were tested using the Carver and White personality questionnaire and after analyzing the data, 60 of them were classified into four groups based on  the final scores of the distribution.  Then, each personality group (individually) was induced by the positive and negative emotional experiences. After the emotion induction step, they were presented with two personal and impersonal moral stories to respond. The gathered data were analyzed using the mixed variance analysis. Results showed that there was a significant difference between the four groups of subjects based on the emotional aspects in personal and impersonal moral judgment. Furthermore, emotion induction could  influence the people’s function  in personal and impersonal moral judgment based on the personality dimensions, and positive and negative emotional stimuli could lead to the non- utilitarianism judgment in personal moral stories.
Keywords
Induction of emotional experiences
personal moral judgment
Impersonal moral judgment
Behavioral Activation System
Behavioral Inhibition System