1. Emotional reactions to scandals: When does moral character make a difference?
- Author
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Jiang, Jiang, Kou, Yu, Wang, Fang, Wu, Ying, Li, Yan-Mei, Li, Yuan, Yang, Yiyin, Cao, Hui, Wu, Qiuping, Jing, Shi-Jie, Jiang, Bi-Jing, Shen, La-Mei, Li, Ai-Juan, Li, Zhongquan, Gao, Wenjun, Chiu, Chi-Yue, Hong, Ying-Yi, Hsu, Shih-Chi, Zhang, Lin, and Yang, Bao-Yan
- Subjects
SOCIAL skills ,ANALYSIS of variance ,CASE method (Teaching) ,CELEBRITIES ,CHARACTER ,COMMITMENT (Psychology) ,STATISTICAL correlation ,CRITICISM ,EMOTIONS ,ETHICS ,EXPERIMENTAL design ,SYMBOLISM (Psychology) ,PUBLIC opinion ,RESEARCH funding ,CULTURAL values ,UNDERGRADUATES - Abstract
A scandal can evoke public outrage when it is widely publicized and involves an individual who is perceived to have a high level of cultural representativeness. Two experiments showed that when the scandalous target's moral character was highlighted, emotional responses towards the target were least negative when the scandal was widely circulated and when the target was seen as a representative of his culture. These results suggest that when a cultural symbol is implicated in a widely-circulated scandal, the negative emotions directed towards the scandalous individual can be alleviated when the public remains confident in his or her commitment to morality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2011
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