Morality Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Unpacking the Neurocognitive Basis of the “anomalous-is-bad

Workman, Clifford I., Stacey Humphries, Franziska Hartung, Geoffrey Aguirre, Joe Kable, and Anjan Chatterjee. 2020. “Morality Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Unpacking the Neurocognitive Basis of the “anomalous-is-bad” Stereotype.” PsyArXiv. June 10. doi:10.31234/osf.io/mz75u

Abstract: Are people with flawed faces regarded as having flawed moral characters? An “anomalous-is-bad” stereotype is hypothesized to facilitate biases towards people with facial anomalies (e.g., scars), although whether and how these biases affect behavior and brain functioning remain open questions. We replicated previously reported negative character evaluations made about individuals with facial anomalies, and further identified explicit biases directed against them as a group. People with anomalous faces were subjected to less prosociality from those participants highest in socioeconomic status. In amygdala, selective neural responding to anomalous faces—sensitive to beauty and disgust, but not explained by salience or arousal—correlated with stronger just world beliefs (i.e., people get what they deserve), less dispositional empathic concern, and less prosociality towards people with facial anomalies. Characterizing the “anomalous-is-bad” stereotype across and between levels of organization—i.e., attitudes, behavior, and brain–can reveal underappreciated psychological burdens shouldered by people who look different.