Beyond Aesthetic Judgment: Beauty Increases Moral Standing Through Perceptions of Purity

Beyond Aesthetic Judgment: Beauty Increases Moral Standing Through Perceptions of Purity. Christoph Klebl, Yin Luo, Brock Bastian. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, June 24, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211023648

Abstract: Researchers have tended to focus on mind perception as integral to judgments of moral standing, yet a smaller body of evidence suggests that beauty may also be an important factor (for some people and animals). Across six studies (N = 1,662), we investigated whether beauty increases moral standing attributions to a wide range of targets, including non-sentient entities, and explored the psychological mechanism through which beauty assigns moral standing to targets. We found that people attribute greater moral standing to beautiful (vs. ugly) animals (Study 1 and Study 5a, preregistered) and humans (Study 2). This effect also extended to non-sentient targets, that is, people perceive beautiful (vs. ugly) landscapes (Study 3) and buildings (Study 4 and Study 5b, preregistered) as possessing greater moral standing. Across all studies, perceptions of purity mediated the effect of beauty on moral standing, suggesting that beauty increases the moral standing individuals place on targets through evoking moral intuitions of purity.

Keywords: beauty, aesthetic judgment, moral standing, purity

Check also Beauty of the Beast: Beauty as an important dimension in the moral standing of animals. Christoph Klebl et al. Journal of Environmental Psychology, May 7 2021, 101624. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2021/05/beauty-perceptions-causally-influenced.html