Varga, Somogy and Latham, Andrew and Machery, Edouard (2025) "They Had It Coming!" The Effect of Moral Character on Somatic and Mental Health Judgments. [Preprint]

Text 13 VARGA, LATHAM, MACHERY.svrew..docx Download (4MB)

Abstract

Prior research has unveiled a pathologization effect where individuals perceived as having bad moral character are more likely to have their conditions labeled as diseases and are less often considered healthy compared to those viewed as having a good moral character. Moreover, these individuals are perceived as less unlucky in their affliction and more deserving of it. This study explores the broader impacts of moral character on such judgments, hypothesizing that these effects reach deeper and extend to both negative and positive moral evaluations. The pathologization effect also raises concerns about potential discrimination and the overmedicalization of normal health variations, so we also examine whether providing more detailed descriptions of conditions mitigates the influence of judgments of moral character. The methodology and broader implications of our findings are discussed, emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of how moral judgments might influence patient care.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Varga, Somogy varga@cas.au.dk Latham, Andrew andrew.latham@cas.au.dk Machery, Edouard machery@pitt.edu 0000-0002-9944-6138
Keywords:	health, disease, morality
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Medicine > Health and Disease Specific Sciences > Psychology > Social Psychology
Depositing User:	Prof. Edouard Machery
Date Deposited:	27 Jan 2025 14:20
Last Modified:	27 Jan 2025 14:20
Item ID:	24627
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Medicine > Health and Disease Specific Sciences > Psychology > Social Psychology
Date:	27 January 2025
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24627

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