How Culture Mixing Influences Moral Judgment: The Mediating Effect of Disgust

Globalization has contributed to an increase of culture mixing. Prior research has shown that culture mixing may evoke disgust responses, and disgust can lead to harsher moral judgments. Whether and how culture mixing influences moral judgments, however, remains unknown. Therefore, the present research examines the effect of culture mixing on moral judgments and explores the underlying psychological mechanism. Across three studies, our findings demonstrate that exposure to culture mixing leads to harsher moral judgments. Specifically, participants exposed to culture-mixing images demonstrated harsher moral judgments of actions in impurity-relevant moral scenarios (Study 1). In addition, mediation analysis indicates that the effect of culture mixing on moral judgments is mediated by disgust (Study 2), with this mediating effect being observed exclusively in impurity-relevant moral scenarios (Study 3). Implications of the current research for understanding the relationship between culture mixing and morality are discussed, and recommendations for future research avenues are provided.