Fair is foul and foul is fair; moral disgust, emotion regulation and childhood traumaFair is foul and foul is fair; moral disgust, emotion regulation and childhood trauma

Abstract

Experiencing disgust leads to harsher judgements of morality in others and oneself (cf. Schnall et al., 2008), which could lead to psychological distress and outgroup discrimination. Emotion regulation techniques could help reduce the harshness of these judgements, yet some factors could influence the effectiveness of these techniques e.g. presence of childhood trauma. The current study hypothesised a moderated mediation model that explored; a) the effect of cognitive reappraisal on the experience of disgust, b) cognitive reappraisal as a mediator to reduce the experience of disgust and thus reduce the harshness of moral judgements, c) whether childhood trauma could moderate this relationship. Using a 2x3 between-participants design, an experiment was performed via online survey. Participants (n = 617; 18-81 years) received three emotion regulation instructions whilst watching either a disgust-eliciting video clip or a neutral video clip. After viewing the clip, several questionnaires on morality, trauma and personality were administered. The results showed that expressive suppression rather than cognitive reappraisal reduced the experience of disgust. Regression analyses revealed that reappraisal did not mediate the relationship of disgust on moral judgements. Childhood trauma significantly predicted a reduced ability to reappraise but not suppress compared to those who did not report childhood trauma. No significant effect was found for trauma on the relationship between disgust and moral judgement. Over-reliance on suppression rather than reappraisal is a feature common in psychopathology, but suppression in response to acute disgust is likely an adaptive emotion regulation strategy.