Pride, shame, and guilt color our highest and lowest personal moments. Recent evidence suggests that these self-conscious emotions are neurocognitive adaptations crafted by natural selection. Specifically, self-conscious emotions solve adaptive problems of social valuation by promoting the achievement of valued actions and characteristics to increase others’ valuations of the individual (pride); limiting information-triggered devaluation (shame); […]

Brady and Crockett [1] ‘agree that moral outrage can have positive social consequences [2], but suggest that online outrage has more downsides than upsides’. At a high level, we take their commentary to ask: is online outrage on balance beneficial or harmful (i.e., for collective action)? And answer: harmful. Read Full Article (External Site) Dr. […]

In today’s polarized political climate, it is important to consider how moral emotions like outrage can be harnessed for good. Spring et al. [1] thoughtfully examine the ‘upsides’ of moral outrage, suggesting it can create positive social consequences by catalyzing collective action. To illustrate this, they argue that sharing outrage on social media creates common […]