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The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ, T +44 (0)1227 764000
Dr Roger Giner-SorollaReader in Social Psychology |
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Research interests
My research interests include emotions and moral judgment; emotion and self-control; and intergroup emotions. Particularly important in my work are the emotion pairs anger versus disgust, and shame versus guilt, as well as the more general distinction between self-conscious emotions (e.g. guilt) and non-self-conscious emotion (e.g. anxiety). I also am interested in the automaticity of emotional influences on judgment, both in general, and in comparing the automaticity of different emotion types. Some applications of my recent work have been to: judgments of moral deviance; legal decision making; eating and dieting; and intergroup apologies.
Key publications
Giner-Sorolla, R. (in press). Judging passions: Moral emotions in persons and groups. Psychology Press.
Russell, P. S., & Giner-Sorolla, R. (2011). Social justifications for moral emotions: When reasons for disgust are less elaborated than for anger. Emotion, 11, 637-646.
Giner-Sorolla, R., & Espinosa, P. (2011). Social cueing of guilt by anger and shame by disgust. Psychological Science, 22, 49-53.
Giner-Sorolla, R., Castano, E., Espinosa, P., & Brown, R. J. (2008). Shame expressions reduce the recipient's insult from outgroup reparations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 519-526.
Also view these in the Kent Academic Repository
Articles
Giner-Sorolla, R.S. and Espinosa, P. (2011)
Social cuing of guilt by anger and shame by disgust.
Psychological Science, 22 (1). pp. 49-53. ISSN 0956-7976.
Abstract
Scholars have proposed a conceptual structure for the self-critical moral emotions of guilt and shame and the other-critical emotions of anger and disgust. In this model, guilt is linked with anger and shame with disgust. This relationship may express itself in asymmetrical social cuing between emotions: In a social context, other people's angry facial expressions may communicate that the target should feel guilty, and other people's disgusted facial expressions may communicate that the target should feel ashamed. We conducted two experiments, one in the United Kingdom and the other in Spain, in which participants were shown pictures of faces expressing either anger or disgust. Participants rated the degree to which the faces would make them feel guilt or shame in a casual social encounter, and they answered questions about inferences concerning the emotional expressions. In both studies, angry expressions led to greater guilt and less shame than did disgusted expressions. This relationship was explained better by the type of norm violation inferred than by whether the violation was thought to involve the target's action or personality versus the target's character.
Giner-Sorolla, R.S. and Kamau, C. and Castano, E. (2010)
Guilt and Shame Through Recipients Eyes: The Moderating Effect of Blame.
Social Psychology, 41 (2). pp. 88-92. ISSN 1864-9335.
Abstract
Previous research has found that people collectively wronged by an outgroup take insult when its representative offers compensation, and that an expression of shame but not guilt can lower such insult. This experiment showed a moderating factor: the strength of outgroup blame. Black community members were participants, presented with an apology for discriminatory searches of Black people by the police. The effects, that shame but not guilt reduces insult from compensation, were replicated only among those who strongly blamed outgroup entities. As before, these effects emerged only on insult rather than satisfaction measures, and only when compensation was offered. When blamed by the public, an official body should therefore consider how much its apology conveys shame rather than guilt.
Guerra, V.M. and Giner-Sorolla, R. (2010)
Community, Autonomy, and Divinity Scale (CADS): Development of a theory-based moral codes scale.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41 (1). pp. 35-50. ISSN 0022-0221.
Abstract
Moral rules are an important aspect of culture.Yet to date, no published scale exists to measure the endorsement of different moral codes. We report the development of the Community, Autonomy, and Divinity Scale (CADS), based on Shweders moral codes, as a means to measure cross-cultural, subcultural, and individual differences in the contents of morality. Scale development, confirmatory factor analysis, and convergent and discriminant validity are reported in Studies 1 and 2, as well as analysis for structural invariance and meaningful differences across British and Brazilian cultural contexts. The authors find the CADS to be a reliable and valid scale, thereby enabling the cross-cultural quantitative study of similarities and differences in endorsement of moral codes.
Giner-Sorolla, R.S. and Castano, E. and Espinosa, P. et al. (2008)
Shame expressions reduce the recipient's insult from outgroup reparations.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44 (3). pp. 519-526. ISSN 0022-1031.
Abstract
Despite a growing literature on the consequences of group-based guilt and shame, little work has examined how expressions of self-conscious emotions are received by targets of collective wrongdoing. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that when an outgroup member offers apologies accompanied by reparations, the recipients are likely to take insult unless the outgroup member expresses the self-abasing emotion of shame rather than guilt. Experiment I showed that when reparations were offered, participants were less insulted by shame than guilt expressed by an outgroup member, rather than an ingroup member. Experiment 2 improved Experiment I by manipulating the culprit's action (reparation vs. withdrawal), and this experiment replicated Experiment 1's interaction on a measure of insult, but only when reparations were offered. These interactions on insult were not explained by the emotion's perceived intensity or surprisingness. Our results indicate a possible functional aspect of expressions of shame in an intergroup context. Self-abasement, as opposed to a mere admission of culpability and regret, can reduce the insult taken from an outgroup's reparations.
Horvath, M.A.H. and Giner-Sorolla, R.S. (2007)
Below the age of consent: Double standards, context effects, and mediating judgments in preconceptions of adolescent-adult sexual relationships.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37 (2). pp. 2980-3009. ISSN 0021-9029.
Abstract
Sexual age-of-consent violations involving adultadolescent relationships (AARs) are sometimes viewed with ambivalence by the media and are infrequently prosecuted. Two studies conducted in Britain (where the age of consent is 16) examined influences on disapproval of minimally presented AARs between a 14-year-old and a 30-year-old. In Study 1, AARs involving an older man were seen as more harmful and objectionable than those involving an older woman. A second study on a jury-eligible adult population replicated Study 1's gender effects, and also found a difference between legal knowledge and personal belief that the older person had committed a crime. Gender effects in both studies were mediated by perceived harm and emotions.
Giner-Sorolla, R.S. and Mackie, D.M. and Smith, E.R. (2007)
Special issue on intergroup emotions: Introduction.
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 10 (1). pp. 5-8. ISSN 1368-4302.
Gutierrez, R. and Giner-Sorolla, R.S. (2007)
Anger, disgust, and presumption of harm as reactions to taboo-breaking behaviors.
Emotion, 7 (4). pp. 853-868. ISSN 1528-3542.
Abstract
Three experiments investigated the relationship between the presumption of harm in harmfree violations of creatural norms (taboos) and the moral emotions of anger and disgust. In Experiment 1, participants made a presumption of harm to others from taboo violations, even in conditions described as harmless and not involving other people; this presumption was predicted by anger and not disgust. Experiment 2 manipulated taboo violation and included a cognitive load task to clarify the post hoc nature of presumption of harm. Experiment 3 was similar but more accurately measured presumed harm. In Experiments 2 and 3, only without load was symbolic harm presumed, indicating its post hoc function to justify moral anger, which was not affected by load. In general, manipulations of harmfulness to others predicted moral anger better than moral disgust, whereas manipulations of taboo predicted disgust better. The presumption of harm was found on measures of symbolic rather than actual harm when a choice existed. These studies clarify understanding of the relationship between emotions and their justification when people consider victimless, offensive acts
Castano, E. and Giner-Sorolla, R. (2006)
Not quite human: Infra-humanization in response to collective responsibility for intergroup killing.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90 (5). pp. 804-818. ISSN 0022-3514.
Abstract
The present research examines how awareness of violence perpetrated against an out-group by one's in-group can intensify the infrahumanization of the out-group, as measured by a reduced tendency to accord uniquely human emotions to out-groups. Across 3 experiments that used different in-groups (humans, British, White Americans) and out-groups (aliens, Australian Aborigines, and Native Americans), when participants were made aware of the in-group's mass killing of the out-group, they infrahumanized the victims more. The perception of collective responsibility, not just the knowledge that the out-group members had died in great numbers, was shown to be necessary for this effect. Infrahumanization also occurred concurrently with increased collective guilt but was unrelated to it. It is proposed that infrahumanization may be a strategy for people to reestablish psychological equanimity when confronted with a self-threatening situation and that such a strategy may occur concomitantly with other strategies, such as providing reparations to the out-group.
Giner-Sorolla, R.S. (2004)
Is affective material in attitudes more accessible than cognitive material? The moderating role of attitude basis.
European Journal of Social Psychology, 34 (6). pp. 761-780. ISSN 0046-2772.
Abstract
Verplanken, Hofstee, and Janssen (1998) found that the affective component of attitude is accessed more readily than the cognitive. Three studies further examined these findings in the light of two competing explanations: affective primacy, which states that emotional material is inherently more accessible than cognitive; and evaluative primacy, which states that emotional material is more accessible only if it is inherently more evaluative or supports the overall evaluative basis of attitude. Study 1 measured the accessibility of cognitive and affective traits while equalizing the evaluative nature of these traits. This study found a speed advantage for affective traits, but the attitude objects in this study turned out to be mainly affectively based. Studies 2 and 3, using a mixture of affectively and cognitively based objects, found that the speed advantage for affective terms was onlyfound among affectively based objects; Study 3 alsofound a speed advantagefor cognitive terms among cognitively based objects, and additionally found that individual differences in attitude basis explained part of this interaction. Collectively, these studies show that while affective material may be accessed more quickly than cognitive, this is most true when overall evaluation is based on affect rather than cognition. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.
Giner-Sorolla, R. and Chaiken, S. and Lutz, S. (2002)
Validity Beliefs and General Ideology can Influence Legal Case Judgments Differently.
Law and Human Behavior, 26 (5). pp. 507-526. ISSN 0147-7307.
Abstract
Jurors sometimes enter a case both with prior beliefs about its likely validity and with more general ideologies that are relevant to the case. Although prior validity beliefs may serve as heuristics, directly biasing decisions when cognitive capacity is low, we hypothesized that ideology may bias systematic thought even when cognitive capacity is high. This experiment studied simulated individual juror decisions in a sex-discrimination case, measuring validity beliefs about such cases as well as feminist ideology, and exposing participants to 1 of 3 case versions under time pressure or no time pressure. Validity beliefs had a direct, heuristic impact on judgment only under time pressure. However, feminist ideology had a mediated influence on judgment via valenced thoughts about the evidence, even under no time pressure. Also, people with initially proplaintiff beliefs judged a woman's sex-discrimination suit more negatively than did prodefendants if the evidence was weak. The results suggest that when jurors can fully process information, validity expectancies might backfire if not supported by case evidence, but ideology can have a more pervasive influence on the decision-making process.
Giner-Sorolla, R. (2001)
Guilty pleasures and grim necessities: Affective attitudes in dilemmas of self-control.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,, 80 (2). pp. 206-221. ISSN 0022-3514.
Abstract
Do self-control situations pit controlled reason against impulsive emotion, or do some emotions support the controlled choice? A pilot study of self-control attitudes found ambivalence between hedonic affect associated with short-term perspectives and self-conscious affect associated with the long term. In Study 1, negative self-conscious affect accompanied higher self-control among delayed-cost dilemmas ("guilty pleasures") but not delayed-benefit dilemmas ("grim necessities"). Study 2 showed that hedonic affect was more accessible than was self-conscious affect, but this difference was less among high self-control dilemmas. In Study 3. unobtrusively primed self-conscious emotion words caused dieters to eat less if the emotions were negative, more if positive. Hedonic positive and negative emotion words had the opposite effect. Self-conscious emotional associations, then, can support self-control if brought to mind before the chance to act.
Giner-Sorolla, R. (2001)
Affective attitudes are not always faster: The moderating role of extremity.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27 (6). pp. 666-677. ISSN 0146-1672.
Abstract
Some models of attitude have speculated that affectively based attitudes are more accessible than cognitively based attitudes. However there are also reasons to expect that affectively based attitudes may not be generally faster and that any accessibility advantage would hold only at high levels of attitude extremity. Two studies of attitudes with affective and cognitive structural bases examined this possibility. In both studies, no overall effect of attitude bask on extremity emerged, but attitude extremity did moderate the effects of basis. Affectively based attitudes were expressed faster than cognitively based ones only when attitudes were more extreme, and they tended to be expressed more slowly when attitudes were less extreme. These results may have arisen because only strong affect is seen as more diagnostic of true attitude, producing faster responses.
Conference Items
Giner-Sorolla, R.S. (2007)
The recipients view of intergroup compunction.
(unpublished)
Giner-Sorolla, R.S. (2007)
Recent advances in applied persuasion.
In: Social Psychology Section Annual Conference, British Psychological Society, September 2007, Canterbury. (unpublished)
Giner-Sorolla, R.S. (2007)
Experimental design.
In: Social Psychology Section Annual Conference, British Psychological Society, 2007, Canterbury. (unpublished)
Giner-Sorolla, R.S. and Espinosa, P. and Gutierrez, R. (2007)
Effects of subliminal priming of self-conscious emotions on prejudice control.
In: EAESP Small Group Meeting on Group Processes and Self-Regulation,, August 2007, Leiden, Netherlands. (unpublished)
Giner-Sorolla, R.S. (2005)
The recipients view of intergroup compunction.
(unpublished)
Giner-Sorolla, R.S. and Sheeran, P. (2004)
When does compunction help or hinder self-control? The role of guilt and shame proneness.
In: Society for Personality and Social Psychology meeting, January 2004, Austin, Texas. (unpublished)
Current Research Students
Neil McClatchie: Guilt, self-control, and the brain
Pascale Russell: Disgust, anger, and emotional justification
Erica Zaiser: Reception of intergroup apologies by apologizing group members
Past Research Students
Dr Valeschka Guerra: Individual and cultural differences in bases for moral judgment (Degree awarded July 2009)
Dr Roberto Gutierrez: Anger and disgust in moral judgment (Degree awarded July 2007)
October 2009 |
R Giner-Sorolla, M Van Vugt and S Derbyshire |
£62,000 |
June 2009 |
R Giner-Sorolla and M Weick |
£32,240 |
May 2009 |
R Giner-Sorolla and M Van Vugt |
£167,855
|
June 2006 |
R Giner-Sorolla |
|
June 2005 |
R Giner-Sorolla |
|
2005-2006 |
R Giner-Sorolla |
£45,000 |
2005-2007 |
R Giner-Sorolla |
£7,500 |
2005-2006 |
R Giner-Sorolla |
£95,000 |
2003-2004 |
R Giner-Sorolla and R J Brown |
£40,000 |
2003-2004 |
R Giner-Sorolla and R J Brown |
£40,000 |
2003-2004 |
R Giner-Sorolla and R J Brown |
10,000 Euros |
Membership of Professional Organizations
American Psychological Society
Society for Personality and Social Psychology
Society for Experimental Social Psychology
European Association for Social Psychology
International Society for Research on Emotions
Editing
Associate editor: Personality and Social Psychology Compass (2009-)
Associate editor: Group Processes and Intergroup Relations (2010-)
Co-editor (with Eliot Smith & Diane Mackie) of special issue on intergroup emotions, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, January 2007.
Editorial board member: Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Invited Articles
“Hostile media bias,” “Guilty pleasures,” and “Grim Necessities,” Encyclopedia of Social Psychology, R. J. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs, eds. (in press)
“Attitudes Towards Prostitution,” Historical Encyclopedia of Prostitution, M. H. Ditmore, ed. (2006).
Invited Teaching
Co-teacher of workshops at the International Graduate College summer schools, Menaggio, Italy, April 2006, and Schloss Hasenwinkel, Germany, April 2009.
Workshops on experimental design and affective attitude measurement, ESRC Research Methods Festival, Oxford University, July 2008.
Workshop on experimental design, British Psychology Society Social Section Conference, Canterbury, Kent, September 2007.
Seminar on intergroup emotions, University of Sussex, Spring 2007.
Selected Symposia and Meetings Organized
September, 2010: Co-organizer (with Mario Weick) of ESRC consulting seminar (SCONET), "Social Cognition and Neuroscience," University of Kent.
October, 2009: Co-organizer (with Mario Weick) of IGC/ESRC consulting seminar (SCONET), "Groups and Social Cognition," University of Kent.
June, 2006: Organizer of symposium, “Beyond Guilty Feelings: Consequences of Group-Based Guilt and its Alternatives” at the Society for the Psychological Study of Social issues meeting, Long Beach, California.
October, 2005: Co-organizer of symposium, “New Directions in Intergroup Emotions” (with Diane Mackie and Eliot Smith) at the Society for Experimental Social Psychology meeting, San Diego, California
July, 2005: Chair of symposium, Affect in attitudes: Its role in social value judgment and information processing at the general meeting of the European Association for Experimental Social Psychology, Würzburg, Germany.
September, 2004: Scientific organizer (with Rupert Brown) of ESF exploratory workshop, "New directions in the social psychology of intergroup emotions," Canterbury, UK.
February, 2003: Chair of symposium, Quick to judge, slower to change? Affect in judgments of stigmatized people and acts, at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology meeting, Universal City, CA.
Other Academic Activities
Reviewer pool member: European Science Foundation; ESRC Peer review College; US National Science Foundation.
External examiner, MSc in Research Methods, University of Liverpool, 2007-2009.
Director of Graduate Studies, School of Psychology, University of Kent, 2008-present.
School of Psychology
Keynes College
University of Kent
Canterbury, Kent
CT2 7NP
United Kingdom
Tel. +44 (0)1227 823085
Fax. +44 (0)1227 827030
Email: Roger Giner-Sorolla
Office: Keynes A2.01
Office Hours: Tuesday 2-3pm, Thursday 1-2pm