The Effects of Mirth and Elevation on Judgements of Cyber-based Moral Violations

In this online experiment, I tested the effects of mirth (i.e., the resulting emotion from experiencing humour) and elevation (i.e., the resulting emotion from experiencing moral beauty) on judgements of cyber-based moral violations using a convenience sample of 138 people (28 men and 110 women). Based on the findings of prior research, I hypothesized that participants in the mirth condition would be more accepting of cyberbased moral violations than those in the elevation or neutral (control) conditions, and participants in the elevation condition would be less accepting than those in the neutral and mirth conditions. An initial MANOVA showed no effect of condition on participants' acceptability ratings; however, when including gender as a second independent variable, results showed that mirth decreased acceptance whereas elevation increased acceptance. In regards to these findings, I debunk previous explanations underlying the divergent effects of mirth and elevation and discuss an alternative. Furthermore, I suggest that further exploration is required to better understand the emotion-specific effects of mirth and elevation in the context of cyber-based moral violations