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Articles

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2018): Brazilian Journal of Empirical Legal Studies

Cases to make your stomach churn: preliminary evidence on the influence of disgust in judicial decisions

DOI
https://doi.org/10.19092/reed.v5i1.193
Submitted
January 17, 2017
Published
2018-04-22

Abstract

The present study investigates the role of the emotion of disgust in judicial decision-making, specifically, in the context of sentencing and decisions concerning the constitutionality of legal norms. Motivated by past literature in experimental psychology on the relationship between disgust and moral judgment, we describe a study to probe the correlation between judgments of hypothetical legal cases and individuals’ sensitivity to disgust in a sample of law students. Special attention was directed toward the so-called purity domain, a moral sphere concerning the maintenance of bodily hygiene and spirituality. Namely, several vignettes presented legal matters intertwined with purity domain values. Next, we present our experimental results and offer some primary interpretations. In closing, we suggest possible implications of this empirical research for the theory and practice of the law.

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