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Cited by 9Psychology of Moral and Emotional JudgmentPersonality Traits and PsychologySocial and Intergroup Psychology

How strongly do moral character inferences predict forecasts of the future? Testing the moderating roles of transgressor age, implicit personality theories, and belief in karma

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White, Cindel J. M., Norenzayan, Ara, Schaller, Mark·2020·PLOS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0244144PMC PMC7751861
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Abstract

Three studies (total N = 1486) investigated how inferences about a person’s current moral character guide forecasts about that person’s future moral character and future misfortunes, and tested several plausible moderating variables. Inferences about current moral character related (very strongly) to forecasts about future moral character and also (less strongly) to forecasts about future misfortunes. These relationships were moderated by two variables: Relations between inferences and forecasts were somewhat weaker when perceivers made judgments about children, compared to judgments about adults, and relations between character inferences and forecasts about misfortunes were somewhat stronger among perceivers who more strongly believed in karma. In contrast, results provided no evidence of any moderating effects due to perceivers’ beliefs about the stability of moral dispositions (i.e., implicit personality theories). These results show how dispositional inferences, moral judgments, and beliefs about karmic justice interact to shape forecasts about the future.

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  • Belief in karma may be most likely to encourage victim blaming in situations where a victim's past misdeeds or negative personality traits are highly salient, such as when observers are aware that a victim's current suffering resembles past suffering they have caused to others.

    “Belief in karma may be most likely to encourage victim blaming in situations where a victim's past misdeeds or negative personality traits are highly salient, such as when observers are aware that a victim's current suffering resembles past suffering they have caused to others (e.g.Taylor et al., 2022;White et al., 2020;White, Norenzayan, et al., 2019).”

    From Victim blaming and belief in karma (2024) · cites this paper as White et al., 2020

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Authors
White, C. J. M., Norenzayan, A., & Schaller, M.
Affiliations
University of British Columbia (CA)
Corresponding author
White, Cindel J. M.
ORCID
Venue
PLOS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2020-12-21
Volume
15
Issue
12
Pages
e0244144
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0244144
PMC
PMC7751861
OpenAlex
W3115132610
Cited by
9
References
45
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2
FWCI
0.54
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
  • PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
  • OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (435-2012-0519)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
Keywords
dispositional inference, implicit theories of personality, children versus adults, moral judgment
MeSH terms
Adult, Character, Child, Female, Humans, Judgment, Male, Morals, Personality, Social Perception

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