The same moral violation can give rise to different emotional and behavioral responses in different individuals. The mechanisms that give rise to such differences – and the functions that those mechanisms serve – are unclear. Previous work suggests that people experience greater anger toward violations that target themselves or kin than those that target others, whereas they experience greater disgust toward violations that target others than those that target themselves or kin. In turn, anger has a stronger relation with direct aggression than indirect aggression, and disgust a stronger relation with indirect aggression than direct aggression. The current study tests whether these patterns depend on the value observers place on the targets of moral violations, even within folk relationship categories. In two studies, we asked participants to think of a person they know and to imagine that person being targeted by a moral violation described in a vignette. We assessed the value that participants placed on the target using a financial tradeoff task, their emotional reaction to the violation, and their desires to aggress toward the perpetrator. Results revealed that: (1) interpersonal value relates more strongly to anger than disgust toward the moral violation; (2) interpersonal value relates more strongly to direct than indirect aggression motives; and (3) anger relates to both direct and indirect aggression motives, whereas disgust relates only to indirect aggression motives. These results suggest that the value one places on the victims of moral violations influences emotional and behavioral reactions to those violations.

同样的道德违规行为可能会在不同的个体中引起不同的情绪和行为反应。造成这种差异的机制以及这些机制所发挥的作用尚不清楚。先前的研究表明，人们对针对自己或亲属的侵犯行为比针对他人的侵犯行为感到更大的愤怒，而他们对针对他人的侵犯行为比针对自己或亲属的侵犯行为感到更大的厌恶。反过来，愤怒与直接攻击的关系比间接攻击的关系更强，厌恶与间接攻击的关系比直接攻击的关系更强。当前的研究测试了这些模式是否取决于观察者对道德违规目标的评价，即使是在民间关系类别中。在两项研究中，我们要求参与者想象他们认识的一个人，并想象该人成为小插图中描述的道德违规行为的目标。我们使用财务权衡任务评估了参与者对目标的重视、他们对违规行为的情绪反应以及他们攻击肇事者的愿望。结果显示：（1）人际价值与愤怒的相关性比对道德违规行为的厌恶的相关性更强；(2) 人际价值与直接攻击动机的相关性比间接攻击动机的相关性更强；(3)愤怒与直接和间接攻击动机有关，而厌恶仅与间接攻击动机有关。这些结果表明，人们对道德违规行为受害者的重视会影响对这些违规行为的情绪和行为反应。