Abstract
Two studies with a college student (n = 287) and an Internet volunteer sample (n = 795) assessed moral judgments for norm violations in close relationships. We developed a 31-item questionnaire that assessed participants’ moral judgments of potential norm violations in relationships, including sexual threats (e.g., watching others masturbate), emotional threats (e.g., keeping romantic memorabilia from past relationships), friendship boundaries (e.g., dating a best friend’s ex-partner), digital infidelity (e.g., sexting), and privacy violations (e.g., looking through a partner’s belongings). In addition, we assessed general moral concerns, attachment style, and sociosexuality. Results showed that concerns about purity/degradation predicted harsher moral judgments for most types of violations, even when controlling for other moral concerns. Attachment-related avoidance predicted greater permissiveness toward emotional threats, digital infidelity, and friendship boundaries but harsher judgments for privacy violations, whereas attachment anxiety predicted the opposite pattern. Sociosexuality predicted greater permissiveness toward sexual behaviors. Female participants judged most behaviors more harshly than did males. We interpret findings within the frameworks of Attachment Theory and Moral Foundations Theory.
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