The “moral neutrality pattern” of individuals with indirect multicultural experiences in immoral and moral judgments: behavioral and neural evidence

Abstract

Abstract Based on the moral relativism theory, the current study proposes that individuals with indirect multicultural experiences may exhibit a “moral neutrality pattern” in complete moral judgments, that is, they may perceive others’ immoral actions as less immoral and moral actions as less moral. In Study 1, using publicly available CGSS data and our large-scale survey, we found positive correlations between multicultural experiences and a tendency to express less blame for immoral behavior, and less praise for moral behavior. In Study 2, the behavioral results indicated that individuals with high multicultural experiences (HM) expressed less praise than those with low multicultural experiences (LM) for “slightly moral condition”. The ERP time-domain results suggested that the HM group tended to exhibit lower LPP differential wave amplitudes than the LM group across different moral conditions (extremely immoral, slightly immoral, slightly moral, and extremely moral minus neutral moral conditions, respectively). Notably, the difference in LPP differential wave amplitude between the HM and LM groups was more pronounced for “slightly moral condition”, starting from 500-700ms and continuing to 900-1100ms. Overall, this study provides preliminary behavioral and neural evidence for the moral neutrality pattern of individuals with multicultural experiences. This echoes the global concerns for ethics in today’s globalization and enriches our understanding of the how individuals with indirect multicultural experiences form complete moral judgments.

Keywords

• Indirect multicultural experiences
• Immoral behavior
• Moral virtue behavior
• Moral neutrality pattern
• ERPs