ABSTRACT
Moral judgments are the most significant social inferences people make about others and themselves. Many factors contribute to the diversity, but among them are differences in each person’s ethics position: Their personal moral philosophy regarding actions that cause others harm and their stance with regard to the universality of moral standards. Many of the inferences about other people pertain to their basic traits, skills, competencies, moods, interests, and values. Moral judgments are not tepid, wishywashy appraisals, but strongly valenced pronouncements of worth and approval or condemnation and disapproval. The word judgment is usually applied to people’s appraisals of morality, suggesting that the construals are different in some way from other types of interpersonal inferences and appraisals. Many psychologists, too, assume moral judgments are guided by the same basic psychological processes that determine decision making in general. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
