Moral emotions

Moral emotions are a variety of social emotions that are involved in forming and communicating moral judgments and decisions, and in motivating behavioral responses to one's own and others' moral behavior. As defined by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, moral emotions intrinsically "are linked to the interests or welfare either of a society as a whole or at least of persons other than the judge or agent". A person may not always have clear words to articulate the reasoning behind their moral position, yet simultaneously knows it to be true.

Moral emotions are linked to a person's conscience - these are the emotions that make up a conscience and promote learning the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, virtuous and evil. Moral emotions include anger, disgust, contempt, shame, pride, guilt, compassion, gratitude, and elevation and help to provide people with the power and energy to do good and avoid doing bad. Some emotions, such as anger, can be triggered both in response to moralized and non-moralized stimuli, making them simultaneously moral and non-moral emotions, whereas other emotions, such as guilt and shame, seem to inherently have a moral component.

Academic conceptions of moral emotions have changed in recent years. A large part of moral emotions is based on society's interpretation of things. While it is true that many of these emotions are based on the absolute truths of morality, this is only but a part of what moral emotions are about. The full spectrum of what moral emotions entail also includes emotions based on the narratives of what people teach. Much of this leads people to make their own choices in life, through a process formally known as "moral decision-making". This is something that influences people every day, without most people ever even realizing it.