Blue or Red? Exploring the Effect of Color on Cognitive Task Performances

REPORTS

immorality evokes this emotion in addition to

others such as anger: Whereas anger is associated

with approach motivation (29), disgust may motivate vigorous withdrawal (8). Thus, unfair offers

may be received like a plate of spoiled food. This

turning away or rejection of unfair actions may

also extend to later avoidance of transgressors.

The ability to detect and avoid toxins appears to

be very ancient: Sea anemones, which evolved about

500 million years ago, evert their gastrovascular

cavities in response to being fed a bitter substance

(30). That a system with the ancient and critical

adaptive function of rejecting toxic foods should be

brought to bear in the moral sphere speaks to the vital

importance of regulating social behavior for human

beings. Although the stimulus triggers for this

rejection mechanism may have shifted far from their

chemical sensory origins to the moral domain, the

basic behavioral program of oral rejection appears to

have been conserved. Thus, the metaphorical “bad

taste” left by moral transgressions may genuinely

have its origins in oral distaste.

References and Notes

1. E. Turiel, M. Killen, C. C. Helwig, in The Emergence of

Morality in Young Children, J. Kagan, S. Lamb, Eds.

(Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1987), pp. 155–243.

2. L. Kohlberg, in Handbook of Socialization Theory and

Research, D. A. Goslin, Ed. (Rand McNally, Chicago,

1969), pp. 347–380.

3. J. D. Greene, R. B. Sommerville, L. E. Nystrom, J. M.

Darley, J. D. Cohen, Science 293, 2105 (2001).

4. M. Koenigs et al., Nature 446, 908 (2007).

5. S. Schnall, J. Haidt, G. L. Clore, A. H. Jordan,

Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 34, 1096 (2008).

6. J. Haidt, Science 316, 998 (2007).

7. J. Greene, J. Haidt, Trends Cogn. Sci. 6, 517 (2002).

8. P. Rozin, J. Haidt, C. McCauley, in Handbook of Emotions,

M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland-Jones, Eds. (Guilford, New York,

2000), pp. 637–653.

9. P. Rozin, L. Lowery, S. Imada, J. Haidt, J. Pers. Soc....