Perceptions of supernatural beings reveal feelings about good and bad in humans

Date:
August 30, 2021
Source:
University of Waterloo
Summary:
What transpires in comedies and cartoons when a character has a
devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other is not far off
from people's perceptions of the real world, finds a new study.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== [Devil and angel drawing | Credit: (c) Bits and Splits / stock.adobe.com]
Devil and angel drawing (stock image).

Credit: (c) Bits and Splits / stock.adobe.com [Devil and angel drawing | Credit: (c) Bits and Splits / stock.adobe.com] Devil and angel drawing
(stock image).

Credit: (c) Bits and Splits / stock.adobe.com Close What transpires in
comedies and cartoons when a character has a devil on one shoulder and
an angel on the other is not far off from people's perceptions of the
real world, finds a new study from the University of Waterloo.


========================================================================== Intended to illustrate the characters' decision-making dilemma with
comedic results, the moral character and motives of the supernatural
beings are obvious. And people have similar expectations when it comes
to individuals they see as good or bad.

The researchers explored expectations about how good and evil individuals respond to requests. The researchers were interested in understanding
why movies and folktales often depict the devil and demons as eager to
grant accidental requests, whereas angels are not depicted this way.

Their study indicates that people's beliefs about good and evil characters
are influenced by their views of ordinary humans.

"Our results suggest people expect good agents will be sensitive to
intentions behind requests whereas they expect evil individuals will
be relatively insensitive to these intentions," said Ori Friedman, developmental psychology professor at Waterloo and lead author of the
study. "These findings shape people's expectations about requests directed
both to regular humans and to supernatural agents." The study shows
that people have distinct ideas of how being good or bad influences the decisions of others. People assume that evil individuals are indifferent
about anything that doesn't directly impact their own aims.

These findings support previous research in suggesting that at least
some of people's everyday beliefs about supernatural beings could be
based on their views of humans.

"One aspect of seeing someone as evil might be that we expect that
person to put less emphasis on the intentions of others, and instead
focus more on the outcome of people's actions," says Brandon Goulding,
a PhD candidate in developmental psychology and co-author of the
study. "Whereas we think that a good person will also consider what
someone meant to do, and weigh that against what they actually did." Researchers investigated people's expectations about good and evil agents
with five experiments. In the study, 2,231 participants read short stories about a protagonist's request to either a human or supernatural being
and rated the likelihood the request would be granted. When the request
was directed to someone good, ratings depended on whether the requester actually understood what they were requesting. Evil individuals were
expected to grant requests just as often when they were confused and
didn't reflect the requester's intentions.

"This research tells us something very interesting about how people
view good and evil, which is that people don't just think that evil
agents focus exclusively on causing harm. Instead, people relate evil to
being indifference and to not caring about what people want," Friedman
said. "It also suggests that people think moral goodness is about more
than producing good outcomes.

People also see moral goodness as being connected
with caring about what people want and intend." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Waterloo. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Rebecca J. Dunk, Brandon W. Goulding, Jonathan A. Fugelsang, Ori
Friedman. Butt-dialing the devil: Evil agents are expected to
disregard intentions behind requests. Journal of Experimental
Social Psychology, 2021; 96: 104188 DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104188 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210830081808.htm

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