Speaker
Description
Current concealment literature focuses on how people may conceal identity-relevant features (e.g., sexual orientation) to avoid moral judgments and stigma, but recent research demonstrates people also conceal non-identity-relevant features, such as infectious illness. We investigated this unique concealment context by conducting multiple studies where participants read scenarios describing targets as concealing symptoms of infectious illness in various situations. Moral judgments of concealers differed across situations such that participants associated higher moral character with targets who concealed illness symptoms for reasons that were also considered less selfish (e.g., to go to an exam, to work, or to a meeting), in contrast to those who concealed in situations perceived as more selfish (e.g., going to a social event or haircut). Participants also associated differing levels of harm with concealing within these situations along a similar pattern. These findings held regardless of how severe the symptoms being concealed were. This research suggests that there may be something more than the act of concealment alone driving the moral judgment of a concealer of infectious illness.
