Prosociality, Happiness and Morality without Neutral Condition

A previous study showed that a manipulation of prosocial intentions wiped out the moral boost of happiness. Two studies will be conducted to rule out 2 potential artifactual explanations for this effect: 1) the possibility that aspects of the target happiness manipulation rendered it less salient for participants by inclusion of a neutral comparison group and varied ratings for distractor items; and 2) the extremity of the prosocial intentions manipulation. In Study 1, participants will be assigned randomly to a 2 (target happiness: low versus high) X 2 (target prosocial intentions: low versus high) between-person design. Based on the results of Study 1, Study 2 participants will be assigned randomly to either a 2 (target happiness: low versus high) X 2 (target prosocial intentions: low versus high) between person design or a 3 (target happiness: low versus neutral versus high) X 2 (target prosocial intentions: low versus high), with low and high prosocial intentions being less extreme than in the previous manipulation. In both studies, participants will rate the moral goodness of targets and will complete a measure of individual differences in just world beliefs.