Item Details

title

MORAL JUDGMENTS OF SELF-HARM AND SUICIDE: THE SELF AS AGENT AND PATIENT

author

Li, Zi

abstract

Harm is central to moral judgment, traditionally framed within a dyadic structure where an intentional agent causes harm to a vulnerable patient. However, acts of self-harm and suicide challenge this model by collapsing the boundary between agent and patient, positioning the self as both the one who causes and suffers harm. Drawing on the Theory of Dyadic Morality (TDM), the present thesis investigated whether people morally evaluate self-harm based not only on harm to others but also on harm to the self. Across two studies, participants in Study 1 provided open-ended explanations for why self-harm might be morally wrong and rated perceived harm to self and others. Study 2 experimentally manipulated the type (causing vs. reducing) and target (self vs. others) of harm to test for a causal effect of perceived harm to self on moral judgments. In both studies, perceived harm to both self and others significantly predicted moral wrongness ratings. While the manipulation in Study 2 influenced perceived harm, it failed to shift moral judgments. Nonetheless, these findings still suggest that perceived harm to the self is significantly linked to greater moral condemnation, independent of harm to others.

subject

moral judgment

self-harm

suicide

Theory of Dyadic Morality

contributor

Masicampo, EJ (advisor)

Waugh, Christian (committee member)

Greene, Heath (committee member)

Austin, Emily A. (committee member)

date

2025-06-24T08:36:32Z (accessioned)

2025-06-24T08:36:32Z (available)

2025 (issued)

degree

Psychology (discipline)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/111022 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Thesis