Abstract

In the present research, we examined how individuals weigh 4 key dimensions of person perception (competence, warmth, morality, attractiveness) in judgments of human value and whether evaluators’ level of well-being moderates these judgments. Participants in the U.S. (Study 1) and South Korea (Study 2) assigned social credit scores to 8 versions of a target, described as possessing positive or negative traits on each of the 4 dimensions. In both Studies 1 and 2, the valuation difference between the positive and negative conditions was greatest for the morality dimension, indicating that valuations were influenced most by moral considerations. Importantly, this effect was moderated by evaluators’ well-being (happiness), such that the weight given to moral information was amplified among those who reported higher (vs. lower) well-being. Together, our findings suggest that morality figures most prominently in human valuations, and more so for happy individuals.