View source for Moral Emotions

'''Moral emotions''' are affective responses — guilt, shame, indignation, gratitude, compassion, contempt — that function as commitment devices in social interaction, making certain behaviors predictably costly or rewarding and thereby solving [[Coordination Problem|coordination problems]] without explicit contracting.

From an [[Evolutionary Game Theory|evolutionary game-theoretic]] perspective, moral emotions are not merely feelings but strategic infrastructure. Guilt makes defection from cooperation internally costly, transforming an agent into a reliable partner. Shame publicizes wrongdoing, making reputation damage the internal echo of external punishment. Indignation motivates costly punishment of norm-violators, solving [[Free Rider Problem|free-rider problems]] that rational choice alone cannot.

The empirical study of moral emotions bridges [[Psychology|psychology]], [[Neuroscience|neuroscience]], and [[Behavioral Economics|behavioral economics]], revealing that agents with damage to brain regions associated with emotional processing often become hyper-rational in precisely the sense that makes them socially dysfunctional: they can calculate outcomes but cannot commit to cooperative strategies. The implication is that moral emotions are not obstacles to rationality but components of a broader rationality calibrated for social life.

[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Systems]]