Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Moral conflicts frequently involve ambiguous evidence, creating opportunities for emotion to shape what people find credible. Across three studies, we examine how emotional expressions influence the perceived credibility and usability of moral evidence. In Study 1, we analyze posts from the Reddit forum r/AmITheAsshole, finding that readers expressed more trust in posts that were emotionally intense. In Study 2, we use a social media-style post to manipulate emotional intensity to test perceived credibility of subjective and objective evidence. High emotional intensity of expressions narrowed the perceived difference in credibility between subjective and objective evidence. In Study 3, we find that emotional intensity also enhances evidence usability—higher perceived causality and counterfactual necessity are attributed to a person who delivers evidence with high emotional intensity (vs. low). This research highlights how the intensity of emotional expressions influences both the evaluation and use of moral evidence.