Emotional reactions to scandals: When does moral character make ...

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Asian Journal of Social Psychology (2011) DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-839X.2011.01344.x
Emotional reactions to scandals: When does moral character
make a difference?ajsp_ 1..11
Introduction
Jiang Jiang, 1 Yu Kou, 1 Fang Wang, 1 Ying Wu, 2 Yan-Mei Li, 3 Yuan Li, 4 Yiyin Yang, 4
Hui Cao, 5 Qiuping Wu, 5 Shi-Jie Jing, 6 Bi-Jing Jiang, 7 La-Mei Shen, 8 Ai-Juan Li, 9
Zhongquan Li, 10 Wenjun Gao, 11 Chi-Yue Chiu, 12 Ying-Yi Hong, 12 Shih-Chi Hsu, 13
Lin Zhang, 14 Bao-Yan Yang, 15 Xiao-Li Yang, 15 De-Lei Zhao, 16 Zhimin Zou, 16
Qing-Wang Wei, 17 Xia Chen, 18 Yu-Fang Zhao, 19 Yi-Jin Zhou, 20 Hong Chen, 21
Jianping Feng 21 and Xin Wang 21
1 , Beijing Normal Univerity, , , 2 , Beijing Technology and Business University, , , 3 , Chinese Academy of
Sciences, , , 4 , Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, , , 5 , Chinese University of Hong Kong, , , 6 , East-
China University of Political Science and Law, , , 7 , Fuzhou University, , , 8 , Hangzhou Normal University, ,
, 9 , Inner Mongolia University of Technology, , , 10 , Nanjing University, , , 11 , Nankai University, , , 12 ,
Nanyang Technological University, , , 13 , National Taiwan University, , , 14 , Ning Bo University, , , 15 ,
Northwest Normal University, , , 16 , Peking University, , , 17 , Renmin University of China, , , 18 , Shanghai
Jiao Tong University, , , 19 , Southwest University, , , 20 , Sun Yat-sen University, , , and 21 , Yunnan
Normal University, ,
A scandal can evoke public outrage when it is widely publicized and involves an individual who is perceived to
have a high level of cultural representativeness. Two experiments showed that when the scandalous target’s moral
character was highlighted, emotional responses towards the target were least negative when the scandal was
widely circulated and when the target was seen as a representative of his culture. These results suggest that when
a cultural symbol is implicated in a widely-circulated scandal, the negative emotions directed towards the
scandalous individual can be alleviated when the public remains confident in his or her commitment to morality.
Key words: cultural representativeness, emotional reaction, morality, scandal.
In this article, we seek to establish the conditions under
which negative reactions towards a scandalous person
would be alleviated, followed by two experiments that
tested these conditions. We argue that when an individual is
involved in a widely-circulated scandal, and when this individual
is perceived to be a representative of his or her
culture, negative emotional reactions towards this individual
would be alleviated when he or she seen as having
strong commitment to morality.
Social psychology of scandals
A scandal is an action or event regarded as morally or
legally wrong and causing general public outrage.
The strong emotional reactions that scandals evoke can
Correspondence: Chi-Yue Chiu, S3-01c-81, Nanyang Business
School, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue,
639798, Singapore. Email: cychiu@ntu.edu.sg
The reported study is a collaboration of the members of the
Advanced Social Psychology Summer School co-organized by
the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Yunnan Normal
University.
Received ; revision ; accepted .
undermine the legitimacy of the status quo and shake the
culture’s moral foundation. For example, in the USA, the
highly-publicized Enron scandal has led to widespread
distrust in business ethics. It has also evoked cynicism,
pessimism, paranoia, and fear that are targeted at top business
leaders (Pelletier & Bligh, 2008).
Despite the social and cultural importance of understanding
people’s emotional reactions to scandals, this topic has
received little empirical attention in cultural psychology.
Only 11 peer-reviewed journal articles were found in a
recent PsycINFO search (18 May 2010) using ‘scandal’ and
‘reaction’ as keywords. Nine of these articles present qualitative
interpretations and commentaries on scandals of government
offices (Rowe, 2009), political leaders (Williams &
Carpini, 2004), political entities (Capelos & Wurzer, 2009;
Jacobsson & Löfmarck, 2008; Johansson, 2007), financial
institutions (Jang & Chen, 2009; Sims, 2009), religious
organizations (Clark, 2006), or the mass media (Hindman,
2005). Only two articles (Fischle, 2000; Tiedens, 2001)
reported surveys or experimental findings on some of the
determinants of lay people’s responses to the Clinton–
Lewinsky scandal. Results from both studies highlight the
importance of affect in lay people’s reactions to the scandal.
In one study, Tiedens (2001) found that Americans supported
Clinton more when they viewed him as expressing
anger about the scandal than when they saw him expressing
sadness about it, possibly because anger expression created
© 2011 The Authors
Asian Journal of Social Psychology © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and
the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
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4 4
2 Jiang Jiang et al.
the impression that Clinton was a competent leader. In
another study, Fischle) tracked public opinion in the USA in
the wake of the Clinton–Lewinsky affair and found that prior
positive affect for Bill Clinton significantly lowered US
citizens’ appraisal of the credibility and perceived importance
of the allegations against the president. These two
studies showed that lay people’s prior affect towards a
scandalous leader and his post-scandal impression management
could moderate lay people’s reactions to the scandal.
The present research seeks to extend this line of work by
focusing on how the perceived cultural representativeness of
a scandalous person, the perceived circulation of the scandal,
and the moral image of the scandalous person jointly influence
lay people’s emotional reactions to a scandal.
Cultural significance of scandalous
cultural icons
Some scandals (e.g. scandals of pop singers, sports stars,
rich people) might attract public attention and evoke
amusement because of the news worthiness of the individuals
implicated in the scandals. However, scandals that
involve immoral or unethical behaviours of individuals who
are perceived to be representatives of their culture (e.g.
cultural celebrities; political, business, and religious
leaders) often incite public outrage. Although most people
are not officially ordained moral representatives of their
culture, at least some people, at their best, are regarded as
sacred symbols that reflect what is held to be the best of the
culture and society (Kesebir, in press). Immoral acts committed
by these individuals might tarnish the moral lustre of
their society. Thus, the society has relatively low tolerance
of the moral transgressions of these individuals.
In addition, according to the intersubjective theory of
cultural processes (Chiu, Gelfand, Yamagishi, Shteynberg,
& Wan, 2010; Wan et al., 2007), every society has a need to
preserve its core values. A core value in a society is one that
most people in the culture are expected to endorse. For
example, filial piety is a core value in Chinese culture, and
most Chinese are expected to endorse it. Core values are
instituted in many cultural practices and embodied in many
external media, including the public images of the individuals
who represent the culture. Specifically, the society
expects the behaviours of its cultural representatives to
exemplify its core values, and a cultural representative is
more positively evaluated if his or her behaviours are consistent
(vs inconsistent) with the society’s core cultural
values. In line with this idea, a recent study (Wan, Torelli, &
Chiu, 2010) showed that US undergraduates who regarded
Tom Hanks as an American cultural symbol liked him more
after reading a widely-circulated, allegedly fictitious story
that depicted how he insisted on pursuing his own career
goal despite objections from his parents (behaviours that
are consistent with the US cultural ideal of pursuing one’s
own goals; see Wan et al., 2007). Such effect was not found
among participants who did not regard Tom Hanks as a
cultural symbol, or when the story depicted positive but
culturally irrelevant behaviours (conscientiousness or
modesty) of Tom Hanks. In short, when a cultural representative
is implicated in a widely-publicized scandal, the
scandal might evoke public outrage. The present research
concerns the conditions under which emotional reactions to
a scandalous cultural representative will be alleviated when
he or she is involved in a widely-circulated scandal.
Present research
Cultural representatives are identity-defining symbols of
their culture. Accordingly, they carry the burden of preserving
the moral purity of their culture. That is, motivated by the
desire to preserve the moral lustre of their culture, the public
will not tolerate moral transgressions from symbols of their
culture that would contaminate its moral purity. Thus, the
involvement of a cultural representative in a widelypublicized
moral scandal, if not managed properly, can lead
to negative emotions towards the cultural representative.
How can a widely-publicized scandal that involves a
cultural representative be managed? Because cultural representatives
are expected to be the bearers of moral values
in their culture, we predict that when a cultural representative
is implicated in a widely-circulated scandal, the negative
emotions directed towards him or her can be alleviated
when the public still have confidence in his or her moral
character. Accordingly, a cultural representative who is
involved in a widely-publicized scandal can reduce public
outrage by reassuring the public of his or her commitment
to moral values. To test this hypothesis, in two experiments,
we asked participants to indicate their emotional reactions
to a scandalous man. We manipulated the participants’
impression of this person by reminding the participants in
the experimental condition that he was someone with
strong moral values. We hypothesize that when the scandalous
person is seen as a cultural symbol and when the
scandal has become widely circulated and deemed to be
believable, the scandalous person can pacify the perceivers
by displaying evidence of his commitment to moral values.
However, this impression-management strategy would not
be particularly effective when the scandalous person is not
regarded as a cultural representative or when the scandal is
not widely circulated. Thus, in both experiments, we
expected that reminding the participants of the scandalous
person’s moral character would be more effective in alleviating
negative emotions towards the scandalous person
when he was seen as a cultural symbol and when the
scandal was widely known and deemed to be believable
than when these conditions were not met.
© 2011 The Authors
Asian Journal of Social Psychology © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and
the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
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5 5
Emotional responses to scandals 3
Study 1
Method
Design and overview. Participants from China responded
to a scandal that involved Ge You ( ), a famous Chinese
actor. Before presenting the scandal to the participants, we
measured their perceptions of Ge You’s cultural representativeness.
Because Ge You is one of the most famous
Chinese actors and is known in China as ‘the people’s
movie king’, we expected that a sizable percentage of the
participants would regard him as a representative of
Chinese culture. We manipulated the impression of Ge You
as: (i) someone with strong moral values; (ii) a person who
felt misunderstood by others; or (iii) a humble person. This
was the first between-subjects factor. We also manipulated
the circulation of the scandal and its believability. These
manipulations constituted the second and third betweensubjects
factor, respectively. The dependent measure of
interest in the present study was the participants’ positive
and negative emotional responses to Ge You. We chose to
use a real scandal instead of a fictitious one to protect the
ecological validity of our results. Real scandals are known
to evoke moral outrage from the public, whereas fictitious
scandals are not.
Participants. Given the high level of cultural heterogeneity
in China, we aimed to sample participants from different
regions of China. The participants were 527 undergraduates
from 29 different provinces or regions of China (Shanghai,
Yunnan, inner Mongolia, Beijing, Jilin, Sichuan, Tianjin,
Ningxia, Anhui, Shandong, Shanxi, Guangdong, Guangxi,
Xinjiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hebei, Henan, Zhejiang,
Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Gansu, Fujian, Guizhou, Liaoning,
Shanxi, Qinghai, Heilongjiang, Hong Kong). The sample
consisted of 258 men and 269 women, with an average age
of 22.44 years (SD = 6.39).
Stimulus materials, manipulations, and procedures. At the
beginning of the study, to refresh the participants’ memory
of Ge You, we presented the following biographical information
of Ge You to the participants:
Ge You was born in Raoyang, Hebei. His factor, Ge Cunzhuang
( ), is a famous actor. In 1985, Ge You made
his movie debut in Cheng Xia and Her Fiancé. The movies
he has starred in include Wan zhu, To Live, A World Without
Thieves, The Banquet, and If You Were The One.
Next, the participants responded to a measure of perceived
cultural representativeness of Ge You, adapted from
Wan et al. (2010). The measure consisted of six items (e.g.
‘Ge You is a symbol of Chinese culture’, ‘Ge You can
represent Chinese cultural values’, and ‘Ge You is a repre-
sentative of Chinese culture’; a=0.85), and the participants
indicated their responses to each item on a sevenpoint
scale (1 = ‘strongly disagree’ to 7 = ’strongly agree’).
As an alternative to measuring the perceived cultural representativeness
of the target, we could have manipulated it
by using celebrities of different levels of cultural representativeness
as stimulus persons. However, because celebrities
differed on many aspects, it would be difficult, if not
impossible, to find two celebrities who differ on the level of
cultural representativeness only. Furthermore, given the
fame of the celebrities, the participants might have strong
prior attitudes towards the celebrities based on aspects of
the celebrities that are unrelated to cultural representativeness.
The participants then read a scandal that involved Ge
You:
The Beijing Police Department held Yilin Forest responsible
for ‘the biggest illegal direct selling case in the recent years’,
and Ge You was the company’s endorser. In just 2 years,
Yilin Forest has extorted 16.8 billion Yuan from the public
by selling forestland under the guise of ‘Trustee of Forestland.’
Over 20 000 people from the whole country were
victims in this explosive case, and most of them were
Beijing citizens. Many victims trusted Yilin Forest because
Ge You was the endorser in its advertisements. Ge You had
returned to the Beijing Police Department all the endorsement
fees he received from the Yilin Group.
Next, to manipulate the perceived morality of GeYou, we
reminded the participants of a famous quote of Ge You. In
the moral character condition, we created the impression
that Ge You valued morality. In this condition, we told the
participants: ‘Ge You once said openly, “People should
conduct themselves with benevolence”.’ To evaluate the
effect of moral character manipulation, we included two
control conditions in the experiment. In the misunderstood
condition, we mentioned to the participants that Ge You
once recited a Chinese idiom expressing the feelings of
being misunderstood and being treated unfairly. Specifically,
the participants were reminded that ‘Ge You once
said: “I reveal my heart to the moon, but the moon shines on
the ditch”.’ Finally, in the humble person condition, the
participants were reminded of a famous Ge You quote that
expressed his humility: ‘Ge You once said openly: “If I
really get the award, that it would be an undeserved fortune.
This is what I think”.’ All the quotes were real quotes. It is
important to note that in both control conditions, the quote
conveyed positive impressions of GeYou, but did not implicate
his morality.
To assess the effectiveness of the manipulation without
sensitizing the participants to its purpose, we recruited a
new sample of 67 Chinese participants (31 men, 36 women;
mean age = 20.94 years, SD = 1.69 years) from the same
population, and asked them to read the Ge You news story,
© 2011 The Authors
Asian Journal of Social Psychology © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and
the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
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4 Jiang Jiang et al.
followed by one of the three quotes (randomly selected).
After reading the news story and the quote, the participants
responded to three items that tapped how reading the story
affected their perception of Ge You’s morality: (i) ‘Reading
the story makes me feel that Ge You is a moral person’; (ii)
‘Reading the story makes me feel that Ge You is a person
with a good conscience’; and (iii) ‘Reading the story makes
me feel that Ge You was remorseful’. The participants
responded to each item on an eight-point scale
(1 = ‘strongly disagree’; 8 = ‘strongly agree’). We took the
average of the three items to form a measure of perceived
morality (a=0.69).
Next, in the main study, to provide a context for the
circulation and believability manipulations, we asked the
participants whether they had heard of the story (‘yes’ or
‘no’), and whether they thought the story was a real one
(1 = ‘definitely not a real story’, 2 = ‘unsure’, and 3 = ‘definitely
a real story’).
The circulation and believability manipulations were
introduced immediately after these questions. Specifically,
we told the participants that before they proceeded to the
next section of the survey, they would learn how other
participants responded to the previous questions. At this
point, the participants were randomly assigned to one of the
circulation ¥ believability conditions. Participants in the
high (low) circulation condition were told that among 400
participants, 82% (12%) had heard of the story; participants
in the high (low) believability condition learned that among
400 participants, 78% (18%) believed that the story was a
real one, 16% (42%) were unsure, and 6% (40%) thought
that it was not a real story.
Dependent measures. To measure participants’ emotional
responses to Ge You, after the participants had read the
stimulus story and studied the ‘past results’, we had the
participants indicate the extent to which they agreed that Ge
You evoked positive emotions (‘I admire Ge You’, ‘I envy
Ge You’; a=0.66) and negative emotions (‘Ge You scares
me’, ‘Ge You angers me’; a=0.71). We chose these emotions
because the target person was a high-status celebrity,
and positive emotions (admiration, envy) are emotions
evoked by high status (warm targets), whereas negative
emotions (fear and anger) are emotions evoked by high
status (cold targets) (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002). 1
The participants indicated their extent of agreement with
each item on a seven-point scale (1 = ‘strongly disagree’ to
7 = ‘strongly agree’).
Results
Manipulation check. Manipulation check results confirmed
that the impression manipulation was successful. To
assess the effectiveness of the impression manipulation, we
performed a one-way, between-subjects ANOVA on the
perceived morality of Ge You, using the data from the
manipulation check study. The effect of the manipulation
was significant [F(2, 64) = 3.57, p = 0.03, h 2 p = 0.104]. Participants
in the moral character condition attributed a marginally
higher level of morality to Ge You (M = 5.20,
SD = 1.29) than those in the misunderstood condition
(M = 4.56, SD = 1.18) [t(43) = 1.73, p = 0.09], and a significantly
higher level of morality than those in the humble
person condition (M = 4.23, SD = 1.26) [t(43) = 2.62,
p = 0.01]. More importantly, the perceived morality of Ge
You was significantly above the mid-point (4.50) in the
moral character condition only [t(22) = 2.61, p < 0.05].
Effects of morality, cultural representativeness, and
circulation. Preliminary analysis results revealed highly
variable perceptions of Ge You’s level of cultural representativeness
(M = 3.32, SD = 1.17, range = 1.00–6.50).
Approximately 30% (30.7%) of the participants had heard
of the story before. Most participants (72.7%) were unsure
whether the story was real; 21.8% believed that the story
was real, and only 5.5% believed it was faked.
We hypothesize that making salient that Ge You valued
morality would evoke stronger positive emotions and
weaker negative emotions when Ge You was perceived to
be a cultural symbol and when the scandal was widely
circulated. The measures of positive and negative emotions
were negatively correlated (r =-0.25, p < 0.001). To simplify
our analysis, we subtracted the measure of negative
emotions from that of positive emotions to form a measure
of affect balance, with higher scores on the scale indicating
expression of stronger positive and weaker negative emotions
towards Ge You. To test our hypothesis, we performed
an impression ¥ circulation ¥ believability ¥ perceived cultural
representativeness general linear model (GLM) on the
affect balance measure. Impression, circulation, and believability
were between-subjects factors in this model. Perceived
cultural representativeness was treated as a
continuous predictor. We centred perceived cultural representativeness
at its grand mean to minimize the potential
impact of multicolinearity. We predicted a significant interaction
of impression, circulation, and perceived cultural
representativeness.
The predicted three-way interaction was significant [F(2,
504) = 3.42, p = 0.03, h 2 p = 0.013], but the four-way interaction
was not [F(2, 504) = 1.82, p = 0.16], indicating that
believability did not moderate the three-way interaction. 2
Next, we performed a separate circulation ¥ perceived cultural
representativeness GLM for each impression condition.
In all impression conditions, there was a significant
main effect of perceived cultural representativeness: F(1,
172) = 14.96, p < 0.001, h 2 p = 0.080 in the moral character
condition; F(1, 172) = 36.30, p < 0.001, h 2 p = 0.173 in the
misunderstood condition; and F(1, 172) = 20.48, p < 0.001,
© 2011 The Authors
Asian Journal of Social Psychology © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and
the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
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Emotional responses to scandals 5
h 2 p = 0.106 in the humble person condition. In all impression
conditions, participants reported more positive and
fewer negative emotions towards Ge You when they
regarded him as more representative of Chinese culture (r
between 0.27 and 0.34, p < 0.001). The main effect of circulation
was not significant in any of the three impression
conditions: F 1.90, p 0.17. More importantly, the
circulation ¥ perceived cultural representativeness interaction
was significant in the moral character condition only:
F(1, 172) = 5.65, p = 0.02, h 2 p = 0.032 in the moral character
condition; F(1, 172) = 0.07, p = 0.80 in the misunderstood
condition; and F(1, 172) = 0.05, p = 0.82 in the
humble person condition. 3
In Figure 1, we plot the predicted value of positive (vs
negative) emotional responses when cultural representativeness
was one standard deviation above (below) the mean and
when the scandal was widely circulated or not in the moral
character condition. As predicted, when the impression that
Ge You valued morality was highlighted, the participants’
emotional responses were most positive when the scandal
was widely circulated and when Ge You was seen as a
representative of Chinese culture. When the scandal was
widely circulated, emotional responses to GeYou were more
positive when he was seen as more representative of Chinese
culture (r = 0.47, p < 0.001). In addition, when the perceived
cultural representativeness of Ge You was relatively high
(one standard deviation above the mean), emotional
responses towards Ge You were more positive when the
scandal was widely circulated than when it was not, although
the difference was not significant [F(1, 172) = 2.94,
p = 0.09]. In summary, consistent with our hypothesis,
reminding the participants of Ge You’s moral character was
Figure 1 Affect balance towards Ge You in the moral
value condition when the scandal was widely circulated
or not, and when Ge You was perceived to be relatively
representative of Chinese culture (one standard deviation
above the mean) or not (one standard deviation
below the mean). Higher scores on the measure indicate
stronger positive and weaker negative emotions
towards Ge You. ( .... ) low circulation; (—) high
circulation.
more effective in alleviating negative emotions towards him
when he was seen as a cultural symbol and when the scandal
was widely known than when either condition was not met.
Discussion
In the present study, we found support for the idea that
reminding people of a scandalous individual’s moral character
is a particularly effective strategy for reducing negative
emotions towards the scandalous individual when the
scandalous individual is seen as a cultural symbol and
when the scandal has spread widely. Specifically, when
the participants were reminded of Ge You’s previous
public statement about his benevolent values, the participants’
emotional responses were most positive when the
scandal was widely circulated and when he was seen as a
symbol of Chinese culture. This pattern of result is consistent
with the idea that a widely-circulated scandal that
involves a cultural representative can evoke negative emotional
reactions towards the cultural representative.
However, these emotional reactions can be alleviated if
the public still has confidence in the cultural representative’s
moral character.
The believability manipulation did not moderate the predicted
three-way interaction. In fact, this manipulation did
not have any effect on the emotional responses towards Ge
You. This finding suggests that emotional responses
towards a scandalous cultural representative are driven
more by whether the scandal has become public knowledge
than by its perceived truth value. This interpretation is
consistent with the shared reality theory (Echterhoff,
Higgins, & Groll, 2005), which posits that people: (i) construe
an intersubjective reality based on shared knowledge
that might or might not correspond to the actual reality; and
(ii) allow the shared knowledge to predicate their own judgments
and actions. The shared reality theory has shed light
on the social influence process in interpersonal and small
group contexts (Hausmann, Levine, & Higgins, 2008). The
present study extends its relevance to understanding cultural
processes.
Because we used a real scandal in the present investigation,
our results can be generalized to emotional reactions
to real (vs hypothetical) scandals. However, this research
strategy has a drawback: because some participants had
prior knowledge of the scandal, they might also possess
strong prior attitudes towards Ge You’s involvement in the
scandal. This is not a serious concern, because such prior
knowledge works against our hypothesis; it should wash
out the effects of our subtle experimental manipulations.
Moreover, our results show that prior knowledge of the
scandal did not alter our results. 3 To rule out prior knowledge
of a scandal as a confounding factor, we sought to
replicate our major findings with a sample that had no prior
knowledge of the scandal in the next study.
© 2011 The Authors
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6 Jiang Jiang et al.
However, given that our stimulus materials are restricted
to a relatively mild scandal of a Chinese movie star with a
moderate level of cultural symbolism, we need to further
establish the generality of our conclusions. Specifically, Ge
You was implicated in a scandal only through his mere
association with a scandalous company. In addition, GeYou
returned the endorsement fees he received after the scandal
was made known to the public. Thus, it would be interesting
to examine whether highlighting the scandalous person’s
commitment to core moral values in the culture can pacify
the public in more severe scandals. To extend the generality
of our results, we examined the joint effects of morality,
cultural representativeness, and circulation on the Chinese
participants’ reactions to another scandal.
Study 2
There are two major objectives in the present study. First,
we sought to replicate the Study 1 results with a scandal
of a different target person. To extend the generality of
our results, we chose Jackie Chan ( ), an internationally
famous celebrity who is widely perceived to be a
symbol of Chinese culture. In addition, in this scandal,
Jackie Chan’s personal judgment and decisions were the
direct causes of the scandalous behaviour. Second, to
further control for the potential confounding effect of
prior knowledge of the scandal on the participants’ judgment,
we recruited participants who had no prior knowledge
of the scandal. Again, we chose a real scandal as the
stimulus material in the present study because it is known
to have evoked public outrage among those who were
exposed to the scandal.
Method
Participants. The participants were 714 undergraduates
from 31 different provinces or regions of China (Shanghai,
Yunnan, inner Mongolia, Beijing, Jilin, Sichuan,
Tianjin, Anhui, Shandong, Shanxi, Guangdong, Guangxi,
Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hebei, Henan, Zhejiang, Hainan, Hubei,
Hunan, Macau, Gansu, Fujian, Tibet, Guizhou, Liaoning,
Shanxi, Qinghai, Heilongjiang, Hong Kong). The sample
consisted of 362 men and 352 women, with an average
age of 22.44 years (SD = 6.39). None of these participants
had heard of the Jackie Chan scandal used in the present
study. 4
Stimulus materials, manipulations, and procedures. We
replaced the Ge You scandal in Study 1 with a Jackie
Chan scandal. Despite this major change, the design and
procedures of the present study were similar to those in
Study 1. As in Study 1, at the beginning of the study, to
refresh the participants’ memory of Jackie Chan, we presented
the following biographical information of him to
the participants:
Fang Shi-Long ( ), also known as Cheng-long or
Jackie Chan, is a famous and influential actor and director in
Chinese societies, as well as a celebrity in greater China. He
is influential and reputable in mainland China and Hong
Kong.
Next, the participants rated the perceived cultural representativeness
of Jackie Chan on the same six-item measure
of perceived cultural representativeness used in Study 1
(e.g. ‘Jackie Chan is a symbol of Chinese culture’;
a=0.86).
After having responded to this measure, the participants
read a scandal that involved Jackie Chan:
Jackie Chan was married to Lin Feng-Jiao ( ), a
retired Taiwanese actress, and they had a son (Fang
Zu-Ming, ). In 1999, Wu Yi-Li ( ), an actress,
claimed that she was pregnant with Jackie Chan’s child. On
19 November 1999, Wu gave birth to her daughter (Wu
Zhuo-Lin, , aka ‘little dragon girl’).
The story was followed by one of the following actual
responses from Jackie Chan to the scandal, which constituted
the impression manipulation in the present study: (i)
moral character condition. Jackie Chan later admitted that
‘he was a shameful father’, ‘he has been unfair to his
daughter’, and he would carry the responsibility for the
well-being of little dragon girl as long as he is alive; (ii)
denial of immorality condition: ‘Although I am promiscuous,
I am not immoral. I have made the mistake all men
would make in their life’; and (iii) denial of responsibility
condition: Jackie Chan accused Wu Yi-Li of setting him
up. He was drunk when he had the affair with Wu. He
asked Wu and her daughter not to interfere with his life in
the future. The description in the moral character condition
was designed to evoke a positive moral evaluation of
Jackie Chan. We selected the descriptions in the two
control conditions because they were common denial
strategies for impression management in scandalous situations,
and Jackie Chan used these strategies to reduce the
scandal’s negative impact on his reputation.
In the current study, instead of manipulating the perceived
circulation of the scandal, we measured with it the following
item: ‘Among 100 Chinese people, how many of them do
you think have heard of this scandal?’The possible range of
response on this item was from 0 to 100. Aside from extending
the results to a different operation of perceived circulation
of the scandal, measuring perceived circulation versus
manipulating it through bogus feedback also eliminated
possible unintended effects of surprise or expectancy
© 2011 The Authors
Asian Journal of Social Psychology © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and
the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
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Emotional responses to scandals 7
disconfirmation when the participants’ estimations of
perceived circulation differed from the feedback provided
by the experimenter. Because perceived believability did not
have an effect on emotional response to the scandal, we did
not consider this factor in the present study.
Measures. After responding to the perceived circulation
measure, the participants completed the measures of emotional
reactions to the scandal. Given the nature of the
scandal, the participants might find it strange to report how
much the scandal would evoke admiration and envy
towards Jackie Chan. Therefore, we considered negative
emotional responses to the scandal only. Regarding the
negative emotion measure, in addition to the two original
negative emotion items (fear, angry), we added disgust,
which is another major negative emotion towards moral
indignity (Fiske et al., 2002). The reliability of the negative
emotional response measure was 0.81. Finally, to evaluate
the effectiveness of the impression manipulation, we had
the participants respond to the manipulation check items
used in the manipulation check study in Study 1.
Results and discussion
Manipulation check. The impression manipulation was
successful. We performed a one-way ANOVA to evaluate
the effect of the impression manipulation on the perceived
morality of Jackie Chan. The effect of the manipulation was
significant [F(2, 711) = 6.68, p = 0.001, h 2 p = 0.018].
Jackie Chan was perceived to be more moral in the moral
character condition (M = 4.89, SD = 1.30) than he was in
the denial of immorality condition (M = 4.52, SD = 1.29)
[t(460) = 3.14, p = 0.002] or the denial of responsibility
condition (M = 4.53, SD = 1.25) [t(497) = 3.17, p = 0.002].
Furthermore, the perceived morality of Jackie Chan was
significantly above the mid-point (4.50) in the moral character
condition only [t(297) = 4.76, p < 0.001].
Preliminary analyses. The mean level of perceived cultural
representativeness of Jackie Chan was 4.06 (SD = 1.26 on a
scale of 1–7), which was significantly higher than that of
Ge You in Study 1 [t(1239) = 10.66, p < 0.001]. The
impression manipulation, which was introduced after the
perceived cultural representativeness measure, did not have
any impact on perceived cultural representativeness [F(2,
711) = 0.21, p = 0.82].
The mean level of perceived circulation was 29.95%
(SD = 23.61%), which was lower than the actual percentage
of participants who had heard of the scandal (38.7% 4 )
[t(712) = 9.92, p < 0.001]. The impression manipulation
did not have an effect on the perceived circulation of the
scandal [F(2, 711) = 0.17, p = 0.84]. Perceived circulation
of the scandal also did not correlate with the perceived
cultural representativeness of Jackie Chan (r =-0.03).
Taken together, the preliminary analysis results indicated
that the impression manipulation, perceived circulation,
and perceived cultural representativeness were orthogonal
predictors in the current study.
Effects of morality, cultural representativeness, and
circulation. We hypothesize that making salient Jackie
Chan’s concern with morality would be more effective for
reducing negative emotions, only when Jackie Chan was
perceived to be a cultural symbol and when the scandal was
widely circulated. To test this hypothesis, we performed an
impression ¥ perceived circulation ¥ perceived cultural
representativeness GLM on negative emotions and predicted
a significant three-way interaction. We mean-centred
perceived circulation and perceived cultural representativeness
to reduce the impact of multicolinearity.
The predicted that the impression ¥ perceived
circulation ¥ perceived cultural representativeness interaction
was significant [F(2, 698) = 3.01, p < 0.05,
h 2 p = 0.009]. To understand the nature of this interaction,
we performed a separate circulation ¥ perceived cultural
representativeness GLM in each impression condition. As
in Study 1, in all impression conditions, there was a significant
main effect of perceived cultural representativeness:
F(1, 210) = 21.72, p < 0.001, h 2 p = 0.096 in the denial
of immorality condition; F(1, 248) = 4.58, p < 0.001,
h 2 p = 0.173 in the denial of responsibility; and F(1,
240) = 9.06, p = 0.003, h 2 p = 0.036 in the moral character
condition. In all impression conditions, participants
reported fewer negative emotions towards Jackie Chan
when they regarded him as more representative of Chinese
culture (r between -0.15 and -0.31, p < 0.05). The main
effect of circulation was not significant in any of the three
impression conditions: F 1.03, p 0.31. More importantly,
the circulation ¥ perceived cultural representativeness
interaction was significant in the moral character
condition only: f(1, 240) = 6.84, p = 0.009, h 2 p = 0.028, and
was f(1, 210) = 0.63, p = 0.43 in the denial of Immorality
Condition and F(1, 248) = 1.47, p = 0.23 in the denial of
responsibility condition.
In Figure 2, we plot the predicted value of negative emotional
responses when cultural representativeness was one
standard deviation above (below) the mean and when the
scandal was widely circulated or not in the moral character
condition. As in Study 1, when the impression that Jackie
Chan valued morality was highlighted, the participants’
emotional responses were least negative when the scandal
was widely circulated and when Jackie Chan was seen as a
representative of Chinese culture. When the scandal was
widely circulated, emotional responses to Jackie Chan were
less negative when he was seen as more representative of
Chinese culture (B =-0.30, p < 0.001). In contrast, when
the scandal was perceived to have low circulation, negative
© 2011 The Authors
Asian Journal of Social Psychology © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and
the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
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8 Jiang Jiang et al.
Figure 2 Negative emotions towards Jackie Chan in
the moral value condition as a function of his level of
cultural representativeness and the perceived circulation
of the scandal. Data are estimated value when the
predictor variables were centred at one standard deviation
above (high) or below (low) their respective mean.
( .... ) low circulation; (—) high circulation.
emotional responses to Jackie Chan were unrelated to his
perceived representativeness of Chinese culture (B =-0.03,
p = 0.60). In addition, when the perceived cultural representativeness
of Jackie Chan was relatively high (one standard
deviation above the mean), emotional responses
towards him were less negative when the scandal was perceived
to be more widely circulated, although the association
was not significant (B =-0.12, p = 0.09). In summary,
replicating Study 1 results, reminding the participants of
Jackie Chan’s moral character was more effective in alleviating
negative emotions towards him when he was seen as
a cultural symbol and when the scandal was widely known
than when either condition was not met.
General discussion
Evidence from the two studies show that when there is an
indication that a scandalous individual is personally committed
to the core moral values in the culture, people react
less negatively to the scandal, particularly when it is widely
known and when the protagonist in the scandal is regarded
as a cultural representative. This is the case when the scandalous
individual is indirectly implicated in a scandal (as in
the Ge You scandal) and when the scandalous individual is
personally responsible for the scandal (as in the Jackie
Chan scandal). These results are consistent with the previous
finding that cultural representatives are expected to
exemplify the core values of their culture (Wan et al.,
2010). Thus, when a cultural representative is implicated in
a widely-circulated scandal, the scandal can evoke strong
negative reactions from the public. When this happens, the
scandalous cultural representative can alleviate public
moral outrage against him or her by exhibiting evidence of
his or her commitment to moral values. Such evidence
helps to cleanse the moral image of the cultural representative
and restore public confidence in the cultural representative
as a carrier of the culture’s moral values.
These results make important theoretical and empirical
contributions to the research literature. First, public reactions
to scandals have important ramifications for trust in the
society’s established institutions, including political, financial,
and religious implications. The moral outrage incited
by widely-circulated scandals can undermine the perceived
legitimacy of the status quo and promote social cynicism
(Pelletier & Bligh, 2008). Despite the apparent significance
of this social psychological phenomenon, surprisingly, only
a couple of studies have systematically examined the determinants
of how the general public reacts to scandals. Results
from these studies (Fischle, 2000; Tiedens, 2001) highlight
the importance of affect and post-scandal impression management
in alleviating negative reactions. We extend these
results by showing how the property of the scandal (i.e. how
widely circulated it is), the quality of the scandalous individual
(i.e. how much he or she is perceived to be a representative
of her or his culture), and the public image of the
scandalous individual (the perceived commitment of the
scandalous individual to conventional morality) together
predict public reactions towards scandalous individuals.
Furthermore, whereas previous studies have focused on
public reactions to political scandals (Fischle; Tiedens), our
studies are the first to examine public reactions to scandalous
celebrities in the entertainment business.
Our results also shed new light on the emerging intersubjective
theory of cultural processes (Chiu et al., 2010;
Wan et al., 2007). According to this theory, a value
becomes a core value in the culture, because people in the
culture collectively expect others in the culture to endorse
it. For example, filial piety is a core value in Chinese culture
because most Chinese expect other Chinese to endorse it.
Core values are embodied in external media, including the
public image of cultural representatives. Previous studies
have shown that people like a cultural representative more
when he or she is widely known to have exhibited behaviours
that are consistent with the culture’s core values (Wan
et al., 2010). The current studies provide further support for
the intersubjective theory by showing that people dislike a
scandalous public figure less when he or she remains committed
to the culture’s moral values, despite his or her
scandalous behaviours.
Aside from emphasizing the scandalous individual’s
moral values, as shown in Study 1, a scandalous individual
© 2011 The Authors
Asian Journal of Social Psychology © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and
the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
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Emotional responses to scandals 9
might also manage the public’s emotional responses by
highlighting his or her feelings of being misunderstood or
desirable personal qualities (humility). Indeed, these two
strategies do not differ from the strategy of emphasizing the
scandalous individual’s moral character in terms of their
overall effectiveness in alleviating negative emotions
towards the scandalous individual. What is unique about
highlighting the scandalous individual’s moral character is
that this strategy is most effective when the scandal is
widely known and the scandalous individual is seen as a
cultural representative.
Although people are motivated to maintain positive perceptions
of the morality of their cultural symbols, it is
possible that severe scandals or ones that involve highly
iconic cultural representatives in the society (e.g. Bill
Clinton of the United States or Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan)
would evoke very strong moral outrage, which when
released could lead to public denouncement of the cultural
representatives and collective actions to dissociate the cultural
representatives from the culture. Nonetheless, we
believe that perceived commitment of the scandalous cultural
representatives to moral values could still alleviate
public hostility in such severe scandals. Take the Lewinsky
scandal that broke on January 17, 1998 as an example. As
the scandal raged on, Bill Clinton, an icon of American
culture, admitted on August 17, 1998 that he had had an
‘improper physical relationship’ with Lewinsky. In a
nationally televised statement, Clinton tried to manage
public outrage by accepting personal responsibility for his
actions, attributing the scandal partly to right-wing conspiracy
against him, and reaffirming his commitment to
American family values, claiming that nothing is more
important than his families to him personally. Would
Clinton face impeachment and conviction as Chen Shuibian
did if Clinton had not expressed his commitment to
family values in his admission statement? Nonetheless, a
limitation in the current research is that the scandalous
individual in both studies are cultural celebrities in the
entertainment business. We need future research to verify
whether our effects can be generalized to different types of
individuals (e.g. political leaders, religious leaders) who are
implicated in the scandal.
In conclusion, when it becomes widely known that a
cultural representative is implicated in morally questionable
behaviours, it is possible for scandalous cultural representatives
to reduce the scandal’s damage by highlighting
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Acknowledgements
The research reported in this article was funded by research
grants awarded by the National Science Foundation (No.
BCS 0743119) and the Nanyang Technological University
to Chi-yue Chiu.
End notes
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1. To confirm whether the participants regarded Ge You as a
high-status target, we also asked the participants to indicate the
extent to which they agreed that Ge You was: (i) a respectable
actor; (ii) a despicable factor (reverse scoring); (iii) a respectable
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heard of the scandal before, we recruited a total of 1190 participants
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© 2011 The Authors
Asian Journal of Social Psychology © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and
the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
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