Consumers are increasingly exposed to scams and questionable marketing practices. The current work examines how consumers’ emotional states influence their gullibility (a belief or compliance with a request that most people would consider naïve). Across four studies, we show that the emotional experience of moral elevation reduces susceptibility to believe dubious claims or comply with suspicious requests. While past research showed that moral elevation enhances nurturance behavior (and support of a requester), the current work suggests that elevation may also play a protective function (that is, reduce gullibility). We show that decreased trust in a persuasion agent mediates the influence of elevation on gullibility, and demonstrate this effect in the context of health and financial domains.

中文翻译：

---

骗局之上：道德提升降低轻信率

消费者越来越多地接触到诈骗和可疑的营销行为。目前的工作研究了消费者的情绪状态如何影响他们的轻信性（大多数人认为幼稚的信念或对要求的遵守）。在四项研究中，我们表明，道德提升的情感体验降低了相信可疑主张或遵守可疑要求的敏感性。虽然过去的研究表明，道德提升会增强养育行为（以及对请求者的支持），但目前的工作表明，提升也可能起到保护作用（即减少轻信性）。我们表明，对说服代理人的信任降低会调节海拔对轻信率的影响，并在健康和金融领域的背景下证明这种影响。