Failing to take the moral high ground: Psychopathy and the vertical representation of morality

Morality is explained in metaphors that use descriptions of verticality (e.g., “an upstanding citizen”). It is unknown, however, if these metaphors simply aid communication or indicate a deeper mode of knowledge representation. In two experiments, we sought to determine the extent to which verticality is used when encoding moral concepts. Furthermore, because psychopaths are characterized by a lack of moral concern, we believed this personality dimension could act as an important moderator. Experiment 1 established that people have implicit associations between morality and vertical space. Experiment 2 extended this finding by revealing that people low in psychopathy encoded moral-related (vs. immoral-related) concepts faster if they were presented in a high (vs. low) vertical position. This effect did not occur for participants high in psychopathy. Our results indicate that morality is partially represented on the vertical dimension, but not for individuals with little concern for morality.