Is a Refrigerator Good or Evil? The Moral Evaluation of Everyday Objects

Certain objects such as family heirlooms are often treated as if they have intrinsic moral qualities, including sacredness and infinite value. Other objects such as instruments of torture are often seen as inherently repellent. Do people also evaluate more mundane objects such as refrigerators as morally good or bad? Here we explore the nature and scope of moral object evaluation through two experiments that asked participants to rate how morally good or bad a large set of familiar objects were. We find that (a) everyday objects tend to be seen as morally positive and (b) unlike mere liking, the moral evaluation of objects is positively linked to the age and political conservatism of the participants. These findings are discussed in relation to research on automatic evaluation, mere exposure effects, and the relationship between affective states and moral judgments.     

Equal investments,different rewards: gender inequalities among Israeli lawyers

purpose of this paper is to examine empirically whether women in the legal profession in Israel experience discrimination in terms of earnings and career opportunities. The contribution of this study is threefold. On the theoretical level, we added psychological capital and career expectations to the commonly used variables. Second, we focused on an immigrant country in transition towards Westernization that presents an interesting mix of legal equality and traditional family values. Third, our analyses are based on a national mail survey of full-time lawyers in Israel.

The findings of this study show that male lawyers are rewarded better than female lawyers for the number of hours worked per week as well as for their married status. We also found that female lawyers who expected more regarding economic reward earn less, while no relationship was found for male lawyers. Furthermore, the likelihood to attain partnership is much lower for female than for male lawyers after controlling for all relevant variables. The results indicate existence of discrimination.