Most explanations and explanatory frameworks in the social sciences ignore the role of emotions in determining human behavior. Largely, this is a product of the fact that it’s hard to address emotions within a theoretical framework. There have been attempts to systematically study the role of emotions in recent years. I suspect that the events of the past few years will lead to a even great focus on things like a sense of humiliation, anger, envy, fear, etc.
Here’s a study that reports the results of two experiments on the influence of mood on moral judgments. “[T]he data support other empirical research showing that individuals in a positive mood (here, happiness) tend to process information more superficially than those in a negative mood (here, anxiety).”
(Via Political Theory Daily Review)