Moral emotions are a variety of social emotions that are involved in forming and communicating moral judgments and decisions, and in motivating behavioral responses to one's own and others' moral behavior. As defined by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, moral emotions intrinsically "are linked to the interests or welfare either of a society as a whole or at least of persons other than the judge or agent". A person may not always have clear words to articulate the reasoning behind their moral position, yet simultaneously knows it to be true.
Moral emotions are linked to a person's conscience - these are the emotions that make up a conscience and promote learning the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, virtuous and evil. Moral emotions include anger, disgust, contempt, shame, pride, guilt, compassion, gratitude, and elevation and help to provide people with the power and energy to do good and avoid doing bad. Some emotions, such as anger, can be triggered both in response to moralized and non-moralized stimuli, making them simultaneously moral and non-moral emotions, whereas other emotions, such as guilt and shame, seem to inherently have a moral component.
