Morally Motivated? People Use Self-Sacrifice as a Cue for Moral Character

We human beings are naturally inclined to characterize the morality of others. Whereas some actions lead us to immediate moral characterization of the agent, others can be more difficult to evaluate. Prior research suggests that when judging ambiguous actions, we rely upon our perception of the agent’s motivation. Yet we are often not privy to the reasons behind agents’ actions, making us search for cues of their moral motivation. Building on research on motivation attribution and person perception, we suggest here that self-sacrifice, the willingness to incur a personal cost, is a powerful cue that judges use to infer an agent’s motivation. We hypothesize that people will be more likely to judge an agent positively when their action involves self-sacrifice, as it is perceived as a reflection of moral motivation. However, when the agent’s motivation is clearly immoral, self-sacrifice will not affect moral judgment. Six vignette studies (N = 3,931) each manipulating the actor’s self-sacrifice, supported this hypothesis across various domains, including views of political policies, assessment of risky military decisions, and monetary decisions.