Toward a Better Understanding of Attitude Moralization Within Intergroup Contexts: Do Immoral Outgroup Violations Trigger Moralization?

Attitude moralization (i.e., how much an attitude on an issue, such as climate change, gains stronger moral relevance) can have important individual and societal implications. However, very little is known about what triggers attitude moralization within intergroup contexts. We suggest that moralization may be more likely when people are exposed to a violation of ingroup values committed by an outgroup perceived as immoral. Across experiments and an internal meta-analysis (k = 4, N = 701), we found that value violations committed by immoral outgroup members predicted greater moralization of attitudes toward societal issues (e.g., climate change, cultural appropriation) than the same violations committed by moral outgroup members. Furthermore, this relationship was explained by other-condemning emotions (anger, outrage, disgust, and contempt).