Political Ideology Predicts Attitudes toward Moral Transgressors

Publication date: Available online 3 April 2019Source: Journal of Research in PersonalityAuthor(s): Colin Tucker Smith, Kate A. Ratliff, Liz Redford, Jesse GrahamAbstractWe combine recent theoretical advances in the study of morality with a growing interest in the predictive power of political ideology to test new hypotheses concerning impression formation. In two experiments (total N = 3,881), newly-formed attitudes depended upon United States citizens’ political ideology and the moral content of the attitude induction. Specifically, when forming impressions of a person violating moral foundations of Care/Fairness, political liberals disliked the person more than did conservatives. In contrast, when forming impressions of a person violating moral foundations of Loyalty/Authority/Purity, conservatives disliked the person more than did liberals. This work establishes that ideological differences are important not only for long-standing attitudes and judgments, but create attitudinal divides at the earliest stages of evaluation.
Source: Journal of Research in Personality - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research