Morality in Groups: On the Social-Regulatory Functions of Right and Wrong (original) (raw)
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Morality and behavioural regulation in groups: A social identity approach
In recent years social psychologists have displayed a growing interest in examining morality-what people consider right and wrong. The majority of work in this area has addressed this either in terms of individual-level processes (relating to moral decision making or interpersonal impression formation) or as a way to explain intergroup relations (perceived fairness of status differences, responses to group-level moral transgressions). We complement this work by examining how moral standards and moral judgements play a role in the regulation of individual behaviour within groups and social systems. In doing this we take into account processes of social identification and self-categorisation, as these help us to understand how adherence to moral standards may be functional as a way to improve group-level conceptions of self. We review a recent research programme in which we have investigated the importance of morality for group-based identities and intra-group behavioural regulation. This reveals convergent evidence of the centrality of moral judgements for people's conceptions of the groups they belong to, and demonstrates the importance of group-specific moral norms in identifying behaviours that contribute to their identity as group members.
Current Opinion in Psychology, 2015
Morality indicates what is the 'right' and the 'wrong' way to behave. However, what people see as moral can shift, depending on defining norms and distinctive features of the groups to which they belong. Acting in ways that are considered 'moral' by the group secures inclusion and elicits respect from others who are important to the self. Morality is a central feature of group membership. This helps explain how moral considerations regulate the behavior of individuals in groups, and when this is likely to elicit conflicts with members of other groups. We show how people's internal moral compass is anchored by socially shared conceptions of morality, which determine behavioral choices of individuals living and working together in communities and organizations.
This research examines how moral values regulate the behavior of individual group members. It argues that group members behave in line with moral group norms because they anticipate receiving ingroup respect when enacting moral values that are shared by ingroup members. Data from two experimental studies offer evidence in support. In Study 1 (N = 82), moralitybased (but not competence-based) ingroup norms determined whether members of a low-status group opted for individual versus collective strategies for status improvement. This effect was mediated by anticipated ingroup respect and emerged regardless of whether group norms prescribed collectivistic or individualistic behavior. These effects were replicated in Study 2 (N = 69), where no comparable effect was found as a result of moral norms communicated by a higher status outgroup. This indicates that social identity implications rather than interdependence or more generic concerns about social approval or importance of cooperation drive these effects.
Development of Intra‐and Intergroup Judgments in the Context of Moral and Social‐Conventional Norms
Child …, 2012
Children and adolescents evaluated group inclusion and exclusion in the context of generic and group-specific norms involving morality and social conventions. Participants (N = 381), aged 9.5 and 13.5 years, judged an in-group member's decision to deviate from the norms of the group, whom to include, and whether their personal preference was the same as what they expected a group should do. Deviating from in-group moral norms about unequal allocation of resources was viewed more positively than deviating from conventional norms about nontraditional dress codes. With age, participants gave priority to group-specific norms and differentiated what the group should do from their own preference about the group's decision, revealing a developmental picture about children's complex understanding of group dynamics and group norms.
Stereotypic morality: The influence of group membership on moral foundations
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2019
Today’s modern world affords many benefits, one of which is the ability to have near-instantaneous interactions with groups and cultures other than our own. Though advantageous in many situations, one challenge for these groups is navigating what they perceive to be right and wrong in a cooperative manner despite having different modes of morality. Moral foundations theory holds groups use the same moral foundations to guide their judgments and decision making, but there has been little research on how the perception of these foundations differs within and between groups. Thus, the current study examined how moral foundations operate from a group perspective and potential outgroup moderators of moral foundations. Participants rated the extent to which various groups used moral foundations in one of two conditions. Each condition contained an ingroup and three outgroups that conformed to the quadrants of the stereotype content model. Results showed significant differences in the harm...
The Moral Identity and Group Affiliation
This research applies identity theory to understand whether moral identity processes operate similarly or differently depending on group affiliation (gender, race, and religion). A survey measuring facets of the moral identity, moral behavior, and emotions was administered to 315 subjects. Findings support the moral identity as a general human process which does not vary significantly by gender, race, or religion; it is predictive of moral behavior and emotional reactions regardless of the group in which one is affiliated.
Shared perceptions: morality is embedded in social contexts
Personality & social psychology bulletin, 2015
Morality helps make social life possible, but social life is embedded in many social contexts. Research on morality has generally neglected this and instead has emphasized people's general beliefs. We therefore investigated the extent to which different moral principles are perceived as embedded in social contexts. We conducted two studies investigating how diverse social contexts influence beliefs about the operative moral principles in distinct group types. Study 1 examined these perceptions using a within-subjects design, whereas Study 2 utilized a between-subjects design. We found a high degree of consensus among raters concerning the operative moral principles in groups, and each group type was characterized by a qualitatively distinct pattern of applicable moral principles. Political orientation, a focus of past research on morality, had a small influence on beliefs about operative moral principles. The implications of these findings for our understanding of morality and i...
The effect of personal orientations toward intergroup relations on moral reasoning
This article examined how the group membership of the person being judged influenced the level of moral reasoning. Nearly 200 ordinary Italians were given two measures of moral ingroup inclusiveness (the Bogardus social distance scale and a self-categorization measure) and the short form of Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT). The protagonists in the dilemmas were either Italian (ingroup member) or Romanian (outgroup member). Overall, the post-conventional score (P score) was related to higher inclusiveness. However, respondents with a narrow moral ingroup scored lower on post-conventional reasoning when the protagonists were Romanian (outgroup members) than when they were Italian. By contrast, those respondents with an inclusive moral ingroup obtained identical P scores on both types of dilemmas. Inclusiveness of the moral ingroup also mediated the relation of political affiliation and post-conventional reasoning.