What causes people to see their political attitudes in a moral light? One answer is that attitude moralization results from associating one's attitude stance with feelings of disgust. To test the possibility that disgust moralizes, the current study used a high-powered preregistered design looking at within-person change in moral conviction paired with an experimental manipulation of disgust or anger (versus control). Results from the preregistered analyses found that we successfully induced anger but not disgust; however, our manipulation had no effect on moral conviction. Additional exploratory analyses investigating whether emotion and harm predicted increases in moral conviction over time found that neither disgust, anger, nor sadness had an effect on moralization, whereas perceptions of harm did predict moralization. Our findings are discussed in terms of their implications for current theory and research into attitude moralization.
How to translate text using browser tools
18 November 2020
The roles of disgust and harm perception in political attitude moralization
Daniel C. Wisneski,
Brittany E. Hanson,
G. Scott Morgan
ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE
It is not available for individual sale.
This article is only available to subscribers.
It is not available for individual sale.
It is not available for individual sale.
Politics and the Life Sciences
Vol. 39 • No. 2
Fall 2020
Vol. 39 • No. 2
Fall 2020
attitudes
disgust
Harm perception
Moral conviction
Moralization