Five studies demonstrated that people selectively use general moral principles to rationalize preferred moral conclusions. In Studies 1a and 1b, college students and community respondents were presented with variations on a traditional moral scenario that asked whether it was permissible to sacrifice one innocent man in order to save a greater number of people. Political liberals, but not relatively more conservative participants, were more likely to endorse consequentialism when the victim had a stereotypically White American name than when the victim had a stereotypically Black American name. Study 2 found evidence suggesting participants believe that the moral principles they are endorsing are general in nature: when presented sequentially with both versions of the scenario, liberals again showed a bias in their judgments to the initial scenario, but demonstrated consistency thereafter. Study 3 found conservatives were more likely to endorse the unintended killing of innocent civilians when Iraqis civilians were killed than when Americans civilians were killed, while liberals showed no significant effect. In Study 4, participants primed with patriotism were more likely to endorse consequentialism when Iraqi civilians were killed by American forces than were participants primed with multiculturalism. However, this was not the case when American civilians were killed by Iraqi forces. Implications for the role of reason in moral judgment are discussed.
Pathogens, and antipathogen behavioral strategies, affect myriad aspects of human behavior. Recent findings suggest that antipathogen strategies relate to political attitudes, with more ideologically conservative individuals reporting more disgust toward pathogen cues, and with higher parasite stress nations being, on average, more conservative. However, no research has yet adjudicated between two theoretical accounts proposed to explain these relationships between pathogens and politics. We find that national parasite stress and individual disgust sensitivity relate more strongly to adherence to traditional norms than they relate to support for barriers between social groups. These results suggest that the relationship between pathogens and politics reflects intragroup motivations more than intergroup motivations.
In: Tybur , J M , Inbar , Y , Aarøe , L , Barclay , P , Barlowe , F K , De Barra , M , Beckerh , D V , Borovoi , L , Choi , I , Choik , J A , Consedine , N S , Conway , A , Conway , J R , Conway , P , Adoric , V C , Demirci , D E , Fernández , A M , Ferreirat , D C S , Ishii , K , Jakšic , I , Ji , T , Van Leeuwen , F , Lewis , D M G , Li , N P , McIntyre , J C , Mukherjee , S , Park , J H , Pawlowski , B , Petersen , M B , Pizarro , D , Prodromitis , G , Prokop , P , Rantala , M J , Reynolds , L M , Sandin , B , Sevi , B , De Smet , D , Srinivasan , N , Tewari , S , Wilson , C , Yong , J C & Žezelj , I 2016 , ' Parasite stress and pathogen avoidance relate to distinct dimensions of political ideology across 30 nations ' , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , vol. 113 , no. 44 , pp. 12408-12413 . https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1607398113
People who are more avoidant of pathogens are more politically conservative, as are nations with greater parasite stress. In the current research, we test two prominent hypotheses that have been proposed as explanations for these relationships. The first, which is an intragroup account, holds that these relationships between pathogens and politics are based on motivations to adhere to local norms, which are sometimes shaped by cultural evolution to have pathogenneutralizing properties. The second, which is an intergroup account, holds that these same relationships are based on motivations to avoid contact with outgroups, who might pose greater infectious disease threats than ingroup members. Results from a study surveying 11,501 participants across 30 nations are more consistent with the intragroup account than with the intergroup account. National parasite stress relates to traditionalism (an aspect of conservatism especially related to adherence to group norms) but not to social dominance orientation (SDO; an aspect of conservatism especially related to endorsements of intergroup barriers and negativity toward ethnic and racial outgroups). Further, individual differences in pathogen-avoidance motives (i.e., disgust sensitivity) relate more strongly to traditionalism than to SDO within the 30 nations.
In: Tybur, Joshua M., Inbar, Yoel, Aaroe, Lene orcid:0000-0003-4551-3750 , Barclay, Pat, Barlow, Fiona Kate orcid:0000-0001-9533-1256 , de Barra, Micheal, Becker, D. Vaughn, Borovoi, Leah, Choi, Incheol, Choi, Jong An, Consedine, Nathan S. orcid:0000-0002-7691-0938 , Conway, Alan, Conway, Jane Rebecca, Conway, Paul, Adoric, Vera Cubela, Demirci, Dilara Ekin, Maria Fernandez, Ana, Ferreira, Diogo Conque Seco, Ishii, Keiko, Jaksic, Ivana, Ji, Tingting, van Leeuwen, Florian orcid:0000-0002-9694-8300 , Lewis, David M. G., Li, Norman P., McIntyre, Jason C., Mukherjee, Sumitava orcid:0000-0002-8445-0492 , Park, Justin H., Pawlowski, Boguslaw orcid:0000-0002-7418-475X , Petersen, Michael Bang orcid:0000-0002-6782-5635 , Pizarro, David, Prodromitis, Gerasimos, Prokop, Pavol orcid:0000-0003-2016-7468 , Rantala, Markus J., Reynolds, Lisa M., Sandin, Bonifacio orcid:0000-0001-7206-6410 , Sevi, Baris orcid:0000-0001-9663-4339 , De Smet, Delphine, Srinivasan, Narayanan orcid:0000-0001-5342-0381 , Tewari, Shruti, Wilson, Cameron, Yong, Jose C. and Zezelj, Iris orcid:0000-0002-9527-1406 (2016). Parasite stress and pathogen avoidance relate to distinct dimensions of political ideology across 30 nations. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 113 (44). S. 12408 - 12414. WASHINGTON: NATL ACAD SCIENCES. ISSN 0027-8424
People who are more avoidant of pathogens are more politically conservative, as are nations with greater parasite stress. In the current research, we test two prominent hypotheses that have been proposed as explanations for these relationships. The first, which is an intragroup account, holds that these relationships between pathogens and politics are based on motivations to adhere to local norms, which are sometimes shaped by cultural evolution to have pathogenneutralizing properties. The second, which is an intergroup account, holds that these same relationships are based on motivations to avoid contact with outgroups, who might pose greater infectious disease threats than ingroup members. Results from a study surveying 11,501 participants across 30 nations are more consistent with the intragroup account than with the intergroup account. National parasite stress relates to traditionalism (an aspect of conservatism especially related to adherence to group norms) but not to social dominance orientation (SDO; an aspect of conservatism especially related to endorsements of intergroup barriers and negativity toward ethnic and racial outgroups). Further, individual differences in pathogen-avoidance motives (i.e., disgust sensitivity) relate more strongly to traditionalism than to SDO within the 30 nations.
In: Tybur , J M , Inbar , Y , Aarøe , L , Barclay , P , Barlow , F K , de Barra , M , Becker , D V , Borovoi , L , Choi , I , Choi , J A , Consedine , N S , Conway , A , Conway , J R , Conway , P , Cubela Adoric , V , Demirci , E , Fernández , A M , Ferreira , D C S , Ishii , K , Jakšić , I , Ji , T , Van Leeuwen , F , Lewis , D M G , Li , N P , McIntyre , J C , Mukherjee , S , Park , J H , Pawlowski , B , Petersen , M B , Pizarro , D , Prodromitis , G , Prokop , P , Rantala , M J , Reynolds , L M , Sandin , B , Sevir , B , de Smet , D , Srinivasan , N , Tewari , S , Wilson , C , Yong , J C & Žeželj , I 2016 , ' Parasite stress and pathogen avoidance relate to distinct dimensions of political ideology across 30 nations ' , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , vol. 113 , pp. 12408-12413 . https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1607398113
People who are more avoidant of pathogens are more politically conservative, as are nations with greater parasite stress. In the current research, we test two prominent hypotheses that have been proposed as explanations for the relationship between pathogens and politics. The first, which is an intragroup, traditional norms account, holds that these relationships are based on motivations to adhere to local norms, which are sometimes shaped by cultural evolution to have pathogen neutralizing properties. The second, which is an intergroup, outgroup-avoidance account, holds that relationships between pathogen avoidance and ideology are based on motivations to avoid contact with outgroups (who might pose greater infectious disease threats than ingroup members). Results from a study surveying 11,501 participants across 30 nations are more consistent with the traditional norms account than with the outgroup-avoidance account. National parasite stress relates to traditionalism (an aspect of conservatism especially related to adherence to group norms) but not to social dominance orientation (an aspect of conservatism especially related to endorsements of intergroup barriers and negativity toward ethnic and racial outgroups). Further, individual differences in pathogen-avoidance motives (i.e., disgust sensitivity) relate more strongly to traditionalism than to social dominance orientation within the 30 nations.