title: The Immoral Assumption Effect: Moralization Drives Negative Trait Attributions.
abstract: Jumping to negative conclusions about other people's traits is judged as morally bad by many people. Despite this, across six experiments (total N = 2,151), we find that multiple types of moral evaluations--even evaluations related to open-mindedness, tolerance, and compassion--play a causal role in these potentially pernicious trait assumptions. Our results also indicate that moralization affects negative-but not positive-trait assumptions, and that the effect of morality on negative assumptions cannot be explained merely by people's general (nonmoral) preferences or other factors that distinguish moral and nonmoral traits, such as controllability or desirability. Together, these results suggest that one of the more destructive human tendencies--making negative assumptions about others--can be caused by the better angels of our nature.
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA meindl@usc.edu.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Meindl
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.
authors.forename: Kate M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.
authors.forename: Jesse
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Graham
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D010551:Personality; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception
keywords: ideology; moral judgment; trait attributions; values