Lack of material resources causes harsher moral judgments

Marko Pitesa () and Stefan Thau ()
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Marko Pitesa: MC - Management et Comportement - EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management
Stefan Thau: INSEAD - Institut Européen d'administration des Affaires

Working paper serie RMT - Grenoble Ecole de Management from HAL

Abstract: This research tested the idea that lack of material resources (e.g., low income) causes people to make harsher moral judgments because lack of material resources is associated with a lower ability to cope with the effects of others' harmful behavior. Consistent with this idea, a large cross-cultural survey (Study 1) found that both chronic (low income) and situational (inflation) lack of material resources were associated with harsher moral judgments. The effect of inflation was stronger for low-income individuals, whom inflation renders relatively more vulnerable. A follow-up experiment (Study 2) caused participants to perceive they lacked material resources by employing different anchors on the scale they used to report their income. The manipulation led to harsher judgments of harmful, but not of non-harmful, transgressions and this effect was explained by a sense of vulnerability. Alternative explanations were excluded. These results demonstrate a functional and contextually situated nature of moral psychology.

Keywords: moral judgments; material resources; income; moral transgressions; moral psychology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-10-25
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-hpe and nep-neu
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