Moral elevation reduces prejudice against gay men

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Emotion Research

Background:

• Disgust sensitivity is correlated with increased sexual prejudice.
• Inducing disgust has been shown to heighten sexual prejudice.
• Moral elevation is theorized as the affective opposite of disgust.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if inducing moral elevation can decrease sexual prejudice.
• To examine the effects of moral elevation on both implicit and explicit measures of prejudice.
• To determine if the effect extends to other social groups or positive emotions.

Main Methods:

• Four studies were conducted with 3622 participants.
• Participants viewed inspiring videos to induce moral elevation.
• Sexual prejudice was measured using implicit and explicit methods.
• Control and amusement-inducing videos were used for comparison.

Main Results:

• Moral elevation led to a small but reliable reduction in implicit and explicit sexual prejudice.
• No significant effect on prejudice was observed when the target was racial bias (Black-White individuals).
• Inducing amusement did not significantly alter levels of sexual prejudice.

Conclusions:

• Moral elevation weakly but consistently reduces prejudice towards gay men.
• The effect of moral elevation on prejudice appears specific to sexual orientation and not race.
• Positive emotions like moral elevation may offer a pathway to mitigating specific forms of social bias.