Challenging Moral Attitudes With Moral Messages

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Communication Studies
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Communicators often use moral rhetoric to influence audience opinions.
• The effectiveness of moral appeals may depend on the audience's pre-existing attitude basis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if the persuasiveness of moral counterattitudinal messages is contingent on the extent to which attitudes are already moralized.
• To test competing hypotheses regarding the interaction between moral rhetoric and attitude moralization.

Main Methods:

• Conducted two studies examining the persuasive effects of moral versus nonmoral appeals.
• Assessed participants' initial attitude moralization and response to counterattitudinal messages.

Main Results:

• Found support for a persuasive-matching pattern: moral appeals were more effective for highly moralized attitudes.
• Conversely, nonmoral appeals were more persuasive for less moralized attitudes.
• Exploratory analyses indicated mediation by message-related thoughts and moderation by political orientation.

Conclusions:

• The persuasiveness of moral rhetoric is not universal but depends on the audience's existing attitude moralization.
• Findings contribute to understanding the effects of moral arguments and the nature of moralized attitudes.