The Lay Belief That There is Virtue in Duty and Duty in Virtue: A Novel Lens for Viewing Moral Judgment

We praise the performance of virtuous acts (e.g., composting) and condemn the failure to perform dutiful ones (e.g., littering). Importantly, however, moral acts may contain elements of both virtue and duty. Composting elicits praise, but not composting may also elicit condemnation. Across six studies, we show that a bivalent measure of moral evaluations (assessing the blame or praise for both doing and not doing the same act) allows for more accurate predictions of moral behaviors and provides possible explanations for various existing moral puzzles. Studies 1a to 1c demonstrate that the moral evaluations for, and emotional responses to, doing and not doing an act are not systematically related. Bivalent moral evaluations illuminate why Republicans were less likely to mask than Democrats during the COVID-19 pandemic (Study 2) and why financial compensation can reduce blood donations (Study 3). These evaluations improve predictions of intended blood donations (Study 3) and actual voting behavior (Study 4).