Moral Purity and Political Conservatism Jennifer Terrell and Jake Lundy

Five Moral Foundations Harm, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, and Purity Actions, things, foods, and attitudes that degrade a pure, sacred object or practice go against the purity foundation. Conservatives are typically associated with authority, loyalty, and purity foundations. Haidt (2013)

Disgust, Purity, and Conservatism When feeling disgusted, people condemn Purity violations more harshly There appears to be a relationship between disgust and Purity Horberg, Oveis, Keltner, & Cohen (2009) Disgust sensitivity and conservative attitudes are positively correlated A predisposition to feel disgust is associated with more conservative political attitudes, especially for issues related to purity. Inbar, Pizarro, and Bloom (2009)

Disgust, Purity and Conservatism Neurological evidence connecting conservatism and disgust Greater neural sensitivity to threat, larger amygdala volume, and smaller anterior cingulate volume. Increased needs to reduce uncertainty, ambiguity, threat, and disgust Jost, Amodio (2011) Conservative’s pessimistic view of human nature People are inherently selfish and imperfectible Graham, Haidt, Nosek (2009) Harsh moral judgments of self-directed acts, but not other-directed acts Chakroff, Dungan, Young (2013)

Emotional Reappraisal Emotional reappraisal: changing our emotional response by reinterpreting the emotional situation Liberals may be regulating their disgust reactions more than conservatives Feinberg, Antonenko, Willer, Horberg, and John (2014) How can we get conservatives to regulate their disgust reactions too?

Emotional Reappraisal There is a negative correlation between conservatism and the tendency to reappraise disgust Feinberg, Antonenko, Willer, Horberg, and John (2014) Instructing conservatives to use emotional reappraisal led to increased support for same-sex marriage Feinberg, Antonenko, Willer, Horberg, and John (2014)

Framing What if we frame political issues with moral foundations? Framing newspaper articles to focus on the Purity moral foundation led conservatives to increase their pro-environmental attitudes Feinberg & Willer (2013)

What can we do? We can frame our political issues to focus on the Purity moral foundation Feinberg & Willer (2013) If we cannot frame the issue, then we can instruct/encourage conservatives to use emotional reappraisal to regulate their initial disgust reactions Feinberg, Antonenko, Willer, Horberg, and John (2014)

References Chakroff, A., Dungan, J., & Young, L. (2013). Harming Ourselves and Defiling Others: What Determines a Moral Domain? Plos One, 8(9). Feinberg, M., Antonenko, O., Willer, R., Horberg, E.J., & John, O.P. (2014). Gut check: Reappraisal of disgust helps explain liberal–conservative differences on issues of purity. Emotion, 14(3), 513-521. Feinberg, M., & Willer, R. (2013). The moral roots of environmental attitudes. Psychological Science, 24(1), 56-62. Graham, J., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2009). Liberals and Conservatives Rely on Different Sets of Moral Foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 1029-1046. Haidt, J. (2013). The Righteous Mind. Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. Horberg, E.J., Oveis, C., Keltner, D., & Cohen, A.B. (2009). Disgust and the moralization of purity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 963–976. Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D.A., & Bloom, P. (2009). Conservatives are more easily disgusted than liberals. Cognition and Emotion, 23(4), 714-725. Jost, J. T., & Amodio, D. M. (2012). Political ideology as motivated social cognition: Behavioral and neuroscientific evidence. Motivation and Emotion, 36(1), 55-64.