Group-Based Biases in Moral Judgment: The Role of Shifting Moral Standards

Moral judgments are often biased against members of groups stereotyped as immoral (e.g., gay men, African Americans). We propose that these biases can be influenced by the framing of moral judgments. Building on the shifting standards model, we hypothesized that minimum (vs. confirmatory) standards judgments, which may elicit lower expectations for groups stereotyped as immoral, would induce people to make more lenient moral judgments for these groups. Furthermore, we predicted that people higher in Social Dominance Orientation, who tend to express negative attitudes toward stigmatized groups, would be more likely to demonstrate such group-based biases in moral judgments. Across three studies, framing judgments in terms of minimum (vs. confirmatory) standards influenced moral judgments regarding gay (vs. straight) men and Black (vs. White) men, and this effect was observed primarily among higher-SDO participants. However, leading people to develop a more expansive circle of moral regard eliminated these group-based moral biases.