Moral and political cognition: implications for improving intergroup relations, civic engagement and reducing prejudice

This thesis argues that the intergroup level remains largely unexplored within current models of moral and political cognition such as Moral Foundations Theory (MFT; Haidt & Joseph, 2004). In Study 1 (N = 153) we framed the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) using ingroup and outgroup targets. Here, liberals and conservatives demonstrated important distinctions by group with the general pattern being liberals showing investment in Harm and Fairness foundations when framed about outgroups and conservatives showing investment in Loyalty, Authority, and Purity foundations when framed about ingroups. In two further studies, we replicated this pattern using specified ingroups and outgroups and further showed these differences mediated bias, negative bias, threat, and implicit bias (Study 2, N = 307; Study 3, N = 288). A further study demonstrated a similar pattern using standard versus outgroup moral foundations (Study 4, N = 253). The second line of research examined how moral foundations relate more generally to intergroup variables (Study 5, N = 90), strong social ideologies and negative attitudes towards immigrant groups (Study 6, N = 157). This project concludes that understanding the group level leads to new avenues for understanding moral and political cognition, reducing prejudice and enhancing social cohesion