Divided Moral Exemplars: Moral Intuition Salience and Attitudes Toward Controversial Issues

• In Event: Media and Morality

Abstract

The manner in which media depictions of moral exemplars (such as political wedge issues) may come to represent different domains of morality as a function of personal values and ideology is not well understood. A basic premise of our research is that the emphasis of various moral intuitions may play an important role in this process. In the current paper, we examine how the emphasis of moral intuitions (i.e., care, fairness, liberty, ingroup loyalty, authority, and purity) differentially predicts perceived issue importance and endorsement of controversial issues. We argue that the emphasis of these moral intuitions should be predictive of endorsement of various issues, but not useful predictors of the perceived importance of these issues. Results are largely corroborative of this claim. Discussion focuses on implications for current media theory.

Authors

• Matthew N Grizzard, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Zheng Janet Yang, U of Buffalo - SUNY

• Robert Joel Lewis, University of Texas at Austin