The threat of moral transgression: The impact of group membership and moral opportunity

J van der Toorn, Naomi Ellemers, B. Doosje

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

When other ingroup members behave immorally, people’s motivation to
maintain a moral group image may cause them to experience increased
threat and act defensively in response. In the current research, we
investigated people’s reactions to others’ misconduct and examined the effect
of group membership and the possible threat-reducing function of moral
opportunity—the prospect of being able to re-establish the group’s moral
image. In Study 1, students who were confronted with fellow students’
plagiarism and who received an opportunity to improve their group’s
morality reported feeling less threatened than students who did not receive
such opportunity. In Study 2, students reacted to a recent academic fraud
case, which either implicated an ingroup (scholar in their own discipline)
or an outgroup member (scholar in another discipline). Results indicated that
participants experienced more threat when an ingroup (versus an outgroup)
member had committed the moral transgression. However, as hypothesized,
this was not the case when moral opportunity was provided. Hence, the
threat-reducing effect of moral opportunity was replicated. Additionally,
participants generally were more defensive in response to ingroup (versus
outgroup) moral failure and less defensive when moral opportunity was
present (versus absent). Together, these findings suggest that the reduction
of threat due to moral opportunity may generally help individuals take
constructive action when the behavior of fellow group members discredits
the group’s moral image.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)609-622
JournalEuropean Journal of Social Psychology
Volume45
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2015

Keywords

  • intergroup relations
  • group processes
  • Morality
  • rationalization
  • threat

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