The Psychology of Moral Conviction

2020/09/04 by Linda J. Skitka, Brittany E. Hanson, G. Scott Morgan +1 · 1 citation
Neuroscience · Social Sciences · Decision Sciences · Psychology · #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Ethics in Business and Education #Conviction #Psychology #Social psychology #Moral psychology #Politics #Moral disengagement #Variance (accounting) #Attitude #Law

paper · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-063020-030612

openalex publication_date 2020/09/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15

Abstract

This review covers theory and research on the psychological characteristics and consequences of attitudes that are experienced as moral convictions, that is, attitudes that people perceive as grounded in a fundamental distinction between right and wrong. Morally convicted attitudes represent something psychologically distinct from other constructs (e.g., strong but nonmoral attitudes or religious beliefs), are perceived as universally and objectively true, and are comparatively immune to authority or peer influence. Variance in moral conviction also predicts important social and political consequences. Stronger moral conviction about a given attitude object, for example, is associated with greater intolerance of attitude dissimilarity, resistance to procedural solutions for conflict about that issue, and increased political engagement and volunteerism in that attitude domain. Finally, we review recent research that explores the processes that lead to attitude moralization; we integrate these efforts and conclude with a new domain theory of attitude moralization.

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Cited by

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Related

• The Dark Side of Moral Conviction—Integrating Political Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Neuroscience
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• The Psychology of Morality: A Review and Analysis of Empirical Studies Published From 1940 Through 2017
• Mapping the moral domain.
• On conviction's collective consequences: Integrating moral conviction with the social identity model of collective action