Moral wiggle room and group favoritism among political partisans

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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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Authors

Date

2024-10-01

Department

Department of Economics

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Mcode

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Language

en

Pages

8

Series

PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, issue 10

Abstract

How does the availability of excuses for self-interested behavior impact group favoritism? We report the results of a preregistered experiment, conducted on the eve of the 2022 midterm elections, in which American political partisans made payoff distribution choices for themselves and a partner who was known to be a co-partisan or opposing partisan. Under full information, participants exhibit significant group favoritism. However, when the payoff consequences for one’s partner are initially hidden, participants exploit this excuse to act selfishly regardless of who their partner is and ignorance rates are identical for in-group and out-group members. As a result, moral wiggle room has a significantly larger impact on selfish behavior for those interacting with co-partisans than opposing partisans, leading to a reduction in group favoritism.

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Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of National Academy of Sciences.

Keywords

affective polarization, group bias, identity, moral wiggle room, social preferences

Other note

DOI

10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae307

Citation

Robbett, A, Walsh, H & Matthews, P H 2024, ' Moral wiggle room and group favoritism among political partisans ', PNAS Nexus, vol. 3, no. 10, pgae307 . https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae307

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202411137074

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[article-cris] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ