Originally published by Douglas Keene.
These researchers wanted to see if people could “be induced to view their own attitudes as grounded in moral bases”. And what they found was pretty powerful. Across three experiments, people who were told their attitudes seemed to be based in morality were much more resistant to changing those attitudes when pressed to do so.
In the first experiment, 138 college students (undergrads from Ohio State) read an essay supporting the adoption of a “senior comprehensive exam policy” at their university and were asked to provide their reactions to the essay. Then, regardless of the reasons the student gave, the researchers told them their beliefs appeared to be based on “morality, tradition, or equality”. Then they were asked to rate their willingness to sign a petition in favor of the new policy and whether they would vote for or against the new comprehensive exam policy.
The students who were told their views on the exam policy were based on morality were more likely to predict a willingness to sign the petition than students told their views were based on equality or tradition.
The second experiment involved attitudes about recycling. Participants (73 undergraduates at Ohio State University) read a statement in favor of recycling and then expressed their reactions to the researchers. Much like in the first experiment, the researchers then told participants what their attitudes were grounded in, and this time they were told their attitudes were based in either morality or the “practicality of recycling”. Almost all of the participants had positive attitudes, so the researchers had them read an anti-recycling argument and then measured attitudes again.
Those who were told their views on recycling were based on morality were less likely to change their minds than those who were told their views were based on practical concerns.
The third experiment used an online sample of 100 community adults rather than college students (54% male, 46% female, average age 39.23 years) and again focused on recycling (telling participants their views either represented a moral grounding or a practicality basis for recycling). As with the earlier work with undergraduates, most of the participants were positive about recycling. They were then presented with the anti-recycling message and their attitudes were assessed again.
As with student samples, these community adults were less likely to change their attitudes on recycling after the anti-recycling message if they’d been told their views were based in morality rather than practicality.
The researchers were surprised at just how easy it was to modify people’s opinions/attitudes by simply telling them (whether it was true or not) that their attitude was based in morality. They close their article this way:
“Political figures, advocacy groups, and advertising agencies could feasibly utilize these findings to encourage strong attitudes. For example, political candidates who guide voters to view their attitudes as morally based could effectively instill relatively firm, unchanging attitudes in their constituencies.”
From a litigation advocacy perspective, this is powerful stuff (if it is actually true). While you do not want to beat a constant morality-morality-morality drum in your case narrative, incorporating this interpretation into witness testimony (“For me, it was a moral issue”) and closing statements (“When all is said and done, this comes down to a moral issue…”) could be an effective way to lock in “your jurors” so they advocate strongly in deliberations. We’d recommend testing it in pretrial research to make sure it works the way you think it will though.
Luttrell, A., Petty, R., Briñol, P., & Wagner, B. (2016). Making it moral: Merely labeling an attitude as moral increases its strength. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 65, 82-93 DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2016.04.003
Related posts:
- Simple Jury Persuasion: Make them eat brussel sprouts
- Simple Jury Persuasion: “Hey, look over here for a second!”
- Simple Jury Persuasion: You lookin’ at me?
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