10.25384/SAGE.C.4838427
Sacchi, Simona
Simona
Sacchi
Brambilla, Marco
Marco
Brambilla
Graupmann, Verena
Verena
Graupmann
Basking in detected vice: Outgroup immorality enhances self-view
SAGE Journals
2020
Collection
170199 Psychology not elsewhere classified
FOS: Psychology
2020-01-31
2020-01-31
2020
10.1177/1368430219895320
CC BY 4.0
In the last decade, a growing body of research has revealed that morality is the most important driver of impression formation. As such, social targets lacking morality are disliked and kept at distance, while moral targets are liked and respected. Here, we investigated whether social targets lacking morality elicit positive reactions in the observer. Study 1 revealed that participants reported an enhanced self-view when confronted with an immoral (vs. moral) behavior performed by a political opponent. Study 2 revealed the key role of morality in this process, as differential perceptions of the target’s incompetence had no comparable effect on the observer self-view. Importantly, such results emerged when participants were highly identified with their ingroup. Taken together, these findings suggest that outgroup immorality can elicit positive self-related responses in the observer. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications for social judgment and intergroup relations.