Immigrants’ intragroup moral exclusion predicts ingroup-directed behavioral intentions: The mediating role of disidentification

Abstract

Previous research documents the relationship between negative treatments of outgroup members and moral exclusion. In this study, we expect negative treatments of the ingroup members to be also related to a moral exclusionary mechanism. Next, we hypothesize that the relationship between intragroup moral exclusion and behavioral intentions (both positive and negative ones) targeting the ingroup members, to be mediated by immigrants’ disidentification with their ethnic identity. Using two samples of Iranians (n = 385) and Tunisians (n = 124) living in Italy, we tested the two hypotheses. Results provided evidence that moral exclusion is negatively associated with positive behavioral intentions (active facilitation) and positively associated with the negative behavioral intentions (passive facilitation and passive harm). Results also suggest that this relationship is mediated by disidentification with immigrants’ own ethnic group.