The influence of social class characterisitics of actors on moral judgment

Abstract

In today’s society, people are very concerned about morality. News and events about morality are full of our daily life. People often make moral judgment and evaluation on the behavior of others through the network, media and self-media. In the process of moral judgment in which the general public participates, the behavior of high-class or low-class actors is the most concerned. Then, will people be influenced by the social class characteristics of the actors, leading to more lenient or stricter moral judgment? In order to discover and confirm the existence of social class effect in moral judgment, this article will discuss the influence of social class characteristics on the judges’ moral judgment from two aspects of moral behavior and immoral behavior through two studies respectively. Study 1 found that there was social class effect in moral behavior judgment. Through the overall moral behavior judgment materials, the social class characteristics of the actors would affect the severity of moral judgment on the moral behavior. Compared with the low-class actors, the participants had looser moral judgment on the moral behavior of the high-class actors. The class effect in the judgment of moral behavior is similar to the Matthew effect —“for unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath”. Any individual who has achieved success and progress in a certain aspect (such as money, reputation, status, etc.) will have an advantage accumulation and more opportunities to achieve greater success and progress. Study 2 found the social class effect of immoral behavior judgment, the participants was more severe in moral judgment of immoral behavior of the high-class actors than the low-class actors; the participants thought the immoral behavior of the high-class actors were more immoral than that of the low-class actors. The social class effect in the judgment of immoral behavior is similar to tall poppy syndrome—“when any individual makes a great success in society, when he makes a mistake, he will be criticized spontaneously and collectively by the community”. To sum up, the social class characteristics of the actor would affect the judge’s moral judgment of his behavior. In terms of moral behavior, the judges were more lenient in their moral judgment towards the high-class actors than those of the low-class actors. As for the immoral behavior, judges were more severe in their moral judgment of the high-class actors than those of the low-class actors. On the basis of these results, we put forward the social class effect model of moral judgment. The judge’s moral judgment standard is influenced by the moral valence ( X -axis) and the actor’s social class ( Y -axis). The moral judgment standard is the product of the actor’s social class and the behavior’s morality in each quadrant. When the product is positive, the moral judgment standard becomes loose; when the product is negative, the moral judgment standard becomes strict. This model provides a more clear perspective for the research results. At the same time, this model can also be applied to similar research which the influence of social class characteristics and behavior moral valence on moral judgment standards.