To be (or not to be) elevated? Group membership, moral models, and prosocial behavior

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recent findings suggest that people can experience feelings of moral elevation when witnessing uncommon moral virtue, and consequently being more prone to engage in prosocial behaviors. However, people can potentially perceive outstanding moral exemplars as a threat to their self-concept due to negative social comparison and consequently derogate them. This research aims to investigate the role of group membership in predicting moral elevation and prosocial intentions when witnessing outstanding moral exemplars. In three online studies, we showed participants a situation where a person from their ingroup (vs. outgroup) (i.e. same gender; same university; same nationality) helped a stranger and then measured their elevation feelings, negative emotions, and prosocial intentions. We predicted that when moral models are ingroup members, people will show higher elevation, lower negative emotions, and will be more prone to engage in prosocial behaviors as opposed to when moral models are outgroup members. Results partially supported our hypotheses.