The Morally Contaminating (and Motivating) Influence of Hate Groups in the U.S.

<p>A growth in the number of hate groups that operate in the United States over the past decade counters many researchers’ claims that overt prejudice and discrimination no longer have influence. In this thesis, we explore how people react with moral outrage and moral cleansing toward hate groups’ moral transgressions of racial egalitarianism—a strong sacred value among those who desire group-based equality. Across two experiments, we find that people perceive hate groups as immoral social agents, and people express moral outrage against them. We also find that people who were morally contaminated by hate groups (i.e., by being led to believe that they share compatible ideological beliefs with hate groups) perceived more racism in their environments than people who are not morally contaminated by hate groups. We discuss implications for confronting prejudice, theoretical debates on moral licensing and moral cleansing, and engaging in progressive action to improve intergroup relations.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2011

Author dc:creator

• Stewart, Andrew L

Contributors dc:contributor

• Colin W. Leach, Thomas Craemer
• Felicia Pratto

• Racism
• Morality
• Hate Groups
• Discrimination

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/gs_theses/102

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu:gs_theses-1072