Mere association with a moral agent or patient shifts a target’s perceived moral standing

Evidence

The neutral target, David, was seen to be significantly more agentic when paired with the orphan (M 2.46) than when paired with the red cross pilot (M 2.07), F(1, 74) 4.34, p .05, 2 .04. As well, the neutral target David was seen to be more sensitive to pain when paired with the red cross pilot (M 2.07) than when paired with the orphan (M 1.54), F(1, 74) 17.10, p .001, 2 . — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 128

Categorization

• XREF: The reader’s core experimental need — a within-participants paradigm where a neutral target is re-evaluated purely on the basis of its pairing. The moral-contrast effect is the mechanism the reader hopes a label change (religious vs ideological) will produce. — connects to: People exploit agent-and-patient casting to manage their own moral reputations — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 168; Judgments of pain sensitivity reveal a target’s perceived moral patient status; Moral typecasting operates independently of whether actions are good or bad — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 57

Related

• Judgments of pain sensitivity reveal a target’s perceived moral patient status (similarity 0.90)
• Perceiving someone as an agent shifts how we categorize a paired neutral person (similarity 0.87)
• Perceived agency and patiency shift based on whom a target is paired with (similarity 0.86)
• People exploit agent-and-patient casting to manage their own moral reputations (similarity 0.86)
• Moral typecasting theory divides targets into agents, patients, and neutral roles for experimental comparison (similarity 0.85)
• Enhancing perceived patiency reduces perceived agency, and vice versa (similarity 0.83)
• Only moral agency, not instrumental competence, suppresses perceived patiency (similarity 0.83)
• Moral typecasting operates independently of whether actions are good or bad (similarity 0.83)
• People more readily punish good moral agents than moral patients. (similarity 0.82)
• Moral agency and patiency perceptions are inversely related, not linked. (similarity 0.82)
• Perceiving someone as a moral agent reduces perceived moral patiency. (similarity 0.82)
• Forced comparison of moral targets reveals effects that solitary ratings mask (similarity 0.80)
• Perceived moral agency and perceived patiency may trade off inversely even at extreme levels. (similarity 0.79)
• Moral agency specifically, not general agency, reduces perceived moral patiency. (similarity 0.79)
• Casting someone as a moral agent reduces perceived sensitivity to pain (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Moral typecasting operates independently of whether actions are good or bad #expands (0.85) — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 57