Moral outrage over sacred-value violations depends heavily on rhetorical framing.

Evidence

Research shows that, although people do respond with moral outrage to taboo trade-offs, they often acquiesce when secular violations of sacred values are rhetorically reframed as routine or tragic trade-offs. The results reveal the peculiar character of moral boundaries on what is thinkable, alternately punitively rigid and forgivingly flexible. — Philip E. Tetlock, Thinking the unthinkable, 1

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that reframing as ‘routine or tragic’ defuses outrage sits near the reader’s interest in whether correction against threat-hardened beliefs backfires — does reframing count as a correction or a frame shift?
• XREF: connects to: Merely contemplating trade-offs on sacred values provokes moral outrage beyond cognitive confusion — Philip E. Tetlock, Thinking the unthinkable: sacred values…, 12; Masking sacred-value trade-offs in moral rhetoric sharply raises acceptance of them. — Philip E. Tetlock, Thinking the unthinkable: sacred values…, 35; Some audiences resist by directing outrage at the framing rather than the case (+6 more)

Related

• Merely lingering over a taboo trade-off provokes moral outrage independent of the choice made. (similarity 0.79)
• Philip E. Tetlock — Thinking the unthinkable sacred values and taboo cognitions (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Masking sacred-value trade-offs in moral rhetoric sharply raises acceptance of them. #exemplifies (0.90) — Philip E. Tetlock, Thinking the unthinkable, 35
• Moral rhetoric can reframe gun regulation opposition as patriotic duty and honor #exemplifies (0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1175
• Some audiences resist by directing outrage at the framing rather than the case #exemplifies (0.82)
• Media manufactured moral outrage primes audiences to endorse intervention #exemplifies (0.80) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 816
• Material incentives backfire on sacred values while symbolic recognition softens opposition. #qualifies (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 547
• Merely contemplating trade-offs on sacred values provokes moral outrage beyond cognitive confusion #expands (0.78) — Philip E. Tetlock, Thinking the unthinkable, 12
• Naming an adversary is itself a contested act of moral framing #expands (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2476