Morality threat dilutes White identity strength and reduces outgroup hostility, unlike power threat.

Evidence

One common threat to ingroups involves affronts to their positive value. Among Whites, this can manifest by impugning their morality (Leach et al., 2015), as evidenced by active or passive support for efforts that retain their ingroup’s advantages (e.g., White supremacist principles) (Jardina, 2019). Although dominant groups are motivated to preserve their superior station in a hierarchy (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999), criticisms about these efforts can undermine the ingroup’s probity. These criticisms can trigger morality threat, which stirs ingroup members to repair a perceived loss of integrity, sometimes by softening their reactions to outgroups (Leach et al., 2015). Moreover, Knowles et al. (2014) suggest that impugning a dominant ingroup’s advantages—that is, meritocratic threat—can compel members to distance themselves from their ingroup identity. Thus, although some identity threats (e.g., power threat) can prompt harsh reactions to outgroups, other identity threats (e.g., morality threat) may produce less outgroup hostility by diluting White identity’s strength. — Efrén Pérez, Jessica HyunJeong Lee, Ana Oaxaca, Tania Solano Cervantes, Jasmine García Rodríguez, Kimberly Lam, and David McFall, Manifold Threats to White Identity and…, 12

Categorization

• QUESTION: This is the core theoretical counterintuition the paper apparently tests — worth tracing whether morality threat actually moderates White partisan polarization in the authors’ data.
• XREF: connects to: Distinct threat types can push White identity toward rather than against outgroups. — Efrén Pérez, Jessica HyunJeong Lee, Ana Oaxaca, Tania Solano Cervantes, Jasmine García Rodríguez, Kimberly Lam, and David McFall, Manifold Threats to White Identity and…, 30; White identity threats split between ingroup-centered decline and outgroup-centered power — Efrén Pérez, Jessica HyunJeong Lee, Ana Oaxaca, Tania Solano Cervantes, Jasmine García Rodríguez, Kimberly Lam, and David McFall, Manifold Threats to White Identity and…, 7

Broader Connections

• Distinct threat types can push White identity toward rather than against outgroups. #exemplifies (0.95) — Efrén Pérez, Jessica HyunJeong Lee, Ana Oaxaca, Tania Solano Cervantes, Jasmine García Rodríguez, Kimberly Lam, and David McFall, Manifold Threats to White Identity and…, 30
• White identity threats split between ingroup-centered decline and outgroup-centered power #expands (0.90) — Efrén Pérez, Jessica HyunJeong Lee, Ana Oaxaca, Tania Solano Cervantes, Jasmine García Rodríguez, Kimberly Lam, and David McFall, Manifold Threats to White Identity and…, 7