Perceived moral agency and perceived patiency may trade off inversely even at extreme levels.

Evidence

Although moral typecasting was found in Study 1 in comparisons of targets with lesser moral agency (i.e., children and mentally disabled persons) and those of ordinary moral agency, our results are silent on whether this relation holds for those perceived to have superior moral agency. Would targets who possess an exceptional amount of moral agency and have earned either extreme blame or praise for their actions be perceived as having less moral patiency than an ordinary adult? In this study, we attempt to answer this question by assessing perceptions of moral agency and patiency of a variety of targets varying widely in moral agency and patiency. The use of multiple targets allowed us to examine the correlation between perceptions of moral agency and patiency and learn whether moral typecasting occurs at extreme values of these variables. — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 59

Categorization

• XREF: This is the exact experimental template the reader’s own question is chasing — whether recategorizing a group (as ideological vs religious) shifts perceived threat via manipulation of agency vs patiency framing. — connects to: Perceiving someone as a moral agent reduces perceived moral patiency. — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 1; Moral agency and patiency perceptions are inversely related, not linked. — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 3; Moral patiency rests on a target’s perceived capacity for pain and pleasure. — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 14 (+8 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting: Divergent…, 59

Broader Connections

• Enhancing perceived patiency reduces perceived agency, and vice versa #corroborates (0.95) — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 78
• Perceived moral agency and perceived moral patiency vary inversely across targets #expands (0.90) — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 39
• Only moral agency, not instrumental competence, suppresses perceived patiency #complicates (0.80) — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 99
• Moral agency specifically, not general agency, reduces perceived moral patiency. #complicates (0.80)
• Perceived moral agency uniquely suppresses perceived victimhood, separable from general agency #complicates (0.75) — Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner, Moral Typecasting, 105