Promoting Multiple Policies to the Public: The Difficulties of Simultaneously Promoting War and Foreign Humanitarian Aid

Abstract

To drum up support for the U.S. military's efforts abroad, government officials sometimes encourage U.S. residents to justify or excuse (morally disengage from) the resultant casualties. Although more disengaged U.S. residents are more supportive of war, two studies show that they are also less supportive of foreign humanitarian aid, particularly when American identity is salient and a more global identity, such as moral identity, is not. Study 1 reveals this effect when residents must choose between donating to a charity that benefits foreign civilians and donating to two other charities, one of which benefits U.S. soldiers. Study 2 shows that the effect holds when the opportunity to support foreign civilians appears in isolation, without reference to war or soldiers. Thus, U.S. residents who respond positively to war may exhibit less charitableness toward foreign civilians. For policy makers seeking to disburse foreign aid during war, these findings suggest that any effort to drum up support for war should be accompanied by a corresponding effort to maintain the U.S. public's goodwill toward foreign civilians.

I'm Moral, but I Won't Help You: The Distinct Roles of Empathy and Justice in Donations

“…It is important to recognize that perceptions of in-group versus out-group members may be a potential alternative explanation for these results. Specifically, since moral identity expands in-group boundaries (Finnel, Reed, and Aquino 2011;Reed and Aquino 2003;Winterich et al 2009) and empathy can be greater for in-groups (Cadinu and Rothbart 1996;Galinsky and Moskowitz 2000), it is possible that people with higher moral identity perceived recipients as ingroups and thus experienced greater empathy for them unless they were explicitly perceived as an out-group due to their plight responsibility. To address this alternative explanation, we measured in-group perceptions in a study not reported earlier.…”

I don’t want the money, I just want your time: How moral identity overcomes the aversion to giving time to prosocial causes.

“…Consistent with trait activation theory (Tett & Burnett, 2003), situational cues can activate moral identity. This brings moral identity to the forefront of peoples’ minds and prompts them to act consistently with it (Finnel, Reed, & Aquino, 2011). In addition to being triggered by situational cues, the chronic salience of moral identity (e.g., how important this identity is to a person’s self-definition) varies across individuals (Aquino & Reed, 2002).…”

Faktorová štruktúra a reliabilita škály na meranie morálnej identity. Prvé skúsenosti s metodikou Self-Importance of Moral Identity Scale v slovenskom preklade

“…Situačné podnety aktivujú morálnu identitu v rámci rôznych situácií a vyvolávajú ju do popredia ľudských myslí. Zároveň nás vyzývajú k tomu, aby sme sa správali konzistentne s ňou (Finnel, Reed & Aquino, 2011). Aquino a Reed (2002) na základe svojej teórie rozlišujú dve zložky (dve dimenzie) morálnej identity.…”

“…Test-retestová reliabilita pôvodnej škály dosahovala nízke hodnoty (α = .41-.71) v závislosti od výskumnej vzorky. Napriek tomu, že morálna identita nabáda jedincov, aby konali konzistentne s ňou (Finnel, Reed & Aquino, 2011), jej aktivácia sa môže líšiť v jednotlivých situáciách a medzi jednotlivcami a je ovplyvnená rôznymi situačnými kontextmi ako aj osobnostnými rysmi (Aquino & Reed, 2002). Zároveň je potreba si uvedomiť, že i jedinci s vysokou morálnou identitou sa ju môžu snažiť vyjadriť rôznymi spôsobmi a vyberú si vždy možnosť, ktorá bude najlepšie odrážať ich vlastný sebaobraz (Reed et al, 2016).…”