The Influence of Moral Intuitions on Americans’ Divergent Reactions to Reports of Sexual Assault and Harassment

Silver, Eric; Silver, Stacy

doi:10.1177/08862605211050102

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 25 publications

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“…This result may be due to the unique nature of the deviant act examined (i.e., a possible sexual assault). As suggested above, prior research finds that binding moral intuitions are positively associated with a tendency to attribute responsibility to victims of sexual assault (E. Silver and J. Silver 2021;Niemi and Young 2016;Milesi et al 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Bystander Reporting on a College Campus: Moral Intuitions as a Precursor to Informal Social Control

Silver

2022

Deviant Behavior

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Research in criminology finds that moral intuitions influence both offending and punitive reactions to offending. However, no prior studies have examined the influence of moral intuitions on bystander reporting. To fill this gap, I examine the influence of moral intuitions on bystanders' likelihood of engaging in indirect informal social control by reporting a range of deviant behaviors to campus authorities. Deviant behaviors include common deviance (cheating on college work), uncommon deviance (theft and property damage), and dangerous deviance (alcohol induced unconsciousness and attempted rape). Using a large sample of college students (N = 1,593), I find that respondents with strong individualizing moral intuitions that emphasize care for the vulnerable, are more likely to report dangerous deviance while respondents with strong binding moral intuitions that emphasize social order and cohesion, are more likely to report both dangerous deviance and uncommon deviance. I also find that respondents' moral intuitions have no bearing on their likelihood of reporting common deviance. Finally, I find that for dangerous deviance, moral intuitions and gender interact in unexpected ways. This study provides compelling evidence that a moral intuitionist approach is useful for studying bystander reporting as a form of informal social control and suggests new directions for theoretical advancement.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Bystander Reporting on a College Campus: Moral Intuitions as a Precursor to Informal Social Control

Silver

2022

Deviant Behavior

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Purchasers and Perpetrators: A Theoretical Synthesis of The Risk Factors and Implications of Buying Sex for Sexual Violence

Cole

2022

Sexuality & Culture

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Social order and social justice: Moral intuitions, systemic racism beliefs, and Americans’ divergent attitudes toward Black Lives Matter and police

2022

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We examine the influence of moral intuitions on Americans’ divergent attitudes toward Black Lives Matter (BLM) and police. Drawing on Moral Foundations Theory, we hypothesize that individualizing moral intuitions that put care and protection of the vulnerable at the center of moral concern (a social justice orientation) lead people to express positive feelings toward BLM and negative feelings toward police, whereas binding moral intuitions that put social stability at the center of moral concern (a social order orientation) lead people to express positive feelings toward police and negative feelings toward BLM. We find strong support for these hypotheses using data from a 2021 YouGov survey of 1,125 U.S. adults including a 100 percent oversample of Black respondents. We also find that belief in systemic racism as a cause of police use of excessive force mediates much of the effects of the moral intuitions measures, except for the association between binding moral intuitions and positive feelings toward police, which is largely direct. Our results provide compelling evidence that moral intuitions play an important role in explaining American's divergent attitudes toward BLM and police.

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The Influence of Moral Intuitions on Americans’ Divergent Reactions to Reports of Sexual Assault and Harassment

Cited by 3 publications

References 25 publications

Bystander Reporting on a College Campus: Moral Intuitions as a Precursor to Informal Social Control

Bystander Reporting on a College Campus: Moral Intuitions as a Precursor to Informal Social Control

Purchasers and Perpetrators: A Theoretical Synthesis of The Risk Factors and Implications of Buying Sex for Sexual Violence

Social order and social justice: Moral intuitions, systemic racism beliefs, and Americans’ divergent attitudes toward Black Lives Matter and police

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