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Social Intuitionist Model

Decent Essays

The social intuitionist model considers moral judgments as generally quick and automatic instead of conscious and deliberate. Such automatic evaluations are easily influenced by stereotypes (Devine, 1989; Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972). For example, people perceive attractive people as holding higher moral standards than others (Tsukiura & Cabeza, 2011). Knowledge of an individual’s group membership can powerfully influence how people morally judge an individual’s action. When targets are labeled as obese, hippie, or White trash, perceivers morally judge them more harshly than targets who were not assigned such labels (Masicampo, Barth, & Ambady, 2014). Traditional sex-role stereotypes that men pursue sex just for physical pleasure and lust (DeLamater, 1987) lead people to rate male AIDS patients lower on moral worth than female AIDS patients (Walkey, Taylor, & Green, 1990). The racial stereotypes of African Americans as violent lead people to perceive African Americans as holding lower moral standards than White Americans (Sigelman & Tuch, 1997). …show more content…

Heterosexuals with orthodox religious beliefs perceive the growing acceptance of gay men and lesbians as the decline of American morals (e.g., importance of heterosexuality; Herek, 1988). Younger people perceive older people as more dishonest than younger people, and older people perceive younger people as more dishonest than older people as well (Schniter & Shields, 2014).
Whether a stereotype is well-known (e.g., racial or gender stereotype), or a more subtle one that people tend to ignore in their daily life (e.g., age or appearance), or even a label that people are given (e.g., hippies) can influence one’s moral judgments of a stereotyped or labeled

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