Signaling (in)tolerance: Social evaluation and metaethical relativism and objectivism
Abstract
Prior work has established that laypeople do not consistently treat moral questions as being objectively true or as merely true relative to different perspectives. Rather, these metaethical judgments vary dramatically across moral issues and in response to different social influences. We offer a potential explanation by examining how objectivists and relativists are evaluated in different contexts. We provide evidence for a novel account of metaethical judgments as signaling tolerance or intolerance of disagreement. The social implications of signaling tolerance or intolerance in different contexts may motivate different metaethical judgments. Study 1 finds that relativists are perceived as more tolerant, empathic, having superior moral character, and as more desirable as social partners than objectivists. Study 2 replicates these findings with a within-participants design and also shows that objectivists are perceived as more morally serious than relativists. Study 3 examines evaluations of objectivists and relativists regarding concrete moral issues, finding these results vary across situations of moral agreement and disagreement. Study 4 finds that participants' metaethical stances likewise vary when responding in the way they think would make a person who agrees or disagrees with them evaluate them more positively. However, in Study 5, we find no effect on metaethical judgment of telling participants they will be evaluated by a person who agrees or disagrees with them, which suggests either a failure to induce reputational concerns or a more limited influence of reputational considerations on metaethical judgments, despite strong effects on social evaluation.
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- Authors
- Moss, D., Montealegre, A., Bush, L. S., Caviola, L., & Pizarro, D.
- Affiliations
- Canterbury Christ Church University (GB)
- Yale University (US)
- Cornell University (US)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Moss, David
- Venue
- Cognition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2025-01
- Volume
- 254
- Pages
- 105984
- ISSN
- 0010-0277 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4404305314
- Semantic Scholar
- e4d0da91eeaf911a5f10cfb7f99851fc4dd478eb
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 80
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2
- FWCI
- 0.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Cognition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophical Ethics and Theory
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- signaling theory, tolerance, social evaluation, moral disagreement, reputational concerns, moral judgment
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Judgment, Male, Morals, Social Perception, Young Adult
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