Moral Reframing and Process Dissociation

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Moral Reframing and Process Dissociation

We encountered puzzles

which we are now in a position to resolve.

ok, now I come to the puzzles

puzzle

If the evidence for cultural variation in moral psychology is at best weak,
and if the theoretical argument for moral reframing is flawed,
why does moral reframing seem to work?

Here’s the puzzle. I’m going to do a tiny flash of revision in case you’ve forgotten some of the details ...

[recall]

cultural variation

Liberals and conservatives differ in moral psychology. Liberals are more concerned with harm and fairness. Conservatives are more concerned with loyalty, authority, and purity.

+ climate change literature stressing harm, fairness

explains political conflict

which moral reframing can overcome.

Why does moral reframing work?

hypothesis 1

match

There is cultural variation in moral foundations.

Reframing engages the morals of the target culture.

Moral engagement influences action.

Two kinds of objection to this claim.

Lack of scalar invariance.

And another objection, a theoretical one, which supposes that the evidence is good ...

Graham et al, 2009 figure 1

The Joan-Lars-Joseph objection

The evidence on cultural variation says socially conservative participants tend to regard all five foundations as roughly equally morally relevant.

key insight: how conservatives react should not depend only on their moral psychology (and not on liberals’ moral psychology).

puzzle

If the evidence for cultural variation in moral psychology is at best weak,
and if the theoretical argument for moral reframing is flawed,
why does moral reframing seem to work?

We already saw some candidate explanations. Now that we have understood process dissociation, we can introduce an additional candidate answer. (This is compatible with the others.)

Why does moral reframing work?

hypothesis 1

match

There is cultural variation in moral foundations.

Reframing engages the morals of the target culture.

Moral engagement influences action.

Now the problem is, as we saw, that the evidence on moral reframing broadly favours the match hypothesis.

Of course both Match and Source are likely factors. The issue is whether we can explain the effectiveness of moral reframing without relying on the Match Hypothesis at all.

but: solid evidence for match!

The puzzle is that we think the Match Hypothesis explains some of the effects of moral reframing, but we do not understand how this is possibe.

The Match Hypothesis is well supported by evidence.

But we do not understand how it works.

Gawronski et al, 2017 figure 1

Luke & Gawronski (2021, p. figure 2 (part))

‘on average, conservatives are

less inclined to accept harmful actions for the greater good

than liberals. [And] liberals are

more sensitive to the consequences of a given action for the greater good

than conservatives’

(Luke & Gawronski, 2021, p. 10)

‘You can make a difference by recyling because you know it’s the right thing to do. Your actions can help care for others and allow the greatest good for society. Because of people like you, we can reduce the harm to others and to the environment by recycling. You CAN make a difference’

‘You can join the fight by recycling with those like you in your community. Your actions can help us do our civic duty because recycling is the responsible thing to do in our society. Because of people like you, we can follow the advice of important leaders by recycling. You CAN join the fight!’

problem 1: lack of scalar invariance

reply: process dissociation + MFQ-2

problem 2: Lars-Joan-Joseph Objection

partial reply: differences in moral psychology go beyond fairness and harm (L&G: consequences)

We still did not reply to the key insight: Luke & Gawronski (2021) only provide a comparison between liberals and conservatives whereas the key insight is that the reaction of conservatives to environmental calls for action should depend only on own their moral psychology rather than on how it compares to others’ moral psychology.

Why does moral reframing work?

hypothesis 1

match

There is cultural variation in moral foundations.

Reframing engages the morals of the target culture.

Moral engagement influences action.

hypothesis 2

source

Targets identify the source as an in-group

and so construe the message favourably

increasing willingness to act.

So where are we?

There is some variation, but what exactly it is variantion in— we should be more open on that. Maybe it’s not foundations exactly but willingness to consider consequences, or some further combination of factors. (Or maybe the idea about consequences is just another way of presenting fairness?)

puzzle

If the evidence for cultural variation in moral psychology is at best weak,
and if the theoretical argument for moral reframing is flawed,
why does moral reframing seem to work?

Now that we have understood process dissociation, we have a better idea about the puzzle.

What solution did I propose? Is it correct?

Now we have evidence from MFQ-2 together with process dissociation. These are based on entirely different theoretical ideas but explain the same data.

So I want to say that the answer to the puzzle is that the evidence is not weak any more—it was weak, and so it was a lucky guess that moral reframing would work. But now we have a sounder evidential basis for it.

Importantly, though, I think we are quite far from understanding for sure how moral psychology varies between cultures.

At the very least, we should recognize that there is significant uncertainty about Moral Foundations Theory.

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