The Weird Wide Web 08 Jul 2008 03:17 pm
The rejection of moral rebels
From the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, “The rejection of moral rebels: Resenting those who do the right thing.” (pdf), by Monin, Sawyer, and Marquez (2008):
Four studies document the rejection of moral rebels. In Study 1, participants who made a counterattitudinal speech disliked a person who refused on principle to do so, but uninvolved observers preferred this rebel to an obedient other. In Study 2, participants taking part in a racist task disliked a rebel who refused to go along, but mere observers did not. This rejection was mediated by the perception that rebels would reject obedient participants (Study 3), but did not occur when participants described an important trait or value beforehand (Study 4). Together, these studies suggest that rebels are resented when their implicit reproach threatens the positive self-image of individuals who did not rebel.
See also the venomous freakouts in the Seattle P-I’s Soundoff pages any time that bicycles or farmers’ markets are in the news.
(Thanks, Siderea!)
on 08 Jul 2008 at 5:02 pm 1.Rechercher said …
This sounds like another study that just confirms something we already have observed in regular life.
But if that were the case, I doubt you would post it. So what am I missing?
on 15 Jul 2008 at 3:11 pm 2.Will Von Wizzlepig said …
wow. that’s a very difficult to understand excerpt. #4 sums it up pretty well though. I love this kind of article. Perhaps I will try to read the real thing.