The Social Roots of Moralization: Group-Level Emotions and Attitudes Drive Individual Moralization Via Social Interaction

Political bubbles may foster the moralization of attitudes on polarized issues—that is, create a subjective connection between individuals’ attitudes (e.g., pro-refugee) and their core values. However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms—which could be rooted in the dynamic social interactions occurring within those bubbles. We examined those mechanisms by using a unique methodology focusing on small group conversations (N = 142; n = 46 groups) about controversial outgroup statements (concerning refugees). Multilevel analyses distinguished individual-level from group-level processes. Supporting pre-registered hypotheses, results show that moral emotions exerted a contextual effect on moralization: individuals in groups with stronger emotional responses moralized the issue more strongly, independent of their own emotional responses. Moreover, group-level moral emotions mediated the association between group-level perceived attitude strength and individual moralization. In contrast, pre-discussion attitude strength did not show comparable contextual effects. These findings suggest that moralization can be shaped by emergent emotional norms during group discussions.