Thesis title: Moral Conviction e comportamento pro-attitudinale. Il ruolo moderatore dell’identità morale di stato
Moral conviction is an attribute of attitude strength that recent literature has shown to have predictive effects on emotions, thoughts, and behavioral intentions associated with the attitude object. Although the literature claims that moral mandates — attitudes characterized by moral conviction — are perceived by individuals as binding pro-attitudinal behavior and therefore motivate morally positive or negative, even exceptional, conduct, this association remains unclear, mainly because research tends to favor outcome measures based on behavioral intentions rather than on actual behaviors. This significantly limits the applied value of research on the construct. Moreover, the effects on behavior, if present, could be conditioned by other variables, among which are domain correspondence between constructs and moral identity.
This hypothesis is grounded in two bodies of literature. The first is the literature on attitudes, which shows that the association between attitude and behavior is stronger when both refer to the same domain. In this sense, the predictive power of a moral mandate would be greater for moral pro-attitudinal behaviors. The second relevant body of literature concerns moral balancing phenomena, which demonstrate that variability in one’s perceived moral status — state moral identity — is a robust predictor of moral behavior.
Building on these literatures and adopting a theoretical framework that conceives moral identity and moral conviction as distinct — respectively structural and motivational — but interacting aspects of the Moral Self, this work aims to test whether moral conviction, state moral identity, and their interaction predict actual behavior. Specifically, it seeks to verify whether the hypothesized relationships emerge with respect to four target behaviors associated with the attitude object: willingness to publicly discuss one’s attitude (Study 1), making a monetary donation (Study 2), devoting time and intellectual resources to a task (Study 3), and engaging in dishonest conduct (Study 4). The attitudinal object considered is the conflict in Israel, chosen for its current political and social relevance.
The hypothesized relationships are not confirmed. However, the methodological limitations of the studies conducted do not allow these results to be considered definitive.