Date of Award

8-1-2021

Language

English

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School/Department

Department of Psychology

Program

Social/Personality Psychology

Content Description

1 online resource (ii, 33 pages) : illustrations.

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Brendan Gaesser

Committee Members

Ronald Friedman

Keywords

Anthropomorphism, Dehumanization, Effective Altruism, Mind Perception, Moral Circles, Morality, Altruism, Humanitarianism, Animal welfare, Environmentalism, Judgment (Ethics), Perception

Subject Categories

Psychology

Abstract

Across a re-analysis of an existing dataset (Study 1; N = 96) and a higher-powered new study (Study 2; N = 300), we reveal that moral valuation of environmentalism over humanitarianism predicts less favorable moral judgments of effective altruism (i.e., welfare-maximizing socially distant altruism directed at humans) that is performed at the exclusion of helping animals in need. Furthermore, this relationship is explained by tendencies in mind perception to dehumanize outgroup members and stigmatized humans, rather than tendencies to anthropomorphize animals (Study 2). These findings reveal that granular versus aggregate individual differences in moral circles and mind perception may be worthy of consideration in efforts to increase global welfare through philanthropy.

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