Jesse Graham’s research while affiliated with University of Utah and other places

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Publications (117)


The moral psychology of blame: a feminist analysis
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March 2025

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2 Reads

Manuel Vargas

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John M. Doris

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Bronwyn Finnigan

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[...]

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Robin Zheng
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The Moral Psychology of Blame: A Feminist Analysis

March 2025

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27 Reads

In this chapter, I will evaluate the psychology of blame from a feminist perspective. My intention is to bring the literature on feminist moral psychology into conversation with the literature on the psychology of blame. To this end, I will apply some central feminist critiques to four dominant theories of blame: cognitive theory, emotional theory, conative theory, and functional theory. These theories each identify blame with specific psycho- logical contents, except for functional theory, which says that blame (whatever it is) plays a specific functional role in our interpersonal practices. Feminist moral psychology has much to say about the role of cognition, emotions, desires, and beliefs in moral reasoning, so it should have a great deal say about psychological theories of blame. Although feminist moral psychology is a vast and internally diverse field of inquiry, there are a few central debates within this literature— particularly about emotions, the role of distorted states in moral reasoning, and individualism versus collectivism— all of which have implications for theories of blame. With this in mind, I’ll briefly outline the relevant debates in feminist moral psychology in the next section, and then bring them into conversation with debates about the psychology of blame in §35.3.


Moral Stereotyping in Large Language Models

December 2024

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31 Reads

Can Large Language Models (LLMs) accurately estimate various societies’ moral values? Here, we query the perceptions of the GPT family of LLMs for the “average” person from 48 countries and compare them to a large-scale (n = 93,198) survey of six moral values (Care, Equality, Proportionality, Loyalty, Authority, and Purity) from those countries. Our findings indicate that LLMs poorly capture the moral diversity around the globe, systematically overestimating some moral values (especially Care) and underestimating others (especially Purity). Notably, examining various versions of GPT shows that these LLMs may overestimate the overall moral concerns of some Western countries (e.g., United States, Canada, and Australia) while underestimating those of non-Western countries (e.g., Nigeria, Morocco, and Indonesia). Our work reveals that LLMs are inaccurate generators of cross-cultural estimations in the moral domain; in other words, they stereotype the moral values of cultural populations in predictable ways. Our results highlight the ethical and epistemic risks of relying on LLMs to estimate the endorsement of moral values around the globe.


Organization-level Inclusion Signals: Positive Effects for Both LGBT and non-LGBT Employees

November 2024

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44 Reads

This work examines organizational-level inclusion signals and their subsequent effects on employees. Answering the call for more research on concealable stigmatized identities, we consider the effect of such organization-level inclusion signals for sexual and gender minorities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees) while also considering the effect on non-target employees. In a time-lagged observational study (N = 1,165 ), archival data (N = 229), and a randomized experiment (N = 380), we show that organizational-level inclusion efforts lead to more positive perception of the organization’s psychological climate for sexual and gender minorities, closing the psychological safety gap between non-LGBT and LGBT employees.. Notably, these intentional inclusion efforts also benefit non-LGBT employees, which contradicts recent theoretical assertions that intentional inclusion can harm majority groups, or that organizational inclusion is a zero-sum game.These signals shaped positive behavioral intentions for all employees, leading to non-LGBT employees engaging in more individual ally work, and LGBT employees feeling more free to share their identities. Unexpectedly, inclusion signals even made non-LGBT employees less likely to conceal intimidating parts of their identity (e.g. religion, parental status) as well. In sum, we show that such signaling improves psychological safety for all employees, reducing or eliminating the deficit between target and non-target employees while also encouraging value-aligned positive behaviors.



Puritanism needs purity, and moral psychology needs pluralism

October 2023

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282 Reads

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4 Citations

Behavioral and Brain Sciences

This account of puritanical morality is useful and innovative, but makes two errors. First, it mischaracterizes the purity foundation as being unrelated to cooperation. Second, it makes the leap from cooperation (broadly construed) to a monist account of moral cognition (as harm or fairness). We show how this leap is both conceptually incoherent and inconsistent with empirical evidence about self-control moralization.



Morality Beyond the WEIRD: How the Nomological Network of Morality Varies Across Cultures

August 2023

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367 Reads

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147 Citations

Moral foundations theory has been a generative framework in moral psychology in the last 2 decades. Here, we revisit the theory and develop a new measurement tool, the Moral Foundations Questionnaire–2 (MFQ-2), based on data from 25 populations. We demonstrate empirically that equality and proportionality are distinct moral foundations while retaining the other four existing foundations of care, loyalty, authority, and purity. Three studies were conducted to develop the MFQ-2 and to examine how the nomological network of moral foundations varies across 25 populations. Study 1 (N = 3,360, five populations) specified a refined top-down approach for measurement of moral foundations. Study 2 (N = 3,902, 19 populations) used a variety of methods (e.g., factor analysis, exploratory structural equations model, network psychometrics, alignment measurement equivalence) to provide evidence that the MFQ-2 fares well in terms of reliability and validity across cultural contexts. We also examined population-level, religious, ideological, and gender differences using the new measure. Study 3 (N = 1,410, three populations) provided evidence for convergent validity of the MFQ-2 scores, expanded the nomological network of the six moral foundations, and demonstrated the improved predictive power of the measure compared with the original MFQ. Importantly, our results showed how the nomological network of moral foundations varied across cultural contexts: consistent with a pluralistic view of morality, different foundations were influential in the network of moral foundations depending on cultural context. These studies sharpen the theoretical and methodological resolution of moral foundations theory and provide the field of moral psychology a more accurate instrument for investigating the many ways that moral conflicts and divisions are shaping the modern world.




Citations (70)


... According to pluralist theories, by contrast, moral cognition comprises multiple distinct mechanisms, each specialized for a different domain of social life: not just reciprocity, but also loyalty, authority, and "purity" (Graham et al., 2013(Graham et al., , 2023Haidt, 2012Haidt, , 2007. On these accounts, cognitive adaptations for reciprocity are not sufficient to explain the full breadth of the human moral domain (Graham et al., 2013). ...

Reference:

Harmless bodily pleasures are moralized because they are perceived as reducing self-control and cooperativeness
Puritanism needs purity, and moral psychology needs pluralism
  • Citing Article
  • October 2023

Behavioral and Brain Sciences

... This theory proposes six moral foundations that are universal in the world, but can vary culturally, namely: care, fairness, loyalty, authority, liberty, and purity [17,18]. Care and loyalty have been shown to have a positive association with vaccine attitudes and vaccination intentions [19,20]. On the other hand, liberty and purity (also called sanctity) have been found to play a role in vaccine hesitancy [12]. ...

Moral foundations and HPV vaccine acceptance in the United States: State, parental, and individual factors
  • Citing Article
  • September 2023

Social Science & Medicine

... Our findings extend this framework by highlighting the influence of country-level factors, suggesting that the broader sociocultural context in which the judge is embedded may also shape how moral boundaries extend within and across generations. Future research should investigate the mechanisms underlying these differencessuch as cultural orientations toward long-term thinking, communal responsibility, and ingroup vs. outgroup dynamics (e.g., Atari et al., 2023;Hofstede, 2011)-and explore whether these patterns hold across even more diverse national contexts. ...

Morality Beyond the WEIRD: How the Nomological Network of Morality Varies Across Cultures

... The first type is one in which guest editors lay down the gauntlet for an ongoing argument, and researchers submit their work that addresses this argument (see Dang & Hagger, 2019, as an example). For example, recently, a study found that while people (and scientists) think that morality is a prominent topic of conversation in everyday speech, it is far less prominent in actuality (Atari et al., 2023). This leads to the question of the actual importance of moral concerns in everyday life and whether the way we go about studying morality inflates its apparent importance. ...

The paucity of morality in everyday talk

... Conversely, binding foundations have been linked to increased levels of victim blaming in cases of both sexual and non-sexual crimes (Niemi and Young, 2016). Moreover, Dodson et al. (2023) associated binding moral foundations with sympathy toward men accused of sexual misconduct and anger toward female accusers. Harper et al. (2020) demonstrated that higher levels of authority and loyalty predicted decreased intentions to report allegations among religious individuals. ...

Moral Foundations, Himpathy, and Punishment Following Organizational Sexual Misconduct Allegations

Organization Science

... Self-Efficacy Development: Encouraging confidence in one's ability to overcome challenges through problem-solving and goal setting (Bandura, 1997). Social Support Enhancement: Building strong relationships with peers, family, and mentors to provide emotional and practical support (Taylor, 2011). Adaptive Coping Strategies: Teaching productive coping mechanisms such as time management, seeking help, and self-care routines (Compas et al., 2017). ...

The Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology
  • Citing Article
  • April 2022

... MFT er en teori om hva som utgjør menneskers moralske sans, og hvorfor vi har den. MFT bygger på innsikter fra antropologi, evolusjonsforskning og sosialpsykologi, og hviler på fire kjernepåstander om vår moral: medfødthet, kulturell formbarhet, intuisjonisme og pluralisme (Graham et al., 2013;Graham & Yudkin, 2022). ...

Variations in Moral Concerns across Political Ideology: Moral Foundations, Hidden Tribes, and Righteous Division
  • Citing Article
  • April 2022

... Based on the Moral Foundation Theory (MFT; Graham et al., 2013), the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ-1; Graham et al., 2011) measures an individual's morality in five different moral domains (so-called moral foundations). After numerous researchers expressed concerns about the cross-cultural validity of the MFQ-1, especially in non-Western, educated, (Koleva et al., 2012), willingness to donate (Hoover et al., 2018), or getting vaccinated (Reimer et al., 2022) are influenced by these moral foundations each linking (gut) feelings and emotions (e. g., empathy) with rather intuitive (compared to rational) behavioral intentions (e. g., caring for others). Relationships between moral foundations and political orientations have been found in numerous studies (e.g., Graham et al., 2009). ...

Moral Values Predict County-Level COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in the United States

... Consider the example of purity norms. Past research has shown that in regions with a high prevalence of infectious diseases, people often develop strong moral values centered around purity and cleanliness (20,21). These purity norms serve as psychological strategies to cope with the visible threat of pathogens, encouraging behaviors that help prevent disease spread. ...

Pathogens Are Linked to Human Moral Systems Across Time and Space

Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology