Moral Diversity Fosters Cultural Looseness and Unpunished Norm Violations

Groups can be diverse along many dimensions like gender, race, and national background. These forms of (demographic) diversity are celebrated by many and well-studied in social sciences. Much less is known, however, about moral diversity — the presence of people with different moral priorities in a group. Here, we argue that increased moral diversity may lead to greater tolerance for deviant behaviors and a lower propensity to punish norm violators within a group. In Studies 1-2, we examine two large-scale data sets (total N = 234,164), and in Studies 3-7, we conduct seven controlled laboratory studies (N = 1,384), showing that higher moral diversity results in: greater perceptions that norm violations are prevalent and tolerated, greater acceptance of such violations, and reduced willingness to punish rule breakers. Our findings complement prior work on moral echo chambers and nuance extant recommendations for enhancing moral diversity