Moral Face

This research demonstrates that individuals make moral judgments based on ideological inferences from facial cues. Using racially homogeneous male faces, four studies show that individuals infer ideological beliefs and thus group membership (in- vs. out-group) from a novel face and that the fit between the inferred social identity and the perceiver’s own social identity leads to judgments of moral superiority. Further evidence shows that the salient social identity moderates the moral evaluation. These results reflect the automaticity of social categorization, which contributes to moral judgments of a person.