Economic inequality does not encounter strong protests even though individuals are generally against it. One potential explanation of this paradox is that individuals do not perceive inequality as caused by intentional agents, which, in line with the Theory of Dyadic Morality (Schein & Gray, 2018), should prevent its assessment as immoral and consequently dampen moral outrage and collective action. Across three studies, we test and confirm this hypothesis. In Studies 1 (N = 395) and 2 (N = 337), the more participants believed that inequality is human driven and caused by intentional agents, the more they moralized inequality, felt outraged and wanted to engage in collective action. This was confirmed in Study 3 (N = 243) through an experimental design. Thus, our research shows that agent perception is crucial in the moralization of economic inequality and, more broadly, that morality can be a powerful motivator and effectively mobilize people to action.

中文翻译：

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恶意带来的不平等，愤怒带来的抗议者：代理人的认知推动了对不平等的道德化和反对不平等的集体行动


经济不平等不会遇到强烈的抗议，即使个人普遍反对它。这个悖论的一个可能解释是，个人并不认为不平等是由有意识的行为者造成的，这与二元道德理论（Schein & Gray，2018）一致，应该防止其评估为不道德，从而抑制道德愤怒和集体行动。在三项研究中，我们测试并证实了这一假设。在研究 1 （N = 395） 和 2 （N = 337） 中，参与者越是相信不平等是人类驱动的，是由有意因素造成的，他们就越是将不平等道德化，感到愤怒并想参与集体行动。这在研究 3 （N = 243） 中通过实验设计得到证实。因此，我们的研究表明，代理感知在经济不平等的道德化中至关重要，更广泛地说，道德可以成为强大的动力并有效地动员人们采取行动。