What drives moral amplification? (ARC Discovery Project administered by The University of Melbourne) (2025-2028)

Morality provides the foundation for human cooperation, however amplifying everyday moral attitudes, judgements, and beliefs has the potential to sow intolerance, social conflict, and polarisation. This project aims to explore how facing threats, from those experienced day-to-day to widespread societal issues and ecological contexts, can lead people to adopt more unforgiving moral stances. The findings will provide that basis for a new theorectical framework from which to understand the functions of morality and will feed into practice by identifying psychological processes through which intollerace can emerge, and in turn highlighting critical junctures for targetted interventions aiming to build social cohesion.