We Are More Virtuous during Harsh Time: Intergroup Conflicts Induce Moral Superiority

Across 5 studies, we consistently found that intergroup conflicts induced stronger moral superiority, and perceived threats (especially symbolic threats) accounted for the effects. Such moral superiority caused further outgroup dehumanization. Besides, we detected a stronger impact of intergroup conflict with symbolic threats on moral superiority and replicated the downstream dehumanization.