| Summary: | This thesis aims to understand how morality and moral judgments influence intergroup interactions. Morality is conceptualized based on moral foundations theory and classified into five moral domains: care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, and sanctity/fairness. Specifically, I explore the influence of moral foundations on intergroup perceptions and intergroup contact. Three studies were conducted to achieve this goal. Study 1 examined the moral characteristics of intergroup stereotypes. Study 2 explored how moral foundations, as individual traits, predict contact willingness with minority groups, and how moral emotions mediate such associations. Study 3 examined whether and how the moral framing of outgroups consistent with existing moral stereotypes influences the prejudice reduction effects of mediated contact. These studies were conducted in the context of Singapore with foreign domestic helpers, LGBT people, and Chinese nationals conceived as outgroups. Study 1 showed that Singaporean media and internet users used moral words to describe outgroups based on the nature of the news issue, with subtle differences in the kinds of moral words used to describe different minority groups. Study 2 showed that care/harm foundation is a positive predictor of intergroup contact willingness, mainly mediated by compassion toward different others. Study 3 found that the positive moral frames countering the existing outgroup stereotypes resulted in better intergroup perceptions than irrelevant moral frames focusing on other moral dimensions. The theoretical and practical implications of these studies, as well as its limitations, are discussed.
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