Power as a moral magnifier: Moral outrage is amplified when the powerful transgress

Moral outrage in response to scandals involving powerful figures has become commonplace in modern life. These instances suggest that moral outrage may be disproportionately directed upward toward those with power over others. However, it remains unclear whether this tendency simply reflects the greater incidence and prominence of immoral acts committed by individuals with power or whether it indicates a deeper tendency for powerful perpetrators to elicit greater outrage in observers. In a series of studies, we investigated whether observers' moral outrage was influenced by a perpetrator's power within a social hierarchy. Participants read hypothetical scenarios (Study 1; N = 481), recalled actual transgressions (Study 2; N = 351), witnessed selfish economic behaviour (Study 3; N = 1012), and observed bullying in person (Study 4; N = 177) committed by either more or less powerful perpetrators. Participants consistently experienced greater moral outrage and delivered more severe (anonymous) punishment to powerful perpetrators. Greater reactivity to powerful perpetrators was confined to the domain of morality and specific to the transgressor’s power, rather than their status. This work highlights the importance of social contextual factors like a perpetrators power within a hierarchy when studying moral judgment.