Funding information Institute for New Economic Thinking Abstract We study the psychology at the intersection of two social trends. First, as markets become increasingly specialized, consumers must increasingly defer to outside experts to decide among complex products. Second, people divide themselves increasingly into moral tribes, defining themselves in terms of shared values with their group and often seeing these values as being objectively right or wrong. We tested how and why these tribalistic tendencies affect consumers' willingness to defer to experts. We find that consumers are indeed tribalistic in which experts they find convincing, preferring products advocated by experts who share their moral values (Study 1), with this effect generalizing across product categories (books and electronics) and measures (purchase intentions, information-seeking, willingness-topay, product attitudes, and consequential choices). We also establish the mechanisms underlying these effects: because many consumers believe moral matters to be objective facts, experts who disagree with those values are seen as less competent and therefore less believable (Studies 2 and 3), with this effect strongest among consumers who are high in their belief in objective moral truth (Study 4). Overall, these studies seek not only to establish dynamics of tribalistic deference to experts but also to identify which consumers are more or less likely to fall prey to these tribalistic tendencies.

中文翻译：

---

道德部落主义及其不满：道德直觉理论如何塑造消费者对专家的尊重

资助信息 新经济思维研究所 摘要 我们研究处于两种社会趋势交叉点的心理学。首先，随着市场变得越来越专业化，消费者必须越来越多地依赖外部专家来决定复杂的产品。其次，人们越来越多地将自己划分为道德部落，根据与群体共享的价值观来定义自己，并经常将这些价值观视为客观上的对或错。我们测试了这些部落倾向如何以及为什么会影响消费者服从专家的意愿。我们发现消费者确实是部落主义的，他们认为专家具有说服力，更喜欢与他们有共同道德价值观的专家所倡导的产品（研究 1），这种影响在产品类别（书籍和电子产品）和措施（购买意图，信息寻求、支付意愿、产品态度和相应的选择）。我们还建立了这些影响背后的机制：因为许多消费者认为道德问题是客观事实，不同意这些价值观的专家被视为能力不足，因此可信度较低（研究 2 和 3），这种影响在消费者中最强他们高度相信客观的道德真理（研究 4）。总的来说，这些研究不仅试图建立部落对专家的尊重动态，而且还试图确定哪些消费者或多或少可能成为这些部落倾向的牺牲品。不同意这些价值观的专家被视为能力较低，因此可信度较低（研究 2 和 3），这种影响在高度相信客观道德真理的消费者中效果最强（研究 4）。总的来说，这些研究不仅试图建立部落对专家的尊重动态，而且还试图确定哪些消费者或多或少可能成为这些部落倾向的牺牲品。不同意这些价值观的专家被视为能力较低，因此可信度较低（研究 2 和 3），这种影响在高度相信客观道德真理的消费者中效果最强（研究 4）。总的来说，这些研究不仅试图建立部落对专家的尊重动态，而且还试图确定哪些消费者或多或少可能成为这些部落倾向的牺牲品。