Criticizing people on their prior moral failures often causes them to react defensively, especially when this is done by an outgroup. In the current research, we tested whether people become more receptive to such outgroup criticism when it refers to (failures of) their competence, rather than their morality. We conducted two studies, using a 2: Critic's group-membership (receiving criticism from an ingroup vs. outgroup) × 2: Dimension (competence vs. morality as focal concern addressed with the criticism) mixed design. Findings showed that, regardless of source, participants made fewer negative attributions, were more motivated to improve, and more often indicated they changed their behavior after they had been criticized on their competence, instead of on their morality. Thus, criticizing past behavior for failing to show competence instead of morality might be a way to reduce defensive responses and to stimulate behavior change, even for outgroup critics.

中文翻译：

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不要告诉我我的道德失败，而是激励我改进：通过批评自己的能力来提高外群体批评的有效性

批评人们之前的道德失败通常会导致他们做出防御性反应，尤其是当这是由外部群体做出时。在当前的研究中，我们测试了当人们提到他们的能力（失败）而不是他们的道德时，人们是否会更容易接受这种外群批评。我们进行了两项研究，使用 2：批评家的团体成员资格（接受来自内群体与外群体的批评）×2：维度（能力与道德作为批评所解决的焦点问题）混合设计。研究结果表明，无论来源如何，参与者做出的负面归因更少，更积极地改进，并且更多地表明他们在受到能力而不是道德批评后改变了自己的行为。因此，