Standing up for close others: The relationship effect on moral courage across harm/care and fairness contexts

摘要: Moral courage, standing up for others and intervening when a norm is violated, is viewed as a virtue in modern societies. However, it remains unclear how moral courage varies in interpersonal relationships and across moral contexts. Two studies were designed to test the effect of relationship type (close or distant) between the bystander and the victim on moral courage across harm/care and fairness contexts. The results showed that participants reported greater levels of moral courage when the victim was their family member or friend (vs. a stranger), and this relationship effect was stronger in the harm/care (vs. fairness) context. In addition, anger, a moral emotion, served a mediation role in the relationship effect on moral courage in both moral contexts. Taken together, the current findings demonstrate a relationship effect on the intentions of moral courage, especially in the harm/care context, suggesting that the relationship (between bystander and victim) and the context (harm/care vs. fairness) should be considered in understanding interventions against a norm violation.