Mar 17, 2025 04:39 PM
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1076904
INTRO: Abortion is murder – the emotive rallying cry popular with pro-life campaigners keen to convert others to their cause. But what if opposition to abortion isn’t all about sanctity-of-life concerns, and instead at least partly about discouraging casual sex?
That’s what psychology researchers found in experiments designed to test what really drives anti-abortion attitudes in the USA. The study, published today in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, challenges how most pro-life individuals justify their views on abortion.
“Previous research has sometimes assumed that pro-life attitudes are sincerely driven by beliefs about when life begins or about sanctity-of-life concerns,” said Dr Jordan Moon, a social psychologist and lecturer from Brunel University of London. “But people often care deeply about the behaviour of those around them. In particular, some people believe that loose sexual norms are damaging to society. People who associate abortion rights with loose norms might thus dislike abortion.”
The researchers – Dr Moon and Dr Jaimie Arona Krems, from the University of California, Los Angeles – distinguish between two possible accounts: a “face-value account,” which takes people at their word that their opposition to abortion is driven solely by sanctity-of-life concerns, and a “strategic account,” which suggests that pro-life positions are at least partly motivated by other concerns, which people might not be consciously aware of.
“The strategic account doesn’t imply that pro-life individuals are being disingenuous,” Dr Moon explained. “When they say that abortion is murder, they aren’t lying about what they believe.”
To test the strategic and face-value accounts against each other, the researchers assessed US citizens’ support for different political bills aimed at saving the same number of lives and having the same costs to taxpayers, but varying in their implications for the costs of casual sex.
In three experiments, they showed 1,960 participants, at random, different bills that would reduce abortions in different ways... (MORE - details, no ads)
INTRO: Abortion is murder – the emotive rallying cry popular with pro-life campaigners keen to convert others to their cause. But what if opposition to abortion isn’t all about sanctity-of-life concerns, and instead at least partly about discouraging casual sex?
That’s what psychology researchers found in experiments designed to test what really drives anti-abortion attitudes in the USA. The study, published today in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, challenges how most pro-life individuals justify their views on abortion.
“Previous research has sometimes assumed that pro-life attitudes are sincerely driven by beliefs about when life begins or about sanctity-of-life concerns,” said Dr Jordan Moon, a social psychologist and lecturer from Brunel University of London. “But people often care deeply about the behaviour of those around them. In particular, some people believe that loose sexual norms are damaging to society. People who associate abortion rights with loose norms might thus dislike abortion.”
The researchers – Dr Moon and Dr Jaimie Arona Krems, from the University of California, Los Angeles – distinguish between two possible accounts: a “face-value account,” which takes people at their word that their opposition to abortion is driven solely by sanctity-of-life concerns, and a “strategic account,” which suggests that pro-life positions are at least partly motivated by other concerns, which people might not be consciously aware of.
“The strategic account doesn’t imply that pro-life individuals are being disingenuous,” Dr Moon explained. “When they say that abortion is murder, they aren’t lying about what they believe.”
To test the strategic and face-value accounts against each other, the researchers assessed US citizens’ support for different political bills aimed at saving the same number of lives and having the same costs to taxpayers, but varying in their implications for the costs of casual sex.
In three experiments, they showed 1,960 participants, at random, different bills that would reduce abortions in different ways... (MORE - details, no ads)