By Any Means Necessary: Utilitarian Moral Reasoning Amplifies the Connection Between Obsessive Passion and Ideological Violence

ABSTRACT This research delves into the nexus between moral reasoning and ideological passion, examining their combined effect on ideological violence. Building upon the dualistic model of passion, we posited that obsessive passion for an ideology would predict increased ideological violence intentions. We further postulated that utilitarian moral reasoning would amplify the obsessive passion–ideological violence relationship. We used correlational methods to investigate these hypotheses in three distinct samples (Studies 1A–1C): members of the US Democratic Party ( N = 209), members of the US Republican Party ( N = 114) and police cadets in the Republic of Kazakhstan ( N = 340). An experiment further tested these hypotheses with an additional sample of US Democrats (Study 2; N = 280). In Studies 1A–1C, our hypotheses were supported: there was a significant interaction between utilitarian moral reasoning and obsessive passion. Specifically, the relationship between obsessive passion and ideological violence was magnified for individuals with high levels of utilitarian moral reasoning. In Study 2, there was also a significant interaction between utilitarian moral reasoning and obsessive passion, such that being in the obsessive passion condition had a stronger positive effect on ideological violence intentions for participants with greater utilitarian moral reasoning. In all studies, deontological reasoning had no effect on the obsessive passion–ideological violence relationship. Our findings highlight the previously overlooked significance of utilitarian and deontological moral reasoning in the context of ideological violence. This research also introduces novel potential strategies for the prevention of violent extremism.