Just Deserts: The Moral Foundations of Antagonistic Personality in Social Aggression

Social aggression is associated with adverse psychosocial consequences such as anxiety, depression, isolation, reciprocal violence, and suicidality (Zhu et al., 2024). Psychopathic personality traits and moral deficits have been linked to antisocial behavior, including social aggression; however, the role of moral value systems and trait moral disengagement in the context of social aggression is less clear. A more granular analysis of their utility may illuminate new pathways toward intervention. To advance this goal, the present study explored the relationships between the values of Moral Foundations Theory and social aggression among college students (N = 301). Two moral foundations (i.e., care and proportionality) were correlated with social aggression. Next, this study examined whether these foundations provided incremental utility in predicting social aggression beyond psychopathy and trait moral disengagement while taking social desirability into account. Proportionality but not care explained additional variance in social aggression. Finally, this study investigated whether care and proportionality mediated the relationship between psychopathy and social aggression, as well as between moral disengagement and social aggression. Neither foundation mediated these relationships. Overall, results suggest that Moral Foundations Theory may tentatively provide incremental value in understanding social aggression beyond the contributions of psychopathy and moral disengagement. Practical implications for counseling services and college administration are also reviewed.