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Extreme self-sacrifice beyond fusion: Moral expansiveness and the special case of allyship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Daniel Crimston
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia. d.crimston@uq.edu.aum.hornsey@psy.uq.edu.auhttps://psychology.uq.edu.au/profile/2698/dan-crimstonhttps://psychology.uq.edu.au/profile/2236/matthew-hornsey
Matthew J. Hornsey
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia. d.crimston@uq.edu.aum.hornsey@psy.uq.edu.auhttps://psychology.uq.edu.au/profile/2698/dan-crimstonhttps://psychology.uq.edu.au/profile/2236/matthew-hornsey

Abstract

As a general theory of extreme self-sacrifice, Whitehouse's article misses one relevant dimension: people's willingness to fight and die in support of entities not bound by biological markers or ancestral kinship (allyship). We discuss research on moral expansiveness, which highlights individuals’ capacity to self-sacrifice for targets that lie outside traditional in-group markers, including racial out-groups, animals, and the natural environment.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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References

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