University of Oklahoma Reports Findings in Psychology (Blame framing and prior knowledge influence moral judgments for people involved in the Tulsa Race Massacre among a combined Oklahoma and UK sample).

A recent study conducted by the University of Oklahoma examined how blame framing and prior knowledge influenced moral judgments regarding the groups involved in the Tulsa Race Massacre. The study found that how an event is framed impacts how people judge the morality of those involved, and prior knowledge can also influence moral judgments. Participants without prior knowledge tended to assign more blame to Black Tulsans and less blame to White Tulsans and the Tulsa Police, particularly when the event was framed as a massacre. Participants with prior knowledge had different moral judgments across target groups, assigning less blame to Black Tulsans and more blame to White Tulsans. The study suggests that the effect of blame framing on moral judgments is dependent on prior knowledge. The implications of these findings for interpreting historical and new events involving harmful consequences are discussed. [Extracted from the article]