ABSTRACT
Convictions drive our individual choices and spur moral progress, yet also lead to incivility, anger, intolerance, avoidance, and violence toward those who hold differing views. Because this Janus-faced nature of conviction has such extreme effects—both positively and negatively—it is important to explore whether and how convictions may be modified. Psychologists have recently proposed that moral conviction has the properties of universality, objectivity, autonomy, and emotional intensity. However, they have not explored the conditions under which convictions are revised or moderated, whether the content of the conviction alters, whether the properties of conviction can be altered in nature or lessened in degree or the effects of sustained interventions. This chapter demonstrates that both the properties and content of moral conviction can be modified through a sustained educational intervention. Civility as an orientating attitude, when taught as part of a process in an educational setting, provides conditions to moderate both the properties and content of moral conviction. This chapter describes an applied ethics course built around cases from the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, detailing specific assignments and activities. Moral convictions are moderated by affecting some properties proposed by psychologists along with new properties identified as normative clarity, justification, and completeness.
