People are often moved by others’ displays of virtue; an experience sometimes referred to as moral beauty. Evolution-oriented scholars have argued that natural selection processes attuned people to such displays so that they would model such behaviors and thrive in their respective societies; empirical support for this notion, however, is scarce. Cultural Psychology has found that, in general, some societies are more collectivist (e.g., Latin America) and some more individualist (e.g., United States). These cultural leanings shape various aspects of people’s lives, including whether they prioritize group goals and needs or personal goals and needs. Using multiple methods, with an emphasis on ecological validity, this dissertation examines whether culture shapes people’s experiences of moral beauty by attuning people to specific virtues—which either prioritize the group (e.g., humanity virtue) or the individual (e.g., wisdom virtue). Furthermore, this dissertation examines whether culture shapes people’s overall responses to moral beauty (e.g., by intensifying people’s emotional experience).

Latino and White participants in Study 1 and teachers in Study 2 wrote about someone they found inspiring (teachers wrote about a lower status individual) and then responded to various questions related to the inspiring figure and their personal experience. In Study 3A, Latino and White participants read and rated other participants’ stories of moral beauty for the prevalence of the wisdom and humanity themes and reported their own experiences of inspiration. Finally, in Study 3B, participants read and responded to two stories of moral beauty that were rated by participants in Study 3A as having a pronounced wisdom theme or a pronounced humanity theme.

Results supported hypotheses that compared to those who scored lower on measures of collectivism, those from more collectivistic backgrounds: (1) prioritized more relational virtues (i.e., the virtue of humanity; Studies 1 & 2); (2) experienced more other-focused emotions when reflecting on an inspiring person (e.g., gratitude; Studies 1, 2, & 3B); (3) experienced greater motivations to engage in behavior that would benefit others (Study 1 & 3B); (4) and experienced greater inspiration from reading morally beautiful stories (Study 3A and 3B), particularly when the stories were focused on the virtue of humanity (Study 3A). Furthermore, though no predictions were made about how gender would influence participants’ experiences of moral beauty, some relevant patterns emerge, which I review in the main discussion section. Contrary to expectations, no evidence was found for these effects when using race (Latino vs. European American) as a proxy for culture. Plausible explanations for this and additional nuances are considered along with implications of the results and avenues for future research.